College graduates earn about 73 percent more over their working lives than those with only high school diplomas, according to the College Board. Those with master’s degrees earn twice as much as high school graduates, and PhDs earn three times as much. Highly educated people are more likely to vote, volunteer, donate blood and be in good health. Clearly, higher education improves your quality of life.
Yet, Nevada ranks lowest nationwide in its proportion of young adults with high school diplomas, and in the likelihood of those students enrolling in college immediately after high school, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
Nevada’s economic diversification, especially in the high-tech arena, creates the need for highly skilled workers. More adults are returning to school to complete their degrees, or to advance career-wise through graduate study. Nevada’s private colleges can meet their needs.
Education Alternatives
The state’s community colleges encourage all residents to return to school, by offering tremendous flexibility through nighttime or online courses, and in some cases, even child care. But for those mid-career students looking to complete four-year or advanced degrees, community colleges aren’t enough. And state-supported four-year institutions may not offer the flexibility that a nontraditional student may require. Nevada’s private colleges complete the higher education picture.
DeVry University and Keller Graduate School — Henderson
With 75 campuses nationwide, DeVry University is recognized for its technical programs. But this California-based private school with one location in Henderson has grown to include many associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. According to Michael Read, director of center operations, DeVry will accept a “smorgasbord of transcripts” from other locations, so an undergraduate can complete a degree in less time.
DeVry’s Keller Graduate School of Management is a fully accredited master’s program in which students can earn a generalized or specialized Master of Business Administration (MBA), in such specialties as human resources, project management or security management. Master of Accounting and Financial Management programs are also available.
Courses take place in the classroom and also online. DeVry’s graduate classes typically run from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. in eight-week sessions. On average, a Keller graduate student can complete the program in 16 months.
“We understand that life intervenes, and that many of our students have families,” said Read. “That’s why we have a delivery mode that involves one night a week of class time, and the rest is online. Rather than coming to class twice a week, it’s more convenient to work around family and work schedules.” Classes are also offered on Saturday mornings.
Do online courses deserve the bad rap they often get? Read doesn’t think so. “At one point, online attrition rates were bad, and that had a lot to do with students not being self-directed. Students tended to take online courses so they could do classwork whenever they felt like it. But it’s demanding, and if you get behind, it’s hard to make it up. I think as students have gotten familiar with it, they realize it’s not the easy way out, and the quality has gone up.”
National University — Henderson
National University is a non-profit institution with graduate and undergraduate programs in 30 locations, including Henderson and several around California and Hawaii. National University is the second largest private university in California. According to Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Sharon P. Smith, NU is ninth in the nation for awarding master’s degrees to minorities in all subjects; it’s among the top 10 for awarding master’s degrees to women; and it’s first in California and second in the U.S. for awarding master’s degrees to Hispanics.
The university is comprised of seven colleges: Letters and Sciences, Media and Communications, Health and Human Services, Education, Business and Management, Engineering and Technology, and Extended Learning. All are geared toward returning students. The intense, accelerated classes are delivered on-site, online, or through a combination of the two. Students take one class per month for rapid degree completion. On-site classes are generally two nights per week for that month, with two Saturdays usually included. This varies for lab courses, which require more on-site involvement.
Smith points out that while NU’s Henderson location makes on-site courses convenient for Southern Nevada students, online options reach those who might not otherwise pursue higher education.
“Online courses can be as effective as classroom instruction, as long as the same care and constant assessment is done. You can also have someone teaching on-site with dusty notes, which isn’t effective, either,” said Smith. “For someone in a distant location, like in rural Nevada, where it’s prohibitive to travel to campus, should they be cut off from the opportunity to invest in themselves?”
University of Phoenix — Las Vegas and Reno
Probably the most recognized of the state’s private colleges, the University of Phoenix focuses on “growing the whole person,” according to Vice President and Director of the Las Vegas campus, Lisa Ackerman. University of Phoenix faculty work to make their lessons applicable to the “real world.”
Programs that typically appeal to nontraditional students include MBA, Master of Management, Master of Information Systems and Master of Arts in Education. Bachelor’s degree programs include management, business administration, accounting, criminal justice, information technology and human service management, plus both bachelor of arts and bachelor of science programs in education.
While University of Phoenix officials like to keep their average class size of 15, the school’s open admissions policy keeps it from having to limit the number of students. “If we need more classes, we just hire more faculty to support more students, which can really make a difference to the community,” said Ackerman.
