Entrepreneur starts his version of Harvard, tuition-free

Yahoo!

Reuters Sarah McBride

 

His version of Harvard is not Harvard itself, and cannot be compared. The existent of Harvard University for more than 300 years. It takes time for school to earn its reputation.

 

I'm sure it's a stretch for most folks to believe that a brand-new startup could be anywhere near the quality of Harvard. The article is a little piece of hyperbole in that regard. If the startup is selective with their student body and they can deliver a similar experience, then they can say it's "like Harvard", but until they have some tangible outputs it's anyone's guess what the quality will actually be.

It's an interesting idea-- we'll just have to see where it goes. They're fortunate that few selective for-profit programs exist, or there would be no market for the "quasi-Harvard".

 

I'm sorry, but how is anything about this school like Harvard? I especially like the part where students enrolling in economics are "encouraged" to find lectures using online free resources. And that charging for a lecture class is immoral. This was the Snapfish guy who is looking for his next big fish, it's an online -unaccredited- school, nothing else. Next.

 

This reminds me of University of Fairfax's Doctor of Science in Information Assurance for $62,650. A newly DETC accredited school wants to charge beyond other well known schools' tuition. A Ph.D in Information Security at Nova Southeastern University is only $56,000.00; and it is a regional accredited. It is also ranking national tier 2 school.

I agree with Jennifer, this guy is looking for a new big fish. lol

 

My God the Minerva website lays it on thick.

Behold the privileged American college student who signs up for one semester in Mumbai, living in a residence hall with "a team of student life experts," and then goes around believing that he's "not a tourist or traveller, but a local." Behold the college that tells him so.

And in a few weeks they can all become Maasai warriors.

At this point Minerva is the zombo.com of universities.

 

Yeah, no. If you can get into one of the very top private schools, you will more than likely leave with little debt. These schools have large endowments that allow them to offer a lot of loan-free aid. I can't see a for-profit school doing this. Maybe they chose the wrong place to place their school, but $19,000 for room and board is expensive.

 

So much misinformation here I don't know where to start! But this really caught my attention "charging for a lecture class is immoral". What an incredibly weird thing to say....should one extract from that a sense that all (or most) teachers currently instructing via lecture are immoral? I'm betting the lecturers at Harvard would disagree.

 

In fairness, Minerva's business model (and they are for-profit, so "business model" is an appropriate term) isn't primarily oriented towards privileged American college students at all. For example, they want a full class of 500 students in 2015, and their target is to enroll as follows:

100 students from the U.S.
100 students from China
100 from India
75 from Europe
50 from Africa
75 from South America

That's 80% of students from outside the US. So they are really targeting privileged college students from other countries, particularly China and India, who want (and who can afford) a "prestigious" US degree.

Note that this is completely different from the normal business model of American for-profit schools:

-- Many US schools have a strong reputation overseas, but the for-profit schools are typically of little interest to top foreign students (because the for-profits are perceived as unselective and non-prestigious).

-- Furthermore, the for-profits typically have little interest in foreign students, because they don't qualify for Federal financial aid (which is where the for-profits get the vast majority of their revenue).

Minerva, on the hand, is marketing itself as a selective, prestigious American school specifically to attract foreign students. The costs may seem high, but from the perspective of a foreign student, Minerva may be quite competitive. Most US schools have only limited scholarships or grants available for foreign students, and such students don't qualify for Federal financial aid either. So for a foreign student, Minerva could well be cheaper than traditional US schools.

It appears that Minerva's business model is to serve the growing middle and upper classes overseas, in places like China and India. They only need to enroll a minority of Americans, just to make it clear that they are an "American" school.

 

This is interesting. Between getting everyone in to the U.S. and later moving country to country each semester there will be plenty of visa paperwork.

 

Yeah, me too. After all the fallout, I guess the bright people will actually have to GO to Harvard.