- Sep 26, 2000
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http://www.boston.com/news/edu...mpus/?s_campaign=yahoo
Cut-rate campus
Students forgo frills to save thousands
SALEM, N.H. - In this border town where shoppers hunt for tax-free bargains, they can get something else on the cheap: a college education. A private one, at that.
The campus, if it can generously be called that, encompasses the third floor of a new brick building in a nondescript suburban office park just off Interstate 93. With pale peach walls, gold-framed Monet posters, and fake ficus plants, the environs could be mistaken for a dentist office.
But inside at this satellite of Southern New Hampshire University, freshmen study Greek tragedy, the Roman Empire, and business statistics. Tuition costs just $10,000 a year.
Twenty miles north, in Manchester, students on the school's wooded main campus shell out $25,000 in tuition to attend classes taught by some of the same professors. In addition to academics, though, they have access to a state-of-the-art gym with a rotating climbing wall and an Olympic-size pool. By next January, they will dine in a sparkling $14 million two-level food court spanning 46,800-square feet.
Southern New Hampshire is at the forefront of a push by some colleges around the country to provide a no-frills, lower-cost education for students who don't mind forgoing traditional college life and its accompanying amenities, particularly during a recession, as long as they get a diploma.
At a college stripped to its academic core, some higher education leaders worry that students are missing the dearly held residential experience. For generations, glossy brochures have touted the ideal of spending four years ambling along leafy quads and partaking in deep discussions with dormmates late into the night.
I think this is a great idea. I think traditional universities are also a needed, but for many this type of education at this price is not only needed but necessary.
In order to maximize our countries human potential everyone should have not only an opportunity for an education commensurate with their abilities, but also commensurate with the earnings that go along with the education. For fields that pay less upon graduation a lower cost education will make college more immediately worthwhile.
Traditional university settings are still the best for certain disciplines, and also for the very brightest, as it gives them opportunities to interact more with other very bright students (and teachers) at the age where many people get their best ideas.
Cut-rate campus
Students forgo frills to save thousands
SALEM, N.H. - In this border town where shoppers hunt for tax-free bargains, they can get something else on the cheap: a college education. A private one, at that.
The campus, if it can generously be called that, encompasses the third floor of a new brick building in a nondescript suburban office park just off Interstate 93. With pale peach walls, gold-framed Monet posters, and fake ficus plants, the environs could be mistaken for a dentist office.
But inside at this satellite of Southern New Hampshire University, freshmen study Greek tragedy, the Roman Empire, and business statistics. Tuition costs just $10,000 a year.
Twenty miles north, in Manchester, students on the school's wooded main campus shell out $25,000 in tuition to attend classes taught by some of the same professors. In addition to academics, though, they have access to a state-of-the-art gym with a rotating climbing wall and an Olympic-size pool. By next January, they will dine in a sparkling $14 million two-level food court spanning 46,800-square feet.
Southern New Hampshire is at the forefront of a push by some colleges around the country to provide a no-frills, lower-cost education for students who don't mind forgoing traditional college life and its accompanying amenities, particularly during a recession, as long as they get a diploma.
At a college stripped to its academic core, some higher education leaders worry that students are missing the dearly held residential experience. For generations, glossy brochures have touted the ideal of spending four years ambling along leafy quads and partaking in deep discussions with dormmates late into the night.
I think this is a great idea. I think traditional universities are also a needed, but for many this type of education at this price is not only needed but necessary.
In order to maximize our countries human potential everyone should have not only an opportunity for an education commensurate with their abilities, but also commensurate with the earnings that go along with the education. For fields that pay less upon graduation a lower cost education will make college more immediately worthwhile.
Traditional university settings are still the best for certain disciplines, and also for the very brightest, as it gives them opportunities to interact more with other very bright students (and teachers) at the age where many people get their best ideas.
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