Before Georgia natives Jessica Torch and Jennifer Edelston came to the university from a small Jewish high school in the suburbs of Atlanta, they knew they wanted to attend a university with a strong Jewish population. But the thought of paying out-of-state tuition almost kept them out of College Park.
Then, they found out about the Academic Common Market, a program that allows students from 16 Southern states to attend schools outside their state and yet pay in-state tuition if their state schools don’t offer their desired
Before Georgia natives Jessica Torch and Jennifer Edelston came to the university from a small Jewish high school in the suburbs of Atlanta, they knew they wanted to attend a university with a strong Jewish population. But the thought of paying out-of-state tuition almost kept them out of College Park.
Then, they found out about the Academic Common Market, a program that allows students from 16 Southern states to attend schools outside their state and yet pay in-state tuition if their state schools don’t offer their desired majors. Because no public institutions in Georgia offer Jewish studies, both Torch and Edelston were able to come to this university at the in-state price.
“Maryland is known for its strong Jewish population,” said Torch, a a junior Jewish studies and philosophy major. “But the ACM makes it an even more popular choice.”
The ACM was created in 1974 to free Southern universities and colleges from providing every area of study their competing institutions have and to allow students in participating schools more academic opportunities. About 2,000 new students a year enroll in the program, said Director of ACM Programs Dawn Bristo, and there are up to 10,000 students across the South using the program at a time.
The ACM is governed by the Southern Regional Education Board, an education consortium that analyzes educational trends in 16 southern states, including Maryland, Virginia and Georgia.
“There are a host of reasons why states participate,” Bristo said. “Namely, it allows states to share programs and avoid program duplication.”
Bristo said the ACM is “usually for very specialized programs,” and it allows smaller programs to exist because it brings students together from across the South.
Students native to Maryland can also participate in the ACM. The most popular out-of-state programs for native Marylanders are marine science, the recording industry at Middle Tennessee State University and fashion and interior design in West Virginia.
Across the 16 states, Library and Information Studies is one of the ACM’s top programs, because public schools in Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, among others, do not offer that area of study, Bristo said. Because of the ACM, graduate students from those states can potentially come to this university and enroll in our Master of Library Science Program, said Diane Barlow, associate dean of the College of Information Studies.
A university that cannot fill small programs with their own students can rely on ACM students to enroll in them, Bristo said.
“It helps the university and the state because the university can’t sustain a small program on its own, but if you are getting the dollars from the out-of-state students, it gives you the incentive to go ahead and keep the program,” Bristo said.
The ACM also limits competitiveness between states by increasing the level of cooperation.
“Some states have areas of expertise, with wonderful departments,” said Helen Szablya, director of communications at the Maryland Higher Education Commission. “It doesn’t make sense for the state next door to try to offer that area of study also.”
Three states – North Carolina, Florida and Texas – only use the ACM for their graduate programs. Morris Dean, the ACM manager at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, one of this university’s peer universities, said because those three states have such extensive undergraduate programs, they don’t need to send students to other states. However, their graduate programs are less extensive, and so they participate in the ACM at the graduate level.
“Our own undergraduate programs are so strong that if we opened those up to the ACM, we would have a huge influx of out-of-state students,” Dean said, “and many fewer students would be leaving.”
Torch, now a junior, said her involvement in the ACM has been positive.
“Yeah, it’s worked out really well,” she said. “I like it, it’s cheaper. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a Jewish studies major, but once I found out about the ACM, it was an added incentive. I don’t know if I necessarily would have majored in it beforehand if not for the ACM.”
Edelston, a freshman communications and Jewish studies major, said although there is already a “huge draw” to this university in her small Jewish community, the ACM is an “extra draw.” She said she knows students who are afraid Georgia might start its own Jewish studies program, because they really want to come to this university paying in-state tuition.
Contact reporter Kevin Rector at rectordbk@gmail.com.
