I was doing a search for inexpensive college courses and stumbled upon Arizona Western College. They appear to be a community college that offers quite a few distance learning courses with decent tuition depending on your state of residence. Has anyone ever heard of them? Distance Education Links Credit Hours (Non-resident of Arizona) 1 $82 2 $164 3 $246 4 $328 5 $410 6 $492 7 $2051 8 $2344 9 10 $2930 11 $3223 12 $3516 13 $3588 14 $3660 15 $3732 This might be an excellent way for someone who is trying to obtain an associate degree or to start getting college credits, but I don't know anything about the school, and would feel badly if I was sharing information that is not useful.onder:
That's kind of expensive I would say. I would encourage someone to check their owns state's community colleges. It may be cheaper to go online for a majority of your coursework. For example, here in CA, it's $36 a unit. X 12 unites, it under $500. $500 compared to $3516. That's a major difference.
California has wonderful tuition rates from what I have seen. Here in Pennsylvania, it can be very expensive just at the community college level. One community college close to me is $225 per credit hour for PA residents! Crazy.
They seems to have something similar to a lot of New Mexico schools: the first 6 credits/semester are at a good rate for out-of-staters (here, $82/credit), but after that the price skyrockets. So 6 cr. = $492, but 7 cr. = $2051.
You're right, but I think the school envisions you taking two three credit courses per term in order to take advantage of the discounted rate. It would be pretty rotten of them to offer a discount only on 6 credit classes, but then not offer any, right?
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Legal: While some items listed below state "fact" I am caiming no statement in this article as more than my opinion. The word fact in this context is used purely for literary emphasis. In addition I have personal heartburn with AWC and my opinions are most certainly biased. AWC is an "interesting" school. If you have a college in your home state with similar or better tuition I highly reccomend you go there instead. Not for value of education, but for small town politics, manipulation and money management. Oh, they have money... LOL. Background: AWC has a companion program with NAU. Hearsay: AWC has a financial aid department that is extremely prejudiced in favor of Hispanics. First hand, second hand, and hearsay: There is an under current of politics and financial manipulations that often creates an adversarial environment. Financial: AWC's financial aid department didn't release funds to students in full when they arrived when I was attending. They dribble it out, and keep the money in their own accounts. Students have challenged this and everytime I am aware of they released the funds rather than get drawn out publicly. It was however open policy if you asked. I do not know if that has changed. I can see both sides of that position, and don't really care except that a couple of those students who challenged the status quo found that was there last full semester at AWC for a variety of reasons. Coincidence? Perhaps, but a fact none the less. Atleast one who was a friend of mine was a 4.0 student and finished his degree at another school in the same time he planned originally. Personal: At the time I was there I was qualified for a Pell Grant that covered books and tuition with a little left over for class supplies. I was a returning student, and when I came back I carried very close to a 4.0 (got a B+ in one class). I have enough credits from AWC for two degrees except as listed below. I was a serious student with a full class load and 2-3 part time jobs to survive. (As many as 21 credits in a semester - My extra classes I paid cash out of pocket) I was self supporting (for several years) and not receiving any family support. I had saved some money to get started back in college before going back. (not enough) Experience: I was a nearly 4.0 student at AWC, but when I went to apply for my degree from them I was told because they had changed the name of one of my classes it no longer counted towards my degree. Intro to Data Process was changed to Intro to Computer Information Systems. Intro to CIS was required at the time I would have graduated. In addition I had two classes that could be counted as either humanities or social sciences credit. They counted them as social sciences (I put in the class numbers to count them as humanities), and they refused change them to the humanties I took them as. I would have had to take 3 more classes to get my degree. No big deal, but it galled me to have to pay for and take classes I already passed (aced). I could have challenged them, but I would still have to pay for them again. Instead I walked over to the NAU registration office, and talked with an advisor. He stepped up got my Pell Grant refigured out for NAU, and we got setup on a course of study through NAU. I was not crazy about it, but he suggested I take two classes from AWC because they were cheaper. He guaranteed they would count towards my class load, towards my degree from NAU, and keep me qualified for my grant. Very helpful guy. I registered for all the classes, but because I had registered through NAU my grant money was delayed. I was living on my part time jobs, and paid cash for my books. It was tight but I was doing it. I lived out of my truck and showered in the GYM for a while. I was continuing to maintain excellent scores in all of my classes when one day AWC had me escorted out of their classes. I talked to AWC registration first who said I had to pay for my classes right now or I would be kicked out. I asked if I could just drop my classes and they said that woud be ok to. I consulted my guy with NAU and he said