Rising college expenses highlight need to evaluate total experience

Oct 05th, 2012

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Rising college expenses highlight need to evaluate total experience It is understatement to say that a college education is a major investment. If you are a student or parent, as investors you need to know what any university is doing to protect and enhance your investment. In short, think about value as much, if not more, than cost.

Like most universities, Lipscomb has had increases in tuition in recent years, but those increases have actually been below average for higher education in terms of percentage increase and much lower in actual dollars than many of our competitors. But even though our tuition costs have increased, the value of that investment continues to rise at an even greater rate.

Consider the following steps taken at Lipscomb recently:

In the last year alone, more than a dozen new undergraduate and graduate programs were added that are exceptionally aligned with what today’s employers want. These include information security, civil engineering and aging services leadership.
Lipscomb’s percentage of graduates who are employed full time or in graduate school within a year following graduation continues to be more than 90 percent, well above national averages.
We recently made significant adjustments to our “core” curriculum — the classes that every Lipscomb graduate must complete — to better reflect the kind of cross-disciplinary thinking that is demanded of employees in a complex and global environment.
We now offer an online bookstore with more electronic choices to help keep the cost of coursework materials down.
The Lipscomb dining center’s food plan has been adjusted to offer students better nutritional choices and to minimize the number of unused food dollars.

We continue to search for creative, cost-saving solutions to a quality education that prepares students for their lives and dreams, without sacrificing that value and quality. Two major innovations that translate into significant financial relief for students is our three-year graduation program and a transfer process that makes coming from a two-year college to Lipscomb as efficient as possible — and maximizes the numbers of credits student can bring with them.

And I can’t wrap this up without tipping my hat to our alumni, donors and community partners who have stepped up to the plate, especially in this past year. We had a record-breaking year for fund raising, which translates into more of the scholarships and student work programs that help offset the cost of a college education.

Our constant goal is to ensure that a degree from Lipscomb University is respected and graduates continue to be sought out by employers as well as graduate institutions. Yes, there is significant cost in providing that, and we are very aware of the sacrifices being made daily by students and families to tap that value. We thank you and hope you know we work daily to build an education that will generate a very good return on that investment.

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