> But you at least get something of some value at the end.

That makes it worse honestly. You can go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt getting a BA in the humanities from a university whose tuition is increasing at 2x inflation, but society encourages that choice by giving the BA outsized value in unlocking professions like "salesman" and "firefighter." Meanwhile people are so under the weight of their debt that addressing it is a political issue at the national level, but so far the leading proposal is a one-time debt forgiveness package, which does nothing to address the structural issue.

Here we have a new college that is expressly trying to reduce costs substantially, while offering practical skills in in-demand trades. That sounds like a welcome correction to me. The idea that it is a "grift" only makes sense in an environment where society has made "accredited BA" the arbitrary entrance criteria into the professional class.

According to the Secretary of State, the company was founded on March 3rd of this year. It doesn’t have legal authorization from the Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Education to operate in this state. The Chancellor can ask Attorney General Dave Yost to get an injunction to shut them down in short order if they enroll anyone.

The whole thing feels either like something is wrong or it is a sting by ICE. I remember them running one outside Detroit in the past couple years.

They are literally directed at reducing crippling debt of students.

If they grift harder than Northwestern, and leave students in 2x more debt than a decent school, well, then I guess it's maybe a grift.

I would take their statements at face value.

I suggest they are absolutely trying to do what they state they are trying to do.

That said ... it's obviously a bit of a risk.

And the fortunes charged by long standing universities for degrees with little value in the marketplace, don't?

>But you at least get something of some value at the end.

You very often get something that has little to no value in itself, along with a crushing pile of debt.

This college is charging $15k/year for a 3 year school. I dunno how that compares to others, but it sounds pretty affordable? I’ve been in the job market for quite a while, so my knowledge of tuition costs is very outdated.

The degree isn't accredited, so what it's worth is probably a lot more subjective.

> But you at least get something of some value at the end

Aside from a few elite universities, do you? What’s a Bachelors of Arts from Directional State worth?

Elite universities are shameless credential laundering operations. I wouldn’t hire anybody with a degree from Harvard or Yale for anything other than sales.

A poor kid who wants to be successful is much more valuable than some legacy admission.

Probably get you through more doors than someone without one if you both have zero experience. It can lessen the hurdle of getting that first experience also if you take advantage of internship your university can arrange.

This one seems like a genuine attempt to train for valuable trades while providing some of the college trappings. It’s also significantly cheaper than most grifty schools like ITT Tech or Devry. Though I couldn’t find anywhere saying they’re a non-profit.

If they do a decent liberal arts portion of the Catholic studies the students would gain a good grasp on reading, writing, and history with some philosophy too.

Their mission page actually has some interesting parts about their view of the dignity of manual trades and labor: https://www.collegeofstjoseph.com/mission-and-vision

To be honest many employers will also see “BA” and “college” and not look further since they don’t actually care; it’s just a filtering mechanism.

This is a strange question. A BA from a 2nd or 3rd tier state school is sufficient to apply to a wide variety of white collar jobs, all of which require degrees.

Isn't UT Austin an established state school? They have a lot of alumni in the valley.

UT Austin is a completely established school. I'm talking about the deceptively named University of Austin which is the Musk, Rogan, Fridman affiliated school opening maybe soon. I don't know if those 3 are actually affiliated with it, but their names come up with it.

Isn’t “University of Dallas” also deceptively named?

I think this may be an unfamiliar pattern for towns that haven’t yet crowded their name into university titles but it’s a well established pattern when enough institutions land on the ground.

Eg

University of San Francisco (USF) San Francisco State University (SFSU) University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Same exact pattern in San Diego too. Probably going to see this pattern permutations across several towns in the future. I think Seattle and towns in Florida May have a similar pattern too. Kind of makes a schools named after individuals a bit more distinctive come to think about it.

I’d only noticed that pattern in University of Chicago and University of San Francisco … but yeah … very interesting.

Parent is referring to a non-UT, liberal arts school [1].

[1] https://www.uaustin.org/