Should I get a degree from Excelsior?

I'm 22 years old and very eager to hurry up and finish my degree. If I attend Excelsior, then I would need to pass 6 DSST exams to graduate.

OR I could choose Texas A&M Commerce's online degree program and be finished by next year. I think I could finish my degree by the end of August if I choose Excelsior...I'm just afraid of making a mistake and wasting money on a degree that won't be accepted very openly. Future employers might see the name Excelsior and throw my application away!

My plan after graduating is to get some work experience through a temp agency or intern abroad. So, I was thinking that an online degree wouldn't hold me back when applying for these things.

Sorry for spilling my guts on here. Any advice on what you think might be the best route for me? I'm just nervous about this whole Excelsior idea. I still don't trust it yet.

 

Are you planning on doing a Masters afterwards?
If so, the quicker you make it through the Bachelors the sooner you can work on your Masters.
Excelsior is a totally legit school, it just has a horrible name.

 

The only reason I can think of for choosing what would be the more expensive of the two programs in terms of opportunity and financial costs would be name recognition among employers you want to hire you.

 

Unfortunately, you are going to get conflicting opinions on this board about what you should do. She here's one now. I think Texas A&M is a better choice. There is usually nothing written on a degree like that to identify it as an online degree, nobody would have to know. Excelsior is a great school but there are still some employers who will not accept online degrees. We are learning that this is especially true in the financial and banking industry. Although most employers don't seem to care so it probably doesn't matter in most other cases, except that an online degree might hurt you if you are competing against others for an entry level position.

That being said, you would probably do fine with a degree from Excelsior. I think that the Texas A&M degree would open up more opportunities but that would depend on which industry you want to go into.

 

TESC, LIB-495 Liberal Arts Capstone

Thanks for the advice everyone. I don't plan to get a Master's, and I've had a lot of trouble with universities and am burnt out. Just want to finish my degree so I can finally intern abroad. So, I think I'll try Excelsior.

But recently, I've been looking at TESC, and I've noticed that their Liberal Arts (Lib Studies) degree "strongly recommends" LIB-495 Liberal Arts Capstone. Does "strongly recommend" = "required" ?

 

Oh, nevermind! It's not required...

 

My .02 cents, and with no disrespect to Excelsior graduates, but I am very wary of online colleges with big names and pour countless amounts of cash into advertising.

Online colleges still have a negative stigma attached too them no matter what someone tells you. Granted some are better than others, but that stigma is still there. I work at a medical center and we have people from ivy league schools, online schools, state universities, and private universities. Most with online degrees tend to not advertise that they went to an online school because of the negative stigma, and they want their reputation to resonate from their work ethic rather than where they went to college.

As crappy as it is to say, most of the caddy people that work in a health care setting tend to snicker and joke when they learn someone "bought their degree online." (Sad but true)

For that reason, if your going the online route, I'd choose a good online school that doesn't have a huge reputation as an online school.

Funny thing I'd like to mention thou, the CEO of the hospital that is the head boss of all the ivy league medical doctors, is a graduate from Devry University. Go figure, lol.

 

Excelsior Rocks - Go Globes!!​

 

Take the extra year and get the degree from Texas A&M. The name recognition is way better although Excelsior is a good, legit school.

 

Don't get your degree from a strictly online school.

 

Just wondering why or why not?

 

Princeton hired an Excelsior grad. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

 

What kind of place would have employees that look down on online students but put a guy with a degree from Devry in charge? It’s funny you should say people in the health care field would snicker or laugh about an online degree. Excelsior's LVN to RN is the largest in the country. You can't throw a rock and not hit a nurse who has taken a class with them online. My wife got promoted to administration when she started with them. She has not finished the program yet, but I can name about 20 nurses at my wife’s work that have got a degree from them. They are a very pro nurse and health care college.

 

Or in that extra year you could already be working on your masters from Texas A&M.

 

So there you go, Yoller. Judging from the posts above: You should definitely go to Excelsior, no question about it. Also, you should definitely go to Texas A&M, no question about it. How's that for a definitive answer?

I think you are OK either way. You need to take the info here and decide what's best for you.

 

That’s funny, yes they are both good. If you are burnt out then I would go with whatever one is quickest.

 

thanks for your opinions

Haha, even though conflicting, it was still helpful to ask, so thanks everyone!

I think I'll go with Excelsior because I've attempted to transfer to several universities, and it never works out because I'm "burnt out" and have other goals on my mind. With Excelsior, I feel like the end is near, and that is more motivating and fun to me. Also, if I went to TA&MC, then I would be getting the same degree (liberal studies) as I would at Excelsior.

Who knows, I might go on to get a Master's after a year's rest =]

 

If you haven't done online before, you might find it refreshing. Might be a cure for some of that burn-out. You have got to be a good self-starter though.