their shouldn't be a problem, but if there was I could drop my NAU classes with no charge and refuse my grant money so I would still be qualified the next semester. When I went back over to AWC registration they confirmed my guy at NAU had apprised them of the situation, but I still had to pay them right now or get kicked out. I dropped all my classes at both schools. I proceeded to try and figure out how to survive and build some cash reserves. I had maintained the same PO Box through out all of this, so fortunately several months later when AWC sent me a bill for the classes they escorted me out of I received it. Rather than risk my grant money I scraped together all my cash and sold some tools. (I've always worked so selling tools really hurt.) When I arrived at AWC to pay my bill they said I didn't owe anything. What? I showed them the bill they sent me, and they still said I didn't owe anything. They never told me how it was settled. When I asked they just said, "You don't owe anything." I didn't find out until that fall when I went back over to NAU to get signed up for classes. AWC had billed NAU for my classes who took it out of my grant when it arrived. They disqualified me for my grant. It was partly the fault of both schools, but primarily AWC. Every time I get an Alumni letter from them my neck gets red, and you don't want to piss me off that day. Now I know that some "know it all" will step in here and tell me how its all my fault, and I should have done things differently or how stupid I was in how I handled the situation. I don't care. In my mind AWC screwed me out of my degree and out of my college education at that point. I don't really want to hear some judgemental ass lecture about history. Its over. I am doing ok in life without a degree. CURRENT: I have a niece who is attending AWC. Her parents are paying for her education out of their pocket. They make just enough not to qualify for any aid, but sending their kids to college is a finacial burden. Yes they own (with the bank) a small home, and they do have two cars but the economy has hit them like everybody. The house is small, and their cars are both 10 years old or more. They budget everything. If they want to go out to dinner its budgeted in advance and its a fast food place, not a nice restaurant. They are managing, but they don't have any extra. My niece is taking Calculus at AWC. She signed up, paid her class fees, and bought her books. Everything listed for the class. In the syllabus for the class and in the class description it says the class is both in class and on-line. The homework for the class is done on-line. Ok. Makes sense for an instructor. He gets their progress and doesn't have to grade papers. It costs and additional $75 to sign up to be able to do your homework. In no place we could find was this additional fee to take the class disclosed anywhere. I know $75 is not a lot of money to many folks, but its fair chunk for my sister's family when they are budgeting every single thing to get through this economic downturn, and they did not have anyreasonable way to plan for it. If it had been disclosed in advance or anywhere in the class description (I looked to) they could have planned for it. Instead they do without something this month. To many people its a small thing, but it gets better or worse depending on your perspective. They don't use credit cards, so my niece went into the college book store to pay cash for this fee. She paid cash in the bookstore for her e-texts for her classes. Should be no big deal. In this case they punish you for being a cash customer. Its $115 if you pay cash at school. That just sounds wrong. If its not illegal it should be. LASTLY and realistically all most people care about: Quality of Education. They offer a pretty diverse selection of classes for a commmunity college, but a lot of them will not transfer to universities. They still do offer a pretty good selection of classes that will transfer to many universities, but don't trust them to tell you the truth about which ones. Ask an advisor at the university you plan to attend after leaving AWC. Instructors: As is the case anywhere they vary. Some are hard just to be jerks and do not really educate anybody, but they think they do. If you bust your ass in their class they will pass you, but don't count on an A even if you earned it. Those are usually the ones who grade on a subjective curve rather than an objective standard for skills and knowledge. Those are also the ones who will down grade you on opinion based work if your opinion conflicts with theirs. Some are hard, but they actually teach. I was fortunate to have several of these and I rather enjoyed their classes inspite of the hard work. Some don't teach at all. These usually also grade on a curve. A C student in any other class will earn an A from these guys. If you can, get out of their class anyway possible. You are wasting your time and your money with these. You are better off taking a self study course for your money. Summary: Its possible to get a decent education from AWC, but you better have a lot more real world savy about it than most high school graduates really have. Keep your eyes open, your mouth shut, and don't make waves. Be prepared for petty politics, and manipulations to take more money than they disclose. In other words learn to be a good little subject, and do your own research. Don't take anything at face value, and be prepared to make changes on the fly. Aside: Today a person in my situation back when I went to AWC (basicaly homeless) would not legally be allowed to have a PO Box. Think about that.
Its 1 to 6 Credits The low out of state price for 1 to 6 credits wass to cash in on snowbirds. Not sure why they still offer it now since most snowbirds don't stay long enough to finish a class anymore.
