Studying Emergency Management at Gaston College
Gaston College appears on our list of Online Emergency Management Degree Programs.
Emergency management professionals step up during a crisis to help those in need, but they also offer help prior to one of those events. Gaston College offers an emergency management degree program and a shorter certificate program. The degree program started as a fire protection technology major, which offered training for those who worked or wanted to work in fire departments. This new program prepares students for working with an in major government agencies and for nonprofit groups.
The Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Emergency Management takes two years to complete for students who enroll full time. They take some general education classes, including Professional Research and Reporting and General Psychology. Students will take 27 credits of required emergency management courses, including Incident Management, Sociology of Disaster, Emergency Management and Service Law and Ethics. The 22 hours of emergency management electives they take allow them to select courses based on their career goals. Those options include Municipal Public Relations, Critical Incident Management and Public Safety, Introduction to Homeland Security and Fire Prevention and Public Education.
Gaston College also offers an emergency management certificate program that includes only four courses. Designed for those who want to attend the police academy or show that they have an understanding of emergency management subjects, it includes 12 credits. Emergency Management, Emergency OPS Center Management, Terrorism and Emergency Management, and Response and Recovery are the four classes certificate students take. Gaston College has a fire and rescue certificate program too. This program includes different courses each month and allows students to maintain their certificates. There is also a public safety training course available for students who want to work in a public safety position. Those classes and programs allow students to enroll and register online.
About Gaston College
Gaston College is a large college in North Carolina. As a community college, it offers both standard degree and certificate programs and continuing education programs. The State of North Carolina awarded a charter for the new college in 1963. Though the college opened the following year, it did not yet have a permanent campus. Classes met in temporary spaces until the campus opened. The college chose a location conveniently placed between Gaston and Dallas. This campus remains the flagship school in the system, though Gaston now has campuses in two other North Carolina cities.
Most of the campuses in the system are in Gaston County, including those in Dallas and Belmont. Dallas is also home to the Regional Emergency Services Training Center. This center offers classes for emergency management majors and courses for those fire prevention and safety students. Lincolnton in Lincoln County is home to the college’s Lincoln campus, which offers multiple programs. This campus took over a former high school and added new buildings since opened in 1969. More than 5,000 students enroll in the traditional programs offered by the college each semester. It also has an enrollment of more than 16,000 students in its continuing education programs. Some of those students include those taking college classes while in a North Carolina high school. Gaston College also has some athletic teams that students can join.
Gaston College Accreditation Details
To ensure that it meets the standards for accreditation, Gaston College established a review committee that is responsible for maintaining all those standards. That committee helped the college get and renew the regional accreditation it holds from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which comes from its Commission on Colleges. The SACSCOC accreditation that Gaston holds is what allows the college to accept credits from students who attended other schools and to offer financial aid packages that include government funds.
Gaston College Application Requirements
Any student applying to an emergency management program must meet the requirements listed on the college’s checklist. They will need to fill out a residency form that helps the college decide if they are residents and if they qualify for the in-state tuition rate. Students must also complete the application for admission, which is available online. The college asks students to use the residency form first because they will receive a number that they will need to put on the application. They will also need to provide a high school transcript or a college transcript. Gaston accepts a GED transcript/score in lieu of a school transcript.
Most students must also provide an ACT or SAT score. The college waives this requirement if the student finished high school or took the exam more than 10 years ago. Students who do not submit a test score must take the RISE placement test. They can schedule a time to take the test online, but they must take the test at one of the Gaston College campuses. Once a student receives an acceptance letter from the college, he or she will attend an orientation session and register for classes. The college asks students to apply for financial aid before classes start too.
Tuition and Financial Aid
No matter how many classes a student takes, the college will not charge them any additional fees once they go above 16 credits. The cost for North Carolina residents is $76 per credit hour. Those students can take 16 or more credit hours of classes in a semester for a set rate of $1,216. Nonresidents pay $268 per credit hour and can take 16 or more credits for a flat rate of $4,288 per semester. Gaston also charges a technology fee of $16, a student activity fee of $15 and a usage fee of $12 each semester. Students will pay between $6 and $18 per credit hour for any classes they take that include labs.
Though the college is quite affordable, financial aid packages can bring students’ cost down even more. Gaston does not participate in any federal or alternative loan programs but offers other financial aid options for students. Those who complete the FAFSA can use both work study and grants to pay some of their costs. The FAFSA will also determine which students qualify for any of the college’s scholarships. These scholarships require that students use their online accounts to view and apply for each program. Students receive scholarship letters at the beginning of May each year. All the emergency management programs offered by Gaston College will accept those financial aid packages.