The $10,000 Bachelor's Degree Arrives.

Interesting article on a 10K Bachelor degree.

Businessweek article.

The degree is through College for America in partnership with Southern New Hampshire University.

 

Last I read about College for America, not everyone can sign up for their programs. Has the rules changed recently ?

 

With arrival of Bachelor degrees to Community Colleges we are looking at degrees that cost 10000 USD.

In 2012, the Washington State Legislature passed E2SHB 2483, authorizing the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to approve all Applied Bachelor’s degree programs offered by community and technical colleges (RCW 28B.50.810).

Seatle Central College in state tuition - 25 credits 2,166. Non resident DL 2300.

Some CC's charge 45 USD per semester credit.

 

The $10,000 degree was touted by Florida's governor a while back, but I haven't heard much about it lately. It was true, in a 'sort of' politician sound bite way.

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2014/mar/04/rick-scott/scott-says-all-4-year-state-colleges-offer-10k-deg/
"First a note, four-year state colleges do not include Florida’s large universities such as Florida State University, the University of Florida or the University of South Florida. You can't get a $10,000 degree at any of those places. Florida's state college system make up what were previously called community colleges."

"Scott said, "All of Florida's four-year state colleges now offer bachelor's degrees for only $10,000." The schools that make up the state college system have accepted a challenge from Scott to offer $10,000 degrees, but only about half currently do.

Also, there are several other caveats as to who can get a cheap degree and in what major. Lastly, the $10,000 degree doesn't cover books, housing, meals, fees and other expenses.

Scott left out important context in his remarks at the State of the State address. We rate his claim Mostly False."

 

Even though I hate Governor Rick Perry of Texas, he was the first one to challenge public colleges to create a $10,000 degree. We already have a few of them, but the majors are very limited. Like College for America, they pair a 2-year program (community college) with a 4-year university. I think it's nitpicking to get into the living and book expenses. The tuition is the main issue. Excelsior also came up with a plan to finish one of their degrees for just under $10,000. It's nice of them, but it's a horrible plan. One can finish a degree at Excelsior and the other two of the Big 3 for much less than $10,000.

 

Perhaps they should include how much of that degree is is subsidized, and who does the subsidizing. State, federal grants, Soros or Koch (referring to recent news reports of Koch funding at FSU).

I'm all for the concept of affordable education and no one (I hope) realistically expects rent is included at $10000, but the powers that be should be honest enough to state how much it's going to cost after one sets foot on campus. Include tuition, fees, required books, parking, etc.

But then I'm the type of person that when I'm shopping for a car I check consumer reports for anticipated repair costs and my insurance agent for anticipated annual costs there and then search the internet for 'real world gas mileage', etc. I never shop solely on advertised sticker price.

 

Every school is going to give you total cost of attendance for every housing situation on its website. It doesn't change much from city to city within a state, so the biggest difference will be in tuition. Texas is not providing extra subsidies to universities creating $10,000 degrees. Some of them might be receiving funding from something like the Gates Foundation, but I personally do not care. Many private schools lower their cost of attendance through endowments. However, a lot of the savings is coming from the utilization of community colleges.

 

You have a point there, but schools love having all of the additional instructional materials that come with Pearson and Cengage books. I used MyCrimeLab quite a bit at a CC. The videos and interactive activities were cool, but I'm not sure I needed them. Cengage claims that students who use their interactive materials have a higher pass rates.