Thomas B. Walsh

My name is Thomas B. Walsh. First in my family to attend college I graduated from The Ohio State University a long, long time ago-- two years before the Beatles came to America. In "the good old days" you could work your way through school. I held a variety of low paying jobs including: clerk in the Student Union bowling alley, city playground supervisor, and campus mailman. I earned a Bachelor's degree at a cost of $4500 and graduated with no student loan debt. Working for such Fortune 100 companies as IBM and Xerox my career in information technology spanned thirty-five years. I was fortunate to be able to retire at a relatively early age and spend my "golden years" fly fishing and hiking in the mountains of Colorado. This is the way college used to work in America.

I have three grown children and six grandchildren--three of whom are graduating from high school soon. One of the benefits of being old is that your children don't ask for money anymore. One of the downsides is that they also don't have any interest in your advice. Consequently, when my daughter asked me to unravel the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) procedure, I was delighted to help. I read two or three books on the subject, browsed a dozen websites, and summarized everything into a one page report.

Spurred with optimism that my offspring would benefit from further consultation I began researching a worrisome subject--student loans. More books. More websites. My concerns about student loans were substantiated. They are a ticking timebomb. But I also learned something even more disconcerting--college doesn't work the way it used to. College is no longer the surefire way to middleclass prosperity. In fact today choosing college as a road to financial success is against the odds. That is why I wrote an ebook, "The Next Step. Is College Really the Right Choice?"