Apollo Group (NASDAQ: APOL) was recently trading at $58.52 in after market trading, below its close of $72.97. APOL announced an informal inquiry into its revenue recognition practices. APOL November option implied volatility went out at 52, December at 45; verses its 26-week average of 49, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

CBOE Volatility Index: VIX was up 64 cents to 24.96.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Is it 2009-2010 or 1972-1973? If you're paying college tuition this year, it may be hard to tell. Tuition is up only 4.3% for the coming school year, the lowest rate of growth in 37 years, according to a survey of 350 private schools by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. This is down substantially from the 5.9% increase for the 2008-2009 school year. Of course, this is for tuition only and does not include room and board inflation.

Before celebrating, though, remember that depressed housing prices and constrained financial markets make it tougher to dip into home equity to pay for school (a favorite strategy of the past few years), and layoffs are putting an obvious strain on household finances. So, the bargain in all this may be hard to find, even with financial aid increases of 9.2%.

Soaring college costs are making headlines almost daily, it seems, and a Reuters piece begins with the heart-wrenching story of a 22-year old so overburdened with tuition that she must borrow textbooks from friends.

There is a lot of work to be done on the policy side to make it easier for kids to afford college. According to the piece, "The average student at public universities get $3,600 in grants and tax benefits; at private universities, $9,300, according to the College Board."

Here's a question: If a student can afford the tuition at a private college ($23,712 compared to $6,185 for a public school, assuming no grants), should we even provide those students with tax credits? I would argue that, in order to qualify for tax credits, college students should have to demonstrate that they are choosing a value-oriented school. Just as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won't get involved with mortgages over $417,000, Uncle Sam shouldn't dole out tax credits to students who can spend $40,000 a year on college.

Another way that students can save money: Doing the first two years at a community college. My local community college advertises the cost savings associated with this approach.

Do we need government policy changes to make it easier for students to afford college? Probably. But more of an emphasis needs to be placed on the responsibility of students and their parents to take steps to control the cost of college for themselves.

My husband and I don't yet have children, don't know if we want any, but I am sure of one thing: college funds for these hypothetical offspring need to be opened immediately.

The College Board said this week that the yearly cost of in-state tuition for a four-year public college jumped 6.6% from the 2006-2007 school year hitting $6,185. This follows a 5.7% increase last year from the 2005-2006 period. Private universities saw the annual tally for tuition and fees rise 5.5% to $16,640. The most affordable education can still be found at public two-year institutions, where costs rose just 4.2% from last year to $2,351 per year.

And that's just tuition and various fees. For students who live on campus (40% at public schools; 64% at private), the cost of room and board jumped 5.9% at public schools to $13,589. To live, eat, and learn on a private-school campus, it will cost $32,307 per year, also a 5.9% increase from last year.

The idea that parents should pay for their children's college education is widely seen as conventional wisdom -- after all, isn't that what those 529 plans are for? And Upromise, the program where buying groceries helps you put money away for your children's future?

I was a believer too until I read Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth's book Yes You Can Get a Financial Life! There, the authors argue that a college education is a capital asset and that it makes the most sense for the beneficiary of that asset to foot the bill. Stein and DeMuth believe that kids who pay for college may value it more, and that student loans and work-study programs are available to make it possible for kids to go to college without parental support.

And as they wrote, "If Mom and Dad really believe they are doing something noble by depriving themselves so their kids can stay out all night drinking in Nassau during spring vacation, that has little do with rational thought."

But do Americans really want to do that?

Universities have been known to take donations from anyone willing to write a check. For those willing to donate significant amounts of money, usually alumni, there's sometimes an atrium, a street or even a building named after them as a tribute. Then renaming the University of Iowa's College of Public Health to The Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield School of Public Health shouldn't turn too many heads. Right?

The University of Iowa is contemplating whether to rename its College of Public Health after the philanthropic arm of Blue Cross & Blue Shield in exchange for a $15M donation, USA Today reports. This has sparked debate on where universities should draw the line when accepting corporate gifts.

Score one for the triumph of principles over marketing. At least in the case of small colleges.

According to a Bloomberg report, "The presidents of Holy Cross, Lafayette, Trinity and 58 other liberal arts schools have pledged in the past 10 weeks to withhold cooperation from Washington-based U.S. News on the most controversial element of its 24-year-old survey, a questionnaire asking colleges to assess competing schools."

Interestingly, no top-25 ranked school has joined the boycott. Bloomberg goes on to say that "Three-quarters of each school's score is based on information that is for the most part publicly available, such as class size, graduation and acceptance rates, and alumni giving. The controversial 25 percent comes from a 'reputational survey,' in which thousands of presidents, deans and provosts are asked to grade other schools' reputations."

