Have you always dreamed of getting a college education but felt that financial and time obligations are obstacles you couldn’t overcome? Educational financial obligations are getting more difficult to manage with the rise of tuition costs; making many universities and colleges unaffordable. In these fast paced times, many people struggle with balancing family and work obligations. Enrolling at a structured brick-and-mortar university doesn’t provide the necessary flexibility to provide solutions for the non-traditional student. Many people have years of experience in a particular field and don’t like the slow pace usually followed at traditional universities. WGU provides solutions to these barriers by affordability, convenience and taking into account the knowledge gained by experience that non-traditional students possess.
Most people would agree that affordability is important especially now in our current economical climate. As a non-profit university, WGU is able to keep tuition costs lower than other universities. In some cases, WGU is 50% lower. As well as being non-profit, WGU is privately funded as well. Therefore, they are less susceptible to large tuition swings like many other universities because they don’t rely on federal funding. For example, several major universities are estimating 10%-30% spikes in tuition for the 2010-2011 school year. (Sutton, 2010) Federal budget cuts due to the economy are to blame for these tuition spikes coming later this year. WGU’s non-profit, privately funded model allows them to keep tuition costs low and stable over the course of a student’s career. As a result, students can have confidence that future tuition changes will be minimal and allow them to focus their efforts ...
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... competency approach is attractive to non-traditional students with previous knowledge gained through experience and those that like the challenge of self directed study.
All in all, WGU provides solutions to obstacles that hinder the non-traditional student. WGU’s non-profit, privately funded business model promotes low, stable tuition costs that enable students to properly plan their financial commitments. The use of an online format provides a convenient medium to balance the busy lives of the modern day student. At the same time, WGU’s unique competency based program provides students with the means to efficiently accelerate their learning progress by utilizing knowledge gained by prior experience. If you’re a non-traditional student, then make your dreams of going to college a reality and apply at WGU online today. It will be a decision you won’t regret.
Education comes at a high price for this generation and not just financially. Going to college can give students plenty of debt with no promise of a job in return, which can set a student father back on their course of life. Young adults trying to start their lives by going to college encounter many setbacks. Today the average cost for a private university is $25...
After a few weeks, I received a response from UTC stating that I was accepted and could start fall semester. I was so excited about finishing my education. My major was Healthcare Administration. Older women -- those in their mid-20s and older -- returning to college make up better than half of the evening enrollments in area colleges. Nontraditional students are usually in their mid-20s to mid-40s, enrolling part time vs. full time. They generally attend evening classes and have jobs and family obligations to balance with their studies (Richards, 1999).
Universities can be expensive, especially if the school is out of state of current residency. Attending a community college to save up money is a smart option for students. Being able to c...
Community colleges and vocational tracks are not wrong about the high cost of traditional higher education. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, one year at a public, four-year institution costs upwards of $23,000 on average, while private institutions will cost nearly $10,000 more on average. Coupled with the fact that prices at public institutions rose 42 percent and private institutions rose 31 percent between 2001 and 2011, it’s not a shock that parents and students alike worry about paying for college. However, this won’t always be the case, as this rise in prices simply cannot continue the way it has. Eventually, people will be unable to pay the price that colleges charge. They will either settle for com...
Although community colleges struggle with low retention and transfer rates, Everett (2015) mentioned that community colleges created opportunities for first-generation students through five divisions of admission (p. 52). The intention of this article was to address the five divisions of access provided by community colleges for first-generation college students which include: financial accessibility, geographic accessibility, programmatic accessibility, academic accessibility, cultural/social/physical accessibility and also the problems faced by these students after admission.
Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus report in their essay “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” what is expected from universities in exchange of their high costs. Currently, the price of education has duplicated its cost in comparison to the last generation (Hacker and Dreifus 179). Making a huge investment and getting poor results are the reasons what make parents and students hesitate before choosing a college. Hacker and Dreifus emphasize that colleges that are doing well their job share factors that make worth paying high tuition fees. These factors include: close relationships between professors and students, an adequate use of technology, and access to scholarships or part time jobs to make education affordable. Considering the
For the past decade, The United States has stressed the importance of college education, to those seeking employment, and better careers. For most people, college is the logical next step in education, as it provides a working knowledge of a desired field and opens the door to many opportunities, but college has become increasingly more expensive as time goes on. Many people feel that college is no longer an option financially. Even with financial aid and scholarships, the cost of a college education can still be very taxing. This is due to massive price increase across the boards, but the main issue on most people’s minds is the debt that will be acquired from higher education.
