Nor would most of those attending One Day U, the start-up that's bringing Ivy League cachet to the workaday world of adult learning.
The daylong seminars feature four smart lectures on a variety of topics by world-class professors in a college setting. Odds are the local night school isn't offering the likes of "Neuroscience: On the Frontier of the Brain, Learning, and Memory."
Continuing education is a $6 billion industry with an array of programs that range from the basics of automotive repair and real estate sales to personal enrichment and spiritual realization, according to William Draves, president of Learning Resources Network, a national association for continuing education.
The business is expected to grow to $8 billion by 2011, as well-educated baby boomers pursue their love of learning into their golden years.
"They've moved on from an interest in professional development to a new stage of life in which they are interested in avocational and leisure programs," Draves said. "Gourmet canoeing is the ultimate boomer course."
It's for them that Galvin, 38, and his partner, Steven Schragis, 51, founded One Day U in 2006, and it comes to Villanova University tomorrow.
The $219 program goes well beyond the ubiquitous flower arranging and French cinema offerings found at many universities and night schools.
Distinguished professors deliver shortened versions of their most popular lectures in international law, politics, art, music, theater, history or psychology. The program, which includes lunch, runs in 10 cities, including Boston, New York and Washington, and draws 300 to 500 people an event. The average age is 59.
"It's a pretty educated, upscale group," Schragis said.
