My editor, Madeleine Burry, and I have been talking about building a collection of school profiles to help people decide where they may want to take continuing education classes. I have three on the site right now:
I also have a collection of Sierra's Top 10 Green Schools.
Why Florida and North Dakota? They have great, and giant, continuing ed. programs. But there are lots of others.
What do you want to know about a school when you're thinking about signing up for a continuing ed. program? Help me build this new collection to be what you want it to be. Talk to me.
Comments
Just for some background, b.c I am not sure I am part of your target audience- I am a nontraditional student in my early twenties who just went back to school to finish my bachelors after a few years off due to illness (no kids, no spouse, no debt). I started this semester at a private liberal arts college, but am thinking about transferring to a large university. Although I love the setting of a liberal arts college (which is where I started my degree in the first place) I now realize that attending a larger university where there are more summer classes offered, where it is easier to complete a double major (in terms of scheduling 3/4 credit classes across departments within the same semester) and where I can sub-matriculate into a Masters may be a better fit for me at this point in my life.
In looking for a bachelors program to attend full time as a non-traditional student during these searches across liberal arts colleges and larger universities , the questions I have kept in mind include: (these questions assume that the school either “suggests” or requires that students over a certain age transfer into their non-tradtional student programs)
1) Will my degree be identical to the degree awarded to traditional students?
Some programs which are marketed to non-traditional students award “Bachelors of General Studies” or “Bachelors of Liberal Arts” degrees, instead of a “Bachelor of Arts”. These options are perfectly fine for some, but in my case, I did not want to feel like I was loosing anything by attending a program geared toward adults.
2) Will I have access to the same financial aid vehicles as my traditional age counterparts?
Some programs for non-traditionals are not as well funded as their traditional counterparts within the same university. For example, in lieu of fafsa based financial aid, they may offer discounted tuition rates.
3) Are the returning adults students segregated from the traditional students?
Depending on the student, the answer they want to hear could vary greatly. I do not want to feel like a second class citizen on a campus by being restricted to the continuing ed division (for example) which on certain campuses, are seen as the bastion of the “easier” classes. Although, I do realize that some adults may want to have, for example, evening classes geared toward their work schedules.
4) Access to Advising
As a non-traditional student, I want to have the same access to both career and graduate school advising services as the traditional age undergrads on campus. If this is not available, the school is automatically crossed off of my list.
4) Cost of living/Living situation
a. Can non traditionals live on campus- if so, where?
Some schools allow non-traditional undergrads to live in on campus graduate housing.
b. Is there an off campus housing office?
Non a deal breaker, but certainly very useful.
The website College Confidential has an online forum dedicated to non-tradtional students, which you could monitor to see what types of questions students are asking, in order to help formulate what you will include in your school profiles. It seems that the demographic within that forum includes mostly students like myself (just fyi).
As for programs I have come across you may want to include in your profile
1) Smith College Ada Comstock Program
Columbia University School of General Studies
2) Wellesley College Davis Degree Program
3) Bryn Mawr College McBride Scholars Program
4) Goucher College – Goucher II Program
5) Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies
6) Yale University Eli Whitney Program
7) Brown University Rue Program
9) University of Pennsylvania School of Liberal and Professional Studies
10) Cornell University School of Continuing Education
11) Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies
12) University of Virginia School of Continuing and Professional Studies
Again, I am not sure if what I have included is relevant to what you want to write about- but I figured posting it couldn’t hurt.
cheers
Wow! Thank you mmmangoes! That’s a lot of food for thought. Officially, non-trad students are 25 and older, but we’re not picky. Stick around!