(Hermitage, 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 @ LindenPointe during its open house May 4, 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 @ LindenPointe’s open house is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 3182 Innovation Way, Hermitage.
“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 @ LindenPointe’s open house. Prospective students can RSVP at apply.BC3.edu/open-house.
Prospective students at BC3 @ LindenPointe’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.”
“The right fit for me”
Kaily Priester toured a Pennsylvania public four-year university during her senior year at Mercer Area Middle-High School, and attended an open house at BC3 @ LindenPointe.
“I felt like that was the place for me to go,” Priester said of BC3 @ LindenPointe. “I felt like that would be the right fit for me. It was small. All the staff was perfect. They were all welcoming and helped me through and showed me around.”
Visitors to BC3 @ LindenPointe’s open house can learn about associate degrees in two-year career programs and in two-year transfer programs, and about a certificate that takes one year or less to complete.
“I felt like that was the place for me to go. I felt like that would be the right fit for me."
BC3 @ LindenPointe offers associate degrees in four career programs in which students can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation. It also offers 10 transfer programs and a certificate in marketing management.
“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 BC3 students from Mercer County 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.
“If you need to ask a question, a professor can come right to you and answer your question without having 30 other people to attend to.”
BC3 students can apply credits earned toward a bachelor’s degree at public, private and online four-year colleges and universities.
“Awesome” and “amazing”
Seventy percent of BC3’s Class of 2021 graduated debt-free.
Priester, 21, of Mercer, expects to earn an associate degree in early childhood education (Pre K-4) in May from BC3 @ LindenPointe and to graduate debt-free.
“It feels great, honestly,” said Priester, who plans to transfer this fall to a Pennsylvania public four-year university to pursue a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. “I can just go to my four-year and pay for the two years I will go there.”
Student-loan debt creates “so much stress on students,” Priester said. “They just don’t know how they are going to pay it back. They’re stressed about it all the time, and they haven’t even graduated yet.
“I don’t feel stressed. I feel honestly bad for them. I don’t know how to react to what they say because I can’t relate to it.”
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.
Priester echoes results of the student satisfaction inventory.
She describes BC3 @ LindenPointe as “awesome” and her instructors as “amazing.”
“I personally like the smaller building, and everything is there,” Priester said. “If you need to ask a question, a professor can come right to you and answer your question without having 30 other people to attend to.”
BC3 @ LindenPointe’s menu of two-year career programs includes business management, emergency services-police services option, health care science and human resource management.
BC3 @ LindenPointe’s selection of two-year transfer programs features business administration, computer science, criminology, early childhood education (Pre K-4), general studies, physical education-sport management option, psychology, secondary education-English option, secondary education-social sciences option and social work.
Students who complete a BC3 @ LindenPointe degree in business administration, computer science, criminology, early childhood education (Pre K-4), psychology or 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 @ LindenPointe degree in business administration, computer science, criminology, general studies or psychology can transfer all credits to a parallel program to any Penn State University commonwealth campus.
Students who take health care science courses at BC3 @ LindenPointe can also finish associate degrees in medical assistant; 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, medical assistant or in practical nursing on BC3’s main campus.
