Post Baccalaureate Continuing Education Programs for Adults

Posted by David R. Wetzel Sep 9, 2008

The surge in the number of adults looking to continue their education or change careers has produced increased competition for graduate school. This has led to a development of a number of post-baccalaureate (Post-Bac) programs.

These “in-between” programs give hopeful students a chance to prepare for an advanced degree program or to acquire knowledge required to pursue an entirely new career. Let's take a look at one program:

• “One of our incoming students was a computer programmer and now that his children are grown, he’s ready to follow his muse and hopes to enroll in graduate school in classics after a year of post-bac experience,” explains Julie Nishimura-Jensen Director of Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

• According to the University of Pennsylvania, the percentage of students enrolled in the Classical Studies Post-Pac program who have been out of college for more than four years is around 20 percent. While some adults graduated from college more than 20 years ago.

• “A year devoted to the concentrated, supervised study of both languages cannot but improve a student’s credentials for further work,” says Nishimura-Jensen. “Such a year, free from the distractions and obligations of ordinary work towards a degree, can be an unusually fruitful educational experience in itself.”