CBE is right for Sam Rennix, is it right for you?
CBE is right for Sam Rennix, is it right for you?
Sam Rennix, an IT professional with Penn Medicine, knew it was time to return to college when Penn began requiring bachelor’s degrees for employees wanting to move into more advanced positions. That’s when Sam discovered Peirce College’s competency-based education (CBE) program – the most direct path to a college degree.
Peirce’s competency-based education degree allows Sam to leverage the IT skills and knowledge he already has by taking final exams to prove his competencies and earn credits as soon as he’s ready. As a CBE student, he can also receive credit for previous industry certifications earned and/or college courses he completed before coming to Peirce. So instead of spending a lot of time on ancillary and lower-level courses, CBE students like Sam focus on the skills they actually need to succeed in their career.
“It’s all been very oriented around the degree I’m going for and what I do professionally. All the knowledge I’ve acquired has been helpful in my day-to-day job and helped me understand how things work in the background and the infrastructure of our system on top of just working toward my degree.
“So, I would say the classes themselves are high-quality [and relevant]. They’re very specific to what I need to learn, and that’s what I like about that. I didn’t like when I [previously] went to regular college you had to do basket weaving and stuff just to take credits.”
On top of avoiding basket weaving and focusing on learning career-related IT competencies, Sam is able to move through the program at his own pace. That’s because CBE students can earn as many college credits as they’re able to per session for one flat fee. For that reason, Sam’s advice to anyone thinking about earning their IT degree through Peirce’s competency-based education program is not to procrastinate.
“You have 12 weeks in your course. Don’t wait until week nine to get going because you have the freedom to do that,” he says. “You’ll end up stressed out and fall behind.”
To that end, Sam is hoping to spend 2017 earning extra college credits toward his degree in Information Technology with a concentration in Networking, Administration and Information Security. He’s off to a good start after knocking out seven credits during the first semester in the program.
Going forward, Sam hopes to earn 15 credits per 12-week session while still working full time at Penn. And not a single one of those credits will have anything to do with weaving baskets.
If you’re interested in learning more about Peirce’s competency-based education program, visit peirce.edu/CBE or reach out to Heather DeRitis, CBE Enrollment Specialist, at 215.670.9124 or hmderitis@peirce.edu.
- Prev Post
- Next Post
© 2024 Peirce College. All rights reserved.
LeaveComment