How did you arrive here?

[ivythrowaway]

I'm genuinely curious how most people arrived at pursuing non-traditional education and if there is an activist component to why they pursued it. Or is it as simplistic as "I want something as fast and as cheap as possible"? I suppose this applies to all pursuing a Big 3 degree, a Competency Based Education (CBE) program, or some other collegiate option that accepts over 90 transfer credits and is online. I'd assumed that most people arrived here after realizing the following:

• The higher education system is broken. 'Traditional Education' is ridiculously overpriced: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/...2adb3c589e
  
• Much of the system is predatory and student loans are crippling people: https://bigthink.com/politics-current-af...elltitem=3 
  
• Opportunity costs associated. 4 years is a lot of time to finish a degree. Student employment is an option but still one that barely keeps ones head above water in most cases: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thecollegeb...a419d234bc
  
• This fantastic ZeroHedge article offers solutions I think sensible people would agree on that posits that college should be accountable for their graduates being employable: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/solu...tem-broken
  

I don't want to make this post dwelling on these obvious problems. I'm simply curious if awareness of some or all of this above influenced your decision to take this route to "starve the beast" as it were. Perhaps many realized the above after falling victim to it, such as myself. I unknowingly had an ACE course which was CLEP credit be my first ever academic credits recognized without ever knowing what ACE was. Was this most of you? Did you imagine yourself scavenging the net endlessly for free or nearly free ACE credits to procure the coveted Bachelors degree? Now that most here are going this route I'm also curious if you see yourselves as a sort of white knight, helping advise those close to you that still don't have a degree having them pursue a similar course of action? I know I have.