Way More Reasons the MAC is better

COURSE STRUCTURE - 

Delivered -

The work legally required to meet the Federal law is a standard detailing what portion of a credit hour is in-class time - in a three credit course, using a 15 week typical term, the student is expected to experience 2.5 hours class time per week for 15 weeks, totaling 37.5 learning hours.

The concept of the Carnegie Unit, which is that each credit is equal to 40 hours, means that there should be 82.5 hours of "out of class time".  This means that your child should experience assigned out of class time, work or experience, that equals 5.5 hours per week, for 15 weeks, per class.

I contend that this standard is not met more often than is economically fair.

I contend that accreditation teams do not inspect courses to see if the professor is able to account for the out of class time.

I developed a formula that strives to reach for an ideal, the ability to account for the time assigned or experienced.

You will know that your child is being delivered the work at a standard, that is not prescribed to the institutions by regulatory bodies.  

Done -

Students do the work - must produce or participate in the learning.  Not doing it is not acceptable.  We don't allow our students to ditch assignments or class.  

Documented -

I would like to  develop proprietary software and processes to provide what the crypto-cult refers to as "proof of work", archived for transfer to a thumb-drive, as tangible demonstration of excellent employment readiness.

GRADING Related to Documented- 

Traditional grading methods of tests, confirming completion of projects, authoring papers, and presentations. 

Additionally, we will incorporate secondary faculty review and/or peer to peer grading?

These strategies help offer a diversity of judgement, and prepare for the destiny of leadership our graduates will take on.  Tracking the work, the growth, and the experience of the candidate is sure to impress future employers, and assuage any hesitation to hire.

CREDITS - 

Our guide to degree development is "credit diversity and practicality".

I have chosen many courses from services that are traditional "cookie cutter".  However, as the cohorts progress, both candidates and cohort leaders will be researching the validity of hours, and identify where certain topics in a course are better addressed through another resource.

I have reduced the hours of general education hours, within the parameters of other institutions.

Again, diversity and practicality are our parameters - if you're going to be in business, you don't need seven credits in chemistry just to fulfill the institutional general education courses.

NETWORKING - 

Other colleges may intimate it, or suggest it occurs, but at the MAC, it is required.

In addition to the 63 other candidates and four cohort leaders, candidates will be required to make connections with at least 40 other people from their travels, other cohort parents, internships, or other means that contribute to their post-graduation success.

Will your child graduate with a rolodex (I'm old enough to get away with that word) of over 100 connections?

CLASSROOM - 

Reading Thoreau's Civil Disobedience at Walden Pond in Massachusetts.

Studying climate change at Glacier National Park in Montana.

Or meeting with a prominent figure like maybe Greta Thunberg in Sweden.  

Doing these things is not a summer session, or a semester away, it is essential and incessant!

At other schools you might be lucky if you don't have to sit in the same room multiple times during enrollment, say in the humanities department.

What's your classroom to study Thoreau?

Ours is better - no damn question about it.

"FACULTY" - 

Each cohort will be designed using four (4) faculty for every 64 students.  They advise, grade, lecture, lead, and support.

They will be well degreed.

We may contract with other highly qualified persons, for course development, content creation, episodic class participation, or the like.

Our faculty is present, engaged, available, and qualified. 

LIBRARIES - 

We will subscribe to an online library.

We will utilize libraries from prominent colleges and universities that we may visit.

How many students have visited the Library of Congress and utilized resources only available there?

You can check library concerns off your list, and put it in the better than column.

LEARNING - 

Reading, writing, watching, listening, and kinesthetic are standard forms of learning.

The higher and more impactful levels of learning are...

Experiential

Emotionalized 

and Peer to Peer...

Our courses and degrees are designed with these in front of mind.

Imagine the impact of learning about gangs and organized crime in South Compton or Detroit.  Imagine how that impacts the psyche of your child.

Imagine what it means to hear the life of a young person in crime, first hand, and the ensuing group discussions or debate with their academic peers.

And then aggregate those learning experiences, with the other topics or locations visited, again and again.

INTERNSHIP - 

Presently, the plan is for two internships.

One, 160 hours of janitorial work at the high school they attended, or one near their home.

The second internship, will be focused on the major.

