Meet The Big Commuters On Campus

You probably see them everyday and can't tell them apart from those who live on this beautiful campus. Or maybe you can tell them apart, their heavy back packs almost breaking their backs as they run from the office to home to school to pick up their kids. This is the story of some of the commuter students of different universities.

All these students have different challenges. For evening students, it's a quick dash from the long day at the office to the day care before making it to Biology class on time. The graduate students have to worry about school, school and more school - in addition to all those other responsibilities (family, work, etc). Daytime part-timers have the morning rush hour to worry about, hour long gaps to kill between classes and evening jobs to run to.

A growing number of commuters are forking over weekend time to earn an MBA and commuting sometimes astronomical distances to do it. While weekend executive MBA programs were designed as a convenience for local executives who couldn't miss work for school, EMBA students are increasingly drawn from afar. According to the Executive MBA Council, 22% of EMBA students travel 100 miles or more, up from 11% two years ago. Those with international commutes jumped from 2% to 4%. EMBA students routinely fly to the U.S. from Korea, China, Singapore, and Bahrain for programs at Wharton West, the University of North Carolina, and Columbia University.

Well there are certain benefits which people get out of it. These are:

• The first and foremost are the students who get there MBA degrees while working.

• The second benefit is for the institute, because they get new students. This is helpful not only financially but culturally also. An example on how it is beneficial to institutes, When layoffs cut Eastman Kodak's Rochester (N.Y.) staff from 28,100 in 1998 to 12,500 last year, the University of Rochester was hit hard. The company once sent 15 students a year to Rochester's EMBA program. This year it sent none.

• The third benefit is to the Airlines company, which get frequent flyers for themselves, thus earning quite a lot.