Lowe, Erik. “Keep Washington’s Tuition Affordable.” The Seattle Times. 23 Jan. 2009. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Programs catering to nontraditional students date from the early 1970s. The University of Massachusetts was a pioneer in such efforts when it began University Without Walls in 1971. UWW is an academic major whose purpose was to help nontraditionals earn a degree from a respected university. Students design their own program of study and may take online, blended or on campus classes that fit into students’ busy lives and complicated schedules. In addition, students may earn up to 30 credits for learning garnered through work and life experienc...
As the high school chapter is coming to a close, many students have to make a decision that will affect the rest of their lives. Hopefully, for many that decision is to enroll in a college and attain a higher education. However, as tuition costs rise, students have to take a second look at their options for a better future. A community college is that second look for many because it is the less expensive option. From 2007-2009, enrollment for community colleges has increased by 24 percent (“College costs and the CPI”). Students aren’t choosing a college for educational purposes because they are overwhelmed by financial issues. They are attending community colleges so they will be able to graduate with a lower debt. Some seniors have wanted to attend a certain university all their life and they work toward that goal through grade school; however, they are hindered by soaring tuition for that college. Students should be able to attend a private university if they mee...
Since the 1980’s the cost of attending colleges have increased rapidly. Rising costs of for Medicare, highways and prisons have caused many states to reduce a percentage of their budget for higher education. Colleges and Universities currently face a very serious challenge:
The skyrocketing price of college tuition is causing a tremendous concern over whether higher education will be a viable financial concept to the average citizen over the next decades. Some families have opted to explore different means of obtaining a higher education for their children as these costs escalate. There is overwhelming evidence that colleges need to restructure the way they are run because tuition prices are increasing at a rapid rate causing changes in the way students fund their education and in the way the government provides educational subsidies.
As The “Progress of Education Reform” suggests, tuition discounting is major contributor to the rising cost of college in the sense that while it provides a tuition discount to the one particular student receiving the grant or scholarship it places a heavier burden on the majority demographic that attends the university without such discounting. (The Progress of Education Reform” 1). In contrast to popular opinion, scholarships and grants which are normally regarded as blessings are ironically a contributing factor to rising tuition prices. Basically, the universities have to make up for the money they lost by awarding the scholarships so the majority of the student population who did not qualify feel it in their pocketbooks. A final cause of this ludicrous tuition spike is the shift in university budgets to cater to the administration departments of the schools. Jobs in this department are non-teaching jobs that provide student services ranging from student safety to counseling and wellness programs. These jobs are definitely
With tuition rising every year, students face the challenge paying the debt achieving a college degree comes with. “Student debt surpassed credit-card debt in June 2010 for the first time in history, rising to about $830 billion — or nearly 6 percent of the nation 's annual economic output”(Clemmitt, Marcia). Not everyone has a ton of money just laying around. Being that financial trouble is the biggest problem for students, they begin to question whether college is worth it or not. In recent years, students have taken out loans to help with expenses. Most students choose to attend a community and junior college to help minimize the debt. Even after graduating with a degree, students still face the struggle of finding a job in this economic time. For higher class families this may not be a problem to them. But for the middle class and low income families, they face tougher times being that they don 't have the financial help like higher class families do. For the middle class and low income families, it makes more sense attending a community and junior college rather than a four year university.
As colleges’ funds dry up, colleges must turn to the public to further support higher education. By raising state taxes, colleges can collect funds to help improve the school’s budgets. The state provides funds from the taxes for colleges to receive a certain amount for each student currently enrolled. All community and traditional four year colleges collect these funds in order to maintain the school’s budget. As reporter, Eric Kelderman states, “less than a third of colleges’ budget is based from state taxes”. The school’s budget is how colleges are able to provide academic support programs, an affordable intuition, and hire more counselors. Colleges must now depend on state taxes more than ever for public colleges. Without collecting more funds from state taxes, as author, Scott Carlson explains how Mr. Poshard explains to senators “our public universities are moving quickly toward becoming private universities…affordable only to those who have the economic wherewithal to them” (qtd. in.) Public colleges must be affordable to anyone who wishes to attend. If colleges lack to provide this to students, it can affect dropouts, a student’s ability focus, and cause stress. The problem of lack of funding is that colleges have insufficient funds. Therefore, the best possible solution for the problem of lack of funding would be increasing and collecting more funds from state taxes.