(Brockway, PA) The most-recent survey conducted by an Iowa company with Butler County Community College students shows the college receiving increasingly higher marks in all 12 areas examined, “areas which are keys to students, not only to satisfaction, but to enjoyment and success,” a BC3 administrator said.
The Ruffalo Noel Levitz student satisfaction inventory “covers students’ experience in the classroom. The quality of teaching and instruction. It covers the quality of advising. The quality of services and financial aid. It even covers things like the quality of the buildings and grounds,” said Dr. Case Willoughby, BC3’s vice president for student affairs and enrollment management.
“To different extents, all of these things correlate to how successful a student is, and to how likely that student is to finish their experience crossing a stage with a degree in hand.”
Prospective students can begin to experience BC3 @ Brockway during its open house April 26, the college’s director of admissions said.
“All of BC3’s facilities are absolutely beautiful,” Morgan Rizzardi said. “I think prospective students start to envision themselves as a BC3 student once they see our locations and how BC3 takes so much pride in making sure that we are a 21st-century learning facility.”
BC3 @ Brockway’s open house is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 1200 Wood St., Suite D, Brockway. A nursing information session will be held at 5 p.m.
BC3 @ Brockway is the only BC3 location other than BC3’s main campus to offer a career program in Nursing, R.N. Students can also take pre-nursing courses at BC3 @ Brockway, where they can finish their associate degree in Nursing, R.N.
“All of BC3’s facilities are absolutely beautiful,. I think prospective students start to envision themselves as a BC3 student once they see our locations ..."
BC3 will waive its $25 application fee for prospective students who apply for admission at BC3 @ Brockway’s open house. Prospective students can RSVP at apply.BC3.edu/open-house.
Prospective students at BC3 @ Brockway’s open house can tour classrooms and the facility, review the cost of attendance and financial aid options, learn about support services and student activities – and meet faculty and staff.
BC3’s faculty and staff put students “at the center of everything we do,” Rizzardi said, “and coming to an open house allows prospective students to get a sense of that.”
“It was very welcoming”
Kain Kennemuth, of Mayport, attended a BC3 @ Brockway open house before he graduated from Clarion-Limestone High School in 2019.
“My first impression,” said Kennemuth, an early childhood education (Pre K-4) student at BC3 @ Brockway, “was that it was very welcoming.”
Visitors to BC3 @ Brockway’s open house can learn about associate degrees in two-year career programs and in two-year transfer programs.
BC3 @ Brockway offers four career programs in which students can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation. It also offers five transfer programs.
“So much more affordable”
Kristine Allen is coordinator of three career programs in the college’s liberal arts division.
“Prospective students may be intimidated by the thought of college,” Allen said. “At an open house they get a chance to meet some of the faculty and tour the facilities. Knowing better what to expect can help them to look forward to school and get excited about it.”
Approximately 60 percent of BC3 students this spring are enrolled in transfer programs, according to Sharla Anke, the college’s assistant dean of institutional research and planning.
Debbie Kane is coordinator of a transfer program in the college’s business division, and also teaches courses at two universities.
“We are just so much more affordable than the four-year schools,” Kane said. “If you are going to them versus going to BC3, you are getting the same person. I try to use the same books. It’s the same courses.”
Students who attend a community college for their first two years can save an estimated $20,000 on the cost of higher education, according to the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges.
Tuition and fees for face-to-face classes this spring for students attending BC3 @ Brockway cost $275 per credit.
Tuition and fees for face-to-face classes this spring for Pennsylvania residents at regional public four-year universities cost between $437 and $504 per credit, and at regional state-related universities between $572 and $1,170 per credit.
BC3 students can apply credits earned toward a bachelor’s degree at public, private and online four-year colleges and universities.
“I don’t even know how to describe how that feels (to be able to graduate debt-free). ... So not having debt, it’s freeing."
“They know me. I know them”
Seventy percent of BC3’s Class of 2021 graduated debt-free.
Kennemuth, 22, expects to graduate debt-free from BC3 @ Brockway in May.
“I don’t even know how to describe how that feels,” he said. “I never want to have a lot of debt. That’s the way I was raised. I feel like debt would be a weight on my shoulders. So not having debt, it’s freeing. That was one of the main reasons I went to BC3.”
Kennemuth plans to transfer this fall to a Pennsylvania public four-year university to pursue a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education.
BC3 has been ranked as the No. 1 community college in Pennsylvania six times since 2015, most recently for 2022 by Niche.com.
Niche.com, Pittsburgh, analyzed information from the U.S. Department of Education, from the Brookings Institution and from other sources in areas such as academics, value and professors in ranking BC3 first in its 2022 Best Community Colleges in Pennsylvania report.
The BC3 Education Foundation anticipates awarding more than $230,000 in named scholarships in 2022-2023.
Ruffalo Noel Levitz, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, administers a student satisfaction inventory at BC3 every three years, most recently in 2020. The college received the results in 2021.
Kennemuth echoes results of the student satisfaction inventory.
“The small-school atmosphere appeals to me,” he said. “I like how BC3 @ Brockway is compact. That makes it easy to find classes. I didn’t have to go outside. I also like how on different days of the week they have different things going on, fruit or vegetable trays, or sometimes candy for the students.
“It’s just a really welcoming atmosphere.”
BC3 @ Brockway’s small-school atmosphere, he said, also allowed him to develop a relationship with his instructors.
“They know me. I know them,” he said. “I know what they expect, which makes it really nice.”
BC3 @ Brockway’s menu of two-year career programs includes business management; health care science; Nursing, R.N.; and office administration-executive.
BC3 @ Brockway’s selection of two-year transfer programs includes business administration, early childhood education (Pre K-4), general studies, psychology and social work.
Students who complete a BC3 @ Brockway degree in business administration, early childhood education (Pre K-4), psychology and social work can transfer all credits to a parallel program and with junior standing to any Pennsylvania public four-year institution.
Students who complete a BC3 @ Brockway degree in business administration, general studies, psychology and Nursing, R.N., can transfer all credits to a parallel program to any Penn State University commonwealth campus.
Students who take health care science courses at BC3 @ Brockway can also finish associate degrees in medical assistant; physical therapist assistant; or in technical trades-massage therapy management option on BC3’s main campus. They can also finish their certificates in massage therapy, medical assistant or in practical nursing on BC3’s main campus.
Prospective BC3 @ Brockway students can email questions to jill.martin-rend@bc3.edu or call 814-265-1813.
