12 Promising Non-traditional College Pathways to Attainment

[Life Long Learning]

http://eddesignlab.org/2016/04/12-promis...ttainment/

[magflo]

Yes to the Applied Baccalaureate degree programs at community colleges! There was some discussion of that in my state but it got knocked down due to politics and potential loss of money for the public universities :-( (doesn't the money all go to the same place in the end anyway????) It's a shame because I love the experience my son is having at our community college, it's the largest in our state, has several campuses, and I think they would be quite capable of offering the 4 year degrees.

[Life Long Learning]

Yes to the Applied Baccalaureate degree programs at community colleges!  There was some discussion of that in my state but it got knocked down due to politics and potential loss of money for the public universities :-(  (doesn't the money all go to the same place in the end anyway????)  It's a shame because I love the experience my son is having at our community college, it's the largest in our state, has several campuses, and I think they would be quite capable of offering the 4 year degrees.

Universities scared of CC's must be weak to begin with.  I agree with you that the BAS in CCs are a cool new trend.

[bjcheung77]

I think most states want to keep the colleges and universities at their current level of diploma or degree granting rights. This is to distinguish the levels of educational goals or programs available and the costs associated with offering their respective programs.

[eriehiker]

There is also a supply and demand issue. For many years, Michigan graduated twice the number of teachers from state school teacher programs as were needed by the market. This diluted the degree value. Community college bachelors degrees are good, but they should not flood the market.

[dfrecore]

In CA, there are CC now offering BA's that the State system colleges aren't offering. For instance, a nearby CC (MiraCosta CC) in Oceanside (near Camp Pendleton) started offering a BS in Biomanufacturing. Since there is a huge industry here in San Diego for that, it's a good fit for the area. And no other state schools in CA are offering this (and we have 32? state-system schools here).

The drawback - like our nursing programs, it's a cohort system, and it's limited to 30 students. So it's going to be crazy hard to get into the program. And, you need all of your prereqs completed before the program begins - so an AS in Biomanufacturing basically.

Also, the UL courses will cost $130/cr instead of $46/cr like the LL courses cost. They anticipate the 4-yr degree costing $10k.