(New Castle, PA) Prospective students can learn about BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s career and transfer programs, about the transferability of its credits and its affordability compared to Pennsylvania’s public four-year and state-related institutions during a fall open house Nov. 15.
BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s open house is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at 2849 W. State St., New Castle.
BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing will waive the $25 application fee for prospective students who apply for admission at the open house. Prospective students can RSVP at apply.BC3.edu/open-house.
Guests attending BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s open house can also learn about instructional formats, support services and student activities; tour classrooms and facilities, and review financial aid opportunities and tuition.
"... I have been very happy with the instructors. There are smaller classes. You get more attention."
MaryAnn Henley, BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing student
BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing offers associate degrees in nine career programs in which students can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation. It also offers 10 transfer programs, and two certificates that take one year or less to complete.
Two-year career programs at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing include accounting, business management, emergency services-police services option, health care science, human resource management, medical assistant, office administration-executive, office administration-medical and technical trades-cosmetology management option.
BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s menu of two-year transfer programs features business administration, criminology, early childhood education (Pre K-4), general studies, history, physical education-sport management option, psychology, secondary education-English concentration, secondary education-social sciences concentration and social work.
Approximately 60 percent of BC3 students this fall are enrolled in transfer programs, according to Sharla Anke, BC3’s assistant dean of institutional research and planning.
Certificate programs in medical assistant, and in medical coding and billing specialist, are also among the choices at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing.
BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing students can apply credits earned toward a bachelor’s degree at public, private and online four-year colleges and universities.
Students who complete a BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing degree in business administration, criminology, early childhood education (Pre K-4), history, 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 @ Lawrence Crossing degree in business administration, criminology, general studies and psychology can transfer all credits to a parallel program to any Penn State University commonwealth campus.
Community college students can save about $20K
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 fall for BC3 students from Lawrence County cost $280 per credit.
The most recent tuition and fees published by regional public four-year universities cost between $437.23 and $532.81 per credit for Pennsylvania residents for an in-person class. Tuition and fees for Pennsylvania residents attending regional state-related institutions’ branch campuses this fall cost between $582 and $734 per credit for an in-person class.
The average student-loan debt for Pennsylvania’s Class of 2019 was $38,521, according to a January report in LendEDU, a website that provides comparisons for loans, credit cards and other financial products.
“Community colleges are more affordable. A community college can get you started, and you don’t get that far in debt in case you realize what you are studying isn’t what you want.”
MaryAnn Henley, BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing student
Nearly 60 percent of BC3’s Class of 2022 graduated debt-free.
“Happy … my son prompted me to go to BC3”
One in five graduates in BC3’s Class of 2022 was 30 or older.
MaryAnn Henley, 66, of Edinburg, enrolled at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing during a 12-year career as a paraprofessional in the Mohawk School District because, she said, “taking psychology would help me to learn more about the children and help me to do my job better.”
Henley is a 1974 graduate of Union Area Middle-High School, mother of children ages 32, 29 and 27 and a cancer survivor who expects to earn an associate degree in psychology in December from BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing.
“It’s a small college,” Henley said. “BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing is basically in my back yard. I didn’t want to get overwhelmed with something big. And I felt, ‘Give back to the community and go to the community college.’”
BC3’s student-to-faculty ratio is 11:1.
Henley enrolled at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing on the advice of her youngest son, Andrew. She has also taken courses at BC3 @ LindenPointe and at BC3 @ Cranberry.
“When I’ve gone to Hermitage, when I have gone to Cranberry Township, and BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing, I have been very happy with the instructors,” Henley said. “There are smaller classes. You get more attention. I struggled in a few classes and the instructors were kind enough to help me through it. And I see them doing it with the other students too.”
Henley said she also sees at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing students whom she met at Mohawk.
“It was really funny for me being older,” she said. “And I think it is great that these kids go (to BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing). When you first go to college, you think you know what you want to be and then you start pursuing it. And then a year or two down the road you change your major. Well, with BC3, you can get all your core studies out of the way. And you get to know what college life is like.”
Henley agrees with the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges about how students can save on the cost of higher education.
“Community colleges are more affordable,” she said. “A community college can get you started, and you don’t get that far in debt in case you realize what you are studying isn’t what you want.”
Henley expects to finish her nearly nine-year pursuit of an associate degree in December.
“I am really happy that my son prompted me to go to BC3,” she said, “and I can’t wait to get my degree and say ‘I did it.’”
BC3 Education Foundation awards record $280K
The BC3 Education Foundation in 2022-2023 has awarded to BC3 students a record $280,000 in scholarships, said Lynn Ismail, the foundation’s assistant director and its financial manager.
BC3 has been ranked as the No. 1 community college in Pennsylvania eight times since 2015, most recently for 2023 by Niche.com.
Sources in Niche’s August report included the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System; the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Post-Secondary Education and College Scorecard data; the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit public policy and research organization; and its college student survey.
Students who take health care science courses at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing can also finish associate degrees in Nursing, R.N.; physical therapist assistant; or in technical trades-massage therapy management option on BC3’s main campus. They can also finish certificates in massage therapy or in practical nursing on BC3’s main campus.