This year marks 番茄视频鈥檚 (ACE) 20th anniversary. We are thrilled to celebrate this milestone by focusing on both what ACE has accomplished and how we are pushing the boundaries of higher education itself to better serve the needs of today鈥檚 students.
The world looks a lot different now than it did in 2005, the year ACE was founded. But the motivation that drove our founders is largely the same as our motivation today 鈥� create a way for working adults to access truly affordable education that can move their careers forward.
Back in 2005, our founders asked themselves, 鈥淗ow can we provide teachers with master鈥檚 degrees for less than $5,000?鈥� It seemed like an impossible proposition. And yet, through intentional program design, a practical and tailored curriculum, and a school district partnership, we were able to make it happen.
Our first cohort was just 24 students, all of them teachers looking to advance their careers. And when they started to get leadership positions, word of ACE鈥檚 master鈥檚 degree spread. We went from 24 students to 500, all looking for the same education and opportunities that ACE could provide.
This was the first time we proved that higher education could be done differently from traditional colleges and universities. And since then, we have proved this over and over again.
- While other institutions bank on the money student loans provide through Title IV funding, we deliberately choose not to participate in the program.听
- While other institutions raise tuition, we haven鈥檛 done so since 2016, allowing 86% of our students to graduate without debt.听
- While other institutions offer online coursework that are adaptations of their in-person programs, our courses are native to the online environment, designed digitally from the ground up to take advantage of all the tools online education has to offer.听
ACE in 2025 looks a lot different than ACE in 2005. We now serve upwards of 11,000 active students, 44,000 alumni and provide over 60 programs at every academic level to professionals in a wide range of fields. But our core is still the same. We still design programs intentionally, with practical and relevant curriculum, and we still partner with school districts, businesses and organizations to create affordable continuing education opportunities.
Most importantly, we are still working every day to provide a way for working adults to access truly affordable education that can move their careers forward. It鈥檚 perhaps even more important now than it was in 2005, considering United States student loan debt sits at a . ACE has always sought to be a solution to this problem by proving that higher education can and should be done differently, and we will continue to do so, lighting the way forward for not just our students but all students who deserve the opportunity that higher education provides.
Experience how ACE is different by finding the right program for you to continue your educational journey. Explore our fully online degrees and certificates.