Because of our incessant travel, I am working on a proposals for a major firms, to work with The MAC on a non-traditional method of completing internship hours.

It should be noted that while internships are certainly a benefit, they are not necessarily always required, nor a significant barrier to workforce entry.

In the event of non-major internships, we will increases the time spent on extremely useful simulation programs - having used a couple, I can say that you are likely to have more "real world" experiences than the conventional internship.

STUDY ABROAD and/or DOMESTIC EXCHANGE - 

Your school will advertise the availability of these choices.  They may strongly encourage or even require it.  But for how much of the time in your child's college career?

It is said, educational travel is the antidote for ignorance.

We learn to travel, to learn.

Stands to reason that the amount of educational travel and cohort design, only at the MAC, is an essential tool for awareness and understanding, a significant contribution to success for all candidates.

I was a "manny"/family manager for a couple years and I would say to the child, "where are we going little j", and he would reply, "going bananas big J".

Well the MAC is traveling bananas.

Ok, now this is just showing off....

Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico x3, American Samoa, Fiji x2, Vanuatu x2, New Guinea x2, Australia x9, New Zealand x4, Indonesia x2, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia x3, Vietnam x3, Hong Kong x2, Taipei, Japan x6, Bahamas x2, St. Thomas x2, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Kitts, Tortola, Dominica, St. Lucia, Martinique, Denmark x6, Germany, Poland x2, Sweden x4, Estonia x2, Finland, Norway x3, Iceland x4, Canada x5, Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, England, Ireland, North Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Tangier (Morocco), and finally my favorite two - Cuba, and 550 mile pilgrimage in Spain.

(These are of course approximate, based on current information and conditions.)

Again, 50 states plus the constitutionally illegal District of Columbia, and at least 40 countries - the numbers are in our favor.

INDEPENDENT STUDY - 

Common but not always offered or encouraged.  It is a requirement at the MAC.

Approximately 100 hours during the three years are personally and professionally designed by your child, with faculty supervision.

Independent work allows the student to tailor higher level interests to their own liking and need, as well as prepare them for any of their endeavors post graduation.

VOLUNTEERISM - 

Most schools offer or encourage, probably not as many as high schools that do, and at the MAC it is required.

Candidates will be required to perform 100 hours over the three years, which are not considered program hours because internal reward is the reason for volunteering in the real world.

Study, promote, create, and participate in volunteerism, not just because it is a resume builder, but because it is right, just, and required by those of a blessed life.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS SUPPORT - 

It is the firm belief of the MAC founder that parts of the Family Educational Rights and Protections Act (FERPA) are incongruous with student success - and not a principle of success in general.

Teamwork, however is a principle of success.

And the MAC wants support from family and friends - it is required.

In a situation where your child (over18) is struggling academically or otherwise, your college can't inform you because of FERPA.

We will not allow helicoptering, but if the situation necessitates it - we want you onboard and on the team to help your child.

We refuse to ignore any human capital that can help your child be successful.

ACCREDITATION - 

If, for state regulations, we are required to be accredited by a recognized body, we will meet or exceed all the required elements.

However, we believe in "accreditation by validation".

We will have a litany of higher education professionals; presidents, professors, and other qualified peoples review, critique, and offer solutions that show what we are doing at the MAC is better than what is required, and that which needs improvement. 

I will put our institution against any other, without fear or hesitation.

You can have your accreditation, my money is on our program and results of the candidates while enrolled and after graduation.

ADVISING - 

They advise, occasionally, maybe during class selection, maybe some sort of "check in", or related to post graduation plans.

Our advisors are present on a daily basis, intimately aware of their charges, and therefore better adept at giving support, direction, and points of improvement.

Having a designated advisor, doesn't exclude you from sourcing any employee of the MAC.

RETENTION - 

Promoting retention strategies is a relatively recent practice, probably because not everyone stays in school, or at the same school, for more reasons than worth listing.

I feel they need to focus on retention as an administrative mission because they likely don't focus on appropriate candidates for enrollment, academic and non-curricular programming are not designed well enough, and because the students' relationship to the school is primarily transactional and sparse.

Everything about the MAC explicitly says, come here, stay here, finish here.

Our staffing and our programming are our retention plans.

DIPLOMA - 

Even our diploma is amazing.

