Capella University Graduates Largest Online Class. Snippet: Capella University will confer the largest graduating class in its history at a commencement ceremony on July 27, 2002. Approximately 400 students from around the globe will be honored at the event, more than doubling the size of last year’s graduating class. ...
Hmmm...pumping out those graduates at the rate of what on average (35,000 per PhD). Cha.....Ching......I am in the wrong business. Not bad. That does not say how many are enrolled at 10,000 + per year. North University here I come. North (soon to be Chancellor)
North You need an accountant 400 times $ 35,000. That's $ 14,000,000. And those are just the graduates. Like to rake off 10 % of that action.
Re: North Be careful not to confuse gross income with net income. Capella is still a private corporation so financial data is not readily available. They had planned an IPO but with the market in the tank this seems unlikely. Still, they appear to have done a good job in developing their programs and if their financing is in place, face a bright future.
Make sure you factor in that those are not all doctorate degrees. Capella has a strong Masters contingent. I will be among those walking at commencement in a couple of days. I did three and a half years of a program of which the last year I slept, ate, dreamed, and sweated dissertation methods and procedures and data collection and evaluation. Writing – writing – writing – rewriting – more writing – editing – writing – pulling hair – more writing – etc. My program could not have been more satisfying or fulfilling. It was anything but simply “academic” or a plug it in process. I thing there is a bit of a misconception regarding Capella’s learner focus. Capella definitely wants learners to succeed and does assist learners in completing their program. However, this is not done at the expense of a legitimate academic process. My program mentor and committee members demanded compliance with appropriate doctoral research expectations. All of my committee members were well published. One was a former Dean of Education at a major east coast university. The Capella model works for the financial investor and the learner. I have no problems with money being made in the process.
Even if they were all Doctoral grads, $14,000,000 over three years is not a "cha ching" amount of money, especially when you subtract expenses.
But that is not the total. Remember they have many more students than they have grads (so the gross income is even higher). They maintain no campus and have adjuncts. To be fair I have no idea how much the incidentals come to but it is big business and that is why DL PhD programs have grown and you have for profits like U of Phoenix that are huge. They are not Social Service organizations. North
