The $10,000 College Degree

If you could get a four-year degree for $10,000 or less, would you choose that option? In Florida, an increasing number of working adults are doing just that by getting their bachelor’s degree from places like Broward College, a former community college. It’s essentially a rebranding of the community college experience:

The FCS (formerly the Florida Community College System) has offered a small number of four-year degrees in fields such as nursing and computer engineering technology for about a decade. In Florida, associate’s degree graduates are guaranteed admission to a state university, and FCS baccalaureate programs honor this structure by requiring students to complete an associate’s degree before applying.

So far, unlike university students, FCS bachelor’s degree seekers have skewed toward working adults seeking a credential that will lead to a promotion or a new career. About 42 percent of students have been nonwhite. FCS institutions don’t offer liberal arts degrees, and can’t offer programs that directly compete with those at nearby universities.

But in programs roughly equivalent to university majors, FCS graduates do just fine. Business administration and elementary education majors at state universities earn about the same their first year out of school as FCS graduates, the report found. Registered nurses who graduate from FCS institutions actually earn about $10,000 more their first year out than their university-educated peers.

This isn’t quite new, of course — people have chosen to attend community colleges for a long time, or have lowered their total education costs by doing a two-step: two years at a community college followed by two years at a four-year college.

I entered into a four-year state school a little over a decade ago when costs were much more manageable. If the costs were what they are today, would I have done a two-step? I would have definitely considered it.

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