Advice squad

Q Is there any financing available for continuing education?
McNeil: If you’re industrious, creative and persistent, you can ferret out some very good opportunities to finance your education. Always check with your school: All schools have offices of financial services. There are all kinds of private loan programs. Some employers finance either part of or all of your education if what you’re doing is work-related. If you’re an architect doing a LEED certification, for instance, your firm may cover the tuition.

Braverman: Any one of our courses at FIT is eligible for tuition remission—where your employer thinks the education would deepen your skills for the company and therefore reimburses some or all of your tuition. It depends on a company’s benefits package—some have a ceiling on how much they will reimburse, while some just want you to continue to self-educate. In many cases you lay out the money and get reimbursed by the employer—provided you meet certain requirements, including completing the course.

Clarkson: First, identify the course content you’re interested in. Then call the school to see if they offer vouchers in that program. There’s the Workforce 1 voucher program, run by the Department of Small Business Services (SBS), and recent Stimulus Package funds may also be available. Both can assist the unemployed, the underemployed, those with disabilities and others with the cost of tuition. Many schools will work with you: We applied for—and got—a voucher to hire a note-taker for a visually impaired student, for example.

Zimel: Students enrolled in Hunter’s certificate programs can apply for the Helena Rubenstein scholarship [also offered at many other NYC institutions], which covers up to $1,000 of your tuition costs. We also offer payment plans for our certificate programs.

Krupat: If you’re a union member, check with your union’s benefits department or delegate to find out if you’re eligible for tuition support. Sometimes unions and employers cooperate to offer tuition benefits for continuing education, and degree programs as well.

Need a loan? Sallie Mae (888-2-SALLIE) offers continuing education loans.

Q If I’m really serious, shouldn’t I just go to grad school?
Zelleke: Continuing education courses provide education or training in a specific skill—a foreign language or Web design, for example—where a graduate degree would not be necessary. But they are also a great way to try out a new field before committing to the time and expense of a degree program, or to beef up your transcript before you apply. At the New School, continuing education students can take courses for undergraduate credit. This can help a student with an uneven or out-of-date undergraduate record demonstrate their readiness for graduate school to the admissions team.

Nahum: Sometimes what you need is something you can’t get from an advanced degree program. Or you may already have an advanced degree, but your career has taken a different path. Or you need a credential in a specific area to help you advance. Take marketing: I have an MBA that I received pre-Internet—back when “social networking” meant wine and cheese, not Twitter and Facebook. We had bulk mailings, not e-blasts. Today it’s a whole different ball game: content management, e-commerce, budgeting, even how fast it happens. I didn’t need another MBA, but I did need to add current technology to my marketing skills. So I looked for a certificate program in digital marketing.

McNeil: The most important thing today is that before people invest a dime in professionally oriented education programs or ventures, they think carefully about what they’re trying to accomplish—and then focus on that exclusively. At Columbia, we will sit down with you to think through and plan an academic program—for however long it takes.

Need help deciding? NYU-SCPS’s Office of Career Management offers a Going Back to School workshop on September 15 from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Call for details (212-998-7060, scps.nyu.edu).

Q Now that I’m a grown-up leading a complicated, busy life, I seem to have ADD. Any advice on how to juggle school and studies with everything else?
Braverman: We seem to go at the speed of light, particularly in New York City. The programs that understand this are those that streamline the logistics, extending multiple delivery modes to students—from e-mailing professors to registering and paying online. In terms of focus, if it’s a top priority to get that certificate or study, you need to remove something else from your plate. None of us has infinite amounts of time and energy. Learn to reduce, delegate, and make time and space.

Krupat: Seek out help. We have very strong student services, including one-on-one counseling and advisement; free college-preparatory writing and math classes; a Writing Resource Center and tutors; study-skills workshops; and a faculty well aware of adult learners’ concerns and needs. So even an over-committed adult has a better chance of succeeding.

Zelleke: What’s most important is to start with something you love, so you won’t be tempted to avoid doing the work. Treat your course work the same way you treat your job. Schedule time in your day, in a location—like the school library—where you won’t be distracted by your everyday life.

Stressed out? No time? Try Hunter College’s Managing Your Time is Managing Your Stress, a two-day class held November 9 and 16 (212- 650-3850, hunter.cuny.edu).

Q Will I find that great networking experience I got in college?
Westerman: Yes. You never know who’s going to be sitting next to you in that classroom. I’d been downsized from my job [as a college recruitment manager]. I knew I wanted to go into career planning in a corporate setting, and found out that J.P. Morgan Chase had a career services program inside the company. I targeted that in my mind as a perfect fit. So I took a career-planning certificate class at NYU-SCPS. The first day, when we all introduced ourselves, there were five people from the very place I wanted to work. I thought, I was meant to be sitting in this chair.

Braverman: Continuing ed classes are the ultimate spot for networking. Everyone is a working professional and takes the class seriously, so there’s a lot of positive, focused energy. In that kind of environment, good things happen. Lifelong friendships and connections are created. Both faculty and fellow students help each other get jobs. The faculty are dynamic individuals, doing it because they care. They want to give back to the industry, to uphold a legacy, to foster connections. I have an Ivy League background, but if I compare the classes I took there to some of the continuing ed classes I’ve taken outside, the other classes were better. They were clearer and more direct. You went for it.

The panel
MEET OUR CONTINUING EDUCATION EXPERTS

Lisa Braverman
dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology/SUNY

Ann Clarkson<
associate dean of Continuing and Professional Studies at Baruch College/CUNY

David Greenstein
Sirens (Dykes on Bikes)
director of the Continuing Education Department at the Cooper Union

Kitty Krupat
associate director of CUNY’s Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies

Paul McNeil
vice dean of the Columbia University School of Continuing Education

Linda E. Nahum
independent continuing education consultant

Emily Westerman
associate director of the NYU-SCPS Office of Career Management

Almaz Zelleke
director of academic affairs at the New School of General Studies

Ellen Zimel
marketing coordinator of Continuing Education at Hunter College

INDEX Continuing Education 2009
Expert guidance on how to pay for classes, juggle your schedule and make employerswant you!