Looks like Harvard Extension School increased their tuition cost

[Stoic]

It looks like HES increased their course fees for the 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring semesters. Also, the Poetry courses that some of us here took for the past year or so increased by $750 per course.

You may review the changes here: https://www.extension.harvard.edu/course-catalog

Is it normal for HES to increase their prices like this?

What could be the reason for the price increase?

It's a substantial amount if you're taking multiple courses through their program which is a shame since I'm thinking about enrolling into their ALB or ALM program (and put to use those Poetry credits) depending on how I work things out.

HES has increased their tuition costs by an average of $100 every year for the last 5 years. Prior to this, the tuition increase was much steeper each year. I wouldn't let the tuition increase discourage you from participating in the ALB or ALM programs.  When you price out the cost of the program just make sure you include these increases. The Poetry program was always underpriced (and still is). I'm not surprised they increased the price of it.

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[quote pid='290724' dateline='1561176667']

Hello,

The CORe is difficult and it’s no cakewalk due to the fact that each module will take you a lot of time to get through and your deadlines are tight. For example the last economics module took me 12 hours to get through from beginning to end and most weeks you will have two modules to have to get through so you might have to double that. This becomes an issue when you got other things going on in life, because you just have a few days to get it done. Two days ago I had to put in 7 hours in a row to complete the last 50% of the Accounting module for that deadline. Had to call off everything I had planned and drank 8 plus coffees. People on the CORe group talk about how stressed they are and how they fall as asleep on their computer and stuff like that due to being unable to balance the program out with their work.

You can’t just skip to the end and take the quiz so you have to go through the content which is full of reflections, cold calls, questions that make sure you know the content or the system will just throw more questions at you. Everything is locked until you go through or master the section before. 

So yeah it’s difficult. Which means that it’s meaningful and it will look good in your resume. In my cohort there are entrepreneurs and founders of companies worth millions of dollars, people with phds from universities like Duke, professors, smart people from all over the world, and people enrolled in the Harvard College or Extension school taking it for credit. It’s worth taking this program, though if you want to network with these people you’ll have to add them on LinkedIn and take the initiative. 

How long was your CORe program? I took the 16-week course and found the schedule to be reasonably light. I guess it depends on your background. I'm almost done with my BSBA and have been self-employed for several years. The Facebook group is also a good way to network with cohorts. Most of my cohorts were 20-something Indian programmers or engineers, so I'm not sure how useful most people will find networking in these groups. I'm honestly not sure I would recommend the program to anyone other than those who can get it for $450 or are using it as a shortcut to ALM admission.
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Sorry I’m on the road so I can’t check for sure but it’s about 9 weeks or maybe 10? It’s the accelerated one aligned with the 7 week summer semester.

It seems like Harvard allows the summer CORe to be included into financial aid packages since it seems like there’s a lot of students in my cohort. Also I think the summer one is the one that gets taken for credit but I’m not sure off the top of my head. I think for a more traditional cohort  is best to go with the CORe that doesn’t fall under the semesters where students, professors, etc aren’t in class. But yeah I agree with you on the overpriced aspect of the program. But then again I think Harvard programs have an inelastic demand within the business world. I’m still a bit sad about the extension school increasing the cost per class by $100 dollars or so since that’s an extra $400 every full term there which messes around with the budget I had planned. I’m surprised they didn’t raise the cost of the CORe program as well.