Harvard Exrtension ALB

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by jimjam, Jun 14, 2006.

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  1. jimjam

    jimjam New Member

    Has anyone done the extension bachelor's degree here? If so, is it possible to do it 100% distance? I looked at the tuition and it is not insanely priced. I was looking for a program where I could string together the government courses I have taken and add some challenging ones, too. I thought this would be an excellent program.

    Maybe others know of another program that might rate well in government. If so, any suggestions would be appreciated.
     
  2. Fortunato

    Fortunato Member

    I believe that a forum member named Jack Tracey has done the ALB program. Unfortunately, I also believe that you cannot do the program via 100% distance courses - I know that for the ALM programs, at least one semester must be spent taking courses on-campus. It is possible to complete some of Harvard's graduate certificates completely online, but all of its degree programs require at least some residency.
     
  3. little fauss

    little fauss New Member

    At least one semester is required, so far as I know.
     
  4. jimjam

    jimjam New Member

    I didn't see that on their website but I thought I had seen it at one time here.



     
  5. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

  6. jimjam

    jimjam New Member

    Most definitely their master's degree states a semester on campus. From what I can figure the only thing it says for the bachelor's is you need to take a writing course on campus before you can take the 5th or 6th distance course.


     
  7. alarmingidea

    alarmingidea New Member

    They do not offer degrees entirely via distance. Read the following, from the Harvard website:

    Distance Education

    One of the advantages of being a Harvard Extension School degree candidate is becoming part of the larger Harvard community and using the many resources available on this world-renowned campus, including the world's largest academic library. As a result, we don't offer an undergraduate degree entirely online.
     
  8. jimjam

    jimjam New Member

    They only offer online courses in the extension vs butt in seat classes? I know many other schools offer a mix of correspondence, online, and even video presentation.

    They might have better said, "We don't offer 100% distance learning degrees."

    Jim


     
  9. alarmingidea

    alarmingidea New Member

    I'm not sure I understand what you've written, but Harvard Extension offers classes via two modes: on-campus classroom courses and online courses. The ALB is available either entirely via classroom study or via a combination of classroom study and online study.

    I just spoke with someone at the ALB office. She had no hard information on the amount of on-campus study required, which she said could vary case-by-case. Nevertheless, she said that the faculty is trying to determine the best balance between convenience for distance students and making sure students get the most benefit from the program.

    She had no hard answers, since the policy is still being developed, but she said that one idea that seems to have support would be the requirement for back-to-back semesters on campus for undergraduate program students. That could be a semester and a summer, but given what they're trying to accomplish and given the nature of the Summer School and the Extension School, my feeling is that they could very well decide to require two full semesters at the Extension School. (Measured, I'm guessing, by time spent not by number of courses equivalent to two semesters' full-time study.)

    Certainly the faculty I've spoken with, even those who participate in the DE program, think that the degree is best taken by spending some time on campus to take advantage of Harvard's resources. Even if the graduate programs were to migrate to having a full distance option (the ALM in journalism seems to be heading down that path), I would not expect the AA or ALB programs to follow suit.
     
  10. mid

    mid New Member

    I am currently a student at Harvard Extension. I've applied for the ALB program and expect a decison on my application sometime in July.

    To quickly answer your question: there isn't an easy way to earn the ALB degree by distance.

    1. There are required classes that are only taught on-campus. EXPO E-25 is one of those classes.

    2. Many of the classes that are offered for distance education are only offered at the graduate level. You can take them as part of an undergraduate program, but you might wish you didn't. Many of the classes at Harvard Extension are just taped classes from Harvard College and are brutal.

    3. Classes in basic things like English Composition, Calculus, Chemistry, etc. are not available by distance ed. The material presented in these classes does not lend itself well to the distance teaching mode.

    4. Even if the class is distance-ed, you might still want to meet with a TA or the professor during office hours because the work is NO JOKE. I've taken classes via distance ed and I ended up having to get on a plane to visit my prof so we could sort out some stuff. Email and phone calls weren't cutting it.

    5. The ALB program requires a certain number of hours to be taught by "Harvard" professors. Many of those profs will not permit their class to be taught via distance because it compromises their teaching style.

    I live in Washington DC and I am making regular trips to Boston to visit the campus. It's do-able but hard. Believe me when I tell you that the professors there have no compunction about giving you a bad grade if you can't hack it. They aren't looking to do you any favors and they sure as heck aren't worried you might not reregister.

    More to the point, you DONT WANT to take the whole thing via distance. You'll never be able to call yourself a Harvard graduate if you've never been to the Coop, never been to John Harvard's, never been inside Widener or Lamont, and never had a meal at the Kong.

    Cheers.
     
  11. alarmingidea

    alarmingidea New Member

    The Kong is a Harvard weedout mechanism. Only students who survive eating there are allowed to graduate. :D

    I've been in a number of classes with people who commuted weekly from places like DC and I think one was even coming from Wisconsin. I don't know how you folks do it. I'm impressed.
     
  12. mid

    mid New Member

    It's funny. I thought it would be hard to travel every week and it turned out to be pretty easy.

