Hello! I am new the forum. Have been looking for DL information for quite sometime! Glad I found this forum. I am considering Bellvue for a B.S. in Behavioral Science Anyone here on this forum have any insights regarding the program? i.e. exam methods, program structure? and also would like your thoughts on the school as a whole. I do have an A.S. from a RA college. Will Bellvue accept this towards my B.S. degree? How long is program if you already have an A.S.? cna it be done in a year? Sorry so many questions! Just need as much advice as possible from others who have experience with this program/school. Also, is there a lot of writing assignments in this program? Not a big fan of writing Thanks in advance!
I finished my BS in Behavioral Science from Bellevue in 2009, which took me about 15 months (12 months of course work in the major, plus 3 months for the Kirkpartrick Series... which is a mandatory 9-credit block of ethics courses on conservative American values). When I was in the program, each 3-4 credit course was 4-5 weeks long and required a lot of message board conversation. The work was not that rigorous, though. Bellevue also accepted my AAS degree and waived all of my general education requirements. To take care of whatever credits that were left after the major classes and the Kirkpatrick Series, I took exams for credit (CLEP, Dantes, etc). Criticism... I passed all of my classes with As, but don't really feel as though the quality of my work reflected my grade. Especially looking back on it now. It was very obvious that there were quite a few people in my cohort who never did the reading, did not understand how to write academically, did not engage when challenged or questioned in board posts (class conversation), and seemingly passed... although I obviously don't know what their grades were. I feel like the subject matter was very good and broad in that program. I learned a lot, and have found myself going back to old papers from time to time in my graduate program. We did not take any exams while I was in the program, but we were assessed by papers and projects. This works better for me, since I feel that I can truly express my what I know by creating something rather than by taking a test. If you would like to gain experience with test-taking (if you are planning to take the GRE, for example), taking exams for credit (you'll probably want to do that anyway for electives) is a good way to do that. With any school, I guess that it all depends on what you'd like to do with your degree and how much work you put into your experience. So, I guess that Bellevue is no different in this way. If I did not have ambitions to go onto higher education, and planned to work with my BS alone, I would have chosen an online undergrad program from a school that more people have heard of, like UMass. Bellevue's program had a timeline that fit perfectly with what I wanted to accomplish at that time in my life. So, it's a good school if you are looking for that as well. It is also probably good for you if you tend to work well as a self-directed learner. Let me know if you have any questions! I graduated 2 years ago, so the program/delivery may have changed a lot. At that time we only communicated by way of message board and email... I'm sure they may have upgraded to video by now! Good luck in your degree search!
I too graduated from Bellevue in 2009 with a BS in Behavioral Science. Hadashi provided a nice overview of the program and our timeline and methods used to complete the program were nearly identical! The major was not writing intensive. I only had to write two papers total over 10 courses. Most of the work consisted of textbook reading, end of chapter questions and posting and replying to comments on the forum. The kirkpatrick series on the other hand, was extremely writing intensive and also included a community volunteer component. Overall, I enjoyed the program. I share Hadashi's views on the fellow students in my cohort. A few of them were on the ball, but many seemed to struggle with college-level writing. I ended up with a 3.8 GPA (10 courses for the major and 3 kirkpatrick courses, 45 credits in total) but I wouldn't say that I needed to work my tail off during the program. I did not graduate with honors, as I would have needed to take 15 additional credits to be eligible. Also, I only had two professors throughout the entire program (one for my major and one for the kirkpatrick courses). I was lucky to have positive experiences in both cases. Bellevue accepted the majority of credits from my Excelsior associates degree, however they would not accept 9 graduate credits from Aspen University (because they were graduate level). I ended up taking a bunch of free FEMA courses (which Bellevue accepted directly) and a few CLEP exams. Best of luck!
That is quite possible. My cohort started end of February 2009. My behavioral science professor was Rebecca Wiemers.
I see... I guess that I misread what you wrote. My cohort began the year before, Feb 2008, and I graduated in 2009. My behavioral science prof was Carole Patrick.
I have had similar experiences with Bellevue. I'm currently 2/3rds of the way through my MHA with them. I do see students submitting work that isn't anywhere near graduate level work, but they are still passing through the classes. Our initial cohort started with 24 students or so and we are down to 19. There are certainly a few more that are not working up the level I expected to see in a grad school program. The work isn't hard, just time consuming postings and papers. I found the admissions office very slow and inefficient. It took many calls and emails to get anyone to respond and fix the errors. It is almost impossible to get a live person on the phone, all you get is voicemail, so be persistant. Good luck!
