Grad Certificate Question

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by fritzy202, Feb 15, 2011.

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  1. fritzy202

    fritzy202 New Member

    Hey all!

    I have a question regarding graduate certificates. I have been looking at a few and some are called graduate certificates and require a bachelor's degree to enroll, some require a master's degree to enroll. Then I found others listed as Post-Bacc certificates. What is the difference? Would you list all of these as a Grad Cert on your resume?

    My other question is since I teach at a community college would our regional accreditation agency consider a 27-32 credit post bacc certificate as meeting my 18 grad hours in the subject? In case it matters I'm currently in an MHA program in a related field as these certificates I'm considering, but some of these would be more specialized or allow me to sit for another industry certification. I was going to do both a post-bacc and one listed as a grad cert, but I found a post-bacc with everything rolled into one. The grad cert was only 17 credits, so that would be short of the 18 SACS likes. I just want to know the implication before I start getting serious about registering for one of these.

    Thanks for your help and clarification.
     
  2. StefanM

    StefanM New Member

    I've always seen post-bac being used for an undergraduate-level certificate offered after a BS/BA. Graduate certificates would generally be listed as such.

    You would need to specifically ask the school if the courses are offered at the graduate level. If so, it would count for your 18 hours. If not, it wouldn't.
     
  3. imalcolm

    imalcolm New Member

    If the courses for the certificate are listed as 500 or 600 level, then they are most likely graduate courses.
     
  4. fritzy202

    fritzy202 New Member

    Thanks, they just list it as a Certificate on the actual certificate, but in one place on their website they list it as Post-Bac. The course numbers are 3000 / 4000. I used to think 300 and 400 level would be junior and senior level, but I have seen some schools with numbers that make no sense at all. I teach some 200 level classes as freshman and some 300 level classes at a community college level. I'm not sure this is standardized. Anyhow this school uses numbers in the thousands. I guess it was too good to be true to think I could accomplish both requirements with one program instead of two!
     
  5. consultco

    consultco New Member

    From the Penn State Graduate School website:

    Guidelines for Development of Post-Baccalaureate Credit Certificate Programs

    Credit certificates include undergraduate and Post-Baccalaureate Certificates. Graduate Certificates are a special category of Post-Baccalaureate Certificates. Post-Baccalaureate Certificates require a baccalaureate degree for admission into the certificate program. Credit certificates may contain all undergraduate courses or one or more graduate-level courses. A credit certificate composed entirely of all 400-level courses may qualify as either an undergraduate certificate or a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate. However, the same program of courses cannot be designated and offered as both an undergraduate and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate.

    Although Post-Baccalaureate Certificates need not include any graduate level courses, if a certificate program includes at least one graduate-level course, the certificate must be post-baccalaureate. To be a Graduate Certificate, at least half of the credits required in a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate must be at the graduate-level. In addition, if the proposing unit wishes to designate the certificate as post-baccalaureate, all credits required in the certificate must be in courses at the 400-level or higher.

    Policies, Procedures, Guidelines for Post-Baccalaureate Programs.
     

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