Question about NA associate degree with RA bachelors

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Oherra, Dec 24, 2003.

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  1. Oherra

    Oherra New Member

    I have a minor question regarding accreditation that perhaps some of you can offer a little insight and opinion on.

    When I first started going to college I knew nothing at all about accreditation. I simply went to the local state technical college Okefenokee Tech and registered for classes. In this area OTC is regarded very highly and they maintain a wonderful relationship with all of the employers in their service area. In fact the state of GA warranties all technical college graduates for a period of 2 years. If you are hired by a company within two years of graduation, and that company finds you deficient in your field, the state will retrain you at no cost to either you or the employer.

    OTC offers numerous programs leading to a certificate, diploma, or associate degree. In my case, because I always intended to finish a bachelor’s degree later, I chose the associate degree and I completed an Associate of Applied Technology in Computer Information Systems.

    I enjoyed this program immensely and found it extremely rewarding and very challenging, my employer was thrilled I had completed the program, and all in all I was not aware of any problems with “accrediting” until…
    I tried to transfer into a bachelor’s program at the closest state University.

    This is when I found out OTC was accredited but that their accreditation was different and somehow unacceptable (I won’t say inferior because I don’t really want to start the whole NA vs RA debate) to the accreditation of Valdosta State University.
    OTC is accredited nationally by The Council on Occupational Education which is recognized by CHEA.

    Some colleges wouldn’t take OTC’s credits at all, Valdosta and several other colleges I checked with would have taken my technical coursework, but the entire core (English, college algebra, statistics, economics, psych, speech, etc. would have to be repeated at Valdosta (or another RA school). That would have tacked an extra year, perhaps more if a class was cancelled or full, or only offered at a time I couldn’t attend. This was unacceptable to me, and so began my search for colleges that would take all of my OTC credits.

    This is when I found degreeinfo and other sites and began to learn about accreditation in the US. After doing my own research I decided personally that I would get the greatest utility out of an RA degree, and so after evaluating the DL RA schools that would take my OTC degree. I enrolled in American Intercontinental University and am just about to complete (I have 3 courses left) a Bachelors of Information Technology.

    Now my question to you all is…. (and you were wondering if I would EVER get to my point)….

    After receiving the bachelors from AIU who accepted all of my OTC coursework, when I am applying to graduate programs and they ask me to send a transcript from all colleges I attended, does it matter to them that my associate is only nationally accredited or do they simply look at the bachelor’s from AIU which is RA?
     
  2. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Hi Jason. I think you will be OK. Mind, I have not researched it by science superior to all comers, still less (unlike some) am I infallible. My belief is that since the higher degree is RA, that will "cover" for the NA degree to whatever extent at a particular school it needs "covering". Be ready to point out the two kinds of accreditation if they ask you to do so. If you get turned down for this reason and want to argue the point, you can certainly document the legitimacy of NA accreditation. Best wishes to you.
     
  3. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I'm not a professional educator, nor do I play one on TV. But I don't think that you should worry unnecessarily.

    When your graduate school verifies accreditations, it will be for the school that granted your bachelors degree. I wonder if admissions clerks would even bother to investigate the accreditation of every other school that you ever attended. They just verify that you meet the university's published graduate admissions requirements, normally an accredited (usually interpreted as RA) bachelors degree. You have that.

    If admissions are highly competitive, a departmental selections committee might get a list of applicants that meet the general admissions standards and then choose from among them. It's harder to predict what would happen then. They could be looking for a lot of things.
     
  4. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    I would be very surprised if any graduate program made an issue of this. As Janko mentioned, I really think that the RA Bachelor's degree "covers" the NA degree.

    Just about every RA graduate program I've seen requires a RA or "properly accredited" undergrad degree for admission. I can't imagine how a degree from AIU wouldn't satisfy either requirement.
     
  5. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    I believe as the other responses in the thread, that the Bachelor's degree will blanket the associates degree. Your Bachelor's degree is RA. An Associates degree is not required for graduate school.
     
  6. Oherra

    Oherra New Member

    Thanks for all the replies. I thought as much, but wanted to check :)

    Merry Chirstmas to you all!
     