Courses are three credits each, and run one at a time for five weeks in bachelor’s programs, six weeks in master’s programs. They are scheduled one night per week from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. There are no weekend courses, but online options are available. The average student completes a degree in two years. An M.B.A. or graduate management program can usually be completed in 18 months.
Is there a difference between the Las Vegas and Reno markets? Ackerman said Las Vegas has a more transient population, while Reno’s is a bit more stable and traditional. The two campuses share programs. “There’s a more service-oriented population in Las Vegas, because that’s its primary industry,” she explained. “Because of that, there tends to be a higher value placed on education in Reno, possibly because of the Bay Area influence there.”
Regis University – Henderson and Las Vegas
Regis University is a Jesuit institution based in Denver. Regis joined the Southern Nevada market in 1999, and its Las Vegas campus opened in Summerlin in 2002. Keith Evans, campus director for Southern Nevada, said nearly all of Regis’ accelerated classes are for working adults, and are offered in the evening once a week, along with the occasional weekend day; some intensive one-day courses are also available. Undergraduate courses start every five weeks, and graduate courses every eight weeks.
Undergraduate programs include accounting, business, organizational development, public administration and communications. The school’s MBA programs include three emphases: general, finance/accounting and marketing. Undergraduate and graduate programs in teacher education and liberal arts are available, with a graduate program in marriage and family therapy. New this year is the Master of Science in Management and Organizational Leadership (MSM).
As Don Voyles, director of community outreach, explained, while the MBA is concerned with line management and profit/loss, the MSM is for people who want to become involved in the employee side of business. “It’s different from an MBA, but it’s just as essential to a business’ life and growth,” said Voyles.
Regis’ master’s programs are designed to be completed in 1.5 to 2 years. The Henderson and Summerlin campuses are classroom-based; only the Denver campus has online programs. Regis and the Community College of Southern Nevada have a “three-to-one” partnership. CCSN students transfer to Regis after three years, where it only takes one year to complete their degrees; students in essence earn a four-year degree from a private institution, with three of those years being at community college rates.
Morrison University — Reno
Lisa Kelly, site administrator and director of academic programs for Morrison University, said the school specializes in “degree completion.” Only 15 percent of Morrison’s students are first-timers; 85 percent are completing degrees.
Founded in Reno in 1902, Morrison is a Northern Nevada institution. Its programs include bachelor’s degrees in management and accounting, and a one-year MBA. Kelly added that a bachelor of computer science program should be up and running in spring 2007.
The majority of Morrison’s classes do not exceed 15 students. Ten-week courses are held nights and weekends. Students choose a one-night-a-week or three-nights-a-week format; full-time MBA students attend two classes per week. Classes are also available on Saturdays.
“We work around schedules,” said Kelly. “If students need one class to graduate, we’ll do a directed study. They won’t have to wait. We can do it because we’re small. We’re not a money-making institution, we’re not-for-profit, and it’s not about that. It’s about giving people an education.”
A Cure for the Healthcare Shortage
Nevada needs healthcare workers. The nearly 80 million baby boomers in this country are aging, and the demands they’ll be placing on healthcare will increase. In Nevada – the fastest-growing state in the country – the situation is even tougher. Private colleges are stepping up to help.
University of Southern Nevada — Henderson
The University of Southern Nevada (USN) is a not-for-profit institution whose programs include a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), an MBA with a healthcare focus, and nursing. USN has the only college of pharmacy in the state.
As the pharmacist shortage looms, the Pharm.D. program offers a remedy: a three-year Pharm.D. “We have had a number of students make pharmacy a second career,” said Dr. Renee Coffman, dean of the USN College of Pharmacy. Even though the 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. class schedule is fixed, most students work part-time in local pharmacies. “This way, students tend to be off at night, when pharmacies need the most help,” she explained,
Coffman said there is a significant age range among students. “I think it’s a very attractive career to second-timers,” said Coffman. “Although our tuition is over $30,000 per year, when they get out in just three years, with that extra year of earning potential, they’re hired on at $90,000 to $100,000 per year, so there’s a high return on investment.”
The school’s MBA program comes in two intensive delivery modes, said Dr. Jim Bailey, MBA program director. One is a weekday program involving 24 hours of class per week, with a nine-month completion period. The second is weekends only; classes take place on Friday evening and all day Saturday, for 12 hours per week of class time and a two-year completion.
