About 6 yrs ago, I completed a Professional Career Development Institute (PCDI) hoping that a diploma in US Tax preparation might be instrumental in helping me to get me a good job. Since then the $1200 expended on earning that Diploma has never really paid off. When I enrolled at Fordham University (NYc), the Dean told me that it was a worthless piece of paper. He also referred to several (8) exams that I passed under the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) as also useless. I used to live in the Caribbean several yrs ago and ACCA is the equivalent to a CPA ( well thats what i heard). I had it evaluated by an educational credential service ( WES) and they only give me 28 credits for completing 2 yrs of studying ACCA. I'm presently completing my BA in Economics and was wondering if these painstaking exams that consumed so much of my time and effort back then, are indeed "worthless" as the Dean said. Also I feel foolish that I am still spending $575 per credit on accounting courses - although I have written evaluated proof that I already passed these courses.
Re: Pdci Welcome to the unbiased world of American Higher Education. Seriously though...your credits are likely good depending upon where you go to school. For instance, I recieved an AS degree from Ashworth College...owned and operated by PCDI. I was turned down by a couple of schools to get a BS and transfer those credits towards a the BS....but I found a handful of RA schools that accepted them. U of Phoenix Southwestern College, KS Kaplan University and a couple others. Additionally I took courses from my local community college towards a certificate in network administration since at the time they didn't have a degree in it. Right before I completed the cert, they announced an AS degree in it...I asked to be enrolled in the program and transfer those classes towards the degree as I had not yet finished the cert. They denied me the credits (from their own program) and told me I would have to retake all the classes. Bottom line...it's about money. I wouldn't hesitate to put your diploma on your resume.....Dean be damned.
Re: Re: Pdci I agree. That's only one dean at one school. There are a LOT of accredited schools from which to choose, and more than a handfull of regionally-accredited school will accept a DETC-accredited degree. But you say you went through a diploma program, not a degree program. In the U.S., that makes a big difference. Getting a professional diploma is the equivilent of going through a vocational-technical program. There is nothing wrong with that, unless the field in which you want to work requires an actual college degree, such as an associate or bachelors degree. Diplomas from vocational-technical programs rarely, if ever, transfer to a college degree program, not matter what the accreditation of the school granting the diploma.
In the US, a diploma program from the likes of PCDI is no substitute for a degree -- even only an associates degree (which PCDI, through its Ashworth College, also offers). The PCDI tax prep diploma would probably qualify you to work for a tax preparation service like H&R Block... which would probably still put you through its standard training, but because of the PCDI course, you could probably almost sleep through it; or maybe they'd let you avoid certain parts of it altogether. Such a diploma could also qualify you to work for a small- to medium-sized accounting firm. It could also qualify you to start your own little tax preparation company. You may be right, but whenever I hear/read someone saying/writing something like that, I always wonder how they really know. When someone offers you a job, you never really know -- unless they tell you, of course -- if the reason they offered it to you and not the other guy is because you had that little diploma on your resume. If it was for that reason, and if that job pays a minimum of $1,200 more during the entire time that you worked there -- no matter how many years that is -- than the lower-paying job you would have gotten had you not had that diploma listed on your resume, then it paid for itself. Education is easier to cost justify than most people realize... especially when you factor-in the intangibles of how good it feels to know you have that training. You mean you were actually able to get in to see the dean? It's Fordham we're talking about here... an institution that exhibits no shortage of being a bit full of itself. Well, from Fordham's perspective, he was kinda' right... at least in terms of its transferability as college credit. A PCDI career diploma -- even though it's DETC accredited -- is not even an associates degree, or equvalent to coursework for academic credit, which is pretty much what it would need to be in order for just about any university to take it seriously. It's a vocational credential. It's valuable, but not as academic coursework. It could, however, probably go a long way toward earning a few hours credit via a prior learning assessment portfolio (PLA), if Fordham even has such a thing. Many regionally-accredited colleges/universities will grant up to 30 hours toward a bachelors degree via PLA. Your little tax prep diploma would easily support something like that. So, then, the Fordham dean was wrong that the ACCA thing was "useless," wasn't he. WES evaluated it as worth 28 credits... and by that, I assume you mean 28 US semester credit hours, no? If so, then that's nearly half of an associates degree; nearly one full year of full-time undergraduate study. That hardly qualifies as "useless." But Fordham is free to ignore the WES evaluation and not accept those credits in transfer. Fine. Some other college/university may be more accommodating. Not according to WES, as you've just told us. And WES's opinion is routinely accepted on its face by hundreds -- maybe even thousands -- of colleges and universities in the US. You just need to find one of them, apply there, and offer-up your WES-evaluated 28 hours of credit and see how they'll accept them. Well, first of all, that's just way too expensive, even if you hadn't already passed those same kinds of courses via the ACCA thing. Mygod... that's almost $1,800 per three-hour course. That's silly! You should enroll in a regionally-accredited college/university -- either in its distance learning program; or, if you live close enough to it and would rather attend traditional classes, then in its brick & mortar (B&M) program -- that charges more along the lines of $150 to $250 per credit hour ($450 to $750 per three-hour course)... or even less. Such places are out there. Members, here, can refer you to a bunch of distance learning programs with those kinds of prices... every last one of them regionally-accredited... which is all Fordham is. Heck, the regionally-accredited Louisiana State University's (LSU's) online undergrad coursework is closer to around $80 per credit hour (only around $240 per three-hour undergraduate course). And LSU is just as regionally-accredited as is Fordham! Secondly, you may very well not have to re-take those courses. There's PLA, as mentioned earlier; and there are regionally-accredited colleges/universities that may very well say to you something like this: "Well, we can't give you credit for our accounting courses based solely on WES's assessment that they're equivalent. However, if you'd be willing to test out of our accounting courses, then we'll be happy to combine those test results with WES's assessment and give you credit for those courses." Anything's possible. You've got to start thinking outside the box.
Accounting Degree 28 credits of ACCA + several more accounting courses may = (depending on upper and lower tier credits) An Accounting major @ Excelsior ! I might try that scenario ....
I feel that ACCA thing is not entirely worthless on its own. Even in the USA., and even though (as I assume) you didn't earn the actual designation. ACCA is definitely a major professional group. P. S. why wouldn't you try the Oxford Brookes B. Sc. thing? Whith eight papers you might already be eligible for it.
If you're talking about these guys: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/ I don't see how that would help him. I didn't see a distance program for accounting on their web site, although they do offer a 21-month MBA for ACCA members. However, it sounds like rackwin is perhaps interested in accounting and is seeking a bachelors. On other point: $575 per credit hour is highway robbery for an undergraduate degree. There are many, many other reputable programs out there which are RA and offer business and accounting programs.
Well, that makes more sense, and it looks like a good option, depending on the price. Since he has already taken a lot of these courses, perhaps that is something he should look into. I noticed the original web site I looked at also had a business program for brewers. I wonder if taste-testing is included?
