Tuition discounts, No. 1

This will be an ongoing brainstorm. One big speedbump in the course of getting more education or a new credential is $$$ cost. Sometimes employers will pay for part-time tuition or books, usually within certain limits.

This is a nice benefit. Employers often like it too. It attracts good employees but in my experience, employees seldom actually use it. Graded courses often seem high-threat to people who have been out of school for a while. It's the exception-that-proves-the-rule for anyone to actually take a graded course or get a degree doing that, so it's cheaper than paying employees more. (There could be and may have been studies on incentives like that - in other spheres, the 401-K fund matches and purchase rebates seem to work that way.)

Sometimes there are restrictions. It also may not be the way to go for a drastic career redirection, especially if your boss needs to sign off on each course and perhaps even justify it up the chain, a setup which can also lead to complications even when the "training" relates directly to what the employer needs.

(On the other hand, noting earlier post, if your employer offers a centrally funded degree program on-site which doesn't require a lot of boss involvement other than kudos when you finish it, you should seriously consider jumping on that. It

But sometimes it's better if your credential project is invisible to your employer. Anyway, you need to think about cost in your credential project and to figure that you may need to may for at least some of it.

Focusing on tuition, even though it's not the only expense: It's good if it can be discounted -- or even free!

One interesting source of information is here is from the Dummies website, http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/finding-college-tuition-discounts-chaching.html, with my comments noted in bold:

Eligibility-based tuition discounts
Colleges often offer to reduce tuition as part of a benefits package or as part of their general policy. For this sort of tuition discount, you can't negotiate for a better deal, and eligibility tends to be strictly defined. You either qualify or you don't. Here are a few examples:

College employees often get tuition discounts. If you're the spouse, child, or (rarely) grandchild of a faculty or staff member, you're often entitled to a tuition discount or a tuition exemption.

Or if you ARE a faculty or staff member - something to consider, and there could be reciprocal benefits, like if you teach at the community college but are doing a PhD at the local state university. "Staff" can also include custodial, campus police, etc. On the other hand, colleges are contracting more of this out, and contractors probably aren't eligible.

Some colleges also offer discounts to alumni and their dependents. Colleges often do this as a way of keeping a tradition alive or rewarding return business. Stanford University, for example, offers a 20 percent tuition discount to alumni returning for Continuing Education courses.

Never heard of this! However, CE, lifelong learning, etc. may not be a credential-builder.

Eligibility may be based on age. Some colleges offer discounts to seniors. Tulane University, for example, offers a 50 percent discount for students aged 60 years and older.

States do too. You generally have to be a state resident and usually "senior" means 60 or over - I haven't found any younger ones, and some are older. Also, some, like Virginia, are means-tested - you almost have to be an unemployed pauper to get the tuition break, which means you may have more pressing matters on your mind. South Carolina seems to have one of the better deals this way.

Discounts may be offered to students with siblings attending the college. Seton Hall University, for example, offers a 10 percent discount to students whose brother or sister attends SHU.

Tuition discounts are often tied to employment. George Washington University in Virginia operates liaison programs with various corporations, offering a 10 percent tuition reimbursement to employees who complete a course of study with them. Like many similar programs, the reimbursement amount is capped at a set figure. In GWU's case, the maximum that can be claimed is $1,000 per year per student.

Reportedly GWU has been the most expensive school in the US for several years running and they don't have a lot of distance offerings. Not sure $1000 a year is a meaningful discount.

Some employee tuition discount programs also apply to the rest of the family. The State of Tennessee offers employees of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government a fee waiver for one course per semester, and tuition discounts of 25 percent on all college courses taken by their dependents. Specific restrictions apply — generally the dependant must be under 24 — but they're easy to follow.

Nice! Get a job with the State of Tennessee.


Programs for state employees and their dependents exist in most states (!!!), so definitely investigate this possibility if your parent, or even your grandparent, works for (or used to work for) the state. While you're at it, don't forget to check on discounts available if your parent works for the city in which a college is located.

NEVER HEARD OF THIS! Something to check out.


Some programs are tied to religious institutions or organizations. At Rosedale Bible College, active ministers and their dependents are offered a 75 percent tuition discount if they're members of the Conservative Mennonite Conference. Ministers outside the Conference receive only a 25 percent discount, and the rate for their dependents falls to 15 percent. Also, several other religious institutions offer discounts to groups.

Some tuition discount programs may not be for college tuition. Instead, discounts for a private school, a daycare, or other similar institution may be offered to the children of those attending or working at a particular college. For example, Children's World Learning Centers offers Johns Hopkins University employees a 10 percent tuition discount on published tuition rates at any of the Children's World Centers.

Some discounts are offered for non-peak school times. Pennsylvania College of Technology has initiated an Early Start program, offering students a 25 percent tuition discount on specific courses if they take them in the summer term, which typically has lower enrollment than the rest of the year.

Obstacles, corollaries, etc.

At a glance, the non-completion rate for mid-career graduate school of all kinds - masters and doctorate - seems very high.

Obstacles:

1. Time. People in midcareer are generally already invested in a time-demanding occupation, which may or may not be related to what they want to study. They may also have families, mortgages, etc.

2. Money. No fellowships for employed people doing part-time school. Sometimes some employer support but funds may be limited.

3. Other. Multitude of individual factors.

Corollaries:
1. Re time: Lack of time could be a showstopper for a part time graduate program. Therefore, anything that reduces time overhead (not study time - that you expect to be substantial - but commute time etc.) greatly increases the chance of success. If the course is on your side of town or on your desktop, that is great. If the course is offered in your employer's facility or on the desktop, that is even greater - a good employee benefit if the course is something you are interested in.

2. Re money: Your employer may or may not be able to fund your courses. Or they may fund one but not the next one you need, so you'll have to pay for that one (or more) yourself - and wait a while before buying new clothes for your next big meeting or job interview. So low tuition helps increase the chance of success, or at least decreases the chance of failure. Some schools offering part-time graduate degrees are very expensive. If the course - or a package of courses, like a company-sponsored certificate or degree program - is offered in your employer's facility AND paid for by your employer, that is a very generous employer benefit.

What programs are cheap and have low time overhead? People should know this. A Consumer Reports on accredited/midcareer/distance/online graduate programs would be helpful.

3. Re other: Complex.

Mid-career graduate school pathways

This is meant to be a constructive discussion, brainstorm, and source of ideas, observations, and lessons-learned about pursuing and successfully obtaining graduate school credentials, particularly earned doctorates from accredited institutions, whilst full-time employed.

First observation with some questions: Lots of part-time and distance master's degree programs of many types, often terminal degrees which lead no further. Also nondegree and partial degree ("certificate") variants, which may be a package of 4-5 graduate courses which could count towards a degree but are packaged as a "certificate" of accomplishment in some field - they could also be a head-start towards a traditional degree at that school.


Questions:

- If you want to get a master's-degree-type credential, there are usually a lot of choices, depending on your field of interest. Why so many programs - supply meeting demand? Are they profitable in some sense for universities to offer?

- What generates the demand - need for credentials by workers, or need for skills by employers? Personal fulfillment? Career change? Re-inventing oneself?

- Degrees appear to run to types
- education/counseling
- business - MBAs and variants
- engineering and related fields (IT, applied science)
- other?

- Who does these and why?

- Who pays for them?

- What are the "high leverage" types of degrees, if any? Are any part-time master's degrees truly life-changing or career-changing? What occupational improvements do they lead to, if any?