    What is wasn't was cheap.

    FWIW, I benefit from being close to a major hub airport and travelling to another major airport (BOS). Airfares have been historically cheap between those two cities particularly if you can plan ahead.

    The "T" is plenty reliable for getting me from Logan via Silver Line and Red Line and there are plenty of taxis in the evenings. I made the decision early on to avoid renting cars since parking is a joke in Cambridge.

    Hotels are ridiculous though. I actually spent a few nights in the airport when I couldn't find a hotel for less than $200 per night in Boston. I figured that $250 was a bit too much to pay for 4 hours of sleep at best.

    As for the wear and tear of schlepping up to Boston, once a week I can handle. Twice a week is really pushing it.

    A day trip is really quite easy to manage. The flights are only 1 hour or so and you can get some reading done in the meantime.
     
  13. recruiting

    recruiting Member

    The Harvard Coop, lol. Don't forget The House of Blues and Out of Town News..

    Anyway, I did not see a Bachelors program from the Extention school :confused: AA, certificates and Grad-
     
  14. mid

    mid New Member

    Here you go:

    http://www.extension.harvard.edu/undergrad/default.jsp


    It's called the ALB.
     
  15. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Did you consider Georgetown's BALS, or was the whole point to go to Haaaahv'd? (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

    -=Steve=-
     
  16. alarmingidea

    alarmingidea New Member

    House of Blues is long gone. (So are a lot of things, actually. Even among recent stores there's been a lot of turnover.)
     
  17. mid

    mid New Member

    I actually did.

    The deciding factor for me was really the orientation of the programs. Georgetown's program has a Classical Studies tilt. Most of the classes were centered around things like literature and history as opposed to the sciences. Harvard had a wide selection of classes that were evenly grouped around the basics as well as more practical classes. Since my field of study is Computer Science, I found the lack of classes on the subject at Georgetown to be a major barrier.

    The second factor was cost: Harvard's program is significantly cheaper than Georgetown.

    The third factor was the level of commitment to the program from the host university. I find Harvard's program to be well-run as college administration goes and I like the focus on bringing more and better classes to students via distance ed. When I contacted Georgetown, I didn't get the feeling that the program was run in the most professional fashion. My first call to the main office essentially went directly into voicemail. At least at Harvard, there is a real place you can visit and staff that answer the phones and email in a reasonable amount of time. There is a lot to be said for the efforts at Harvard Extension to reduce hassle.

    The Harvard name is really just icing on the cake. I would have been just as happy if a state school was run with this level of rigor and focus.

    That really has been the difference: I get the feeling from talking to the staff and the professors that there is a real desire to make this work and work well without compromising the quality of the instruction or the standards of the school. That makes a world of difference to me. There are other schools that are closer to me (UMUC is an example) but they didn't instill in me the confidence that they were hoping to grow and enhance the program as a center of excellence the same way that Harvard did.
     
  18. mid

    mid New Member

    There is one more thing that I feel I should mention:

    When I was searching for a degree program, one thing became abundantly clear to me is that many of the degree programs that are targetted towards adults are looking at the lack of a degree as a barrier to that individual's career plans. The implication is that the program will be easy and quick but still stand up to light scrutiny.

    I was dissapointed with the level of rigor in these programs and I put off completing my degree to focus on my career. Fortunately for me, the lack of a degree has never been a serious impediment to my job or advancement.

    When I discovered the Extension school, I was skeptical but quickly was convinced that this was the real thing. I'm especially comforted by the effort to bring exact copies of the regular Harvard College courses to the Extension school. In many cases, the courses are identical, right down to the lectures and assignments.

    Harvard Extension has lots of students but awards relatively few degrees each year. Why? My guess is that the rigor of the program actually causes some students to leave to follow an easier path. In this way, I think the Extension School is unique. It's selective, but the selection process occurs after you start the program rather than before.

    I read somewhere that TONS of students finish all of their courses for the ALM (Master's) program only to get hung up on completing the thesis. They end up never returning to finish that program requirement and are dropped.

    BTW, I've met several people in the past year who attended the Extension school and were awarded degrees that later attended the very best graduate schools in the nation. Last week I had a conversation with one of the country's leading experts in computing who had dropped out of MIT to go into industry. She later finished her bachelor's at Harvard Extension, and went on to get a M.S. and a Ph.D. at MIT. She's now got her own department at Carnegie-Mellon.

    Sometimes when I hear the discussions about online vs. traditional degree programs being taken seriously, what gets missed is that there are WAY more variables than just was it online or not. If you go through the trouble to make sure that the work you'll be expected to do is REAL and not just a sham to hand out a piece of paper so you can get a promotion, there is NO REASON that anyone should ever question the validity of your degree.
     
  19. jimjam

    jimjam New Member

    Thanks. I will check out the GW program. I am looking for a government or history program that is slanted toward government.

    Jim

     
  20. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Georgetown, not GW:

    http://liberalstudies.georgetown.edu/

    I assume you're local to the Washington, D.C. area? They don't have online courses.

    -=Steve=-
     

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