  7. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    No, it will not matter. :)

    The graduate school will simply look to see that you have a Bachelors degree from an RA school. Some graduate programs might require that you have taken certain undergraduate courses, but that's another ball of wax. :eek:
     
  8. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    No, it will not matter. :)

    The graduate school will simply look to see that you have a Bachelors degree from an RA school. Some graduate programs might require that you have taken certain undergraduate courses, but that's another ball of wax. :eek:
     
  9. Jacques

    Jacques New Member

    AAT

    Hi,

    I believe that this has more to do with the associate of applied technology.

    I live in Georgia, and I have learned that AAT is looked at differently than an AA or AS.

    Also, in Georgia, the technical colleges are looked at as a step-child to the college and university system in Georgia.

    I don't know when you went, but now the HOPE grant-which is different than the HOPE scholarship-will pay for any Georgia citizen's certificate or diploma at the technical colleges. A great deal! Grades are not considered like the HOPE Scholarship.

    My family is a fan of the tech schools in Georgia and very thankful for the HOPE grant.

    Maybe emailing someone here could explain why the AAT is not considered the same as an AA or AS:
    http://www.dtae.org/personnel.html
     
  10. philosophy

    philosophy New Member

    Don't perceive any problems

    As others have stated, I don't perceive any problems with being able to have your degree accepted in grad school provided that the degree is from a regionally accredited school. The rule of thumb is that as long as the degree was issued by a regionally accredited institution, that because you actually were awarded the degree from a regionally accredited school, this is usually sufficient for the receiving institution (where you plan to go to grad school.) The only time that there might pose a problem is if you did not receive your degree from a regionally accredited institution, and then wanted to try and get these credits from the nationally accredited school to be accepted. Then, the college or university could state that they would not accept these credits. However, once a degree in conferred from the regionally accredited school, then this sort of puts the pressure on the other school to accept you as a student.

    The only thing that bares to mind is that if a school requires so much of undergraduate courses in a specialized field, then sometimes they might ask you to take a couple courses to meet these prerequisites i.e. if you were required to have a Statistics Course, or if you wanted to major in Psychology, and did not have many courses in this area, then they might require you to fulfill some of these before you could be fully accepted into the graduate program. However, generally a Bachelors degree from a regionally accredited school is sufficient.

    One last point I would make is that wherever you decide to go to grad school, some colleges will require you to take the GRE or some other similar test and score a certain score in order to be accepted into the grad school. These are just things that you will need to check out in terms of what the grad school requires. Being that you are receiving a Bachelors degree, in general, you will be admitted with no problems, and will just start into a new program, as undergraduate courses are not transferred into a graduate program, and usually this works the same as well as graduate courses not being transferred into undergraduate courses, as this is designed for those specific areas of concentration dependent upon what course of study you pursue. One last point, I don't think that you need to make issue with regard to the fact that your associates degree is from a nationally accredited school, my experience has been that honesty is always the best policy, and if the grad school presses you on this issue, then you can honestly answer this if and when they ask. Otherwise, sometimes it is best to not give so much information out because by doing so, you could find yourself dealing with something that might have not been an issue in the first place. Hope this helps. Good luck!
     
  11. Jeff Hampton

    Jeff Hampton New Member

    Re: AAT

    Believe it or not, this is a huge issue with the regional accrediting bodies. Generally, it's a matter of faculty qualifications. Teaching technical classes does not require the same qualifications as academic classes. (Associate's degree plus experience for technical classes: Master's degree for academic classes.)

    Some people believe that technical courses should never be applied toward an academic degree. Other people think the distinction is arbitrary and ridiculous. However, the accreditors tend to take note of it, so universities are often reluctant to accept technical credits toward an academic bachelor's degree.
     
  12. Oherra

    Oherra New Member

    Re: AAT

    I am a huge fan of the tech schools in GA and the university system is working with them a bit . Valdosta State has a transfer program now and will accept the AAT towards a BAS IT. The only problem for me would have been that OTC was not yet reginally accredited so Valdosta would have made me repeat the core.

    I received HOPE, but not the hope grant. I was on the HOPE Scholarship because I was a degree seeking student, I had to maintain a 3.0 or higher.
     
  13. Oherra

    Oherra New Member

    Re: Re: AAT

    This is very interesting to me and makes sesne. A number of the instructors I dealt with only had industry certifications but all of them were working on a degree. I believe it was OTC's intent to become regionally accredited which is why many of the staff members were trying to obtain degrees in their field.
     

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