BC3 Bound Highlights BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing, Begins March 30

(New Castle, PA) Prospective students can explore BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s 19 associate degree and certificate programs, and learn about the transferability of its credits and its savings compared to Pennsylvania’s public four-year and state-related institutions during a virtual visit or in-person tour as part of BC3 Bound beginning March 30.

Prospective students can schedule a virtual visit, or an in-person tour of BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing, 2849 W. State St., New Castle, for select BC3 Bound dates and apply free by entering the code BC3Bound2021 at bc3.edu/bc3bound. BC3 Bound at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing will be held March 30-31, April 13-14 and April 27-28.

During a virtual visit or an in-person tour, prospective students can ask BC3 representatives about financial aid, BC3’s five start dates each semester, BC3’s 14:1 student-to-faculty ratio, support services and BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s programs of study.

BC3 has been ranked as the No. 1 community college in Pennsylvania five times since 2015, most recently for 2020 by BestColleges.com. The BC3 Education Foundation annually awards more than $200,000 in named scholarships which, with financial aid and BC3’s affordable tuition, allowed 80 percent of BC3’s Class of 2020 to graduate debt-free.

BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing offers associate degrees in nine transfer programs and in eight career programs. Its selections also include two certificate programs that take one year or less to complete.

“BC3’s affordability was important to me”

“BC3’s affordability was important to me because I didn’t have a 100 percent idea on what I wanted going in,” said Reed Angelucci, 19, an early childhood education (Pre K-4) student at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing. “And I knew that if I went to a larger university right off the bat, I was probably going to be wasting a lot of money that I did not have to spend.

“I knew that if I went to BC3, the affordability would be more accommodated to the decisions I was going to be making if I changed my mind about what I was going to be studying, which I ended up actually doing.”

Angelucci, of Ellwood City and a 2019 graduate of Lincoln High School, plans to transfer to a Pennsylvania public four-year institution in the fall toward his goal of becoming an elementary school teacher and “help a lot of students.”

Just like those who helped him at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing, he said.

“I’ve had great educators,” Angelucci said. “They email you a lot. They are always checking in on you. They are always making sure you have what you need. They are really making sure you are on track.

“Eventually, when I get my bachelor’s degree, it’s really going to show up how much BC3 really helped me in the time that I went there.”

Credits transfer to four-year institutions

BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing students can apply credits earned toward a bachelor’s degree at public, private and online four-year colleges and universities. Students in BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s career programs can develop the skills needed to enter the workforce immediately after graduation.

Approximately 70 percent of BC3 students this spring are enrolled in transfer programs.

BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s menu of two-year transfer programs features business administration, criminology, early childhood education (Pre K-4), general studies, history, physical education-sport management option, psychology, secondary education and social work.

BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing’s selection of two-year career programs includes accounting, business management, emergency services-police services option, human resource management, medical assistant, office administration-executive, office administration-medical and technical trades-cosmetology management option.

Certificate programs in medical assistant, and in medical coding and billing specialist, are also among the choices at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing.

Students who complete a BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing degree in business administration, criminology, early childhood education (Pre K-4), history, psychology and social work can transfer all credits to a parallel program and with junior standing to any Pennsylvania public four-year institution.

Students who complete a BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing degree in business administration, criminology, general studies and psychology can transfer all credits to a parallel program to any Penn State University commonwealth campus.

Students can also take pre-nursing courses at BC3 @ Lawrence Crossing and finish their degree in Nursing, R.N., on BC3’s main campus.

BC3 savings range from $3K to $27K per year

Full-time BC3 students from Lawrence County can save $3,115 annually in tuition and fees compared to the average charged by Pennsylvania’s public four-year universities or $5,785 compared to the average charged by Pennsylvania’s state-related institutions’ branch campuses.

Tuition and fees average $11,215 for students pursuing 15 credits per semester for one year in 2020-2021 at a Pennsylvania public four-year university; $13,885 at a state-related institution’s branch campus; $16,926 at a state-related institution’s main campus; and $35,087 at a private institution.

Tuition and fees for BC3 students from Lawrence County pursuing 15 credits per semester for one year during the 2020-2021 academic year are $8,100.

The average student-loan debt for the Class of 2019 was $38,521 in Pennsylvania, according to an August 19th report in LendEDU, a website that provides comparisons for loans, credit cards and other financial products. Only student borrowers in New Hampshire and Connecticut were reported to have higher student-loan debt.