Tuition increase @ Excelsior... AGAIN

Pilot,

Yes, the midterm and final were untimed and not proctored.

Nadine

 

Actually, for anyone who is military, the enrollment AND graduation fee are only $175 if you take 12 credits through excelsior! It's a great deal.

 

Exactly how large were the tuition increases (both dollar-wise and percentage-wise)? In business classes, on pricing strategy, one explores whether it is better to have one large price increase or many small ones. But, if the secret is out (that Excelsior is quite the good little school) and demand is up, then price goes up.

 

Well, at least excelsior is not-for-profit. At least you can be sure to know that the money from the extra tuition will go to a very noble cause such as....well, such as justifying another tuition increase 2 months from now. There, does that make you feel better? Gotta love *some* of these not-for-profits and how they make tution so "reasonable" LOL

But seriously, yes, it seems like tuition increase seems to be on the rise all over. Five years from now it might cost twice to get an RA masters degree. Is there anything anyone can do to stop RA schools from draining students' pockets?


Sulla

 

Keep in mind this is for graduate level.....

For a three-credit semester course at the graduate level - the tuition is now $1145.00 + books, etc. ($382 / hr)

It was 30 days ago...$1035.00 + books, etc. ($345 / hr)

In May, a three semester course was $990.00 +books, etc. ($330/ hr)

Back in March, for the same three-hour semester courses was $900.00 +books, etc. ($300 / hr).

Now, I do not know about the undergraduate tuition...but it seems like the average (overall) is about a 9-10% increase.

 

Hasta la Vista.....

After many days of reviewing and deliberating on the whole Excelsior College tuition thing, as well as other issues (internally) that I have had to endure...I have decided to withdraw from their graduate program and their college.

By no means am I advising anyone not to consider Excelsior College, they are a good DL school...this is my opinion and experience that has lead to my decision.

My decision is primarily based on the fact that the college continues to increase their tuition numerous times throughout the calendar year without any proper notification to their existing and current students working towards their degree programs. I believe that this type of action is greedy, unethical, and disrespectful, not to mention their (snippy) attitude towards the whole issue when an individual attempts to get clarification on the increases in a professional and diplomatic manner. While I do not expect them to fully justify their business motives - however, a proper notification is consider valid.

Secondly, while I was finishing my undergraduate degree with Excelsior (as a transfer students with 27 cr to completion) back in 2003-2004, I had an ongoing problem with too many undergraduate advisors advising me on my degree completion plan... we are talking about 3-6 different advisors during my last year and a half.
Never was I assigned one or two advisors to assist me - it was whomever was in the office or available at the time. Which made it very frustrating, because not only did advisors forget to document my file(s), they never corresponded with one another after advising. Not to mention, the right hand never knew what the left hand was doing.
I experienced different advising methods from each different advisor - all told me to do one different from the other. By this, it not only complicated my understanding on how and when I was going to graduate - it delayed my degree completion by 6 months, and I ended up taking two classes that I did not need for my degree.

Third, Excelsior’s fiscal and/or business offices are much disorganized. I experienced another delay towards graduation for my undergraduate degree, when these offices forgot to post and record my last official transfer course transcript and forgot to process my graduate fees after the transcript was processes – this caused another two months in delay in graduation. I was (then) supposed to graduate in June 2004…instead wasn’t able to graduate until August 2004, and I had to pressure them to get their act together and get on the ball because I had a teaching job I was offered on the line.
Going forward to my graduate days here – they have lost many documents I had sent them for registration of courses (grad courses cannot be registered online, only by paper-fax or mail) over the last 5 months. Not to mention when I registered for two specialized Independent Study courses within my field, they lost the authorization signature forms for these two courses, as well as my financial payment plan forms. Which out me into a situation where they “dropped” me from the courses 2/3 of the way through because THEY misplaced these forms within their own office. Which I had to resend three times via fax and mail – and they still could not find the forms after the fact. DISORGANIZATION!

Lastly, their financial aid office is a little out of touch with reality in my opinion. I had applied for financial aid Scholarships for next semester (fall term). Where I was planning on taking three graduate courses (my last three before my thesis course), I was advised in the beginning that any scholarship award money would be properly applied towards my tuition for fall semester. I did not have to pay anything upfront, because the awards would be distributed within 15-20 days after the term began. However, I was notified on Thursday that even though I am eligible for scholarship money and would actually receive such money – I was required to pay for my classes upfront or my registration for my classes was going to null and void. I would be denied registration of any classes if payment was not made prior to classes beginning. Only then would any monies from the scholarship was then be applied towards the students account which then the money can be used for the next term or possibly a refund in tuition.

Wait a minute…is it a scholarship or a tuition reimbursement award? Does not sound like a scholarship to me… does it? Needless to say I do not have $3,435 dollars laying around to drop down on three courses – hence, why I needed and applied for a scholarship! Their attitudes on this issue were very condescending too…when I called to ask clarification because I did not understand why I was advised on one thing and then I was being told another.

I do admit that I had a wonderful graduate advisor…though he resigned this past month to go back into teaching (not at EC), and all the professors I had for the courses I did take were superb and wonderful people. In my opinion, when the long-time president of the college resigned (or retired) 9 months ago, and they brought in an interim president, is when all the serious problems began occurring.

So now I will be attending Montana State University’s Master of Science in Science Education (Earth science track) at the beginning of the year.

 

Noby,
I know $1200.00 for a class is a hard pill to swallow, but many graduate classes are seemingly not far off that mark. We all have seen credit at other institutions costing around $300.00 per hr. Still yet many classes can be found much cheaper at locations such as Fort Hays and University of Northern Iowa.
While Excelsior is currently eating your wallet for lunch it might cost you more in the long run to jump ship with more than half your program behind you. The reason being- loss of potential income, if you leave now and it delays a pay increase such as Master's degree brings to a teacher within in a school system you could conceivably work the "quick and dirty" math as follows:

Loss of pay increase for two years 10,000
Two years at cheaper program 6,000

Noby, In the long run, any program could essentially cost you more than bearing the tuition hikes at Excelsior. Another factor to consider the old saying "Better to deal with the Devil you know than the Devil you don't know" what I mean by that is any new graduate program you enter may prove just as dissatisfying or even worse; finding yourself being short-changed in customer service with only six or nine hours of transfer credit would be very discouraging!

If your degree is for self-enrichment only; no pay increase is expected; your disposition is clamouring for something new and you have a few years to spare, then what the heck...go for it! Whatever you decide, just hang in there!
Good luck!
Gavin

 

Noby,
Sorry, apparently we were posting simultaneously.
Bets of luck to you!
Gavin

 

Another advantage I have noticed by switching to MSU-B is that 4 of the courses I would be taking would qualify and meet certain requirements for my professional teaching certification here in FL. Which none of the Excelsior courses could be applied in this case.

So I am then killing two birds with one stone...I still can obtain a pay raise in 6 months with the BS+27 crs option in my district.

With the money that i would have to spend on EC's three courses ($3435)...I can accomplish almost 7-8 courses at MSU.

Cheers.