Most prestigious Undergrad qualifications

There is always talk about MBA degrees, but what are the most prestigious schools that offer undergrads qualifications, be it bachelors, diplomas, or anything else for that matter.

 

Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Stanford

...

Columbia
UC Berkeley
Duke
Johns-Hopkins

...

U Florida
Georgia State

...

well, guess it kinda depends on who is making the list -- but it seems those first few are on every general list.

Now, if you mean "in music" it'd have to include:

Juliard
Eastman
NorthWestern
Berkley (Boston)
Shanandoah
...

but then if you mean technology then I guess it starts with MIT on top...

but then if you mean law, I've heard those folks from Harvard really do get a premier bit of education...

but if you mean worldwide then we have to think about Oxford, Cambridge, and a bunch of places I can't spell...

well, maybe the answer is:

it depends

 

DL undergrad qualifications...

Sorry coach turner - I'm interested in top institutions offering DL.. erm.. offerings. But many thanks!

Any ideas? Anyone?

 

As far as US institutions offering completely dl programs, I would have to say NYU.

Tony

 

Kennedy-Western University.

 

I'm thinking that every school I listed offers DL programs of some sort. Most notably -- Harvard Extension...



Reality is, this is 2005 -- DL is neither new nor unique. Almost every university in the USA offers some DL and very many offer DL degree programs.

It remains that which school is best depends entirely on exactly what you think "best" is.

There are DL programs at Berkeley Music that far exceed the prestige of my local state U music education.

A friend made a very valid argument the other day that the "new" low res./DL MFA programs in creative writing are much better (prestige level) than most resident programs simply because of the greater exposure to active artists the low res programs provide.

It seems to me though -- that the most "prestige" in DL programs comes from those B&M schools that are already pretty high on the food chain. How about U. Mass? BYU?

Again -- it all depends on what you consider to be "best" but most people in our society give a certain immediate prestige to some schools and those are at the top of the list of my original post...

 

Man, that there is an avalanche of sarcasm.

 

As I understood the original question (or at least the intent of the original question) I would say that the Harvard Extension program doesn't really qualify as you can't earn the entire degree through DL. If I'm incorrect in my interpretation of the question then this leaves the door wide open because, as the Coach correctly pointed out, there are few schools that do not offer something in the form of DL classes. One could conceivably earn a few DL credits by taking some elective courses, earn most credits in butt-in-classroom courses but would that meet the criteria of the original question? I doubt it. How many DL credits would be required in order to qualify? Half? 90%? I figured that Newbie meant 100% and I'm basing my answer on that.

Having said all that I'd point out that there's no 100% DL Bachelors degrees to be found in the Ivy League. I think that Drexel has one or two full programs. Tulane does as well. But are they really more prestigious than say UMass or NYU? I'd say that they are not. Neither are they more prestigious than any other of the big state universities like Texas or Indiana that offer DL programs. So that's my answer, any of the big state universities such as UMass, Indiana, etc. The one that you place at the top of the list will depend a bit on where you live and the focus of the degree. Beyond that I think you'd have to go outside the US. There you'd have a group of UK universities that might have some substantial name recognition. Perhaps the University of London? Sheffield? How about Glasgow? All good shools but more prestigious? Maybe in the minds of some but I don't know how anyone would go about proving their point.
Jack

 

Just a small correction.....it's Berklee.

 

I do indeed stand corrected.

Here we have to define the use of DL before we can really answer the question.

We also have to note that the OP wrote

Does the OP intend to ask the most prestige among 100% online course content providers who offer a bacalaureate level credential with no residency...?

Would short residency meet the requirement of DL? What of content providers outside of online courses? Is an extension campus DL?

I agree though that any of the well recognized state universities should provide most people with an adequate level of prestige. Consider though, for bragging rights, which would be the more prestigous statement

I studied anthropology at Harvard -- which is a true statement of someone who took a single distance course in anthropology from Harvard Extension, though it is admittedly misleading.

or

I have a BA from East Podunk State University -- where East Podunk is any of the many state universities that offer a BA non-residentially.

What if the resume read:
2005 - BA (History), East Podunk State University, East Podunk MI
2006 - additional study, Harvard University...

still basing that "additional study" on a single course at Harvard Extension.

It is a fact that some schools have a better reputation based on name recognition and that this is sometimes faulted.

It's also true that there is some safety in a degree from XYZ State University or The University of XYZ but there remains also a certain segment that regards a public university education inferior to the private.

Of the schools that offer 100% online programs, I'd have to toss a vote for U Mass online as pretty high on the prestige list. But then, prestige is a subjective evaluation.



I on the other hand picked Excelsior and "local state university" for my undergrad...

