Hurray for me and a question.

I just received notice that I graduated from Ashford University (BA in Sociology). I've heard that there are doctorate programs for bachelor graduates to enroll in that give you a master's en route to your doctorate. Does anyone know of online schools that offer this? The only school I've found so far is the University of Phoenix.

Thanks.

 

It makes more sense to get a masters then a doctorate. You still need to complete the same number of credits so you might as well just do the masters first.

 

I appreciate your advice but that's not really what I asked...and not trying to be rude. I have a specific reason for wondering about this.

Thanks.

 

Hi, welcome to Degree Info. I've seen a few doctoral programs that you can get into with a bachelor's. If I remember correctly, I think I saw a doctorate in Psychology at either Capella or Walden that you could do with a bachelor's. It's a little deceiving though because you basically do all of the work for a master's degree and all of the work for a doctor's degree in the program. Therefore, it's no quicker or easier than getting a master's. When you get a master's first, you can bail out and still have a master's degree. If you start a doctorate from a bachelor's degree and bail out half-way, you will have nothing but a bunch of credits that will be difficult to transfer to another school because credits on that high of a level generally don't transfer well.

I hope that gives the information you were looking for.

 

Lots of schools award Masters degrees enroute to a doctoral degree. I think that most often this occurs following the comps. I think that there are other times when a terminal Masters is awarded once all the coursework is completed IF the student leaves the program. It's difficult to identify specific schools because you haven't said what subject area has caught your interest.

 

Also, I've not seen a lot of DL programs with this kind of setup. It's common in B&M programs in many fields, but the fields commonly seen in DL (Education, Business, etc.) generally seem to require a master's program prior to entry in a doctoral program.

Of course this is merely anecdotal observation, so your mileage may vary.

 

I've noticed the same thing. As Randell said though, you end up with the same amount of credits.

My advice would be to contact the school you are interested in doing a PhD with, and just ask if the would award a masters once you reach the requisite number of credits. Most online universities will probably do this, even though it is not something normally advertised on their website.

Congrats on the sociology degree!

 

In the UK, I stand corrected; you can enter the PHD via a bachelor with the quality of your dissertation/thesis determining if you are awarded a PhD or an Mphil/Mres. Or it could just be the opposite, you enter Mphil/Mres but the quality of your dissertation/thesis determines if you are awarded a PhD or an Mphil/Mres, but not both.

 

Another issue that you should be mindful of when making your decision (should you find a school that allow BS to PhD with Master's en-route) is that you may end up paying doctoral tuition, which are typically higher than master's tuition, for the whole program. Here's a scenario: The PhD program is $2300 per 3 credit hour class, and master's are $1700 per class. A PhD program, under your setup, that requires 90 credit hours means $2300 x 30 classes, compared to just 60 credits, after your masters, which would cost $1700 x 10 (assuming 30 credit hours are required).

 

James Cook University has a nested astronomy program where you earn in order:
Certificate
Diploma
Masters
Doctor Astronomy
Ph.D.
JCU - JCU Online Astronomy PhD/Doctorate Program

I have not checked to see if JCU offers other nested doctorate programs.

Incidentally my DIL went from a BS to a Ph.D. at a UC school but they only awarded a masters to a student if they flunked the dissertation (her diploma is signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger)

 

Oh, I want to do this so bad!!!