Ashworth ditch graduate programs

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by chrisjm18, Dec 16, 2020.

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  1. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

  2. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I remember - I think it was about 12 years ago, not long after introducing Master's programs, Ashworth suddenly hiked the price of a Master's from $5,000 to $9,000. Considering the school aims for budget-conscious students, that was probably a hard sell -- so I'm guessing it didn't - hence they're sticking to the bread-and-butter.
     
    sideman likes this.
  3. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    The master's programs were pricey indeed. I earned my master's from Lamar for less than it used to cost at Ashworth. Lamar also has a better reputation.

    As it relates to bread and butter, Ashworth offered their master's programs for about 3 years before adding bachelor's programs.

    "In 2000, PCDI established Ashworth College to offer associate degree programs to students who need a relaxed approach to a college education. Ashworth College started offering master’s degree programs in 2004 and bachelor’s degree programs in 2007."
     
  4. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I stand corrected, Chris. What I do remember for sure is that there was a sudden increase in the price of a Master's from $5,000 to around $9000, at some point back then. Obviously, the Master's programs were not new offerings as I thought. The Bachelor's degrees were new then, not the Master's. I had it backwards.
     
  5. Dustin

    Dustin Well-Known Member

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  6. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Neat wording! Man, that's DECISION and COMMITMENT! :) (I'm more into a bit of wavering, myself!)
     
  7. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    It's unfortunate, their MSN was a good example of an NA programmatically accredited program.

    But I don't think anyone was winning awards with the Ashworth MBA or MHA.

    I like their learning format. I'd love to see some niche masters programs that were both affordable and a reasonably unique offering (like the MSN). Oh well.
     
  8. Acolyte

    Acolyte Active Member

    $9000 for a Master's from Ashworth seems very expensive. My M.S. didn't cost much more than that and is from a RA brick and mortar school. If you look hard enough you can find programs out there in the $10-12K range. At least when I was looking a couple of years ago...
     
  9. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    For an accredited MSN it wasn't a bad deal. The programmatic accreditation for that matters more than the institutional. And that price could easily be justified as it could get a nurse a pay bump of at least that much in their first year post-graduation (YMMV, of course).

    Though I imagine it may not have been exceptionally popular. Going to the Ashworth website didn't fill one with confidence that this was a place to get a nursing education.
     
  10. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    They didn't offer MSN, to begin with. They offered a BSN, which they no longer do.
     
    LearningAddict likes this.
  11. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    Ashworth also ditched their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. I wonder why? Their program is not even four years old and they only received CCNE accreditation less than 3 years or so. WGU and American Sentinel University are offering assistance to displaced students. WGU is offering $250,000 in scholarships.

    https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wgu-offering-250-000-in-scholarships-to-displaced-nursing-students-of-ashworth-college-300986712.html

    https://www.prunderground.com/american-sentinel-university-to-help-displaced-ashworth-college-nursing-students-finish-their-degrees-2/00178529/
     
  12. freddyboy

    freddyboy Member

    Interesting development. I almost enrolled in the MBA program earlier this year when I was looking around. At the time, they had the entire program for $1999, a real bargain for an accredited MBA.
    Anybody know why the dropped their Master's programs?
     
    LearningAddict likes this.
  13. AsianStew

    AsianStew Moderator Staff Member

    Wow, such developments! I wonder if it has to do with Penn Foster buying out Ashworth and slimming it down to focus solely on profitable programs. I didn't know they had a program that cheap for $2K, and an Accredited MBA to boot. I was thinking they would have merged all undergrad programs into Penn Foster and use Ashworth for graduate programs...
     
    sideman likes this.
  14. AsianStew

    AsianStew Moderator Staff Member

    Weird, I think Lamar should be at least 10K for an MBA since they are RA. How much was Lamar charging back then? How did you get that amount, was it through scholarships? I don't think they've raised the pricing that much, unless you transferred a few credits into their program or got a scholarship, technically - it should be more expensive at Lamar. Here's their 2020/2021 tuition: https://www.lamar.edu/students/paying-for-school/tuition-and-fees.html
     
  15. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    Are you trying to tell me how much I paid? FYI, I paid $275/credit x 30 = $8,250.

    Online programs and tuition: https://degree.lamar.edu/programs/
    M.Ed. in Counseling is the most expensive at $18k followed by MBAs at $12k. Currently, the MSCJ is $9,000.
     
  16. sideman

    sideman Well Known Member

    I am checking on graduate counseling degrees and was considering Lamar. They all seem to be expensive, perhaps someone knows of another to consider for licensure in Texas that would be less expensive. I did have a colleague that had a Math degree from Lamar and loved the university. What was your experience Chris?
     
  17. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    I think Lamar has the cheapest counseling licensure program you will find online, followed by Fort Hays (I believe). I also considered Lamar's program because I wanted to (and perhaps one day will) become an LPC. Keep in mind that Lamar's programs are not CACREP accredited (the mental health program was but lost accreditation in October). However, most states do not require a CACREP accredited degree at the moment, including Texas. I absolutely loved my online learning experience at Lamar. The coursework was writing intensive but manageable. I took two courses at the same time each 8-week term (this isn't possible with the counseling program though because the courses are already super fast - 5 weeks). I even had professors provide letters of recommendation for me. I can't think of anything I didn't like about my time at Lamar. Only one of my professors was an adjunct and she also teaches on-campus. All the others were tenured or tenure-track professors who teach on-campus as well. Not every school or department can say their online programs are taught by the same awesome on-campus faculty.
     
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  18. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    So did they, lol.
     
  19. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    They dropped their Nursing program earlier last year and had another school or two take them over. Now this. They claim the master's programs have been dropped in order to make way for newer and better programs, but I heard from a reliable source that the enrollment numbers in those programs were consistently too low and they decided to drop them because of that.

    I liked that they were the last (or at least one of the last, I don't know of any other) school's in the U.S. offering master's degrees in their traditional independent study format, although they did assign mentors to students in the program which may have worked like WGU's mentor setup but I was never able to get any confirmation on that.
     
  20. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    I guess that price might have been for something akin to a clearance sale with them knowing it wasn't going to last.
     

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