Advice for people who are unhappy with their (accredited) DL degree

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Ike, Jun 25, 2004.

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  1. Ike

    Ike New Member

    1. Admit that your accredited DL degree may still face some kind of snobbery.

    2. Keep it and prove your worth to a prospective employer.

    3. Pursue another topnotch B&M program and stop grumbling.

    4. Return your diploma back to the school that awarded it and file a lawsuit.

    5. Just use your DL degree and be quiet.


    Option #3: There is one poster here who received two unaccredited degrees (B.S and MBA) from CCU. He decided to pursue an accredited degree a couple. I believe that he received a bachelor’s degree from Charter Oak State College earlier this year and is currently studying for a master’s degree. People who are not proud of their educational accomplishments can always enroll for a more respectable B&M program and stop gnashing their teeth.
     
  2. Han

    Han New Member

    Was this for the entire board or "one person". Maybe a PM would have been in order.
     
  3. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I wonder who you may be referring to??? :confused:
    I agree with you; if someone is unhappy with his or her degree, get another one.

    If you really are referring to me, I never complained about my CCU degrees. I made a choice and at the time, I felt it was the best one. As time went on, my situation changed, I re-evaluated it, and realized a RA degree would best meet my current and future needs.

    By the way, completed my Masters and enrolling in a PhD program.
     
  4. Ike

    Ike New Member

    Han:

    You have never complained about your fully accredited DL MBA, so my advice is certainly not for you.
     
  5. Han

    Han New Member

    I meant the person you are referring to above (I know it was not me) might have been a good person to the PM.
     
  6. Ike

    Ike New Member

    Re: Re: Advice for people who are unhappy with their (accredited) DL degree

    No, I wasn't referring to anybody in particular. I only referenced the choice that you made a couple of years ago. You chose to pursue an accredited degree and that’s commendable.

    Some posters are unhappy with their DL degrees or so it appears. My advice to such people is to go get another one like you did.

    To destroy a bridge only after crossing the bridge is a selfish thing to do, but that’s what I see happening in another thread.
     
  7. Ike

    Ike New Member

    Thanks. I could have done that if I was referring to any person in particular. It was a general statement..
     
  8. Mike Albrecht

    Mike Albrecht New Member

    Why be unhappy with their accredited degree?

    What if the degree is from a B&M school (but happens to be in a DL route)?
     
  9. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Re: Re: Re: Advice for people who are unhappy with their (accredited) DL degree

    Paranoia is one of my strengths :D
     
  10. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Oh, calm down. Ike's advice makes great sense. Anyone who is dissatisfied with their current degrees, whatever their provenance, can profit from what he says, making the appropriate changes in labels to fit his or her circumstances.

    His basic advice, if I'm reading it aright, is: COPE.

    Don't just sit there and bitch about woulda coulda shoulda. Do something constructive about it or move on. Acknowledge the limitations of your choice and recognize that not everyone's gonna like it. (In other words, don't escalate into full-time trolling when somebody expresses reservations about your beloved school.) Accept the fact that sometimes, very unusual circumstances call for very unusual remedies--that doesn't make those remedies suitable or even sensible for everybody. Recognize that if you choose an unaccredited school, or sometimes an NA school, the utility of your degree is going to be circumscribed, maybe severely; this is not the fault of folks who notice that fact. Recognize that the very best school will be sneered at by somebody; know your own needs and do not be rattled by that. Don't obsess. Just because you've got your heart set on such and such a school do not ignore sensible warnings against it from sensible quarters; if you proceed with such a school despite warnings, take personal responsibility for your choice--meaning neither get nasty with those who warned you nor let yourself be driven blindly on by your original impulse to enroll. If everything is always somebody else's fault, it isn't.

    Whuyutalkinbout? Yuluknatme?

    Yup. You know who you are. (I don't, but you do.)
     
  11. Han

    Han New Member

    Discrimination based on nothing is not something that should be "coped" with - I think (not knowing what the original post was driving at), is that some poeple feel there degree is not seen as good as B&M.

    I have my MBA from an AACSB school, and my step mother calls it "the online degree, worthless". I don't care what she thinks, but I do educate my HR department when they say an online degree is not as strong as a B&M degree, though from the same school.

    There was a time that certain people couldn't sit on a certain part of the bus, I am glad they didn't just "cope". We are pioneers, and we must fight the wrong as well (OK, sounds a little honkey, but is what I believe).
     
  12. Ike

    Ike New Member

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Advice for people who are unhappy with their (accredited) DL degree

    (Sans smiley)
    Paranoia? No. I am very proud of my master’s and PhD from Nova Southeastern University and I have been doing fine with my credentials from Nova.
     
