Taking College Courses

[mallory12]

So, I want to keep on track and be able to graduate in 4 years while doing the CP. For anyone who has taken courses while down there or knows someone who has: Do the courses take up a lot of your time? How difficult are they? Which would you recommend? and Do they cost any money from disney or do you just pay for the credit through your university?

Thanks!

 

[vickalamode]

I didn't take any classes because I wanted to enjoy my CP fully, but my roommates did. I think that they took "marketing you" and it seemed to end up being quite a lot of work...they were always writing multiple-page papers and doing projects etc...it took up a lot of their time, and that was just for one class!

 

[MarieMaria]

Are you taking courses for general education requirements, your major, or just for credits?

On the WDW CP site, it lists three types:

-Collegiate Courses
these ones are counted for credit depending on your school
-Professional Development Studies
these are mostly geared to specific majors
-Exploration Series
these usually have no homework and are used more for their networking opportunities

And per the site, there are no tuition fees to pay, only for textbooks.

Currently course materials range from approximately $6 - 120 per course. Students taking courses will purchase their course materials through payroll deduction upon arrival.

I think the key is getting your school to accept the courses for credit. Also you can download the syllabus for each course to get an idea of what will be required. I by no means am an authority on this as I have not done a CP yet. This is just from what I've gathered.

Hopefully someone with experience will chime in on the workload.

 

[IrishGoofy1986]

some class cost money some don't

 

[illini4princess]

Did anybody take any actual University courses? I know UCF is located in Orlando.

If I get accepted for Spring I'm really thinking about forgoing the Disney classes and just taking an online class or two at UCF. It'll be really expensive, but I'm pretty sure none of the credits from the Disney classes will cover any of my gen-eds, and certainly none of my major classes.

 

[SportsChick]

I'm doing online classes through my school (FAU - Florida Atlantic University) so I can still get my financial aid to help pay the bills.

 

[Traveliz]

Did anybody take any actual University courses? I know UCF is located in Orlando.

If I get accepted for Spring I'm really thinking about forgoing the Disney classes and just taking an online class or two at UCF. It'll be really expensive, but I'm pretty sure none of the credits from the Disney classes will cover any of my gen-eds, and certainly none of my major classes.

It will be really expensive -- my daughter is at UCF (as an out of state student from Illinois) and one class would be just under 3,000. If you took an online class from Valencia (the community college) it would be somewhat more affordable (she is taking 6 hours of gen ed type classes she needs to graduate this summer and it was between 2-3 thousand for both of the classes total.

If you are thinking online anyway why don't you just go ahead and take from your school - I am thinking (based on your screen name) you are at U of I ...of course they aren't much cheaper than UCF.

Liz

 

[mollay]

Just wanna say that, if you have the option to take them, summer classes are your friend. I'm taking a summer Spanish class at the community college nearby and not only is it MUCH cheaper, but it's even a little easier (the fact that it's summer really helps hehe) and it means less to worry about during the fall and spring semesters!

 

[illini4princess]

It will be really expensive -- my daughter is at UCF (as an out of state student from Illinois) and one class would be just under 3,000. If you took an online class from Valencia (the community college) it would be somewhat more affordable (she is taking 6 hours of gen ed type classes she needs to graduate this summer and it was between 2-3 thousand for both of the classes total.

If you are thinking online anyway why don't you just go ahead and take from your school - I am thinking (based on your screen name) you are at U of I ...of course they aren't much cheaper than UCF.

Liz

Oh gosh, that price! Regrets are useless, but if I could go back in time I would not have dabbled in chemistry and calc my first semester! I'm not really worried about gen-eds, after fall I will only have 1 or 2 left I believe. It's fitting in my major classes that most concerns me. However, since I have so few gen-eds left there hopefully won't be any major problems (no pun intended).

Thanks for the heads up. Yes, I go to U of I and their online classes are pricey, but no where near $3,000 for one class. I'll definitely have to have a serious chat with my advisor when I get to discuss the best option. With any luck I won't have to take any classes (I can always hope ).

Just wanna say that, if you have the option to take them, summer classes are your friend. I'm taking a summer Spanish class at the community college nearby and not only is it MUCH cheaper, but it's even a little easier (the fact that it's summer really helps hehe) and it means less to worry about during the fall and spring semesters!

