Potential students who wish to earn BSBA degrees usually consider only traditional, four-year universities. There is nothing wrong with that approach; however, students on a budget may wish to consider another route: two years at a community college and then two years at a regular university.
There is much to commend this approach:
- A new student can dramatically reduce room and board exp
enses by living at home for the first two years of his or her college experience. - State universities normally will accept up to 60 semester-hours of credit for a transfer student.
- Tuition is usually much less at a community college than at a four-year university.
- The BSBA degree will be awarded by the four-year university, even though the student attended only two years.
To illustrate this approach, consider the following situation, common in Virginia:
A student attends any one of 23 community colleges (40 campuses) that are part of the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). The tuition expense varies, but $1,302 per semester for a full-time student is typical. The only other expense would be textbooks and commuting. Thus, the student's tuition expense for his or her first two years of college would be $5,208.
The student would then transfer to (for example) George Mason University in Fairfax or to Virginia Polytechnic University in Blacksburg and resume studies as a junior. The total tuition expense for the student's final two years at Mason would be $13,680. Living expenses would add $7,380 per semester. Expenses at other public universities in Virginia are similar.
Total expenses for the student's four years of instruction would thus be $48,408. That isn't much, when you consider that some private colleges and universities charge three or four times that amount.
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