On March 11, Mercyhurst University announced a new initiative to cut the cost of tuition for two important groups in the MU community: associate degree program seekers and adult undergraduate program students.

The University has been working diligently to make a Mercyhurst education attainable for all types of students. More programs are being brought online and with the recent consolidation of the Mercyhurst North East campus, both bachelors and associate programs can now be found on the Mercyhurst main campus.

Director of Enrollment Services for Graduate and Professional Admissions, Travis Lindhal, describes the benefits of these most recent efforts to make programs more affordable.

“If we could make affordability one less thing to worry about, we felt we would have a better chance to enroll and retain these students,” Lindhal said.

Recently, the demand across the country for associate degrees has decreased. With this decline, Mercyhurst wanted to try and advertise their associate programs and make them appeal more to prospective students.

Arguably, the best way to make the two-year degrees more appealing to people is to lower the cost of attending.

By consolidating the North East campus with the Mercyhurst main campus, the savings from no longer operating the North East campus has allowed Mercyhurst to cut the cost of tuition for associate degree seeking students.

The new low rate for both adult undergraduates, associate degree-seeking students and certificate degree-seeking students is $555 per credit. This new price will be effective for the Summer 2021 semester.

Adult undergraduates are students over the age of 24 who are going to school to receive a bachelor’s degree. The adult undergraduate programs are ideal for someone local who is a little older than the typical college student, but who wants to gain a new degree in another major.

Vice President for Enrollment, Joe Howard, describes the decision to decrease the cost for these populations of students.

“We targeted student populations that aren’t eligible to receive institutional scholarships or grants,” said Howard. “Unlike our traditional bachelor’s degree-seeking students (who receive academic and need-base institutional aid), our associate and adult students aren’t eligible for those aid programs.”

In addition to cutting costs of associate degree seeking students and adult undergraduates, the Organizational Leadership (OL) graduate degree has also seen a price cut.

The recent decline in cost for the OL program makes it one of the most affordable graduate programs in the country at $1,299 per course. The price cut in tuition comes after an increase in enrollment in the program when Mercyhurst lowered the tuition of the program for alumni.

In hopes of having the program grow even more, the price was decreased for anyone who is interested in receiving their master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Mercyhurst.

Both Howard and Lindahl agree that this new pricing and easy to understand payment plans will provide greater accessibility and increase the number of students who enroll in these programs. Carpe Diem to all those seeking an accessible degree!