Via: defendernetwork.com
In this economy, big purchases seem to be few and far between.
However, there is one thing you can spend money on that could earn you more money in the long run.
Thousands of Houstonians now have this same idea. They are investing in their future by spending money on going back to school.
That has caused enrollment to spike at a number of area colleges.
“We typically see an increase in enrollment whenever the economy has down-shifted. So people go back to school to either upgrade their job skills or acquire new job skills,” Donetta Goodall, Vice Chancellor at Lone Star College, says.
Renee Eggen has two kids in high school and now needs a two family income thanks to the bad economy.
“I gotta have a job. I gotta get something that pays a substantial amount of money” Eggen says.
Eggen chose a community college because tuition is a fraction of the cost of four year colleges.
“A student can take fifteen hours here for a little over $800,” Goodall says.
Student enrollment is also up at Rice University with approximately 5,863 students compared to 5,663 last year.
Prairie View A and M is seeing a spike with 8,956 versus 8,543 in 2009.
Texas Southern University enrolled 9,546 students this year and 9,394 last year.
University of Houston is enjoying 38,750 this semester. Last year at this time, U of H enrolled 37,000.
Enrollment is up at Houston Community College by 15 percent. Fall of 2010 has brought 61,749 students to HCC compared to 53,622 in 2009.
That’s just to name a few of the area colleges.
“So are you working to pay for your own schooling? Yes. I live at home with my mom but I pay for my own bills and stuff,” John Wolff, a sophomore at Lone Star College, says.
“I’m paying for my own college and going to school,” Education major Kelsee Shelly says.
Most students are majoring in any of the Workforce Education Programs, Goodall says.
“We see them going into Nursing. They go into fire technology. They become EMT’s. They go into Dental Hygiene. Those are some relatively short term programs but they have a good starting wage.”
The number of students has also spiked at Sam Houston State where on-line enrollment is up 100 percent.
Most of the students taking on line courses are business majors seeking MBA’s, law enforcement officers acquiring Criminal Justice degrees and teachers getting more education to, in turn, make more money.
