Ashworth/PennFoster? Living in Canada.

I am posting this for someone who is asking me about these schools. I was not able to answer the questions, so I am posting this to the board for suggestions.


I just moved to Canada 6 months ago, living in Toronto.

I have aprox 60 Credit hours from my home Country, "Pakistan" , my degree was "Bachelor of Business Administration". So, I was almost 50% done towards my degree when I left studies sue to load of Job etc.

I am now ready to start again where I left. I want a self-paced, affordable and totally online program where I can finish my Bachelor Degree as quick as possible take the "Cost" as main factor as well.

Here are some option which I am confused, I went through Forum, read your so many posts and others, finally I have decided to go for either "Ashworth College" or "PennFoster College". Here are my questions.

1- Taking in account that I am in Canada and next I might Study MBA in Canada, let say if I complete my whole Degree at Ashworth or Penn Foster, which college you will recommend for the future studies in Canada? or in other mean that my Bachelor Degree will enable me to get into MBA here in Canada.

2- If just in case NA Bachelor degree might be a problem getting into Canadian MBA, "My Plan only" I am thinking to complete credit 90-100 Credits at either school and then Transfer to any RA, like Big3 or APU, Western Governers etc. In above Scenario, do think this plan will work? Should I apply and get evaluation and then enroll to complete 90 credits (as I know, that's maximum credits any Big3 or else will accept ).

3- I read on forum that Big3 will accept 120 credits towards their degree program, as we know Penn Foster is ACE reviewed, do you think if I complete whole 120 Credits at PennFoster, Would I able to transfer them to any Big3?

4- Never tried before, but just wondering, once I got transfer credits, would my new transcript from Ashworth/PennFoster will mention my previous university credit transfer or my whole credits would be from Ashworth/PennFoster?

5- Do you think its wise to get whole Degree from PennFoster/Ashworth and then try to get into MBA or its better to be on safe side and go through any RA/transfer procedure?

 

I can tell you the experience of my wife. She had few certificates from canadian colleges. Based on my experience in this forum, I encouraged her to get her B.Sc from Excelsior College.

She was able to transfer most of her credits towards a BSc in LA. She completed the rest of the credits based on her French exams and Penn foster credits.

The degree by itself doesn't have much use in Canada other than saying that you have a degree. However, you can use it for graduate education.

MBA admission can be very competitive at some places so the Excelsior degree would need to be coupled with an excellent GMAT.
However, there are alternatives to the MBA. The BSc with a Management focus from Excelsior would qualify you to apply for the CMA accelerated program or the CGA program. These two credentials are highly regarded and would lead to good opportunities.

As for Pennfoster, a BSc from them has very little use other that saying that you have a degree. A BS from PennFoster has almost no chance for MBA admission unless you apply to schools in areas where nobody wants to go and have little competition.

An alternative is to use your Pakistanian credits and register with CGA, CGA has a partnership with Laurentian University so you can finish both CGA and a B.Comm degree.

Finally, you can look at the B.Sc in General Studies from Athabasca University and see if you can qualify for credit exemption.

Another school with generous credit transfer policy is Tomphson Rivers U.

If you stay in TO, this is an area with high unemployment and very competitive. Even an MBA is not much for the competitive market in this area. Most people with MBAs do CMA, CGAs or other credentials on top of the MBA so just to remain employable. May be moving to another area might not be a bad idea.