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Finding quality education at an affordable price
Published 2/1/2012 in Features : Education
Average in-state tuition and fees to attend a public, four-year college or university in the U.S. have risen to more than $8,000.
The cost this year, in fact, increased by an average of $631, or 8.3 percent; and with room and board factored in, the price tag is actually more than $17,000 per year.
Those figures were issued recently by the College Board, the New York-based nonprofit organization of 5,900 U.S. educational institutions that is respected as a primary source of information and advocacy in American higher learning.
At the same time, state appropriations for higher education have dropped by an average of 18 percent, based on a three-year period that the College Board termed in 2011 as the steepest drop on record.
A look at the Garden City Community College Annual Report for 2010-11 shows that state aid from Kansas, for example, now accounts for just 17 percent of our own college's overall educational fund revenue, with 62 percent coming from local property taxes, 19 percent derived from student tuition and the balance coming from interest, miscellaneous and federal sources.
In addition, GCCC has held the line on the local property tax mill levy, with our board of trustees voting unanimously after the 2011-12 fiscal year budget hearing to maintain the college levy at 20.2 mills for the combined general and capital outlay funds — the fifth time in 10 years that GCCC either has kept the local tax levy the same or reduced it.
Taking a look at tuition
GCCC also initiated a small increase for the current academic year in tuition, raising it from $43 to $45 per credit hour for in-state students, with an out-of-state tuition rate of $65 per credit hour.
However, despite these challenges, students enrolling on our campus have found that a quality education is still affordable. As a matter of fact, a semester of learning at GCCC can cost literally a fraction of what a student pays at one of the state universities in Kansas.
Based on tuition rate plans submitted last summer to the Kansas Board of Regents, here are the estimated tuition costs for one 15-credit hour semester of education, followed by the corresponding total for GCCC:
* University of Kansas, $3,806.00
* Kansas State University, $3,468.00
* Wichita State University, $2,503.00
* Pittsburg State University, $2,066.00
* Emporia State University, $1,932.00
* Fort Hays State University, $1,578.00
* GCCC, $675.00
Individual student amounts will vary of course, depending on student status, the number of courses taken and other factors, and in all cases there are additional student fees that also apply. However, when it comes to keeping education accessible by making it affordable, a hometown college education right here in Garden City is still a bargain by just about anyone's standards.
Quality counts, too
Most of our graduates also will tell you that the learning services and support they received on our campus were of high quality. For that, there are several reasons:
* Most of our freshman and sophomore-level courses, which transfer to the state universities, are taught by experienced instructors who have earned master's degrees. We don't use graduate assistants as instructors.
* Our classes are small, with student-teacher ratios at or below 20-1. We don't use — or even have — large lecture halls that seat hundreds of students simultaneously.
* We treat those who register for classes as individuals. With a full-time equivalency enrollment of 1,300 to 1,400 students, our instructors know our students by name, and recognize them inside and outside the classroom. Individual attention translates into individual achievement.
* Students also can count on academic support. The Mary Jo Williams Comprehensive Learning Center, located inside Saffell Library, offers peer and professional tutoring and assistance in a one-on-one setting. The center is open every weekday, as well as four nights each week. If you need help, we have it available.
Beginning as 'Busters
Consequently, it should be no surprise to hear that GCCC transfer students, when they advance to the state universities as juniors and seniors, generally equal or outperform their classmates in terms of grade-point averages.
We're proud of the fact that many successful Jayhawks, Wildcats, Shockers, Gorillas, Hornets and Tigers got where they are today because they started out as Broncbusters. That's part of what it means when you hear the slogan, "From GCCC, you can go anywhere." On top of that, especially in today's challenging economic times, you can get there at a very economical price.
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