Quickest way to a second undergrad from a different school?

I'm currently about 1/2 way through my graduate degree in organizational leadership from Colorado State. However, my undergrad degree, a BBA, is from University of Phoenix and is looked down upon on my resume. I am curious what is the quickest way to a second undergrad degree from a different school. I am a former service member and have taken 16 credits at Troy University and 9 from Central Texas College.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

Why bother getting a second undergrad degree? This does not make sense and it is not worth it to get a second bachelors degree when you already have a masters degree. Besides once you have a masters degree your undergrad alma mater does not matter much. What matters is a combination of work experience and graduate education. Think of like a bachelors replacing your high school. Once you get a bachelors degree then where you went to high school does not matter, and so on. Unless you are Al Bundy and once threw five touchdowns in a single game. I've never been asked once about my undergrad alma mater. I've been asked about my graduate certificate, my grad degree and my work experience. Welcome aboard, and thanks for your service.

 

Kool, thanks for the response. Fully understand the reasoning behind the masters degree and not much importance placed on your undergrad school. The catch is I still work for Dept of Defense and many of the upper level management positions I compete for, I am up against retired military members many of whom are Westpoint, Air Force Academy, etc. graduates. In the military community those schools matter. I don't stand a chance on paper with UoP on there.

 

In my opinion, the best remedy for an undergraduate degree from an institution you aren't proud of is a graduate degree from an institution you are proud of.

Someone posted, a few weeks ago, a story about a young lady who earned her B.S. from American Military University and then earned her M.A. through Harvard extension. Do you think her undergraduate degree being from a small for-profit university devalues her M.A. from Harvard? I'm not saying she'll never have someone make a comment about it but I cannot imagine it will ever impair her employment prospects to any appreciable level.

Colorado State is a solid school. And your UofP BBA, shameful as you may find it, is what got you into the grad program at CSU (I am not getting into the abbreviation argument again). Getting a second bachelors (particularly if you intend to use the second bachelors instead of your first bachelors) is really more likely to cause confusion more than anything else.

Let's say you walk into my office for an interview. You do amazing. I see you have a Masters from Colorado State. Cool. I see you have a Bachelors from, say, Charter Oaks. Fine. I want to make you an offer so I initiate the background check.

Let's see, your Masters was awarded in 2016 and your bachelors was awarded in....2017? What are you hiding from me? Now, not only are you going to have to disclose that UofP degree to me but 1) what might have just been a casual glance before is now being highlighted in bold, bright colors and 2) your shame over that degree is highlighted even more.

Guess what? I realize that a lot of folks on boards and comment sections say that UofP degrees are worthless. But UofP has, if nothing else, a goodly number of executives who wear their socks. When UofP reached its peak popularity it was a pretty popular spot for mid to senior level managers who wanted to get that MBA they had been putting off for years. And those people, hundreds of thousands of them I'm sure, didn't immediately throw their degrees in the trash when the tide started to turn against UofP.

Go on LinkedIn and see how many people at Goldman Sachs have degrees from UofP. If the answer is any more than "1" then the whole "the degree is worthless argument" really begins to look questionable.

So, my suggestion is to continue your education at Colorado State and hold your head high. Because a second bachelors is going to require you to earn, at a minimum, 24 undergraduate credits before a school like TESC will consider awarding you a second bachelors degree. That's going to cost you time and money that you could be spending on certifications or just putting in some extra time at work to get ahead. And getting the second bachelors degree (again, especially if you intend to omit the UofP degree from your resume in the future) is likely to simply draw more attention to it at a really awkward time. It would be like trying to cover up a pimple on your nose with glow-in-the-dark paint and drawing a huge purple circle around it.

 

I am with Neuhaus on this. Even if the University of Phoenix degree is perceived as a bit of a clunker, it is accredited and you are covering it with an accredited Masters degree from a good school. That Masters degree should stand out. The time and money you spend on a second bachelors degree could be spent towards your Doctor of Business Administration degree (DBA) or other doctorate. Considering the cost of some South African research doctorates, you probably would be spending about the same amount of money.

 

Let me just add that I have, at times, considered doing the same thing. Colorado Technical University is not as reviled as UofP in the press. But it does draw the ire of those who hate all for-profit schools.

But you know what? There's a certain element of loyalty at play as well. I have been regularly employed in my field of choice, in part, because of my degree from CTU. Has it ever caused me to miss out on an interview? I don't know. Maybe? But it's impossible for me to tell who passed over my resume because another candidate was in the pool versus those who passed over my resume because they simply wanted to poke CTU and CTU grads in the eye.

