September 2011

New Study Finds that StraighterLine Undercuts the Cost of Community College and Other Learning Options StraighterLine recently retained Hezel Associates LLC, a research company in Syracuse, New York, to survey StraighterLine students about their experiences with our online courses.  Burke Smith, StraighterLine’s founder, wanted firm data to answer a number of questions. Why had our students decided to take courses at StraighterLine? How satisfied were they with their courses? How did the costs compare to the cost of attending community colleges or other educational institutions? How easy was it for students to transfer the credits they had earned to colleges and universities? The results of the survey reveal a lot about StraighterLin ...

How to Use Online Courses to Slash the Cost of Applying to College Everyone is talking about the high cost of college tuition. Yet there are other costs too. They are the costs of applying to college, which can really add up. Let’s take a closer look . . . $$$ for ACT and SAT test preparation tutoring and classes – An SAT or ACT prep class costs about $700. And if you opt for private tutoring instead, you will pay $2,000, $3,000 or more. $$$ for college applications – Colleges charge big bucks – in the range between $40 and $80 – just to accept your application. And when you realize that many high school students today apply to 10, or even 20 colleges, that gives you an idea of just what the costs really are. Some families ...

Medical Terminology Made Simple: Bursitis As a service to people who are thinking of entering the medical and medical support professions, StraighterLine is continuing the series of short posts on medical terminology. Each post will define one medical term. Today’s medical term is . . . Bursitis If you have chronic pain in the area surrounding your shoulder, knee, elbow, achilles tendon, heel, or hip, you could have bursitis. The condition is an inflammation of the fluid-filled sac (bursa) that surrounds joints.  And boy does it hurt. Sometimes bursitis occurs as the result of repeated impacts or stress. In August 2011, for example, the Red Sox slugger David Ortiz has been suffering from bursitis of the heel, which has kept him ...

America’s Exclusive Colleges Rack Up Record Numbers of Applicants It’s perplexing. It’s confusing. It seems to make very little sense. Yet the fact remains that in a time when college costs are surging and fewer grads are finding jobs, America’s most respected universities are attracting more applications than ever before. One explanation is that parents and students believe that the key to finding a job today is to earn a diploma from a high-status school. But there are other reasons why elite colleges and universities are fielding so many applications. One is that it is not uncommon for today’s students to apply to a dozen institutions or more.  It’s a scattergun approach to getting into college, and it quickly swells the ...

StraighterLine Student Profile: Burlyce Logan StraighterLine student Burlyce Logan is many things. She is a committed student, and an even more committed wife. She is a senior citizen. She is not a quitter. And another thing. Burlyce Logan is inspiring. A little more than a year ago, she had only one college course to complete – Algebra – before she could earn her bachelor’s degree from The University of North Texas in Denton. But then some challenges arose. Her husband became ill and needed a series of operations. Burlyce was called to help arrange his medical treatment, and to care for him. Burlyce thought that she would have to set aside her plans to complete her college degree. How could she spend time in a classroom until ...