Rivet School is not a university. We partner with accredited universities to enable our students to earn bachelor’s degrees. Currently, our main degree partner is Southern New Hampshire University. Southern New Hampshire University (or SNHU) is a private, nonprofit university established in 1932 and located in Manchester, New Hampshire (not far from Boston).

‍

Rivet School students enrolled in SNHU participate in a special online program called College for America, which SNHU launched in 2014 in partnership with the United States Department of Education and the Gates Foundation. Students graduate Rivet School with an accredited bachelor’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University and with a certificate of completion from Rivet School itself.

Yes. We only partner with regionally accredited, nonprofit universities. (Regional accreditation is the highest form of accreditation, and credits earned through regionally accredited programs are the most likely to transfer.)

Our university partner (SNHU) provides a flexible, online, and accredited degree program for our students. This includes feedback from instructors who review student work. University partners also manage the financial aid process, and provide tech support and other academic resources. Rivet School pairs students with a personal academic coach, helps students stay on track through structured programming, provides tutoring when students get stuck, offers supplemental career coaching and training, and provides resources like a laptop, childcare, and coworking space, and more. While we play different roles, Rivet School and our university partners work closely to provide fellows a seamless learning experience.

Students enrolled in degree programs offered through Southern New Hampshire University begin in the "associate degree track." Once students earn their associate degree, they then begin their bachelor’s degree coursework. (Students who have under 60 transferable credits have the option to have a course by course evaluation, and may be eligible to transfer credits to the “associate’s degree track”. Students who enter into our program with 60 transferable credits — or already having earned an associate’s degree — may be eligible to begin directly on the BA track.

Enrolling in Rivet School is a serious commitment. Most Rivet School students spend between 7 and 15 hours on schoolwork each week.

‍

Because Rivet School is designed to work around your needs and schedule, there are no specific in-person requirements for the program. We do offer many local / in-person resources, from face-to-face meetings with your coach, to co-working space, to group study sessions and gatherings.

In most college programs, you earn credits by taking courses that run for a certain number of weeks (typically 14-16 weeks). It doesn’t matter how smart you are, or how well you know the material, or how much you study — to earn your credits, you have to sit through 15 weeks of class. Rivet School is different. Rivet School partners with university programs that are “competency-based.” In plain English, in a competency-based program, you earn credits not based on how long you sit in a seat (or study), but on how well you know the material. As soon as you’ve demonstrated that you understand a concept or skill (for instance, by completing a project or taking an assessment), you can move on. By combining a competency-based degree and all the support that Rivet School offers (from accountability support, to supplemental teaching and tutoring, to many more resources), we can help you dramatically increase your pace to a degree. Around 25% of Rivet School students are on track to earn a BA in two years or less.

We believe that college programs should be 100% focused on doing what’s best for students. We also recognize the troubling legacy of for-profit higher education in this country.

For these reasons (and others), Rivet School is a non-profit educational program with one mission: To help you earn a job-relevant degree as efficiently as possible.

If you have a high school diploma or a GED (or other equivalent) and are older than 18 years old, you're eligible to apply to Rivet School.

‍

Here’s how you apply to Rivet School:

Learn about Rivet School & request an application.

First, take some time to learn about our program by reviewing our website. If you think Rivet School might be a fit for you, your first step is to request an application, which you can do here.

Apply.

The Rivet School application includes some basic questions about your background and goals, as well as a series of "readiness checks" — exercises to help us make sure you're prepared to succeed in our program. All together, completing an application should take 2-4 hours.

Welcome!

If we decide you're a good fit for Rivet School, we'll welcome you into onboarding — a 6-week trial period where you'll get started on college work. If, during onboarding, you find it difficult to meet program expectations, or otherwise decide that Rivet School isn't the right fit, that's totally fine. During this time, you can exit the program with no financial penalty or obligation.

We have application deadlines every other month. To view our upcoming application deadline, visit our homepage, or request an application by clicking the red "apply" button in the navigation bar.

If you’re accepted to a College for America program, you’ll pay $2,333 per 16-week trimester (or around $7,000 per year). This includes $1,166 in tuition to SNHU, and $1,166 in student support fees to Rivet School. There are no additional costs to the program (like textbooks, for instance). All Rivet School students begin their journey with a six-week, no-risk onboarding period and trial. If, before the end of this trial period, you decide to withdraw from the program (or find that you are unable to meet program expectations), you don’t pay anything.

Rivet School students may be eligible for a variety of financial aid options, including the Federal Pell Grant (you can estimate your eligibility using the federal government’s student aid forecaster here), and an interest-free loan offered by a Rivet School partner, Hebrew Free Loan of San Francisco. As part of your application and Onboarding experience, we’ll help you navigate student finances and financial aid, and come up with a plan that works for you.

No — we welcome all applicants (as long as you have a high school diploma, GED, or other equivalent).

If you’ve earned 60 or more credits from an accredited institution — or if you’ve earned an accredited AA or AS — you will likely be eligible to begin your studies directly with College for America’s BA program (skipping the AA and significantly reducing your time to degree). If you have under 60 transferable credits, you have the option to have a course by course evaluation, and may be eligible to transfer credits to the “associate’s degree track”.

Each institution has its own rules about credit transferability, and so we can't 100% guarantee that credits you earn in the program will transfer fully to a future institution of your choice. That said, previous students enrolled in Southern New Hampshire University have successfully transferred credits to schools in the University of California and California State University systems.