1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

Transylvania vice president featured in report on the value proposition of college tuition

Transylvania Vice President for Enrollment and Student Life Holly Sheilley was recently featured by The Lane Report in its cover article on the value of a college education. Sheilley, along with higher education leaders from some of Kentucky’s public and private colleges, responded to a series of questions about what students attending college can expect as a return on their investment. According to The Lane Report, “For most prospective Kentucky college students today, affordability remains a top concern, but they are more willing to pay for postsecondary education if they know they will receive a high return on that investment. Namely, a job in their career field soon after they toss their mortar boards into the sky on graduation day.” At Transylvania, that success rate – placement in a job or graduate school – is 95% within six months of graduation. The Q&A below is excerpted from original article. To read the full article, visit The Lane Report online. Are today’s students more “transactional” in their choice of postsecondary education institutions, prioritizing acquisition of marketable skills in exchange for their tuition dollars? Holly Sheilley: Absolutely. In today’s digital environment, information is more transparent and readily available for prospective students than ever before. This access empowers students to handpick institutions that are most likely to help them develop marketable skills and deliver post-graduation success. For example, at Transylvania, we have an abundance of interest in pre-health and pre-law, primarily because of

Anthropology student offers different perspective to business world

Growing up in Cincinnati, Transylvania University senior Abby Cullen couldn’t quite put her thumb on what she wanted to do with her life. “That unsettled me,” she admits. But she hoped to work for the consumer. “I knew that, as a business person, I wanted to ensure that the customer was being respected and represented, and that their voice was always something in the back of our minds,” she explains. At the same time, she wanted the business to be successful. She just wasn’t sure how to “encapsulate it.” Although anthropology might not be seen as a traditional major for someone interested in business, Cullen says the discipline has helped her develop “very pertinent skillsets that apply to business fields.” She has made connections between the broad, structural theories she’s learned in the classroom and how to think about them in the context of the relationship between business and consumer. “I don’t think I had an a-ha moment as I was signing up for classes,” Cullen says, reflecting on how pursuing her interest in anthropology made her a better business job candidate. “It was more just being in class and seeing how these things actually connect pretty well. Not in the classical sense of being in a business class and talking about HR and diversity, but thinking about a cost analysis and how it is going to affect our consumer long-term, and how is it going to affect our quality.”