Truckstop DL. You got to like that Uncle Steve! NATSO Foundation Launches Online Learning Initiative | CSPnet
I’ve counseled several drivers over the years on how they can pull off a degree while on the road. The January-February 2016 issue of Road King magazine, available free at any TA or Petro Truckstop, features an article about earning degrees while on the road. The focus is on an owner-operator who earned three degrees while driving: an associates in business administration from American Intercontinental U, then a B.A. in PoliSci and MPA, both from Ashworth. If you never get to a TA or Petro, you’ll find the article at When the wheels aren. Unfortunately, the various articles that have appeared in trucking magazines over the years are very basic and do not cover the differences between profit and non-profit, nor the various types of accreditation. The guy in the TA article is lucky in that he ended up with RA degrees, although Ashworth has had its share of controversy over the years.
Good catch - my mistake. The guy graduated from the WASC-accredited Ashford in California (the one that started as a parochial school in Iowa).
Ahh, well, good for him. Is it better to run with a non-profit school? Sure. It gets kind of hairy with some of the for-profits that turned non-profit, but sure, why not? If, for nothing other than avoiding the debate, go with non-profit. RA better than NA? Sure. Are there NA degrees that "do the job?" Naturally. But the RA degrees offer a utility that is simply unparalleled in the NA world. But if I had to choose between an NA degree and no degree at all, I'd go with the NA degree. And if I had to choose between a degree from a for-profit school and no degree at all, I'd take the degree. Life doesn't often shuffle itself into such convenient dichotomies, of course. But i a guy earned three degrees while on the road that's definitely an achievement that he is hopefully proud of. Perhaps more importantly, I hope that his degrees help him to achieve his goals (even if those goals are just the satisfaction of having his degrees and being able to "prove" to the world that driving a truck doesn't mean you were too stupid for college). We have a lot of snottiness surrounding higher ed in general. And even more snottiness around work that we feel is "beneath" us. The only thing that makes me happier than a truck driver earning a college degree is when someone with a college degree goes out and becomes a truck driver (or a plumber, a farmer, an electrician or any skilled profession that doesn't require a degree to get into it).
