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Making College More Affordable: College of St. Joseph Announces Chromebook Initiative and Deposit Match Program

  • 02/13/18

RUTLAND, VT – College of St. Joseph (CSJ) is strengthening its commitment to affordable education with its latest initiative to give students a Chromebook at the start of the 2018-19 academic year.

By providing each full-time undergraduate student with a Chromebook, CSJ will reduce the burden of expensive textbooks and supplies. As part of this initiative, CSJ faculty members are making a commitment to use quality course materials that are available in free or lower-cost electronic formats for use on the Chromebooks. The device will be the students’ to keep after the withdrawal period of the fall semester.

According to College Board, the average cost of textbooks and supplies for students at a private, nonprofit college is $1,220 for the 2017-18 academic year and $1,250 at a public four-year college.

“College affordability is an issue we take seriously at CSJ, and the cost of textbooks should not be a barrier to students achieving their dreams,” says Dr. Robert Goddard, vice president for Academic Affairs. “We are making every effort to remove the hurdles that students may face when it comes to finding an education that is both high quality and affordable. Any way that we can keep costs low for students increases access to the kind of life-changing education that College of St. Joseph brings to students.”

Chromebooks are portable, lightweight laptops that run on the Google Chrome operating system, which incorporates Google’s services, such as Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Sheets. The laptops offer a long battery life and store information in the cloud. This allows students to work from any location that offers WiFi and helps students avoid lost work due to hard drive failure or misplaced laptop. College of St. Joseph already uses the Google for Educators suite of products, also available to students, which will ensure that the Chromebooks seamlessly integrate into the College’s Google-based services.

Additionally, CSJ is offering a way for new, incoming students to get a head start on paying for their electronic books, through a new Deposit Match program. Accepted students may make an optional tuition deposit of either $250 or $500, and the college will match that deposit, and apply those funds toward the cost of first semester e-books. Students who elect to pay the customary $100 unmatched deposit may continue to do so.

These innovative strategies, along with CSJ’s reduced tuition, Provider Scholarship Program, and generous financial aid packages continue to make College of St. Joseph one of the most affordable colleges in the entire Northeast.

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