The Five Things Parents and Students Don’t Know About College to Save Money
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| Dr. J. Wilson Bowman has written a college planning guide. Photo: Urban News |
Staff Reports
While the summer vacation clock ticks down, students are preparing their backpacks, and parents are preparing their budgets. But what they don’t know about attending college could cost thousands and thousands of additional dollars. Even fewer high school graduates know the steps that could shave a whole year off of the time they spend getting their degree!
Consider this: A report published by Education Trust found that only 37% of first-time freshman entering four-year bachelor degree programs actually complete their degrees within four years; another 26% take five or six years. With steadily rising tuition costs and declining job markets, students and parents both need to learn the secrets of collegiate success. Now a new book might be exactly what the doctor ordered.
After years of watching students make the same mistakes, Dr. J.
Wilson Bowman has created a college planning guide that makes it
possible for students to finish school in less time and with less
expense than traditional college models. As an evaluator for the U.S.
Office of Education and a consultant for the American Council on
Education in Washington, D.C., Dr. Bowman had the opportunity to
participate in the management, accreditation, and evaluation of
numerous college programs. Thus she is uniquely qualified to assist
students in navigating the college maze and earning their College
Degree in Three, the title of her new book.
Parents and students need to know:
• What they can do as early as the freshman year of high school to improve their college plan;
• How courses taken as high school juniors and seniors can shorten their college requirements;
• What role placement and assessment tests have in charting a more direct course to completing a major;
• The vital importance of a plan to complete college in less than four years;
“Once students know how to identify the major components of a
successful college experience,” Dr. Bowman explains, “then it is a
matter of evaluating career options, utilizing resources to their best
capacity, and creating the best collegiate plan that will save students
both time and money, lots of money.”
“Most students have no idea that it is possible to finish their
degree in less than four years, and that could save them as much as
$40,000,” says Dr. Bowman, “and I decided someone needed to show them
how it could be done.”
