Explore Bc3
(Butler, 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 in April during open houses on BC3’s main campus and at BC3 in Cranberry, 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.”
The open house on BC3’s main campus is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 5 at 107 College Drive, Butler Township. A health care programs information session will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The open house at BC3 @ Cranberry is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 21 at 250 Executive Drive, Cranberry Township.
“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 an open house. Prospective students can RSVP at apply.BC3.edu/open-house.
Prospective students at a BC3 open house can tour classrooms and facilities, review the cost of attendance and financial aid options, learn about support services, student activities and student life – and meet faculty and staff.
BC3 picked after enrolling at regional university
Dylann Yarrington, 20, of Butler, graduated from Butler Area Senior High School and enrolled in fall 2019 at a Pennsylvania public four-year university.
“But I ended up dropping,” Yarrington said, “because I was afraid to go to a big college.”
That fall she attended a BC3 open house.
“I felt very welcomed and I did not feel intimidated at all,” Yarrington said. “Whenever I had toured large universities during my senior year of high school, it felt very intimidating to go to a large campus, especially right out of high school. You don’t know what you are doing.”
“BC3 put me in a good place where I could start here and figure out what I wanted to do."
Yarrington attends BC3 @ Cranberry, where she is a general studies student.
“BC3 put me in a good place where I could start here and figure out what I wanted to do,” she said.
Yarrington plans to transfer to Point Park University in the fall to study broadcast production and media management.
Visitors to a BC3 open house can learn about associate degrees in two-year career programs and in two-year transfer programs, and about certificates in programs that take one year or less to complete.
“Meet some of the faculty”
Kristine Allen is a BC3 instructor and coordinator of three career programs at BC3 @ Cranberry.
“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.”
BC3 offers 35 career programs in which students can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately upon graduation. The college also offers 19 transfer programs and 24 certificate or workplace certificate programs.
BC3 @ Cranberry’s menu of two-year transfer programs features business administration, criminology, early childhood education (Pre K-4), general studies, psychology and social work.
BC3 @ Cranberry’s selection of two-year career programs includes business management, digital audio and video production, graphic design, health care science and photography.
"I knew that BC3 would be my first stop.”
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.
“Economically smart … to start at BC3”
Debbie Kane is a BC3 professor and coordinator of a transfer program in the college’s business division. She 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.
Seventy percent of BC3’s Class of 2021 graduated debt-free.
“Inflation is going up. Prices are going up,” said Eban Smith, 18, of Butler, who attends BC3’s main campus and plans to graduate debt-free in May with an associate degree in computer science. “If you graduate with debt, it’s hard. You have to budget correctly and that can get very complicated.
“I factored that in, and I saw just how affordable and how economically smart it was to start at BC3.”
Smith is a 2021 graduate of Butler High who earned transferrable credits through BC3’s College Within the High School program. He plans to transfer to Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania this fall and pursue a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
BC3 No. 1 community college in state six times
The BC3 Education Foundation anticipates awarding more than $230,000 in named scholarships in 2022-2023.
Tuition and fees for face-to-face classes this spring for BC3 students from Butler County cost $172 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.
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.
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.
Smith returned to Pennsylvania from Arizona seven years ago, and said he knew BC3 would be his No. 1 choice.
“Ever since then I have known about BC3 and have had my eye on it,” Smith said. “I knew it was a good destination because I don’t want to have debt. I don’t want to have to take out a bunch of loans. If I wanted to accomplish that goal, and to get my bachelor’s, I knew that BC3 would be my first stop.”
Students who take health care science courses at BC3 @ Cranberry can finish their 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 their certificates in massage therapy, medical assistant or in practical nursing on BC3’s main campus.
