University of North Dakota

Does anyone here have any experience with or an opinion on either the BGS or the BA in Social Sciences offered by the University of North Dakota? These degrees appear to be seperate from the engineering degrees offered online by UND's Distance Education Dept -- the BA and BGS are offered through the Correspondence Studies department.

The price is certainly right -- $105 per credit! Also, there seems to be a good mix of liberal arts courses offered and only 30 credits are required to be earned from UND.

I've learned so much since I began visiting this forum, thanks for sharing all your experiences -- it's certainly been an inspiration to me!

 

I've read through the relevant sections of the UND website and I think I can answer your questions. First, I believe that all these degrees are offered through the Continuing Education Department of the university. There are two different delivery methods, "Distance Education," and "Correspondence Studies." These are not separate departments per se, they are different delivery methods or different orientations of the course materials. In regards to the BA and BGS degrees offered through Correspondence, the deal seems to be that you sign up for a course, they send you the syllabus, and the course assignments, you buy the textbooks and you do the assignments at your own pace. You can take up to nine months to finish a course and you can buy a 3 month extension for $25. You send in your completed assignments, they are graded by an "instructor" and returned to you. This term "instructor" is perhaps a misnomer as there doesn't actually seem to be any instruction. Rather, this seems to be run much like the Bachelors degree programs at the University of London. It seems to be pretty much self-taught except for whatever feedback you get on your assignments.
As for the engineering degrees, they all seem to be actually taught online and are based on the regular semester system. Both delivery systems can work well. Obviously the former is more flexible than the latter and the degrees are not clearly oriented toward any specific employment niche. You could do quite well with either system. Good luck.
Jack

 

And, and, UND offers the DA degree. (Sigh. But NOT via distance learning.)

 

Maybe one day Unk. Maybe one day.

 

As a former Grand Forks resident, I must provide my obligatory endorsement of UND. I knew many students and professors within the social sciences there. It truly is a great school.

By the way, I did much of my master's and doctoral work at UND (that is, at the coffee shop at the center of campus).