I have a friend who earned a bachelor degree ten years after starting her first class. My friend, we will call her Susie for the sake of anonymity, fell victim to what we call the traditional college adult learning experience. In order to maintain a full time student designation within a traditional college format, one must sign up for a minimum of twelve credit hours per semester.
In order to maintain a full time student designation within a traditional college format, one must sign up for a minimum of twelve credit hours per semester. For the typical nineteen year old college graduate this is the next step towards fleeing the nest. However, those of us with full time jobs and families it is a harsh reality. A desirable alternative, is the increasingly popular accelerated adult learning programs popping up across the country. Most programs advertise degree completion in around fourteen months.

Having recently earned a bachelor degree in an accelerated adult program, I can confirm the program works. It certainly exceeded my expectations; providing it took me four years to earn an associate degree from a traditional college. A word of caution, the program does take longer than fourteen months to complete if the amount of transferring credits does not meet the necessary criteria. Thankfully I was able to write a couple of papers based on prior learning for college credit, along with taking a two supplementary courses online. I stared in October of 2008 and was finished with my course requirements February 2010. I now have a Bachelor in Management.

The question of is college within my budget considering we are in a downward economy? The answer is Yes! Tuition varies according to one's demographic region, and based on the institution. My coursework expenses were $900.00 per class excluding books. The great thing about where I attended, Bethel College, is books were handed out on a loaner system. A student's account is charged once the decision is made to keep the reference material. The supplementary online courses were comparable at a price of$690.00 per class, but I had to purchase my own reference material. The most affordable price of all was the charge for a professor to read and grade my PLA papers. This charge is $180.00 per paper.

So you are thinking, these figures are meaningless unless you relay how many classes were taken. There were twelve courses, two online classes, and I wrote four PLA papers. The grand total is roughly $13,000.00, a relative bargain considering. In conclusion, I encourage everyone to go back to college if at all possible. In the long run it pays dividends!