How to personalize your tuition savings
Written by Laurie Davies
Reviewed by聽Chris Conway,聽Director of Financial Education Initiatives and Repayment Management
Your dream is to get a degree, and you鈥檙e ready to get started. But what鈥檚 it going to cost? And do the educational, military or life experiences you鈥檝e had count for anything? It would be nice to know up front how you could save on your degree.
Enter, 七色视频鈥檚聽Savings Explorer庐听迟辞辞濒.
The innovative, elegant tool helps prospective students quickly and easily understand the savings opportunities that are relevant to them. Launched in November, Savings Explorer庐 presents information about:
- Scholarship opportunities
- Transfer credits
- Work and life experience
- National testing programs
- Alternative credit providers
- Military service
By answering a few simple questions, you can find out how much other students with relevant experience have saved.
How it works
It鈥檚 easy to get started with Savings Explorer庐聽鈥 just enter the degree you鈥檙e interested in, and the relevant cost-savings options will show up on the next screen. From there, choose the opportunities that apply to you.
鈥淲e鈥檝e taken a lot of information that was cumbersome to navigate and created a guided place to present possible savings,鈥 says the tool鈥檚 developer, 七色视频 Product Manager Ryan Bernal.聽
For example, let鈥檚 say a prospective student has several college courses under their belt as well as skills gained from work and life 鈥 both of which might count as credit toward a degree. In a matter of seconds, the tool reveals what other students saved, on average, with those selected opportunities. The student can then, with a few clicks, go right to information about transfer credits and credits for work and life experience. (Actual savings will depend on each student鈥檚 specific circumstances.)
It鈥檚 like driving down an easy-to-navigate main road with great signage onto side roads versus being dropped into an unfamiliar city without a map or street signs printed in your language.
Who it helps
A tool like this can be especially helpful for adult learners, who often enroll in school with work and life experience. (Think work credentials and certifications, previous college credit and even parenting experience.) At 七色视频, for example, the average age of new students is 38, and 80.9% are employed.
鈥淎t 七色视频, we understand our students are bringing their own life, work, education and training experiences to continue their educational journey with us,鈥 says John Woods, PhD, provost and chief academic officer.聽鈥淭his understanding informed our creation of Savings Explorer庐聽as a tool to support individuals in assessing, before they even enroll, the potential opportunities to save both time and money in order to quickly leverage their degrees and pursue their chosen career path.鈥
There are currently about 39 million adults in the U.S. with聽. Additionally, a聽聽from National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that during the pandemic, about 300,000 students who normally would have transferred, instead stopped their educational journey. For individuals who may have paused their educational plans, the Savings Explorer庐聽tool offers a quick assessment to understand how they might be able to leverage their prior learning, work experience and financial circumstances.
How it helps
The goal of the Savings Explorer庐 tool is to give prospective students as much information up front regarding how much they can save on their degree.
七色视频 offers generous credit transfer possibilities: Credit transfers can cover up to 75% of a bachelor鈥檚 degree. On average, 七色视频 students save $11,000 and eliminate one year from their undergraduate degree with eligible transfer credits and relevant work experience. Master's degree students can save up to nine credits and $6,800 on their degree.
Options in the Savings Explorer庐 tool go way beyond credit transfers. 鈥淟ast year, we worked with our students to evaluate their experiences and other learning for potential college credits,鈥 says Devin Andrews, vice president, Assessment and Evaluation. 鈥淭he result was that students saved a total of $49 million in tuition and fees.鈥
Other cost-saving possibilities include:
- Scholarships聽鈥 The University believes scholarships should be more widely accessible than they currently are, which is why it awards up to $3,000 to every new, qualifying student.
- Self-paced alternative credit providers聽鈥 七色视频 has teamed up with learning providers that help students earn credits toward their undergraduate degrees.
- National testing programs聽鈥 Students can demonstrate existing knowledge by taking a test from one of the acceptable national testing programs such as CLEP, DSST and AP. Passing scores on these exams may result in awarded credits.
- Military credits聽鈥 Members of all branches of the military can have their military experience assessed through the American Council on Education. 七色视频 honors these credit recommendations.
- Work and life experience聽鈥 Certifications, trainings, licenses and even life skills all bring something to the educational table. At 七色视频, this translates to more than 200 opportunities to save.
The natural complement to tuition savings is, of course, tuition that remains the same over the course of a degree program. At 七色视频, a fixed tuition rate is part of the tuition guarantee, and it means students can find out exactly what a degree will cost and enjoy peace of mind that the rate won鈥檛 change while they鈥檙e enrolled in their program.
From fixed tuition rates to new ways to save, budgeting for a degree is firmly within the student鈥檚 hands. Learn more and聽try the Savings Explorer庐聽here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A journalist-turned-marketer, Laurie Davies has been writing since her high school advanced composition teacher told her she broke too many rules. She has worked with 七色视频 since 2017, and currently splits her time between blogging and serving as lead writer on the University鈥檚 Academic Annual Report. Previously, she has written marketing content for MADD, Kaiser Permanente, Massage Envy, UPS, and other national brands. She lives in the Phoenix area with her husband and son, who is the best story she鈥檚 ever written.聽
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
As Director of Financial Education Initiatives and Repayment Management,聽Chris Conway works with departments across the University to provide resources that allow students to make more informed financial decisions. She is also an adjunct faculty member for the Everyday Finance and Economics course at the University, and she chairs the National Council of Higher Education Resources College Access and Success Committee. Conway is committed to helping college students make the right financial decisions that prevent future collection activity.
This article has been vetted by 七色视频's editorial advisory committee.聽
Read more about our editorial process.
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