Certainly something I'll keep in mind. If I go for Spring I'll probably use the following summer to blast away my last couple gen-ed courses. The prices at my local community college aren't cheap either, but worth it for less worry lol

 

[SportsChick]

I go to Florida Atlantic University. In the spring semester I took my Calculus class at Palm Beach Community College - it was approximately $250 for the three credit class. This summer I have two classes at FAU - total was approximately $870 for both, so one class is $435. It's almost half the price to take a class at the Community College level around here.

ETA:

I just jumped onto UCF's website. Their pricing is: $150.85 per credit hour for a resident and $666.83 per credit hour for out-of-state. That's cheaper than my school which is FAU - $139.55 for a resident; $584.14 for out-of-state. This is for the current year, so up 15% it shall go in the fall.

Valencia Community College, which is probably the closest to Orlando is $87.36 per credit hour for Residents and for Out-of-State it is $330.88 per credit hour.

It takes a year to establish residency here, which is why so many do the Community College thing and then transfer once they have established residency.

 

[Traveliz]

I go to Florida Atlantic University. In the spring semester I took my Calculus class at Palm Beach Community College - it was approximately $250 for the three credit class. This summer I have two classes at FAU - total was approximately $870 for both, so one class is $435. It's almost half the price to take a class at the Community College level around here.

ETA:

I just jumped onto UCF's website. Their pricing is: $150.85 per credit hour for a resident and $666.83 per credit hour for out-of-state. That's cheaper than my school which is FAU - $139.55 for a resident; $584.14 for out-of-state. This is for the current year, so up 15% it shall go in the fall.

Valencia Community College, which is probably the closest to Orlando is $87.36 per credit hour for Residents and for Out-of-State it is $330.88 per credit hour.

It takes a year to establish residency here, which is why so many do the Community College thing and then transfer once they have established residency.

Thanks for the correction on that - I was just taking my daughter's fees and roughly dividing it and that is how I came to the almost 3K number...there are other fees she pays for her classes so that is what probably bumped my number up there. So its not quite as bad as 3000 a class! Maybe more like 2000.

Liz

 

[CP/PI_DAD]

Not a bad idea taking American Council on Education (ACE) accredited courses offered by Disney. They are FREE college credit courses except for the textbooks and having it in your back pocket is not a bad thing. It saved my daughter’s graduation. Her first CP was fall 07 and I kind-of pressured her to take the Corporate Communications Course. She did not love it, but it was only a few short papers and a presentation. One good thing it gave her a constant day off. When she finished her CP she quickly forgot about the course. My daughter was scheduled to graduate Fall 09 and during her graduation audit, part way through the semester, the school found she was 1 credit short. Thank god for the Disney course! Downloaded the course syllabus and spent $40 on an official transcript from ACE to her school and the Dean accepted it. Graduated on time and was able to start her first PI this spring with no hitches (next week moving to her second PI).

 

[SportsChick]

Something to keep in mind - not all universities accept the ACE courses. Mine for example does not so even if I was short on credits, taking a course at Disney wouldn't make a difference.

 

[illini4princess]

After looking into it a bit further, I'm 99% positive my school won't accept credit for Disney courses. At least as of '07/'08 they didn't, so I doubt anything's changed. I'm not surprised though. My university's pretty big and relatively prestigious as far as public universities go. I'm not going to let this spoil my plans, however, I just need to make sure I have a game plan so I won't have to overload myself to get enough credits in. Junior/Senior year is going to be stressful enough with law school looming ahead :-/

 

[MAGGIED]

my daughter is going to be a CP in the fall. She is taking two online classes from the college she has been going to. She is also taking one this fall. By doing this she will be able to graduate in the spring when she comes back.... still a year early. One of her classes starts in August the other in October.... it might be worth checking out what YOUR school offers on line... then you don't have to worry about the transferring of credits...

 

[airjacobs]

On the WDW CP site, it lists three types:

-Collegiate Courses
these ones are counted for credit depending on your school

-Professional Development Studies
these are mostly geared to specific majors

-Exploration Series
these usually have no homework and are used more for their networking opportunities