What do you folks think of this idea? Basically, MIT offered a set of classes online (MOOCs) equivalent to the first semester curriculum in one of it’s masters degrees. Those who take all of them, take the online tests, do well enough, and apply and are accepted can then finish their masters at MIT.
This could certainly cut down on college costs in various programs and variants of this idea have been around for a long time (UC’s taking a big chunk of their undergrads from CA CC’s; PSU-main taking in transfers from branch PSU’s; LSE offering admissions and scholarships to (1Y) Masters programs to the best students in the U of London (3Y) distance bachelors led by the LSE.
I don’t see the top privates (who care about shaping an undergrad student body and campus atmosphere) doing this for undergrad, and in subjects that require labs, it’s not practical, but this definitely would be a way to leverage technology to cut costs while increasing overall human capital.
It certainly reduces the first semester wash-out rate for that program. Not talked about much, but every grad program has some students who change their minds and leave, or who actually do wipe out academically. This plan would guarantee that those who do enroll are fully committed.
There are undergrad programs who do this. There are undergrad programs also where, once matriculated, you can still do CLEP or community college classes to save money while continuing with said college. Many schools take students with up to 90 credits so students can get those credits any way they like. And some give credit for “life experience.” Of course the cheapest way for some is to do two years at community college in the first place.
I assume MIT charges tuition for the online classes so this is no different from countless online or hubrid online/on campus programs for grad school. There are also low residency programs with attendance a few days per semester. This is MIT so maybe it draws more attention…
Well to get the MicroMasters degree and apply to MIT they have to pay $150 for each of 5 courses, but that is not as burdensome as tuition for five classes (unless financial aid pays for the classes).
The numbers were interesting:
A group of about 1,100 learners last month became the first to finish the five MOOCs required to take the comprehensive final exam. Nearly 800 did took the test, and 622 passed. Of those, about 130 have so far applied to finish the full degree at MIT, beginning in January. Space restrictions limit MIT to accepting around 40 of them. The residential program also seats about 40 students.
The idea of requiring applicants to take one online class to replace traditional standardized test like the GMAT is intriguing. Harvard Extension sort of does that with the required three classes that are required before applying. (well, at Harvard Extension, you don’t get financial aid for these three classes, and the classes are $3k+ each, so maybe MOOC’s aren’t such a bad idea)
So many universities and colleges have online classes now. I would take those rather than any MOOC but my experience with the massive MOOC’s (contemporary poetry) was awful. And I generally love online classes.
It does seem that about half the students who took the five courses, took and passed the test, and about 10% applied with 40 potential spots.
In our experience, online classes tend to be MORE expensive unless they are MOOC’s, which are free. If MIT ever had online first and last year, as this article suggests, they would have to charge. So the difference in cost between on campus and online would be the difference between the cost of dorms and the cost of apartments (and food).
The cynic in me says that this program is primarily for non-traditional students. (Nothing wrong with that, but it’ll be a long time coming before such a program has any impact on “college costs”.)
