Ryan Craig - A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College

In my work at University Ventures (UV) Im extremely fortunate to have a great view of a wide range of precursors, as well as the first true faster + cheaper alternatives to college. Some of these programs found their way to us not only because UV is a potential source of capital but also because our views on the urgent need for faster + cheaper pathways to good first jobs are well known in the sector. So Im most thankful to UV cofounder Daniel Pianko. UV wouldnt exist without Daniel. He is my perfect complement, a terrific partner, and a great friend.

Aanand Radia, Chris Mohr, Prateek Aneja, and Cassidy Leventhal also contributed a tremendous amount to our work and to this book specifically. Cassidy is solely responsible for the appendixthe first directory of faster + cheaper alternatives to college. Im deeply appreciative for her contribution, one that I hope will be useful for many thousands of students.

Aanand, Chris, and Prateek have been terrific thought partners as weve navigated this exciting landscape over the past several years. Im particularly grateful to Aanand for his work and leadership in the education-to-employment arena. Its great to be doing important work, but its even greater to be doing it alongside someone you hold in such high regard. Thats how I feel about Aanand.

Troy Williams joined UV two years ago and has helped lead the firm in exciting new directions. Ive learned so much from Troy and am proud to be his partner.

Annie Zhang makes our firm run like clockwork. Shes an essential team member and Im grateful for her precision and work ethic. And Tara Jones has helped schedule most of the phone calls and meetings that produced the stories in this book. Thanks to Tara for her infinite patience. Thanks to John Minner and Larry Kane at Orrick, who continue to provide invaluable assistance to UV. Special thanks to Jasna for getting the UV Letters out like clockwork.

We wouldnt be able to do any of this without our limited partners. So my sincere thanks to: Thomas Rabe, Kay Krafft, Jarek Gabor, Kai Roemmelt, and Lee Noriega at Bertelsmann; Trace Harris, George Bushnell, Audrey Janin, and Debra Ford at Vivendi; Jamie Merisotis, Brad Kelsheimer, Dave Maas, Eileen Scott, John Duong, Cody Coppotelli, Holly McKiernan, Courtney Brown, Debra Humphreys, and Holly Zanville at Lumina Foundation; Jeremy Wheaton, Josh Susser, Chris Duncan, and Greg Van Guilder at ECMC, as well as Pete Taylor at the ECMC Foundation; Susan Chen and Jon Ellison at UTIMCO, along with their former colleagues Lindel Eakman and Lara Jeremko; Jon Sackler, Brian Olson, Brian Piacentino, and Don Hawks at Poco Bay; Yoji Nimura, Matt Greenfield, Loy Teik Ngan, David Pottruck, Lee Rierson, Elliot Sainer, Deborah Quazzo, Daniel Jinich, and Bob Hartman.

And special thanks to our friends and partners in innovation at Strada Education: Bill Hansen, Mark Pelesh, Dave Boodt, Carol DAmico, Steve Ham, Matt Murphy, Scott Fleming, Andre Bennin, Michele Weise, Tom Dawson, Cebra Graves, Carlo Salerno, Leonard Gurin, Larry Lutz, Rick Buckingham, and Jinee Majors.

Im grateful to my colleagues at Bridgepoint Education: Andrew Clark, Diane Thompson, Vickie Schray, Anurag Malik, Tom McCarty, and Abigail Flakes.

I treasure the excellent advice and wisdom Ive received over the years from my godfather, Don Loeb.

Dalia Das provided inspiration when she was at Bertelsmann, and now Id like to think shes taken some inspiration in launching her own faster + cheaper program in Hamburg, Germany: Neuefische (new fish). Congratulations, Dalia. I hope youre able to make some new fish, even if I wont be able to understand what they say.

My good friends at Whiteboard Advisors, led by Ben Wallerstein and Jenna Talbot, and including Sarah Herring, Ben Watsky, Noah Sudow, and Alison Griffin, continue to do a great job keeping me from doing too many outrageous things. Theres no better communications team in education. And, hard to believe though it may be, theyre also a lot of fun.