I've always been unimpressed with these college ranking magazines. It seems like a great way to sell magazines to ambitious high school students and their parents, but I'm not sure I get the point: Shouldn't college be about finding the right fit rather than the best-ranked school you can get into? I know of no student who has regretted choosing a college based on which one he liked the best in terms of the experience and educational opportunities it offered. I know several who regret being lured in by name brands.

The problem is that the top college for a student varies from student to student, and suggesting that any college is somehow superior to another, in my opinion, misses the point. Congratulations to those schools that are standing up to the silly "reputational survey" and mad props to students and parents who are ignoring prestige in favor of finding a good fit.

The sub-prime mortgage market is in shambles. But Wall Street, making every effort to rid itself of risky mortgage-backed securities, has found a new group of potential buyers -- university endowments.

The Wall Street Journal reported (subscription required) that university endowments have started to dip into the risky world of buying sub-prime mortgage debt. An opportunity recently stemmed from two money-losing hedge funds at Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), and one that required loans from various banks to halt the seizure of the fund. Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) a lender to these funds, auctioned some assets it had seized from Bear for $850 million. However, the auction sold for less than half that amount, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lou Morrell, vice president for investments and treasurer at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. is quoted as saying he sees value in those auctions. "There's an opportunity out there to buy these loans at a discount," he told the WSJ, and that "will be popular with a lot of endowments out there." The university is placing $25 million of its $1.2 billion endowment with a hedge fund to invest in sub-prime mortgages.

They're not the only ones dealing in big risk either.

It looks like business schools may be catching up with the idea of Ben and Jerry's and other successful business ventures that combined profits with a concern for the planet. According to a piece in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "Environmentalism is finding its way onto the agenda in M.B.A. programs across Europe, as students and faculty -- like Europeans more broadly -- are growing increasingly worried about the threat of global warming... As many have begun to do in the U.S., schools across Europe are adding environmental electives, supporting student research projects on warming topics, integrating talk of the issue into core courses, inviting speakers to address it, and, in some cases trying to make their campuses or communities more energy efficient."

This is terrific news. With emerging concerns about the future of the planet, tomorrow's CEOs will need to equipped with the knowledge to confront these issues and seek solutions. This is as good an indication as you will ever see of environmentalism going mainstream.

Having business leaders educated on the dangers of global warming might do more to protect the environment than increased regulation.

In the latest issue of The Nation, Barbara Ehrenreich (author of Nickel and Dimed, one of my favorite books) takes a compelling look at the real value of a college diploma, and the reasons employers value it. Her conclusion: It might be for different reasons than most people think. In fact, she refers to it as the Higher Education Scam. Here's what she thinks:

My theory is that employers prefer college grads because they see a college degree chiefly as mark of one's ability to obey and conform. Whatever else you learn in college, you learn to sit still for long periods while appearing to be awake. And whatever else you do in a white-collar job, most of the time you'll be sitting and feigning attention. Sitting still for hours on end--whether in library carrels or office cubicles--does not come naturally to humans. It must be learned--although no college has yet been honest enough to offer a degree in seat-warming.

A pretty damning accusation, but it really doesn't sound too far-fetched. So if that really is what one "gets" out of college, we may be forced to rethink things. Does this mean that an employee with an online degree wouldn't be as valuable, not having proven that he can sit in a lecture hall for hours on end? Should employers skip college grads, and focus on finding creative thinkers without degrees, available at a discount?

Numerous internet firms will hire a high school dropout if he can demonstrate a clever hack. And this got me to thinking: Will some business come along and generate returns by overlooking academic credentials? In the book Moneyball, Michael Lewis tells the story of Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane, who built a winning team on a low budget by focusing on skills that were undervalued and by the market and overlooking ones that were overvalued. For example, most teams paid too high a premium for good fielding he though, so he assembled the worst defense in the game, preferring players who walked a lot (a skill which was undervalued).

So if employers really aren't getting better, more productive employees by looking at academic credentials, could another Billy Beane come along and start a company that doesn't care about credentials? If a diploma really isn't an indicator of ability, you might be able to cut costs (high school dropouts costs less) without sacrificing productivity.

In this multi-part personal finance series, readers will learn various ways to help save money for a college education, from off-the wall-scholarships and 529 programs to the right time to refinance your loans. Parents and students alike who read this series will find something to help reduce the costs of a higher education before, during and after it takes place.

Part II: The CLEP

To earn a Bachelor's degree at my university, I was required to take a minimum of 8 credits, or two seminars plus labs hours, of a foreign language. If you knew me at the time, you knew I had enough trouble with my own native language -- English (seriously). Not wanting to sit through a whole year of Spanish, for which I quickly calculated the approximate time wasted (104 hours including lab time), I tried to find a way out of wasting this valuable time.

All it took was one phone call to my adviser. His answer: "CLEP it."

I was just as confused as some of you may be right now. What does "CLEP" mean? Well, CLEP stands for The College-Level Examination Program. In layman's terms, you can get college credit if you take (and pass) one $60 test.