BUTLER — Butler County Community College has 36 career programs, 18 transfer programs, and 19 certificates in the areas of business, health care, humanities and social sciences, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

Students can earn a two-year degree or one-year short-term workplace certificate and start a career upon graduation. Seventy percent of BC3 students are enrolled in transfer programs with the goal of earning a bachelor’s degree.

BC3 credits are recognized by public, private, state-related, and online colleges and universities.

Through a partnership with PASSHE, students can earn an associate degree from BC3 in one of 12 programs and transfer to any Pennsylvania state institution with junior standing.

Degree completion partnerships with Chatham University, Clarion University, Indiana (Pa.) University, La Roche College, Robert Morris University, and the University of Pittsburgh give students the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in various programs while staying on BC3’s main campus through classroom, hybrid, and online courses.

BC3 offers affordable tuition at a fraction of the cost of a four-year public or private institution.

Eighty percent of BC3 students receive grants and scholarships to help them graduate debt free. The BC3 Education Foundation awards over $280,000 in scholarships to students each year.

BC3 was recently named the No. 1 community college in Pennsylvania by Schools.com and ranked number 13 in the state for distance education by OnlineColleges.com.

BC3 also was named a 2017 Military Friendly School by Victory Media.

This article was submitted by Butler County Community College.