But I've never suffered any sort of appreciable discrimination. In fact, on occasions where I was asked about my education, I often received praise from the interviewer for earning my degree while serving full-time in the military.

So I think it would be kind of a crappy thing for me to just try to get another degree and pretend like the whole "me graduating from CTU thing" just never happened. People like me can help legitimize degrees from schools like CTU but not if we try to disavow our degrees. CTU maybe wasn't the best choice for me. But it wasn't a bad choice, either. And it did help me to achieve my goals. If I want more prestige on my resume I'll earn more degrees and certificates and certifications. But I'm not going to try to rewrite history.

 

I agree to everyone in this scenario, why is bothering to get a second Bachelor when nobody cares after you receive your graduate degree? I rarely mention my Bachelor degree from Troy University. I mostly mention my Masters from Southern Methodist University and Georgetown University.

University of Phoenix is not well respectable institution; however, it was and is accredited. If somebody talk about about UoPhoenix, just laugh and let it go.

 

I agree with the above responses to your question.
However I believe there are circumstances where a second bachelor or even associates degree can be beneficial if it is related to your employers field of business. For example say you were working for my former employer, an aerospace company, and working on cost analysis. The a degree of some type in a technology, science or math would definitely enhance your proposal.

 

If an interviewer questions your choice of UoP for undergrad, I would just say "It was the most flexible option available to me at the time to complete my degree while deployed to {insert ****hole here} defending your freedom."

Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but you get my drift.

If you are worried about people automatically rejecting your resume because of the UoP name, you can list it in your resume like:

Bachelors in Business Administration, University of Phoenix, 20XX
Completed undergraduate degree during deployment to {X} in Operation {X}. Additional coursework completed at Troy University and Central Texas College.

or, (and I know some people will not agree with me on this) - leave off your bachelor's degree entirely - just list your masters degree.

If it comes up in the interview where you did your bachelors, I would tell them you attended Central Texas College, Troy University, and completed your undergrad degree at University of Phoenix because the flexibility allowed you to continue your degree while deployed.

I agree with others though. Don't do a second bachelors unless it is a dramatic change of field. if you are looking for something that will help improve your resume other than the masters degree, you might want to consider a certification in the field your are interested in (like PMP, PHR, etc.)

 

I disagree with this only because if the employer is using screening software it might actually reject your resume. This is especially true if the position requires a bachelors but only prefers a Masters. The system will be search for your bachelors information. It will find none. Application rejected. It's also possible (but far less likely) if the company simply has interns as resume screeners. We do that periodically for mass-hire projects (like, for engineering interns).

This is pretty solid advice in general. My B.S. is from Colorado Technical University. Thankfully CTU doesn't have the...ahem...name recognition that the University of Phoenix has. So people usually say things like "Oh, how long did you live in Colorado?" or "I used to live in {City, CO} where were you?" I take it as an opportunity to share how I earned my degree while on active duty through a combination of distance learning and on-base education. If an interviewer has a problem with that answer, you probably wouldn't want to work for them anyway (particularly since that answer can now also describe how someone earned a college degree from a variety of very well respected institutions).

My bachelors degree met a requirement. But my PHR met a much more important requirement when I was applying for work. You'll note that none of my degrees are even in HR. All of the job postings I applied to fresh out of the Navy were B.S. required, PHR/SPHR preferred. Done and done.

I also recently spruced up my resume with a Master Certificate in Human Resource Management from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. While that cert is non-credit bearing and doesn't make me a cornell alum, I think it certainly adds a bit of class to the education section of my resume.

 

My B.A. is from a small, private, liberal arts college that's pretty much unknown outside New England (maybe even outside Massachusetts), but I've never given it a second thought. It was on the approved list of schools for an education incentive at work, they accepted all my community college, CLEP/DANTES, & military credits, and I only needed to complete 10 classes (30 credits) through them, so that's what I did. I really didn't/don't care that it's sometimes referred to as "Curry in a Hurry", because I knew I was moving on to graduate school.

Like someone else said, a good graduate degree often "cancels out" the undergrad; no one has ever questioned or negatively remarked about UMass-Lowell. The same applies to Colorado State; I don't think anyone is going to care about the source of your undergrad degree, provided it's from a legitimately accredited school. Love it or hate it, UoP is just that.

 

I agree with those who suggest you finish your master's and see how it works out. But if you insist on a second bachelor's you'll need to transfer in at least 90 s.h. and do at least 30 s.h. of new work with almost all schools. That is a lot more time and work...and money.