An American GI in the UK is looking for DL advice

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

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  1. Ike

    Ike New Member

    It is not an overstatement to say that alt.education.distance is completely useless these days. I visited AED today. After reading one of the messages that was posted on the NG, I decided to cut and paste it here in case anybody is willing to help the original poster. I believe that the original poster will receive helpful and useful responses here. The message is posted below.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I am an American, living right outside London. I have been here for 18
    months now on an assignment with my company. It looks like I may be
    here for another 18. I unfortunately took the military route after
    high school instead of college, and have managed to gain a lot of
    experience in my job. I am doing pretty well for a non-degreed
    professional, but am in the position now where I am starting to see
    the disadvantages of not having an extended education. In the past 12
    years since I left school, I have managed to take a handful of classes
    (math, history, english, etc), but would still be well within Year 1
    of a 4-yr degree. Seeing that I am living in the UK for the next 18+
    months, I am having a really hard time trying to figure out where and
    how to go to school here. My intentions are to take as many classes as
    possible that will be able to transfer back to my local University (U
    of N. Carolina Charlotte) when I go home, where I can transfer them to
    their BS Bus. Admin (Mgmt of Info Sys) degree program.

    Some of the biggest problems I am finding with UK schools is that
    their colleges and universities seem to be totally different things,
    and their classes dont seem to be relevant to each other. I also
    havent been able to find a UK school that will have classes that match
    up with American school classes.

    Is there anyone in the same situation that can give me any advice?
    If possible, please copy replies to my email address as well, as I am
    really hoping to get something figured out with this.

    Thank you,
    Brian
    [email protected]
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
  2. btrotter

    btrotter New Member

    Hi everyone. Ike was kind enough to point me towards this site, and so far, I am very impressed. To tell you my situation, although I used to be in the military, I was discharged from the military in 96, and have been a civilian every since. I have since gained a lot of good experience, and am currently filling a position that requires a degreed professional to fill. I am the exception as I do not have my degree, but had the exeperiece. However, I now realize that the next rung up the ladder for me will not be so easy to gain without an extended education than my high school diploma and 12 years experience in the field.

    I have managed to take a handful of classes over the past 3-4 years that would count towards general studies, but am to the point where I really need to buckle down and get serious about moving towards a BS in Bus. Admin. with a major in MIS.

    Being here in the UK on a business assignment from my company back in the US, I am having a really hard time finding distance learning classes that I could use to transfer to a US university when I go back to the US. I could possibly sit in a class at sporadic times, and if I lived in central London, it wouldnt be a problem, as there are a lot of American universities in London that offer classes, but they require physically sitting in a classroom several times a week. Being a fulltime employee with a hectic work schedule, a father of a 2-year old and a new baby coming in December, time is a precious thing. Not to mention, central London is an hour commute from me although I live within 10-15 miles of it.

    I am hoping to find something that is either primarily online, or have the majority of the classes online. I have found a couple websites about some schools like the U of Phoenix, but honestly cant tell if they are a legitimate school or not, and see so many people really bad mouth it.

    Can anyone provide guidance as to what I could do? It would help so much if I could use the 18 months I have left in the UK to make some gain towards my degree.

    Thank you,
    Brian
     
  3. -kevin-

    -kevin- Resident Redneck

    Brian,

    welcome to the forum. There are many programs.
    When you say civilian do you mean federal civil service or civilian as in the normal sense?
    Do you have access to a testing center?
    What branch of the service were you in?

    take alook at the ACE:
    http://www.militaryguides.acenet.edu/

    you may have more credits than you realize.

    you can start by checking the following:

    www.bain4weeks.com
    www.tesc.edu
    www.cosc.edu
    www.excelsior.edu
    www.amberton.edu
    www.bellevue.edu.

    There are many other options available. You can also use the search engine on this site to explore some of the methods.

    As an aside most of the stuff I posted above came from the kind folks here :D
     
  4. btrotter

    btrotter New Member

    Hi Fed,
    I am a civilain in the normal sense (meaning no affiliation with the military...with the exception of being a veteran). I was in the active duty Marine Corps from 92-96.

    I looked through the website and saw Excelsior, and have already submitted a request to them for more information. I will be calling them tomorrow to see what it takes to get enrolled.

    I am not sure if I am near a testing center or not, as I do not know where they are, or if there is a listing of the centers. If there is a testing center in London, I would be though, as I would be surprised if there isnt one there.

    Thank you for your kind reply. I knew I could find help out there somewhere.

    Brian
     
  5. -kevin-

    -kevin- Resident Redneck

    Brian,

    you are welcome. Your MCI courses will merit you some credits via ACE. it is very important you get all your sources of credit together and reviewed. Also check into the portfolio options.

    as an aside:

    Semper Fi

    1st & 3rd Recon 75-79
     
  6. w_parker

    w_parker New Member

    As an active duty soldier (Army) I feel your pain (time and space, lol). There are quite a few programs out there that can be completed via DL, I can recommend Upper Iowa University, they have a Business Administration degree (BS) with a major in Technology and Information Management. You can do the courses either online, the external degree program (basically correspondence courses) or in person, though they do not have any satellite campuses in England, though they do have some in a few Asian countries. Anyway, there website is www.uiu.edu

    Bill
     
  7. aceman

    aceman New Member

    Hello and thanks for serving our country!

    Northcentral University is totally DL. Their website is NCU.EDU.

    Great Luck!


    peACE,

    ACE
     
  8. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    TESC might be a way to go -- if you can't find local classes you could be working on a credit by portfolio route. Sounds like you might have acquired learning in many fields (military science, management, travel, geography, history (lots to learn in London area), etc. Pick up or download a college catalog and read thru evry course description - you may be surprised how much you already know.
     
  9. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    The following is an interesting degree in management
    http://www.prescott.edu/academics/adp/areas.html#management
     
  10. btrotter

    btrotter New Member

    Thank you for all the great advice. So far I have spoken with an admissions counselor from Excelsior, and think that might be what I go for. It seems to be setup perfectly for people in my situation. I am eagerly awaiting for the materials to arrive in the mail.
    If anyone has any good/bad experience with Excelsior, please let me know. I have read mainly good things about them so far, so I think I will be pleased.


    Fed: I am not worthy. I was a mere Comm guy who served in the Air Wing most of the time. You Recon guys were always the ones that we would see on the beaches doing PT when we were going home for 96's. Thank God we had guys like you in the Corps.

    Brian
     
  11. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    My BS degree was from Excelsior, but under its previous name of Regents College with the degree its being awarded by the University of the State of New York (USNY). I had no bad experiences with them. They gave me credit (via a third party service) for the courses I completed in the UK. My degree was accepted without question by my employer and two graduate schools.
     

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