 

When I was deciding where to go for my Master's program, I had narrowed down my choices to either Boston University or UMass-Lowell. I knew that BU would have a better prestige factor overall, but the name University of Massachusetts does lend instant credibility, if not the same prestige.

What did it for me in the end was the cost. Being a wartime Veteran & in-state resident, I was able to attend UMass for free, I just had to pay for books. BU, at the time, would have cost me around $15K just for tuition alone. I decided that the prestige of BU wasn't worth over $15K.

UMass-Amherst, for sure. Although I'm an alum of UMass-Lowell, I'm realistic enough to admit that the other non-medical school UMass campuses (Lowell, Boston, and Dartmouth) don't carry the same prestige as the flagship Amherst campus.

 

I think that it depends on the subject that you propose to study and on who you are asking.

For B&M, I'd be inclined to favor the more selective liberal arts colleges like Williams. They offer lots of close interaction and personal attention. Others might prefer the ivy league. The ivys have big time graduate schools and lots of rich preppies from prominent families. State schools? William and Mary maybe. It's certainly the most historic and probably the toniest. (Thomas Jefferson graduated from W&M.) Others would favor the big state schools like Michigan, Virginia, Wisconson or Berkeley. Less personal than the liberal arts colleges and more middle-class than the ivy league, but lots and lots of courses in everything. Then there are the specialty schools. RISD is a top contender for cutting-edge art school. Techies have gotta love a BS in physics from Cal Tech. The military academies! What can you say?

But I like Deep Springs College with its cowboy-students in their Stetsons, on horseback out there by Death Valley.

Prestigious DL? Isn't that kind of an oxymoron? (At least on the undergraduate level. There are a handful of pretty high-powered masters programs like USC's engineering programs and Duke's MBA.)

It's not a popular thing to say on Degreeinfo, but the whole DL purpose and ideal militates against prestige. DL programs exist for other reasons and serve a different clientele.

Open admissions. Part-time attendence. Vocational programs. No entrance test scores. Things like testing-out and accelerated programs. Labs either absent or deemphasized. Libraries often problematical.

DL exists to expand educational opportunity to underserved populations. Prestige schools rise in the tiers by restricting opportunity to a highly-selected elite and then offering them traditional programs.

DL serves a purpose and does it very well. But I'm inclined to think that students searching for undergraduate prestige probably should forget DL and attend the best full-time on-campus program that they can get into.

 

ok

I was thinking of quals that can be done mostly by DL.

Also, some people cannot study B&M full-time... so DL is a good alternative.

 

In engineering, CalTech has to be very, very high on any list.

There AIN'T no ABET accredited purely D/L engineering bacheloreate programs out there.

 

North Dakota U offers a BS in chemical engineering through distance learning that is ABET accredited, http://www.conted.und.edu/ddp/ , but it is not purely DL since you have to spend a few weeks on campus for the labs (usually on summers)

 

I believe that there's a program in somethingorother at Johns Hopkins University. It's not entirely DL though. That's got to be fairly high up on the ladder of prestige.
Jack

 

An interesting variation on the question may be,

"What are the toughest* schools?"


*toughest is defined as:
(educational yield per unit of effort invested) * required effort


I'll throw the first pitch: Service Academies

 

Re: Re: Most prestigious Undergrad qualifications

True. I doubt that you will find any distance bachelor's degrees offered by the most prestigious colleges and universities in the US (say, those that are ranked most highly by US News). There are prestigious distance master's degrees available, primarily in business and engineering (Stanford and Johns Hopkins are other examples). But not bachelor's degrees.

My nominee for most impressive DL bachelor's program would the ABET-accredited engineering degrees offered by the University of North Dakota (mostly DL, some residency required). ABET engineering degrees are tough to get by any means, and anyone who can earn one through DL has my respect.

But let's face it, the University of North Dakota is still not a particularly prestigious university by B&M standards. US News puts it in the third tier (of four) in the "National Universities" category.

 

Are we limiting the "most prestigious" list to American schools?

If we include international DL schools, I'd vote for the University of London degrees -- the LLB, in particular.

Toughest? If you include residential schools, then Cornell's engineering programs have got to be up there somewhere -- especially if you think in terms of total hours committed to academic work.

Actually, I'll bet that many specialty schools (including the military academies, as Dool mentioned) might top the "toughest" list. I'm thinking, in particular, of MIT, Cal Tech, Julliard, and Cooper Union.

 

Like Dr. Walters, I listed University of London as a degree that could easily be considered to be among the most prestigious of DL degrees. As for the "toughest" list, I think that discussion belongs in another thread in another forum. This is the DL forum and it's a DL thread.
Jack