(Ford City, 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 @ Armstrong during its open house March 29, the college’s director of admissions said.
“I think prospective students start to envision themselves as a BC3 student once they see our locations,” Morgan Rizzardi said, “and how BC3 takes so much pride in making sure that we are a 21st-century learning facility.”
BC3 @ Armstrong’s open house is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 104 Armstrong St., Ford City, in the NexTier Adult Learning Center. Construction of a relocated BC3 @ Armstrong facility in downtown Ford City is under way and is expected to be completed in 2023.
“I felt really welcomed. Everyone seemed super-friendly. I was trying to decide which college I wanted to go to, and it definitely gave me a good impression.”
BC3 will waive its $25 application fee for prospective students who apply for admission at BC3 @ Armstrong’s open house. Prospective students can RSVP at apply.BC3.edu/open-house.
BC3 @ Armstrong offers transfer programs
Prospective students at BC3 @ Armstrong’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.
Keely Kijowski attended a BC3 open house before she graduated from West Shamokin Junior-Senior High School in 2019.
“I felt really welcomed,” said Kijowski, a psychology student at BC3 @ Armstrong. “Everyone seemed super-friendly. I was trying to decide which college I wanted to go to, and it definitely gave me a good impression.”
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.”
Kristine Allen is a BC3 instructor and coordinator of three 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.”
BC3 @ Armstrong offers associate degrees in three transfer programs. BC3 @ Armstrong students can apply credits earned toward a bachelor’s degree at public, private and online four-year colleges and universities.
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.
“We are just so much more affordable than the four-year schools. 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.”
BC3 @ Armstrong’s selection of two-year transfer programs features business administration, general studies and psychology. Students who complete a BC3 @ Armstrong degree in business administration or in psychology can transfer all credits to a parallel program and with junior standing to any Pennsylvania public four-year institution.
Students who complete a BC3 @ Armstrong degree in business administration, general studies and psychology can transfer all credits to a parallel program at any Penn State University commonwealth campus.
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.”
“I definitely saved a lot of money”
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.
Kijowski, 21, of Dayton, expects to graduate from BC3 @ Armstrong this summer debt-free.
“Which,” Kijowski said, “is awesome. Affordability is really important to me. I really wanted to graduate debt-free. I felt like there were barely any other schools out there that offered that. … I know people who are already in pretty deep debt, and they’ve only gone to school for about one year, so I feel like I definitely saved a lot of money.”
Tuition and fees for face-to-face classes this spring for BC3 students from Armstrong 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.
The BC3 Education Foundation anticipates awarding more than $230,000 in named scholarships in 2022-2023.
Bachelor’s degree-completion partnership available
Kijowski intends to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology through BC3’s bachelor’s degree-completion partnership with La Roche University. Courses are held online and on BC3’s main campus.
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.
“The staff is just so friendly. They always make you feel welcomed. All the teachers know your name. They know more than your name. They know about you."
Kijowski echoes the student satisfaction inventory’s findings.
“The staff is just so friendly,” Kijowski said of BC3 @ Armstrong. “They always make you feel welcomed. All the teachers know your name. They know more than your name. They know about you. It feels like you really get to build relationships with the teachers and all of your peers.”
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.
Students can also take many health care science courses at BC3 @ Armstrong and 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 medical assistant or in practical nursing on BC3’s main campus.