A diploma from "the MAC" is not a piece of paper for the wall or to be stored away.

We issue a solid gold business card sized diploma.  The college name, degree, and mission 'Be amazing.  Do amazing.  Kaizen.', on the front, and the candidate's name and graduation date on the back.

Imagine going for your interview with a solid gold diploma and a thumb-drive portfolio with everything you did while enrolled.

This isn't rock, paper, scissors - gold beats paper - every day of the week and twice on Sundays!

Oh yeah, your diploma will likely come with a refund too - please name an institution that does that.

ADMISSIONS - 

One of our major points of differentiation will be the option of bidding for enrollment, what we refer to as "bidstering" (read more on Admissions page)

That's right, you can BID TO ENROLL!

Definitely read our Admissions Page.

FOOD - 

Each student at times will be a "patrol leader" (I am an Eagle Scout), planning menus, budgeting, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and delegating.  Leaders will incorporate lessons from their Nutritional Course, input from the other seven patrol members, and other sources to manifest the meals of the week.

Whether the food will be better or not is on your child that week    : )

Food is not just ingesting sustenance, 

The MAC believes it is a learning and character building moment flush with communal memories- how many other students across the college sector will have as many fun or interesting experiences eating with their peers.

DORMS -

What dorms? We don't need no stinking dorms.

They are expensive, geo-locking, unimpressive, and not as cool as traveling to so many awesome places to sleep.

We will use a variety of living arrangements.  The most common will be camping and hosteling.

There is just such lack of value living in a dorm. 

There is no college dorm at Glacier National Park, or Disney World, or in the Grand Canyon, and a cornucopia of our other landing spots across the USA and our international destinations.  

I suppose if you need group bathrooms, a roommate that's hard to get rid of,  noisy disrespectful neighbors, running water,  somewhat controllable room climate, and the same views everyday, well, then you definitely should not apply - in fact, please don't apply.

All that said, occasionally we will use dorms at colleges during their summer breaks as it is an affordable way to stay near big cities for a longer and more affordable way.  Specifically, we will implore this strategy in London and Paris.

COMMUNITY - 

Ever feel "alone in a crowd"?

Many students suffer social difficulties after they've been handed their relationships for the last 18 years or so, and then face the gauntlet, the challenges of college life , whether at a big or small institution.

We feel our community bonds will be significantly easier to make, nurture, and enjoy post graduation because the nature of our cohort formation.

Your peers and leaders of the cohort, the connection of families to the cohort, and friends around the world you just haven't met yet.

Community is integral to mental, emotional, physical health, as well as academic and professional success.

Interdependence, where the individual and the group are reliant on each other for their success, one helping the other in a controversial "chicken and egg" philosophical debate.

WELLNESS - 

If we didn't care about wellness, how could we have created this college?

Wellness is built into the chosen candidates, and our programming, whether it's eating, traveling, sports, academics, and more.

Students will be required to provide a mental health assessment as a part of the application process, and include prescheduled counseling sessions during their enrollment.

The MAC will also have mental health practitioners on-call for candidates as needed. 

COSTS - 

If our costs are more it's because we do more, if our costs are less it's because we are "wicked smaht".

The cost of enrollment may actually decline, and result in a reduction during enrollment, or a graduation refund, because some expenses are amortized over years.  Since this is the first cohort, families will pay the upfront costs of things that will be paid down by ensuing cohorts.

It is likely that our program costs less than many "tier one" schools. 

Also, while communal eating is usually cheaper, we will also designate special eating opportunities for the cohort e.g. eating at a famous hot dog stand in L.A.,  or popular smoke house, the turkey leg at Disney's Magic Kingdom, combination eating and entertainment experiences in Las Vegas, hundreds of opportunities to experience international foods, and even those over-priced posh cult donut eateries.

To be explicit, our draft budget is teetering around $330,000 for all three years.

Our institutional budget is about $72K, the rest is basically about your child.

If you don't sense the value we put on educational spending for each candidate, well at this point I shouldn't have to explain it - and won't - just move on please.

Our ongoing financial records will be an open book.  You will be able to observe expenses on a regular basis.

We are budgeting on the high side because I really want The MAC to refund your family for expenses that obviously were not spent.

Can other institutions claim that?