Undergraduate Criminal Justice Degrees

An interesting turn of events has occurred, and I now seem to be looking for an undergraduate degree in criminal justice or criminology. I would prefer a bachelor of science exclusively (rather than arts), but I'm open to whatever you guys might find. Either way, though, the bachelor's degree I'm looking for must be RA. I've found a few, but none that really spark my interest (except maybe for FHSU's Justice Studies program).

I'd prefer it to be as inexpensive as possible, and willing to accept credits I already have for transfer.

Ted, if you happen to read this, and you have a list of CJ programs, please feel free to post them for me if you have time.

 

There are a number of good schools. Argosy is one of them.

What are you going to use it for? If you're intending to go Law Enforcement, I suggest you major in something else...

 

The best CJ program is in Texas, Sam Houston State University. They have a online program in CJ and it's $3,000 for a full class load (15 hours).

SHSU Online: Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice

They take NA and RA credit as well. I think 3 g's is not a bad price when you factor in they are the best or one of the best in the nation. I read that more CJ research comes out of SHSU then the rest of nation combined. They house the Bill Blackwood center as well, I have taken 3 non-credit certificate programs through the program on campus and they were great.

 

Peru State College might be your most inexpensive bet, but they may not accept as many transfer credits.

Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State College or the other one (name eludes me) will probably accept the most transfer credits.

American Military University will accept up to 90 transfer credits and their tuition is pretty good too.

All of these are RA, so you're good-to-go.

 

Argosy is $8,000 for 15 credits...wow! That's $64,000 for the whole program.
SHSU is $3,000 for 15 credits..That's $24,000 for the whole program (In State) or $59,000 out of state.



I forgot to ask, how many credits do you currently have and where did you get them from?

 

About 80, and all from RA schools.

Further, you said if I was considering going into Law Enforcement, I should choose something else. What would be your suggestion if that were the case?

 

If you want to move up into fed work then CJ is a good choice. A guy with a CJ degree will get a promotion faster than a guy with BBA.

SHSU has a special on 24 credit hours; it only costs $2,600 for the 24 credit hours. That makes it only $108 an hour!

What part of Texas are you in?

 

I agree as far as EC... They'll accept pretty much all your credits, you can get all the credits you want from other places as long as they fill the requirements for the major, and you'll only have to take 1 class which would be the CJ capstone through them. (You may have to take a 1 credit research & writing class, but you can get that waived if you can produce a graded paper in the topic that's at least 8 pages from prior classwork.)

 

Colorado State-Pueblo. 30 cr have to be done in-residence. it's a B.S. in Sociology with an emphasis/concentration in Criminology. $149.50/cr and you can do independent study. They do require 6 cr of language, though.

 

I work for gov and can vouch for this being true, but only for certain grades and areas. Some areas you will move up faster with a Mgmt/Bus Admin degree, especially if you do Acct or Finance.

 

UMass has two programs. One is Criminal Justice and the other is Criminal Justice/Homeland Security. They may not be the cheapest but it's a name brand school with a good rep.

Degree Browse - UMassOnline

 

You may want to check out Indiana State University. I believe they have an undergraduate degree available in criminology. In my perspective there's a market for CJ degrees because it totally caters to those working in law enforcement/military.

 

One of Degreeinfo's longtime moderators, Bruce Tait, has a web page that lists a number of RA DL BS and MS degrees in CJ. The site hasn't been updated in a year and a half, but I believe this would still be a great starting place for you:

The Wicked Pissa List of Criminal Justice (and related) Degrees by Distance Learning

Plus, you gotta love the pic of the cops "in action"!

Best of luck,

 

Okay, a CJ degree is fine for LE. However if you fail out of the hiring process, get injured on the job, or find that you don't like it; an undergraduate degree in something else would come in handy.

Having a BBA in law enforcement isn't a bad thing. You won't use it at first, but when you're promoted up the ranks having administrative skills will come in handy. Balancing the books, employment law, etc. would come in very handy if you decided to move up the ranks.


Now a graduate degree in clinical psychology, a JD, a MS in Accounting or another professional degree would be excellent for the feds. The FBI loves those categories, and hires a lot of Special Agents with them because they can investigate certain things.

My two cents.

 

In my visits to US govt facilities (DOD and NASA) I've seen several MPA degree certificates displayed by engineers and contract administrators.

 

That's a better deal than SHSU's 24 credit hours for $108. 24 hours a semester, now that's some work!

 

You know a degree in Criminal Justice is just about the worst degree you could get if your trying to get into Law Enforcement right. . . .

 

Brow267 is absolutely right !!!

You'll learn CJ in the acdemy and during field training. Having a degree in CJ is redundant and you'll regret it later on when you try to promote and the admin is only looking for degrees such as Business Management and Public Administration.

Heven for bid you get injuried and you have nothing to fall back on. You'll become the highest trained Security Guard at the mall.