Looking for advice on choosing a program to transfer to MPA

First off, Hello all!

I will describe my situation briefly. I am currently a firefighter/paramedic with a dept in VA. Some years ago I went to a school that was ACICS accredited and received a AAS in paramedic. I have now decided to further my education and transfer to a RA school that will accept these credits. I have found three that will with the ultimate goal of getting a MPA from one of the state university's in VA. (VCU, ODU etc.)

My question is what school/program would be most favorable to accomplish this goal? Here are the options I have picked out so far.

Waldorf College. (BS fire science administration) Online Fire Science Degree - Waldorf.edu

Bellevue University. (Emergency Management Degree - Bachelor of Science.)
Emergency Management Degree - Bachelor of Science | Bellevue University

Bellevue University. (Management Degree - Bachelor of Science.)
Management Degree - Bachelor of Science | Bellevue University

And Lastly, Liberty University. (Bachelor of Science in Business Administration – Public Administration)
BS Business Administration- Public Administration | Liberty University Online

Thanks, any help is greatly appreciated!

 

I am a graduate of Bellevue's BS-Management program. I had a great experience with them despite deploying 4 times during the accelerated program.

I am also about to go back to school with Liberty. So, I don't see any flaws with your school choices.

As to the best degree to lead to an MPA, I will leave that to some of the more experienced members of the board.

Feel free to ask me any questions about my time with BU either here or in a PM.

Good luck!!!!

 

Thanks I will send you a PM with some questions about Bellevue. I would like to know what you think of liberty when you start.


Also another question for anyone who can answer it. When trying to get into a master program does it look bad and possibly hurt your chances of admission if your bachelors came from a "for profit" school.
I ask this because Waldorf is "for profit" but cheaper than Bellevue or Liberty.
Waldorf 275 credit hour
Bellevue 370 credit hour
Liberty 325 or 360 depending on amount of credit hours taken.

 

Any of the undergraduate programs will get you into an MPA program. With that in mind, choose the most inexpensive regionally accredited undergraduate program that you can find in a discipline that is interesting to you.

If you're going to get an MPA, then you might want to diversify your undergraduate degree by getting it in a completely different field, such as business administration, business management, fire science, fire management or something else. Why get an undergraduate and a graduate degree in the same field? Diversification on a resume looks better.

 

Thanks for the advice, my first choice is Waldorf because it is the cheapest and because its is a degree that does interest me. But I am also looking down the road Waldorf is "for profit" is that going to hurt me getting into a state school MPA? I am sure that their are many good MPA programs from lesser know schools, but I really want the name recognition on a resume that comes with some of these larger schools.