  13. Ike

    Ike New Member

    Uncle:

    You understand fully the message that I was trying to convey. Thanks.
     
  14. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Good piece of advice. Few academics have told me that the idea to do a Post Doc and earn a postdoctoral certificate from a top university it is a good idea for someone with a DL Phd. Most post docs are paid positions and many universities grant a certificate for the efforts. A Post Doc certificate from a top school would kill any credibility argument about your doctorate.

    In some fields a Post Doc is a must given the competition, it is not the case for business but for competitive fields like biology or chemistry.
     
  15. JoAnnP38

    JoAnnP38 Member

    Isn't that what this entire thread is about? I believe that Ike thinks that the people making points about lack of rigor are talking about NSU (he's probably right). In response he comes out with a thread that basically says "shut up already!"

    How collegial.
     
  16. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Han: Pardon me for sounding like a foreign devil, but those are some of my relatives you're talking about on that bus. Also, typing "honkey" (when I think--or hope--you meant "hokey") in a post in which you insinuated insensitivity to racial discrimination on my part rather gives the lie to the whole thing, even though it covers my other relatives.

    Since your stepmother can't construe a basic adjectival phrase in normal English word order, who gives a rat's ass about her opinions on higher education?

    But thanks for introducing yourself!:p


    _________


    Dr Ike: My pleasure.
     
  17. Rich Hartel

    Rich Hartel New Member

    People with a DL degree should not be unhappy, look at all the people in the world who will never have the chance to earn a college degree of any sort.

    People should ask themselves, "Am I better off with a DL degree, or am I better off with no degree?

    A DL degree is certainly better than no degree!

    To all thoughs who have earned DL degrees, congrats for all your hard work!!

    Rich Hartel
     
  18. Han

    Han New Member

    I very much apologize, it should have said hokey, aka silly, simple, etc. I should have re-read it before I posted it, I am sorry.

    Also, my step mom is a teacher, go figure.
     
  19. Han

    Han New Member

    This is a bunch of bull. So I earned my degree from the University of Tulsa (Master's), are you saying that the B&M students earned a better degree than mine? Both the same degree, right?

    Mine is the SAME, not "better than no degree"!!!!!!!!!

    The method of which you get a degree is not this issue, other factors, such as accreditation, etc are..... all other things being equal, they are the same degree!

    Do you disagree?
     
  20. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    My DL masters degree was earned for my own personal growth. I rarely tell anyone else about it, so it hasn't generated very much reaction.

    Off this board, I can count snobbish reactions to my degree on one hand. Interestingly, none of these had anything to do with DL. They all involved "tiers" and the fact that my degree is from CSUDH and not from Berkeley or Stanford. A B&M degree from any "lesser" institution would have drawn the same reaction.

    Ironically, the anti-DL snobbery that I've personally encountered happened right here on Degreeinfo. I suppose that's to be expected, since it's all DL, all the time, so there are more occasions for all sorts of opinions.

    One thing that has influenced me more deeply than I'd like is the perception that it's probably our own professors who have the greatest contempt for DL students, for continuing education, for adult students generally, and for all the rest of the traditional/non-traditional nexus. These things are better received in the world of work than in the faculty club.

    I'm still struggling to come to terms with that extremely ugly perception. It's creating a bit of a personal crisis for me right now.

    Well, of course. We all are going to have to prove our worth anyway, degree or no degree.

    "Keeping it" might not be the right words. Can degrees, once conferred, be returned to a university? I think the issue here is accepting it, in psychologically embracing it, in being proud of it.

    It seems to me that if education is valuable, then it is valuable. That tautology is true DL or no DL, degree or no degree, accreditation or no accreditation. Education is to be embraced, wherever it's found.

    That's my policy with non-accredited schools. Find something to like about what they are doing, then like it. People can denounce the place as a "degree mill" all they like, but you can just smile, because you have your reasons.

    Often what we see are people who are looking for easy-admissions very-flexible DL programs offered by big name prestige universities. That's why some Degreeinfo participants wet their pants over Harvard Extension and why others pretend that University of London External Programme degrees really come from the London School of Economics.

    Though, to be fair, given my response to the first point, I can see real utility in doing precisely that. Many people out there (especially academics) are tremendously influenced by school name and it may make sense to leverage that. It's actually bullshit, but if it gets you what you want and if it isn't exactly illegal or unethical, then why not exploit it?

    That's one reason why I am troubled by prestige schools moving into DL. They needn't offer a better DL product at all, but their degrees would still get instant preference and their graduates would cop huge attitudes simply as a result of free-riding on the reputations earned by their full-time on-campus research-intensive programs.

    For what? For offering DL programs? For not being prestigious?

    That's probably the sane course. But how many of us are sane?
     

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