(Butler, PA) A Butler County Community College Winter Session popular with guest students seeking affordable credits to transfer toward degrees at public or private colleges or universities will begin in mid-December with a selection of 19 general education courses instructed online.
The college’s five-week Winter Session is scheduled for Dec. 16 to Jan. 21. Guest students can apply for admission at bc3.edu/winter through Dec. 10 or in person by 3 p.m. Dec. 11. BC3 and guest students can register for courses at bc3.edu/winter through Dec. 16.
Residents of Butler County will pay $666 in tuition and fees for a three-credit course in BC3’s Winter Session and residents of other Pennsylvania counties, $975.
Residents of Butler and other Pennsylvania counties would pay at least $1,122.60 in tuition and fees for a three-credit online winter program course at regional public four-year universities.
Prof: Same value, more cost-effective at BC3
A technical writing II course taken online by guest and BC3 students in the college’s spring and fall semesters and in its summer sessions will be available for the first time in BC3’s 8-year-old Winter Session.
“We get a lot of guest students who are engineering majors and decide to take this course with us,” said Mike Dittman, a professor in BC3’s liberal arts division who teaches technical writing II.
Dittman said he reviewed descriptions, objectives and content of technical writing courses offered at Penn State, Syracuse and West Virginia universities when designing his online version that debuted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I definitely wanted to put my own twist on it,” Dittman said, “and I wanted to make sure the same rigor was being applied as it was at these institutions so that students would have a choice to make about getting the same value of education for a more cost-effective price.”
“BC3’s price point was less than 50 percent of what I would have had to pay” at the private university he attends. “Way more affordable. I jumped on the opportunity.”
“It was probably about half the price of what I would have paid” at the private college he attended. “That was a plus. I was pretty excited about that.”
BC3’s credits can be applied toward a bachelor’s degree at public, private and online four-year colleges and universities.
“I would say there is absolutely no difference between the quality that BC3 offers versus the quality anywhere else,” said Connor Quinn, 19, of Worthington, Armstrong County.
The junior at a private university near Pittsburgh attended BC3’s 2023-2024 Winter Session. The elementary statistics course he took at BC3 for $945 would have cost $2,000 at the private university, he said.
“I’m a struggling college student,” said Quinn, who said he works 32 hours per week and has been saving money since he was 16 to graduate with a master’s degree with the minimal amount of debt.
“BC3’s price point was less than 50 percent of what I would have had to pay” at the private university, Quinn said. “Way more affordable. I jumped on the opportunity.”
Enrollment in the college’s Winter Session has increased 182 percent from 2017-2018 to 2023-2024, according to Becky Smith, the college’s director of records and registration. The 181 guest and BC3 students in 2023-2024 were the second most in the past seven winters and represented 12 Pennsylvania counties.
The introduction to algebra course he took in BC3’s 2023-2024 Winter Session resulted in the final three credits he needed to earn a bachelor’s degree in history from the private college he attended in Mercer County, Jacob Alberts said.
“It was probably about half the price of what I would have paid” at the private college, said Alberts, 23, of Ellwood City, Lawrence County. “That was a plus. I was pretty excited about that.”
Five courses offered for 8th time
Students in his technical writing II course will analyze various workplace case studies, Dittman said.
They will discuss examples such as the ethics of addressing an employee who is not contributing to a group to which he or she is assigned, how they would respond to the issue and decide the written format that would be most persuasive and effective.
BC3 will offer for an eighth consecutive Winter Session courses in elementary statistics, general psychology, human growth and development, intermediate algebra and in introduction to art.
Courses offered for a seventh consecutive Winter Session are American literature: Colonial and Romantic, American national government, introduction to music, introduction to religions of the world and productivity applications.
BC3’s spring semester begins Jan. 21 with a 15-week Session 1. The college’s 10-week Session 2 starts Feb. 10.
