UA to RA in Theology

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by dbelles, Jan 19, 2004.

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  1. dbelles

    dbelles New Member

    Have any of you earned a Doctorate from one of the non-mill, non-accredited schools, and then entered an accredited program using the course taken at the UA school as background or transfer credits?

    -When I say RA I'm including the overseas schools (UNISA, etc).

    I ask because Walston advocates using the less expensive UA schools to rack up credits and then transfer them to a RA program (assuming the RA program agrees to accept them). I want to know if any of you completed a UA doc program, then decided to get a RA research degree. How did the RA institution view your UA doctorate?

    Thanks,
    Dave
     
  2. dbelles

    dbelles New Member

    OK, I'd like to expand my question a bit since there were no responses to it as initially written.

    Have any of you started at an unaccredited school, and then transfered to an accredited research program where the credits from the unaccredited program were viewed favorably?

    Thanks,
    Dave
     
  3. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

    ===


    Hi Dave

    I'll mention a couple of things more or less related to what you are asking. There are but a very, very few US unaccredited programs in Theology which will allow one to enter a US RA doc program in Theology. Bob Jones MA grads have entered US PhD programs and Dallas TS favors one or two other unaccredited seminaries. These are not DL only schools. Such applicants to a US doc in Theology program would have to have the use of the Biblical languages most likely. I think all US evangelical schools offering a PhD/ThD require that and also a modern research language as German. IMO it is very, very unlikely that a grad of say Bethany of Dothan , Andersonville, or LBU would be ,on the basis of a masters from any of these or the like, accepted into a US RA doc program in Theology. But I may be wrong.

    When I applied to Unizul, there were two conditions for my acceptance besides the dissertation proposal being accepted. I first had to have written a master's thesis (they say dissertation) which evidenced my ability to do grad research in Theology. I had done this in the four year MDiv, ThM program at Western . This is sold by TREN. Secondly, I had to fax the Dean my transcripts AND copies of my diplomas AND evidence that my master's degrees were accredited. So, my hunch is that were my degrees unaccredited, I would not have been admitted.

    These particular examples are not overwheming evidence that no one with an unaccredited masters can normally enter an accredited research degree program, but it seems that accreditation may be a genuine issue. It certainly was in my case. That the MA from Point Loma is accredited gained me entrance into the Western MDiv/ThM and the latter got me into Unizul ThD. But when I entered the Point Loma MA in 1966 , I was not planning on beginning doc work in 2002. I did not foresee that.

    This is why I do not recommend that anyone go unaccredited even if doc work is not planned.

    One just does not know future needs or desires.
     
  4. telefax

    telefax Member

    Walston’s advice to get credits from an unaccredited school and transfer them to the accredited school of your choice doesn’t seem to take into account that very few accredited schools will cooperate in that endeavor. Of course, Walston operates his own unaccredited school, so take his advice with a considerable grain of salt.

    Yes, within the field of theology, there are some high quality schools whose graduates frequently get into highly competitive doctoral programs. Such schools that I am familiar with are Bob Jones University, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, and Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. In fact, some high profile scholars have done quite well with unaccredited degrees. Moises Silva, formerly of Westminster Theological Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Eugene Merrill of Dallas Theological Seminary both have unaccredited degrees from Bob Jones University.

    However, I do not know of any unaccredited distance learning schools that can duplicate the above. While I don’t dismiss unaccredited schools out of hand, I would suggest you be very careful in evaluating their claims. Not all unaccredited theological schools are fraudulent, but not all of them are high quality, either.
     

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