• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

A Harvard Degree By Extension Students Find Alternative to Traditional College Education

Posted on: Sunday, 20 November 2005, 12:00 CST

By Pam Belluck

Laura Shortill had a 3.6 grade point average at her Buxton, Maine, high school and her SATs were "fairly average," she said. "Nothing astronomical."

So when she applied to Harvard College, the undergraduate section of Harvard University, Shortill knew it was a stretch. And she had a backup plan: Harvard.

Although Shortill was accepted elsewhere, including Johns Hopkins, when she got rejected from Harvard College, she moved to Cambridge anyway. She enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at Harvard University Extension School for a fraction of the admissions requirements and a fraction of the cost.

"I had Harvard as my reach school," said Shortill, 20, "and I had Harvard as my safety school." Students Shortill's age make up a small but growing percentage of Harvard Extension School these days, said Michael Shinagel, the school's dean. While the school does not keep count, he said, the number of bachelor's degrees it gives out 118 last year is double that of 10 years ago, largely because of younger students, at least some of them drawn by the chance to experience Harvard at bargain-basement prices.

"I can tell by the physiognomy, by the color of the hair, by the body types, that we're getting leaner and younger," Shinagel said. "Clearly the trend is to a younger student population."

Extension and continuing education schools in the United States have long served mid-career adults and people with some prior college credits. Those groups still account for most extension students, and many schools do not accept students under 25 or those without college experience.

But schools that accept younger students say interest from these students is increasing driven largely by economic considerations, although at Harvard it is also fueled by the fact that it is Harvard.

"There is a group of what you might call traditional college-age students who are with us now," said Robert Wiltenburg, dean of the University College, the extension school of Washington University in St. Louis. At the University of Maryland University College, a continuing education school, students 25 and under seeking bachelor's degrees are the fastest-growing population, tripling to 4,200 in 2004 from 1,400 in 1997, said Mary Ellen Hrutka, dean of undergraduate studies.

"Faculty members are adjusting their pedagogy to reflect age diversity," Hrutka said, including in her course on women in business, where four years ago all the students had careers, but now several are too young.

The trend reflects the increasing number of students struggling to afford a university education, even as they realize it is increasingly necessary, experts say.

Extension schools, with evening and weekend classes, especially appeal to students who need jobs to afford university, and whose income then disqualifies them for financial aid, but is not enough for full tuition, Kohl said.

Harvard Extension School, with its mission of making a part of Harvard broadly accessible, is unusually inexpensive, charging about $550 per lecture course compared to about $4,000 per course at Harvard College. Jeanne Margaret Nurse, although largely an A student, did not even apply to Harvard's undergraduate program. One of 12 children, Nurse, 20, who went to high school in St. Louis, said her family's income was too high to qualify for financial aid, but too low to afford a regular university. The extension She found the extension school, which can be about one-tenth the cost of a Harvard College education, a good option.

Students have access to Harvard faculty, even Nobel laureates like Roy Glauber, a physicist, has taught extension classes. At least 52 of the 128 credits required for the extension bachelor's degree must come from courses taught by Harvard instructors. And some courses are virtually identical to those at Harvard College, professors say.

Nurse takes a course called Justice taught at Harvard College by Michael Sandel, a well-known political scientist. It is videotaped and is one of 75 courses offered online for extension students.

One of her instructors, Thomas Underwood, said the extension program "aspires to be the equivalent" of the college program. The differences, professors say, come mainly from the students. The rigorous competition for getting into Harvard College make the students "almost like polished river stones," Underwood said.

Extension students are all ages and from all academic backgrounds, and many have jobs, marriages and children. There are no requirements to enroll in extension courses; getting into the bachelor's degree program is permitted if students get at least a B- minus in three extension courses, including expository writing. "There's a much wider spectrum of good and not so good and poor students," Koester said. But some professors say the real-world experiences of extension students make the classes less academic and more practical.

What extension students do not get is the experience of living in university dorms, socializing routinely with others their age, and having access to all libraries, dining halls and other university facilities. They also do not get as much faculty advising.

For that reason, the heads of some other continuing education schools say younger students are a bad idea.

"We've in fact discouraged it," said Jay Halfond, dean of Metropolitan College, Boston University's continuing education school.

Metropolitan College used to have younger students, but they "were more likely to have academic and disciplinary issues."

He added, "I've spoken to parents about this: Do you really want your child in school with 30-year-olds? Unless your child is very mature and independent and able to juggle commitments, it's not a good choice."

Source: International Herald Tribune

More News in this Category