Other important sources of inspiration are Jeff Selingo, Paul Freedman, Trace Urdan, Michael Crow, Ann Kirschner, David Wolff, Robert Kelchen, Mimi Strouse, Ted Dintersmith, George Pernsteiner, Bryan Newman, Sean Gallagher, Van Ton-Quinlivan, Sabrina Kay, Ben Walton, Laura Pinnie, Melissa Cheong, Andrew Kelly, Heather Terenzio, Al Rosabal, Bridget Burns, Yuanxia Ding, Michael Horn, Dvora Inwood, Nicole Weitz, Jon Barnett, Yael Lustmann, Peter Price, Matt Greenfield, Arrun Kapoor, Mike Bishop, Yelena Shapiro, Marian Craig, Sheldon Levy, Adam Newman, Chip Paucek, Nick Hammerschlag, Alan Harrison, Amy Laitenen, Dina Said, Jan Bucher, Srikanth Ramachandran, Ashwin Bharath, Justin Vianello, Joe Mitchell, Joe Vacca, Bryan Howlin, John Dow, Paul LeBlanc, Norm Allgood, Colin Malchow, Lowell VandeKamp, Jamie Kravcak, Rachel Magana, Josh Becker, Sara Martinez Tucker, Raj Kaji, Bill Song, Bob Hartman, Kevin Carey, Mitch Kapor, Freada Klein, David Coleman, Robert Gordon, Saeyoung Kim, Joerg Draeger, Rich DiTieri, Lisa Baird, Beth Akers, Jonathan Finkelstein, Daniel Doktori, John Walber, Sheldon Kawarsky, Diana Kawarsky, Karen Kawarsky, Doug Belkin, Adam Markowitz, Troy Markowitz, Sylvain Kalache, Nasir Qadree, Brian Jones, Don Kilburn, Arthur Levine, Paxton Riter, Mac Hofeditz, Abigail Seldin, Tonio DeSorrento, Andrew Platt, Dave Lenihan, Carlos Rojas, Neil Waterman, Will Houghteling, Susan Cates, Jacqueline Loeb, Robin Levine, Jay Waterman, Phyllis Disenhouse, Pat Hackett, Adarsh Sarma, Ian Chiu, Michael London, Chris Nyren, Tony Miller, P. J. Pronger, Brian Weed, Kara Westrich, Mike Shannon, Preston Cooper, Alex Usher, Allison Williams, Michael Goldstein, Mary Alice McCarthy, Sam Hainer, Josh Macht, Athena Karp, Jason Palmer, Mark Grovic, Ryan Burke, Michael Sorrell, Ananth Krishnamurthy, Matthew Muench, Michael Meotti, Frank Britt, Jake Schwartz, Betsy Ziegler, Howard Weitz, Gwen Weitz, Phil Hill, Peter Smith, Wally Boston, Daniel Hamburger, Jonathan Kaplan, Daniel Greenstein, Iris Palmer, Louis Soares, Matt Chingos, Erdin Beshimov, Kip Wright, Bob Shireman, Josh Jarrett, Yahyin Shen, Elisabeth Klee, Ben Wildavsky, Dale Stephens, Goldie Blumenstyk, Brent Parton, Burck Smith, Kim Taylor, Paul Fain, Paul Bacsich, Jody Miller, Justin Ling, Gordon Jones, Nitzan Pelman, Nicos Nicolaou, Mike Willis, Rob Kingyens, Ankit Dhir, Gabe Moncayo, Danial Jameel, Bob Mattioli, Brent Grinna, Christos Vlachos, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Jessica Hinkle, Victor Nichols, Paul Breloff, Gary Beach, David Giampaolo, Howard Newman, Gene Holtzman, Lucas Swineford, Dale Crandall, Vivian Wu, Monica Simo, David Soo, Amit Avnet, Shannon Zoller, Kate Scott, Rooney Columbus, Gary Brahm, Susan Wolford, Jeff Silber, Joe May, Melissa Pianko, Gerry Heeger, Karan Khemka, Mark Leuba, Anne Enna, Jackie Weiss, Michael Brickman, Andy Chan, Matthew Bidwell, Liz Eggleston, Kash Shaikh, Jim Rogers, Chris Keaveney, Lauren Pizer, Diane Auer Jones, Isabelle Hau, Nicole Craig, Jennifer Wisner, Bad Wendy, Good Wendy, Scott Turner, Euan Blair, Charlie Taibi, Brad Neese, Scott Pulsipher, Matt Sanders, Joy Chen, Tom Boasberg, Donna Henry, Gordon Freedman, Carl Lu, Tom Bewick, Dominic Gill, Kim Nichols, Brian Delle Donne, Jim Runcie, Brad Weeks, Bob LaBombard, David Weyerhaeuser, Dana Sokoll, Jackie Wolfson, Jaclyn Schlaikjer, Bryan Power, Steve Middleton, John Manning, Yahphen Chang, Monica Herk, John Bailey, Andy Smarick, James Leo, Dror Ben Naim, Leah Belsky, Alex Sarlin, Harish Venkatesan, Clint Schmidt, Jim Milton, Ethan Pollack, Eric Kelderman, Tigran Sloyan, Brian Subirana, Marvin Rosen, Michael Moe, Deborah Quazzo, John Moussach, and Rumpus magazine.

Thanks to everyone behind the Close It conference and to Byron Auguste and Karan Chopra of Opportunity@Work. Without you, there would be no competency-based hiring movement.

The entire team at Burning Glass has been very helpful, led by Matt Sigelman, whom I admire greatly.