By Bob Weber
America has an awful lot of adults who’ve started a college degree program but never finished it. According to some estimates, only about half of those who start studying for a 4-year degree nowadays are able to actually finish it within six years, while just two out of every ten who start an associate’s degree program (which normally takes two years) get it done within three years (Source: The Oregonian, 3/2/10). It’s a nasty picture, where schools are clearly having a hard time filling a growing need for educated workers. ‘Nearly two-thirds of all jobs in the future will require a college education, whether that’s a certificate, associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree,’ says Illinois Lt. Governor Sheila Simon, whose state has recently launched an effort to get more students to complete school, ‘but at today’s pace, less than half of our workforce will ever achieve that level of education.’
Enter The Completion Program Schools
Many state governments and individual schools are trying to change the situation by offering degree completion programs with accelerated study options and favorable credit transfer policies that make it easier for the student with a some credits finished to go back to school and finish his or her degree. But a key obstacle exists because many of these students are now adults with jobs and families who are not able to return to school on a traditional college campus.
One potential solution for these adult learners exists in the form of the online degree completion programs (for more in-depth info on them, visit http://collegedegreecomplete.com/how-to-find-the-right-degree-completion-program/) being offered by more and more of the distance learning schools. These programs, which are available for for-profit, nonprofit, private and state public university systems, take an aggressive approach toward helping students use whatever credits they have to finish a college degree quickly, or at least as quickly as is reasonably possible given the basic requirements of a bachelor’s or associate’s degree.
The Adult Student
As a result, many adult learners out there can take some comfort in the fact that whatever college credits they earned in the past aren’t necessarily wasted. The opportunity can actually be surprisingly good. It’s not unusual, in fact, for a college to take in as many as 90 credits in transfer towards a standard bachelor degree program of 120 credits total. Doing this kind of program online can not only help an adult finish school in more of a hurry, it can save thousands of dollars, and perhaps tens of thousands of dollars, off the cost of starting again from scratch.
It takes a bit of homework to find a good completion degree program, since even the for-profit schools who do a lot of promotion online don’t necessarily advertise their completion programs widely. It’s also good to be aware that schools may have a lot more flexibility about customizing an online completion degree programs to your needs than it may appear on the surface. Theoretically, many bachelor’s completion programs are only for students who have finished a full associate’s degree already. However, a lot of the schools with completion, accelerated or other types of ‘fast track’ programs will also be willing to work with you on getting you the credits you need to graduate.
State Your Case
One area where it’s good to be assertive is in getting the maximum number of credits accepted from your old school. Some completion program schools will refuse to give credit initially for a previously completed course. If you feel there’s a legitimate reason why that course should be accepted toward your new degree program, however, it makes sense to state your case not just to the admissions department of your new school, but also to the head of the academic department in your major. If you can demonstrate that the course you have already taken is an effective replacement for a course you’re being asked to take, the school will quite often reconsider and transfer in more credits for you.
You should also, however, be aware of some limitations. Schools will often accept credits for an old course only if you got a certain grade in it. Some schools require a B, while others accept a C. It’s also very important that your old school have quality accreditation. If it is not accredited by one of the major accrediting organizations, you may not be able to get any of your old credits accepted.
Be aware also that in some career specialties like law enforcement and nursing, some schools will actually give you credits for your real-world work experience. It’s well worth looking into every one of these possibilities to try and set up a completion program that you can achieve, and you can also afford.
About the Author: Bob Weber has worked as marketing director for several online education websites, including
collegedegreecomplete.com
, Success Degres and several sites for college professors and administrators. He has been in the publishing industry for over 20 years.
Source:
isnare.com
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