School is right around the corner for many students in the area, and anyone looking to begin or finish an associate’s or bachelor’s degree this fall may still have the time to do so, as Georgia Perimeter College is still accepting applications for its fall semester.

GPC President Rob Watts stopped by GPC’s Newton campus on Monday, where his discussed the college’s three-year bachelor’s in business administration program with Georgia Southwestern University, its military outreach efforts, the school’s dual enrollment program, and its ongoing orientation and open houses.

Watts said the school will register students until Aug. 19.

"If anyone has gotten out of high school and has spent the summer working and … is thinking about going to college, or someone who’s working full-time and wants to go to school at night, there’s still an opportunity for someone to apply and to be admitted to the college and start this fall," he said.

Watts said at GPC’s Newton campus, students have the opportunity to take core courses (usually classes taken during a student’s freshman and sophomore years) that are needed to pursue a bachelor’s degree at a four-year college. He said these courses are fully transferrable to other university-system institutions.

"It’s a great place to start," Watts said. "Compared to some of the higher-priced colleges that people read [about], Georgia Perimeter College remains one of the financial bargains in higher education. It costs … a little more than $100 a week to go to Georgia Perimeter College to pay your tuition and fees, and that in higher education terms is a very big bargain for students."

Watts said Georgia has 1.2 million people who have started college but never finished and said that there is a tremendous pool of talent in Georgia. He said the job market is changing, and it’s important for students to know that furthering their education will help them get a good job in the future.

"It’s no longer sufficient to have a high-school diploma to get a good job. Increasingly, you have to have a two-year degree, a four-year degree, a certificate or a post-secondary diploma of some sort," he said. "Those are the jobs of the future."

Enrollment at Newton’s GPC campus is trending at about 2,300 students for the upcoming academic year, Watts said.

He said many students choose to attend GPC because of its accessibility, transfer classes, affordability, and academic quality.

Watts said the school’s three-year bachelor’s in business administration program with Georgia Southwestern University in Americus is growing in popularity.

Students who choose this degree path take two years of courses in business administration, either on campus or online at GPC, and then enroll in Georgia Southwestern’s BBA program. The program offers the degree with an emphasis in human resources management, management and accounting, and is run out of GPC’S Newton campus.

"It’s a very good program for someone who is motivated, driven, and determined to get through college, but not take four years," Watts said.