Looking for online B&M schools accepting 90+credits

Just curious what good B&M schools that have a good transfer policy that accepts around 90+ college credits.

Just to give a background, my son is currently 21 years of age and currently going to a state college in California for the past three years and has close to a 100 credits. He basically took all of his general education courses, but during his three years, he initially took courses for interior design then later graphic design. Both of these courses are unrelated and if he decides to pursue graphic design, it would take him another 2 years to complete the degree. I think it's like 5 1/2 years because he changed majors.

At this stage, he is starting to get frustrated because he took courses early on and they didn't count and if you have been paying attention to the colleges in California, it's pretty bad. Lots of programs are getting cut and it's getting harder to get into them because they are not only cutting enrollment, but also cutting jobs and the amount of people applying is getting larger.

I asked him what his passion is and lets focus on that route. He said he would love to get into Architecture, but he didn't go that route because there are no Architecture programs in the area and if he goes into an M.Arch program, it would have to be the +3. Meaning, if you have an undergraduate degree that's not Architecture related, you would have to go into a 3 year master's program. If you have a B.Arch, it's 1 year program and Architecture (non-B.Arch) it's 2 year. I started laughing and saying, heck, even if he went into graphic design, he would still spend about the same amount of time, because of the earlier courses he took.

What I recommended that he does is to consider a Liberal Arts or General Studies program, and focus on courses that interest him and take courses that would also benefit him for an March degree. I remember when I first want to Excelsior, I initially enrolled into their Liberal Arts program and could have completed my degree a year ago, but I later changed it to a General Business.

At my son's age, I personally don't recommend that he goes to Excelsior if he wants to apply at many of the top programs for M.Arch +3 program. I would think he should try to transfer to a good B&M school that has like liberal arts or general studies. I think the two schools I have found so far is Fort Hayes State College and Liberty University. I would like to get some feedback from ppl on this forum on ideas of some good schools.

 

Hey, check out Univeristy of Missouri Bachelor of General Studies

http://cdis.missouri.edu/bgs.aspx

I looked at how many credits they will transfer in (click on admission requirements) and it looks like they will take up to 90. Says you need to earn at least 30 from them to get the Bachelors.

I will keep looking, I know there are other schools I have been looking at recently for my own purposes and I came across a few with programs that would fit, I just cannot think of them off the top of my head.

Good luck to you guys, hope you find what you're looking for.

 

There's nothing wrong with the schools you mentioned. Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with Excelsior but I do understand your concerns.

A couple of state schools in Nebraska, Peru State College and Chadron State College have some very nice programs. Also, if you are looking for a big name school, you might want to consider the many DL programs offered by Penn State:

http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/degrees.shtml

Penn State has a very flexible bachelor's degree in letters, arts and sciences.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I plan to submit my son's unofficial transcripts to a few schools to see what they can do.

In regards to his undergraduate degree, not looking for expensive program or big name, but more on just a B&M presence. Once he gets his degree he plans to apply to as many M.Arch programs around the nation, to include schools like UCLA, USC, Berkeley and other schools M.Arch +3. I told him to keep his options open and to work hard on his portfolio and GRE test and keep his GPA above 3.5.

 

Sounds like a solid plan.

 

Texas Tech online Bachelors in Architecture

 

He might benefit from West Virginia's Regents BA program. WVU and Marshall have a B&M presence, and these programs offer a rather generous transfer policy. He will need to assure that he has the upper-division credit. Here is the link to both:


http://rba.as.wvu.edu/

http://www.marshall.edu/rba/faq.asp

I can only speak for Marshall, but tuition for online programs are $197/hour, regardless of residence. The program can be completed entirely online.

 

That looks like a good program, but we are planning on looking for NAAB accredited M.Arch programs.

So far, I sent emails with unofficial transcripts to following colleges.

Chadron State College
Charter Oak State College
Fort Hays State College
Liberty University
Peru State College

 

CSUDH offers a BS in Applied Studies
http://appliedstudies.tv/courselist.php
I mention this since you may be a California resident.

I would not dismiss Excelsior College (EC), or TESC and COSC, so quickly:
(1) The EC liberal studies degree is probably the most flexible degree in the US in terms of course selection.
(2) It sounds like most of your son's credits are from B&M schools
(3) Most B&M schools will accept up to 90 semester units (30 must be in residence) however you still have to meet their degree requirements which might mean your son would have to complete more than 30 units.
(4) Item (3) also applies to Excelsior but as I mentioned in (1) Excelsior is more flexible. Pull out their catalog and review requirement.
(5) Your son could take undergraduate Architecture applicable courses from B&M schools and apply them toward the EC degree.
(6) Grades and essays count for a lot when applying to grad school.

