3 year Bachelor v. 4 year Bachelor

I came across the link that was in a previous post and was wondering if it would be better for a person to get a 3 year Bachelor or 4 year Bachelor?

The link is: http://www.athabascau.ca/calendar/page03_07.html

The situation is that I am helping someone to determine whether or not to get a 3 year degree or 4 year degree. This person is doing it mainly for personal enrichment and has no desire to go unto graduate school.

My thought is that if the person satisfies the requirement to get the 3 year Bachelor of General Studies that this would not make a real difference as oppose to getting the 4 year degree only that the American degree would be 4 years versus the Canadian which is 3 years. Does anyone know how this would be interpreted by American Universities? I have researched this school and it looks like it meets all the accreditation requirements and the nice thing is they don't require residency for the degree.

My question is in your opinion could you give some insight as to what you think about it and whether it would be better to get the Canadian or American degree? In other words, I think that it comes down to one of the Big 3 -- Charter Oak State College, Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State College or the Canadian school, Athabasca University.

 

I'm curious about the same thing. If all someone wanted was a BGS degree (or a BS in GS, or a BS in LS) wouldn't the Athabasca BGS degree be fine? It's RA (MSA) and all. It seems that, on a resume, it would be indistinguishable from a 4 year BGS. Without transcripts (and I've never heard of an interviewer taht asked for transcripts from someone over the age of 25), how would anyone know the difference?

 

I don't know if they would know the difference. That is the only issue is that the Canadian University will not give you a transcript because you didn't take any courses from them. I don't know how else you would verify the degree unless they write a letter or you show a copy of the degree. I'm very suprised to see that no one else has decided to engage in any discussion about this. Oh, well!

 

you would probably be fine as long as no-one asked for an evalaution.

 

This is a very interesting topic. I believe that Athabasca Univ. is one of the only RA schools around that offer a three-year Bachelors degree.

If your worried about needing a transcript from Athabasca, just take one class with them and "voila!" instant transcript (albeit with just one class recorded!).

I do believe that this degree (Bachelor of General Studies) would work just fine for employment purposes (provided that a BGS degree was sufficient to gain employment in the first place). I seriously doubt that an employer would ask for transcripts.

In regards to the question about Graduate School... This is definitely an interesting point! On the one hand you would be applying with a three year degree. On the other hand, it's a Regionally Accredited degree.

If you look at the Admissions requirements to enter the average graduate program, a Bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution is usually the main requirement (along with a minimum GPA and possible GRE, GMAT scores). I do believe that I've seen the occasional school that specified a specific number of credits or length of time spent obtaining the BA/BS, but that is rare.

For example, I am considering eventually applying to a MPH (Masters of Public Health) program at A.T. Still University of Health Sciences. On their admissions page to the MPH program, the following admissions requirements are listed:


Applicants to SHM must complete or show evidence of the following:

Bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution, or equivalent;
Cumulative GPA of 2.5 (4.0 scale);
Completed Application for admission, official transcript (BA/BS only) or equivalent;
Non-refundable Application Fee of $60 must be submitted with the application;
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), minimum written score of 500, minimum online score of 222, for applicants for whom English is a second language (see TOEFL below International Students).


Source: http://www.shm.atsu.edu/admissions/shm_admis_require.htm


This is worth exploring further. BTW, does anyone know if Athabasca will accept CLEP and DANTES in transfer? I have not taken either of these exams, but it would be nice to know the school's policy. I searched the site, but I couldn't find anything related to either exam.

- Tom

 

If you look in Foreign Educational Credentials Required 5th edition, under the section for Canada, no matter what region of canada you are in, a 4 year Bachelors degree is require for admission into Grad school. Since the school in question is RA there is no telling how it would be viewed for Grad school.

 

Of course, Athabasca will accept applicants with a three year Bachelors degree into thier Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program. Get the RA BGS followed by the RA MA and cut out thirty undergrad credits. Not bad.

 

Is this an AACRAO publication?

Cheers,

George

 

Yes it is I failed to mention that, thank you for pointing that out. To much going on at the moment.

 

Oh that's ok, it just looked interesting - must get a copy.

Cheers,

George