PRESQUE ISLE, Maine —To support Maine community college graduates aiming to “level up” with a bachelor’s degree and open doors to new economic opportunities, the University of Maine at Presque Isle has established LevelUP, a new tuition incentive program. Maine community college graduates taking advantage of Transfer ME, the new guaranteed admission agreement between the University of Maine System and the Maine Community College System, can now do so even more affordably through this discount program.
LevelUP is specifically designed for those who have earned an associate’s degree or certificate at an MCCS campus — at any time — and have not yet earned a bachelor’s degree.
“With our LevelUP program, we’re helping learners get from A to B — from their associate’s degree or certificate to their first bachelor’s degree, no matter how long it’s been since they completed their first degree or certificate,” UMPI President Ray Rice said. “UMPI is not only guaranteeing admission to the next cohort of Maine community college graduates through the Transfer ME program, but also providing significantly reduced tuition for all MCCS graduates through our LevelUP program.”
“LevelUP supports all MCCS graduates as they look to upskill and grow into higher level and better paying positions that Maine employers are looking to fill, and it provides another way for UMPI to expand access to the hundreds of thousands of working-age Mainers who have yet to earn a four-year degree,” he said.
There are three cost-saving categories within the LevelUP program:
MCCS graduates who enroll full-time in UMPI’s 15-week semester programs (both in person and online) and are eligible for UMPI’s existing The Way It Should Be program;
MCCS graduates who enroll full-time or part-time in UMPI’s 15-week semester programs (both in person and online) and are not eligible for The Way It Should Be program; and
MCCS graduates who enroll in YourPace, UMPI’s online, competency-based program with six 8-week sessions throughout the year.
For the first category, the LevelUP program leverages UMPI’s The Way It Should Be program, the state’s first-ever free tuition program. Announced back in 2017, The Way It Should Be program provides free and significantly reduced tuition for eligible Mainers participating in 15-week semester programs: the Free for Four award covers tuition and fees for all full-time, Pell-eligible Maine residents with a Student Aid Index of $6,655 or lower, saving them more than $9,000 per year, and the For Maine Families award covers more than $4,000 in tuition and fees for full-time, non-Pell-eligible Mainers, reducing their costs by more than 40 percent.
For the second category, for those MCCS graduates who don’t meet the parameters of The Way It Should Be program, UMPI’s LevelUP program provides a 35 percent cost savings to full-time and part-time students participating in traditional undergraduate programs. This includes all programs offered in-person or online during the 15-week fall and spring semesters.
For the third category, the LevelUP program offers a 15 percent cost savings for all UMPI YourPace academic programs. These programs are asynchronous — meaning they’re offered 100 percent online with no regular class meeting times during six 8-week sessions held throughout the academic year. An individual must be 20 or older to participate in YourPace.
“In addition to all of these savings, as part of the LevelUP program, we will waive the tuition deposit for applicants. We are dedicated to providing tuition-saving opportunities for those who want to transfer to UMPI,” Susan White, vice president of enrollment services, said. “Our overarching goal here is degree completion — streamlining the process for MCCS graduates and making their individual journeys to a bachelor’s degree as affordable as possible.”
For more information, contact the UMPI Admissions Office at 207-768.9532 or umpi-admissions@maine.edu.