Bailey said administrative costs in healthcare are rising faster than healthcare costs themselves. “A lot of healthcare organizations are being run by healthcare professionals who don’t have a business background, or by business people with no healthcare background. You really need both, to meet the needs of patients while trying to improve processes and reduce costs. The MBA for healthcare is a good balance.”
Touro University — Henderson
Established in New York in 1970, Touro’s first medical school opened in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1997. Its Henderson campus welcomed the first class of Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.) students in 2004. Touro now also offers a Master of Physician Assistant Studies (M.P.A.), and a new College of Health and Human Services, with the first in-state, private entry-level Master of Nursing program in Nevada, and the first in-state Master in Occupational Therapy program, in addition to three education programs.
Mitchell D. Forman, D.O., dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, puts these offerings into context. “Nevada is 46th in the nation for physicians-per-100,000 patients, and our nurses-per-100,000 patients ranks 49th. We’ve had one of the fastest growing communities in the country for the past 19 years. We have a significant population of underinsured and noninsured people, and we have four private hospitals consistently running at 100 percent capacity or more. We look at this as a phenomenal opportunity.”
Touro has graduated 324 students into the Southern Nevada workplace. “We want to grow our own healthcare providers,” said Forman.
Touro’s flexible nursing and education programs can be taken at a variety of speeds, but the D.O., medical school and M.P.A. programs require more structure. Currently, the Nevada campus does not offer online courses, although Forman said they could be available soon. Touro also is affiliated with USN for pharmacological training.
Facing the Education Test
A recent report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal said the Clark County School District grows by an average of 12,000 to 15,000 students per year – making it one of the fastest-growing districts in the nation. The district is actually turning to substitutes to fill spots. The National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse said that over the next 10 years, the nation will see 150,000 to 250,000 openings for positions in elementary and secondary education. And the nation’s current teachers are fast approaching retirement; 25 percent are at least 50 years old. Nevada’s private colleges are trying to address this situation.
Nova Southeastern University — Las Vegas
Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is a not-for-profit, Florida-based institution. The NSU Las Vegas Educational Center is the school’s only non-Florida location, and has been open since 1978, longer than any other private college in Nevada, according to Mary Ellen Heise, assistant director for program development.
NSU offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate programs; although there is a Bachelor of Business Professional Management, NSU prides itself on its educational focus, with bachelor’s programs in elementary and secondary education. Master’s and specialist degrees are primarily in the fields of education and business, and also include accounting, human resource management, management/leadership, school guidance and counseling and speech/language pathology. Doctoral programs are in business administration and education.
None of NSU’s classes begins before 6 p.m; Saturday classes are also available. Classes meet once or twice a week, depending on the curriculum. Programs average 18 months long, with staggered beginning dates for courses.
“We came to Las Vegas because we were looking for a place where we could effectively put more people back into the workforce and help the economy,” said Heise. “We wanted to work with a growing area, and saw opportunity here for partnership and growth.”
Sierra Nevada College – Henderson, Incline Village, Reno
Until 2004, Sierra Nevada College (SNC), whose main campus is in Incline Village, only offered four-year degrees and teaching certificates. But with the state’s teaching shortage reaching crisis proportions, SNC developed its Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program. The program is designed for those people coming from an accredited institution with a bachelor’s degree or higher, or second-career individuals looking to pursue teaching.
As Dr. Robert Trimble, statewide director of teacher education for SNC, explains, two phases comprise the program. The first, which takes three semesters, involves certification. For someone who wishes to major in elementary or secondary education, the program includes coursework, student-teaching and the required teacher certification exams, making students eligible for a standard Nevada teaching license.
Continuing through the master’s program requires only eight additional credits and one semester of supervised teaching. One benefit of the M.A.T. is an income boost – the Washoe County School District reports the starting salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree is $28,816, while a first-year teacher with a master’s degree starts at $33,360.
Classes are offered at SNC’s Sunset Road location in Henderson, at various locations in the Reno area and at its Incline Village campus. Regular semester classes generally begin at 4 p.m. to accommodate those who work during the day. Classes take place once a week for a full semester, although some weekend classes are available. There are currently no online options at SNC.
Looking Ahead at Higher Ed
As Nevada continues to rely on a highly educated labor force, its private colleges will respond to that need by tailoring programs to meet students’ needs. With the combination of advancing technology and rapidly expanding programs, earning a college degree will not only become more desirable, but also more feasible.
