An Application of Break-Even Analysis To Determine the Costs Associated with the Implementation of an Off-Campus Bachelor Degree Completion Program

This paper applies the management science tool of break-even analysis to determine the costs of implementing an off-campus bachelor degree completion program at a four-year private liberal arts college. The first section describes break-even analysis which, in this application, is calculated by dividing the total annual cost for a cohort of students by the annual tuition paid by one student and then applied to decisions concerning off-campus location program expansions or terminations. The next section describes the particular organizational setting for this application which is Warner Southern College (Florida), a small four-year private liberal arts college, and specifically, the college's School of Adult and Continuing Education's major in Organizational Management. The third section applies break-even analysis to the program which involved developing a spreadsheet to assist in determining the break-even point for each location. As a result of the study an administrative decision was made to continue offering the program at all seven locations.