Then when applying for grad school point out in the essay that although EC is a distant degree the credits were earned at B&M schools.

Note: I was accepted at ERAU with my EC degree - ERAU is (or was) in the top ten of engineering schools without an engineering doctorate.

I hope this helps.

 

Great degree but almost $500 per unit for out-of-state/DL students?
That a $65,000 degree.

 

I believe Bellevue accepts 90 credits in transfer.

 

A degree in architecture will certainly allow your son to work in that field. The ultimate is to be a licensed architect - in California the requirements are shown here:
http://www.cab.ca.gov/candidates/license_requirements.shtml
I assume other states have similar requirements.

 

I am not completely counting out Excelsior, but I have send emails to both Bellevue University and University of Wyoming with copies of my son's transcripts.

The Architecture program we are looking for after he completes his 4-year degree is a 3 year M.Arch that is NAAB accredited.

 

I note that the Cal Poly Bachelor of Architecture is a 5-year "first professional" degree that is NAAB accredited. Their MS Architecture degree is a research degree. Not a DL program however.
http://www.arch.calpoly.edu/programs/undergraduate.html

 

I want to give everybody an update on the school my son selected and the evaluations that came back from other schools. I was astonished by the amount of courses that were required from some of the schools. As I mentioned previously, we were initially looking to get a general studies or liberal arts degree then have him take the GRE and apply for an M.Arch (Masters of Architecture) program.

We submitted his transcripts to eight schools and decided to go with Excelsior College to obtain his BS in General Business. The tuition from the second lowest school was TUI University that would have cost around $8,000 and would graduate around end of 2010. The rest of the schools would have cost around 10,000 to 18,000. The amount of credits required ranged from 27 units to 90 units to get his degree. My son already has 70 credits from CSU-Sacramento and 42 from American River College, so I almost fell of my chair when Fort Hays State said 90 units to graduate.

Once I gathered all the unofficial evaluations from the schools, I sent emails out to 15 universities that offer M.Arch degrees. Preferably M.Arch III programs because you don't need an architectural undergraduate degree to enroll. I explained to the academic advisors he was trying to choose between Excelsior College, Indiana University, and Columbia College. Most the schools responded and said any of the schools he selected are fine, as long as they are regionally accredited. They were not really concerned about the school being online or campus and mentioned the selection process weighted more on GRE scores and his Portfolio, and of course a good GPA.

The school that gave the most flexibility and easiest to work with was Excelsior College. I guess because I obtained my BS in General Business, I already know the academic advisors and what courses he would need to take to complete his degree. Including the enrollment fee, graduation fee and remaining courses, it would cost him less than 4,500 to complete his degree and would graduate as early as April 2010. The benefit of graduating early would give him additional time to work on his portfolio and study hard for the GRE exam, since his goal is to start Fall 2011. I noticed some schools gave a deadline as early as November 2010 to start Fall 2011.

Below is the list of schools and requirements.

Excelsior College - BS General Business - Needs only 27 units to graduate. (He already knocked out a few courses since my initial post and down to six courses left.)

Indiana University - Bachelor of General Studies would need 30 units to graduate

TUI University - BS in Business - 32 units to graduate.

*** Schools below have a 40 to 45 upper division unit requirement ***

Columbia College - Bachelor of General Studies would need 42 units to graduate.

Peru State - BS in Liberal Arts would need 48 units to graduate

Liberty University - BS Multidisciplinary Studies degree program. Advised he would need 51 units to graduate.

University of Wyoming - BA in Social Science - would need 71 credits to graduate.
BA in Business would need 68 units to graduate.

Fort Hays State University - BBA Management degree would need 90 units to graduate.

 

Excellent choice! I believe an Excelsior degree will serve him well.

 

Out of interest you might look at Athabasca University and their Bachelor of General Studies (90 credit hours, no academic residency). It is possible your son will already have enough credit hours, in the necessary distribution, to earn the BGS by Christmas Day.

 

A 90 credit hour bachelor's? If they were to choose this option wouldn't it be tougher to get into a master's program since it's only 90 hours or am I missing something?

 

He is already down to 18 units and I think having a 4-year business degree would benefit him. By December, he will have one class left, which is Business Strategy. Spring of 2010, in additional to Business Strategy, he would take a physics course, to meet UC Berkeley and SCI-Arc physics requirement and study for GRE and work on portfolio.

Also, I know some schools had to do research because they require a B.S. or B.A. and came back and said the BGS was fine as long as it was 120 units.

 

In the situation of the person who will have 120 credit hours to transfer into the degree I cannot see there being a problem. It is not uncommon to have more than the minimum credit hours for a degree on the transcript. However, in general a 90 credit hour degree will not normally be accepted if seeking admission to a graduate school.