Patten University is Closing

[sanantone]

They didn't seem to be growing, so I'm not surprised. It looks like only a few schools are going to be dominating the competency-based degree maket, which is unfortunate because there isn't much variety in the majors they offer.

https://www.patten.edu

What do you all think about the growth of competency-based programs? It doesn't seem to be catching on. A lot of schools have either shut down their programs or abandoned plans to create them. It might just be WGU and maybe Capella in the end.

[dfrecore]

One of the things that I didn't find helpful was when I called to find out about the gen ed portion of the degree, they seemed really inflexible. Instead of having categories of courses that what you've already taken can fulfill, they have very specific courses. This did not work well with what a returning-to-school adult would want.

They also didn't seem to be customer-focused, and I don't think many on this forum completed a degree there, because things ended up not working out the way they had thought they would.

This is a bummer, but I'm not surprised. I think eventually, there will only be WGU left in this space.

[Nodaclu]

Got the email this morning. I'm sad, but not at all surprised. They definitely seemed to be struggling.

I don't know what the future holds for CBE. Change is hard, often comes slowly, and usually had a number of casualties around the way. WGU is thriving, but no one else seems to be able to make it work.

[Toastmaster]

It could also be that WGU is incredibly friendly! The marketing is excellent as well. Online, it's honestly the only school I see competing for dollars against the likes of Capella and others.

Edit:. Oh! And Excelsior. I do see Excelsior from time to time. I would like to see more of TESU.

[jsd]

I was emailing them back and forth last week about their spring 2018 scheduled WASC review that was never posted. This explains why it wasn’t and why they were being dodgy with me about it

[sanantone]

It could also be that WGU is incredibly friendly!  The marketing is excellent as well.  Online, it's honestly the only school I see competing for dollars against the likes of Capella and others.

Edit:. Oh!  And Excelsior.  I do see Excelsior from time to time.  I would like to see more of TESU.

WGU has been very smart. They keep their tuition low, they market everywhere, and they've made partnerships with several states to the point that they have this semi-public status. 

Patten University used to send out spam, which is a horrible marketing practice. After that, I didn't come across any advertisements for them. If you received the spam, you probably thought the school was a scam. Otherwise, no one else knew about them.

Capella has been adding a ton of FlexPath programs, so I'm assuming they're doing well. I don't know how University of Wisconsin and Brandman are doing. NAU has been adding programs very slowly. I think Walden only has three CBE programs.

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One of the things that I didn't find helpful was when I called to find out about the gen ed portion of the degree, they seemed really inflexible.  Instead of having categories of courses that what you've already taken can fulfill, they have very specific courses.  This did not work well with what a returning-to-school adult would want.

They also didn't seem to be customer-focused, and I don't think many on this forum completed a degree there, because things ended up not working out the way they had thought they would.

This is a bummer, but I'm not surprised.  I think eventually, there will only be WGU left in this space.

Not even traditional schools are this restrictive with transfer credits. I think the problem was that Patten was only able to offer a limited number of gen ed courses, and they made the mistake of requiring transfer courses to be exact matches. Most schools have general categories, such as social science, and a long list of courses can be used to fulfill that requirement. The Big 3 have limited course options, but just because they don't offer a course, it does not mean that it can't be transferred in.

[xjarhead1999]

I'm highly disappointed in this. I had been in talks with them about their psychology I/O degree. I was told I needed to wait until my graduation from pierpont in August. I already had the degree plan and talked to them about what would transfer in.
Now I will have to figure out what to go for and where.

[bjcheung77]

Hmm, I'm still wondering why didn't they sell the school or something instead of closing it? Maybe no one wanted to purchase the school as it was losing accreditation? Hopefully, other affordable options spring up for frugal individuals such as myself.

[dfrecore]

Hmm, I'm still wondering why didn't they sell the school or something instead of closing it?  Maybe no one wanted to purchase the school as it was losing accreditation?  Hopefully, other affordable options spring up for frugal individuals such as myself.

They sold the assets to JFK University.

[Nodaclu]

There's some useful / interesting information about the sale here:

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-07-09-...h-platform