Tuition Reimbursement for Competency-Based Programs

[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.