Tuition Reimbursement for Competency-Based Programs

[sanantone]

My one-year anniversary is coming up in a couple of months, which means I will qualify for tuition reimbursement. Unfortunately, my company will not reimburse for doctoral programs, so I won't get anything for the PhD program I'm in now. Because the degree needs to be related to my job, I'm thinking about enrolling in Capella's FlexPath masters in psychology. The psychology degree will allow me to waive the rest of the internship hours I need for my license.

There are a couple of issues I noticed, though. My company does not advertise a cap for tuition reimbursement. Employees have to send in an application before they start the course and wait for an approval letter stating how much they will cover. Since this is a non-profit organization, the budget is limited and changes every year. The main issue, however, is that the application requires information on how much the student will pay per credit hour. As we all know here, competency-based programs do not charge by the credit hour. They also want to know how many credits the employee will be completing in the upcoming term. I can imagine that it is going to be hell trying to explain to HR how competency-based programs work. I'm afraid that they will just tell me that they will not reimburse for this type of program, which will be sad because Capella only charges $2400 per term for an unlimited number of credits.

Note: My company will only reimburse for programs at regionally accredited colleges.

[ajs1976]

I have been considering WGU for a masters and will have some of the same issues. My manager is receptive to the idea, but not sure how it will work as it goes up the chain for approval or to HR. The lack of grades at WGU might be the one thing I can not get around.

[sanantone]

I don't know if Capella's Flexpath programs have grades, but my company is fine with pass/fail courses. Patten's programs have grades. I don't know about Hodges.

[jsd]

Patten creates a receipt that makes it look like your first two classes are what your whole tuition went to (split evenly among the two courses). It's shady, but works for reimbursement.

I think wgu gives you a receipt of all courses completes and CUs earned, and a total of what you paid that term. Similar, but more legitimate and should work for reimbursement all the same.

No idea how flexpath works, unfortunately. But probably something similar.

I know this doesn't help you as far as getting pre-approval, but just some general info I thought I'd share.

[TrailRunr]

At my company, HR is used to schools that don't charge by the credit hour. For matriculated students, the local state university charges a set tuition for 0-6 credits and a different set tuition for 6.1+ credits. Another local university system charges one set tuition for full-time study. So there is no such thing as cost per credit hour unless you go through Open University or UC Extension. If I decided to study at WGU, i would enroll for the minimum number of courses that WGU allows. I'll add the other courses later. I do the same thing with the local state university. I have to repay if I don't finish a class, so I will submit the minimum number of classes. At the end, I turn in grades with the classes in the original request highlighted. They won't care if there are extra grades as long as the original courses have been passed.

For my company, I don't plan to tell them anything about competency based programs. In other words, I'm going to play dumb.

You should ask this on the WGU reddit. There is way more activity about WGU there and I think you can get practical advice from folks who have successfully used tuition reimbursement for WGU.

[dfrecore]

I worked in HR for years at several companies, and our tuition reimbursement programs paid for full-semester tuition at the local state universities all the time. As long as you took the required number of credits for the fee, you were fine. So if you were doing a part-time program of 6 credits or less, the company would expect that you were taking 6cr. If you were doing a full-time program, you were expected to take 12cr or more.

[sanantone]

At my company, HR is used to schools that don't charge by the credit hour. For matriculated students, the local state university charges a set tuition for 0-6 credits and a different set tuition for 6.1+ credits. Another local university system charges one set tuition for full-time study. So there is no such thing as cost per credit hour unless you go through Open University or UC Extension. If I decided to study at WGU, i would enroll for the minimum number of courses that WGU allows. I'll add the other courses later. I do the same thing with the local state university. I have to repay if I don't finish a class, so I will submit the minimum number of classes. At the end, I turn in grades with the classes in the original request highlighted. They won't care if there are extra grades as long as the original courses have been passed.

For my company, I don't plan to tell them anything about competency based programs. In other words, I'm going to play dumb.

You should ask this on the WGU reddit. There is way more activity about WGU there and I think you can get practical advice from folks who have successfully used tuition reimbursement for WGU.

This might work. I could tell them I'm enrolling in two courses at $240 per quarter hour. Capella's graduate psychology courses are five quarter hours each.

[sanantone]

I just found out my employer will only reimburse up to $2,000 per fiscal year. It's better than nothing, but it won't even cover one term at Capella or any other competency-based masters program.

[cookderosa]

My one-year anniversary is coming up in a couple of months, which means I will qualify for tuition reimbursement. Unfortunately, my company will not reimburse for doctoral programs, so I won't get anything for the PhD program I'm in now. Because the degree needs to be related to my job, I'm thinking about enrolling in Capella's FlexPath masters in psychology. The psychology degree will allow me to waive the rest of the internship hours I need for my license.

There are a couple of issues I noticed, though. My company does not advertise a cap for tuition reimbursement. Employees have to send in an application before they start the course and wait for an approval letter stating how much they will cover. Since this is a non-profit organization, the budget is limited and changes every year. The main issue, however, is that the application requires information on how much the student will pay per credit hour. As we all know here, competency-based programs do not charge by the credit hour. They also want to know how many credits the employee will be completing in the upcoming term. I can imagine that it is going to be hell trying to explain to HR how competency-based programs work. I'm afraid that they will just tell me that they will not reimburse for this type of program, which will be sad because Capella only charges $2400 per term for an unlimited number of credits.

Note: My company will only reimburse for programs at regionally accredited colleges.

If I were filling it out- I would play dumb. There's about a 99% chance that you know a LOT MORE than the person deciding on your application. If that's true, you're likely to confuse them or make them suspicious about the program. I'd just write in what you're credits are based on the $2400 rate - you might put something like $200/credit, 12 credits.

[gingerbeefE]

Patten creates a receipt that makes it look like your first two classes are what your whole tuition went to (split evenly among the two courses). It's shady, but works for reimbursement.

I think wgu gives you a receipt of all courses completes and CUs earned, and a total of what you paid that term. Similar, but more legitimate and should work for reimbursement all the same.

No idea how flexpath works, unfortunately. But probably something similar.

I know this doesn't help you as far as getting pre-approval, but just some general info I thought I'd share.

Exactly what WGU did for me when I applied for MilTA. Infact, they wouldn't even let me enroll in more than 3 classes, effectively forcing me to pay out of pocket to cover the extra expenses.