associates degree questions (residency and transfer credits)

I have 40 credit hours from an ACICS college I attended. I was working on an A.S. in Business Administration: Computer Information Systems (ASBACIS?! when the school closed down. The state moved in and kept all the records, so at least I can still get valid transcripts. This was a good college, with very tough courses. It just had a very unfortunate change in leadership. It was very annoying at the time be

After that I went to a local RA community college and took 27 credit hours there. They did not accept the previous school's courses for transfer. Anyway I dropped out, got involved in IT, got certified, and have since had a career I am good at and enjoy. At this point I would like to get a degree just for completion's sake. A two-year degree is just fine with me, for now. At some point in time in the near future I will probably go back to an RA school and start from scratch on some new subject. But for now, the goal is simpler. I am leaning toward Kennedy Western because they would probably accept many of my transfer credits. Also I have heard from people attending there that the classes are challenging and interesting. However they are not accredited at all, and while I am basically just wanting a degree quickly for personal reasons, I also don't want to pay for something that might be regarded as a joke, or worse.

I realize that there is a great degree of emphasis placed here on regional accreditation, but I am not beyond looking to another a school which has CHEA recognized accreditation (ACICS, COE, DETC etc.) as long as they will at least consider looking at ACICS credits. Also I would definitely prefer a school which has no or a very small residency requirement. (Meaning, number of credits that must be taken towards a degree at the degree issuing school.)

-Jon

 

You fit the ideal candidate for the assessment route via Excelsior, TESC, or COSC. See BA_in_4_weeks and/or search for the same subject on this forum.

 

I agree. You can transfer the RA credits, get credit for your certifications, and test out of the classes you took at the NA school. Hopefully these were in ge areas and not in technical areas to avoid redundancy with your certs.

Good luck,
Tony

 

Charter Oak State College worked great from me. I have several certifications (MCSE,MCSA,N+, etc) and took a lot of CLEPS and DANTES exams to earn a BS.

I was able to pass some of the CLEP and DANTES because I had taken classes at an unaccreditied school. It gave me the knowledge but the classes were not transferable.

Also, if you really don't care if the school is regionally accreditied, check out Southern California University for Professional Studies (SCUPS). They offer an AA in Business Administration and only require 16 credits be taken with them.

Before you take the unaccredited route, you should be sure that it will satisfy you. I earned a BS and I am almost complete with my MBA from California Coast University and half way through the MBA, I started to work on my BS from COSC.

What ever you do, I would stay away from Kennedy Western.

 

Many thanks for the information. SCUPS looks good for what I need. The tuition is low as well.

 

Assuming you never, ever want to pursue a higher degree, you might (MIGHT) be correct. But the money and effort necessary to earn an associate's degree from SCUPS could get you one from an accredited school, along with a pathway towards a bachelor's degree.

Even if your only reason to get such a degree is the ego-centric one you cite, what you earn reflects upon you. How would your self-fulfillment be if you didn't just tell people what your educational level is, but also the true nature of the source? Or do you wish to be so closely identified with an inferior compromise?

(And let's not ignore that we're talking about earning an associate's degree, not an actual university degree.)

Your money, your choice. Enjoy.

 

I have looked over the SCUPS catalog, and I am aware of what I have already taken. I do not consider SCUPS an inferior choice, nor am I going to begin defending them. Beyond those who languish on a message board for hours on end, drinking their own bathwater, SCUPS does not have a bad reputation. In fact, if it does become accredited, that will simply be icing on the cake.

 

Whether or not you consider SCUPS an inferior choice, be advised that others do. And some of them might be making decisions about your "degree."

Your response is, by definition, defending your decision to take a SCUPS degree. So do it.

Being insulting won't change the nature of your unrecognized, unaccredited, untransferrable degree. Other than that, it sounds great.

SCUPS doesn't have a bad reputation? The only thing we've seen one way or the other, besides its lack of proper accreditation, is a scam it pulled a few years ago by altering and misusing its listing in Bears' Guide. Or didn't you check this board's threads on SCUPS?

Accredited? What could possibly make you think they'll ever be accredited? It's not like SCUPS is trying, you know. They've operated for more than a decade without even sniffing at accreditation. Its owner decided instead to open up a completely different school in another state in order to come under the jurisdiction of a different regional association. That doesn't sound like SCUPS is going to be accredited ever. Or didn't you know that?

Good luck with your SCUPS associate's degree. I sincerely hope it is all you ever wanted. Because it is all you'll ever get, taking that tack.

(Seriously, I'm not directing that at this poster. A SCUPS degree is utterly useless for academic purposes. It is a dead-end, leading only to other, equally unrecognized and unaccredited degree programs.)

 

Before you follow through on SCUPS, consider this - Charter Oak State College (RA) requires 60 credits for an AA degree. If you have 27 credits from an RA schools, experience/knowledge from a non-RA that can be applied to a CLEP/DANTES and IT certs, you may already have what is needed for an AA degree.

What certs do you have?

COSC gave me 19 credits for my MCSE & A+. At an AA level, I would make the extra effort needed for an RA degree. I am speaking from experience.

By the way, COSC, TESC, and Excelsior all have AA degrees requiring 60 credits. I just have experience with COSC.

 

Rich on SCUPS: "The only thing we've seen one way or the other, besides its lack of proper accreditation, is a scam it pulled a few years ago by altering and misusing its listing in Bears' Guide."

John: Not just that. They altered my write-up on some of their competition, to make them sound worse.

That's not exactly the only thing. There was the fact that they fell for Spy Magazine's sting operation and offered to sell a degree to Spy's undercover reporter (Feb. 1995 issue, I believe).

Oh, and then there was the wee matter of being identified as a "diploma mill" (the article's words, not mine; I would never call them a diploma mill) in the April 25, 1997 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, America's main national education newspaper. This was on the occasion of them, and four other institutions, being banned in Thailand.

 

I strongly disagree about your assertion that SCUPS does not have a bad reputation. From what I've seen, they either have a bad reputation or no reputation depending on the person. Thanks for asking the opinion of those who like drinking bathwater. I'm glad I could do you a favor.