Hello, i've been lurking around this board the past few months and i've acquired alot of knowledge as a result. After all the researching i've done I still could use some help. I completed an associates degree in CJ with Ashworth college, and I have 7 more credits I earned at a local B&M. I'm trying to attain my bachelors in CJ as quickly as possible. My problem is that i'm in the military, currently in Iraq, and with deployments and other training events I can't attend structured classes. Thats why I enjoyed Ashworth. It was at my own pace and I liked getting study guides, textbooks and just turning in the work when I was done. No attending classes wether it be online or in a traditional sense. What I would like to know is, what programs are available at the bachelors level that are similar to Ashworth? I know theres schools like Southwest, but they are few and far between. I just enjoy the independent study format. It doesn't matter wether its RA or NA. Although, RA would be nice. If I can't find any other schools with the independent study format, i'm looking at Bellevue, Upper Iowa, and Peru State. There not exactly what i'm looking for but if I have to do something different those seem to be programs with the most flexiblity. I could be wrong though. I'm trying to get all this figured out before I redeploy this fall and any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Just a thought, but have you looked at American Military University? AMU Criminal Justice The following statement from their website sounds like it would apply to you: CONVENIENCE & FLEXIBILITY At AMU, the individual matters. We are here to serve you, and we help you work your studies around your military commitments. Afraid of losing credits when you PCS? About to be deployed? No problem. AMU goes with you wherever you go. All of the courses are delivered over the Internet. Our students are located in 110 countries, and thousands currently taking classes are deployed. The asynchronous course delivery means no specific login times are required. Simply log on and download your assignments when it’s convenient for you during the week. At AMU, you can progress through your degree path faster. First, courses start monthly, because we know your personal commitments don’t always align with a traditional semester schedule. Second, we offer 8&16 week sessions for many classes, so you have the option to take more intense, 8-week courses when your schedule allows. Finally, you won’t have to worry that a course you sign up for will be dropped at the last minute due to low enrollment.
I checked AMU out and it sounds pretty good. I'm going to try to contact them and see what I can find out. Being in the running for RA is a plus as well. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it!
A safe route might be to take courses from LSU, which are independent study, while you are in Iraq. You will be able to tranfer them about anywhere later on.
No problem at all, I have heard quite a few military folks talking about it and all of them seem to really like it. I may have gone that route myself if I had educated myself on options earlier.
Fellow Senior Member friendorfoe has his ASCJ from Ashworth College and is working on his BSCJ at Southwestern College in Kansas and loving it. Our esteemed Moderator, Senior Member, and 4000 Club Member Bruce Tait of Massachusetts is a cop, an adjunct instructor in criminology/criminal justice, and absolute god of DL cop degrees. If you look up his profile here www.degreeinfo.com/forums/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=6 and if you hit "see all posts by this user" in the top right hand corner of said profile, and if you click on any of Bruce's posts, you will see that on his signature line there are two clickable links for websites of distance learning criminal justice degrees (one for regionally accredited degrees and the other for nationally accredited degrees).
I recieved my ASCJ from Ashworth, had a tough time finding a RA school that would accept the credits though I did find: Kaplan University: I attended their College for Professional Studies division, which was expensive and began to transfer to the more expensive School of Criminal Justice to complete my BS, but then found Southwestern College. Also I believe Bellevue University or Peru State College will accept DETC from what I've read, though you should check with them...by check I mean apply and see if they transfer the credit. When I checked with Southwestern I was told at least twice that they would not accept my AS, but when I applied, I was in...no problems. Others: U of Phoenix........very expensive. or any DETC school, for work at your own pace: Southwest University = friendly folks with a good program, one of the least expensive I've seen and you work at your own pace. Just a smidge more expensive by Andrew Jackson, but not much. Andrew Jackson University = a little less expensive than Southwest, but the program structure over things like who can be your proctor is much tougher....but you work at your own pace. I've heard great things about American Military, but they are online and not at your own pace. Same thing with Columbia Southern University, online, not at your own pace.
Portland State University www.online.ccj.pdx.edu recently opened an online bachelor's degree in criminal justice (completion program) which requires an accredited associate's degree (does not specify regionally accredited or nationally accredited).
