Masters with the least amount of credits

Good Morning, I was curious if anyone has anything new to add to Lawrie Millers' list. I realize this is a topic that draws alot of anger from people who have put in years for a 30 credit master program. Hille

 

Hi, Hille. These days, 30 semester hours is the shortest credible master's degree you can get. Many programs have extended their requirements - when I did my M.A. at Vermont College of Norwich University (now Vermont College of The Union Institute & University), it was 30 credits; a few years back, Norwich changed it to a minimum of 36 credits (although they always had 48 and 60 s.h. options).

In certain fields like counseling, ditto. While30 credits was once the standard, most states now require 48 or 60 credits.

These days, if you find 30-credit programs, consider them a bargain in terms of both time and money.

 

30 semester-credits is probably the minimum for a Master's degree from a real U.S. university. It's possible to get a Master's with much less than 30 semester-credits from non-U.S. GAAP universities. Such degrees are bogus, but why should we care? I have called them pseudodegrees. I am currently registered in two pseudodegree programs: one at University of Southern Queensland, and one at University of London.

 

Thanks for the input and comments. I'm curious about how the listing of degrees that some view as (pseudo) is handled. Do employers question the amount of credits in your masters? I am thinking about enrolling in one of these programs and if asked will explain to any potential employers. Again, thanks and enjoy a peaceful Sunday. Hille

 

Don't worry -- nobody else uses this terminology. FWIW, I define a "pseudo" graduate degree as one for which you can get 50% (or more) of the credits for undergraduate-level work, leaving the equivalent of 15 semester-credits (or less) of graduate-level courses or research.

In my experience, people don't ask about the number of credits. But people often do ask about the format of a degree program -- e.g. coursework vs. case studies vs. projects vs. research, etc.

 

The institutions offering graduate programs detailed in the BA in 4 Weeks Master's Degrees by Distance Learning listing, are either US regionally accredited of the foreign equivalent thereof.

The "Criteria for Inclusion" detailed on the web site are reproduced below. All offering institutions are well established and their wares generally well regarded. Nearly all are traditional bricks and mortar universities. No "bogus" institutions or degree programs are listed on the BA in 4 Weeks web site.

Where an offering institution's products have been found wanting, they have been de-listed (e.g. University of Derby).



ACCELERATED AND LOW-COST MASTER'S DEGREE LISTINGS


BASIC CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION

1. Legitimacy of the institution - defined as, state funded, and recognized by the government of the country as an institution of higher learning, or, in the case of US institutions, they may be public or private, but they must be regionally accredited.


2. Programs must be truly distance learning programs - There must be no requirement for any visits to the administering institution or its agents, other than occasional local excursions for the purposes of writing proctored exams. Note that programs listed may recommend and offer face to face seminars and other personal encounters, but none are required*.


3. Cost of program - Must offer good value relative to degree utility, and the price must make it accessible to the average person. Although the Duke University DL MBA might offer wonderful utility, at $95,000, it is likely beyond the reach of most visitors to this web site.


4. Programs must be offered at an English-speaking university in a preferred country. Preferred countries include, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, Eire, other Western European countries (provided the offering institution's primary language of instruction is English).

*Not applicable to [listed] doctorates

N.B. - BA in 4 Weeks accepts no advertising and receives no reward from any source for any endorsement, recommendation, or listing..

Lawrie Miller
BA in 4 Weeks
http://geocities.com/ba_in_4_weeks/mastermenu.html

.

 

If you have a Bible College background you can complete a RA M.A. degree from JOHNSON BIBLE COLLEGE with 30 semester hours. If you didn't have Greek in undergrad you have to complete 33 hours.

BLD
(30 Hour M.A. From JBC - 1997)

 

Hi Gert,
Care to share your area of studies -- if they look interesting, and I qualify, I might give them a shot. Thanks, Howard.

 

To be frank I often wonder and have on occasion asked. I suppose it is jealousy on my part since I had to complete more graduate credits due to the specialized requirements for the MA in Counseling.

In the US I suppose you could see the following:

complete a 32 credit hour Masters degree and then the 40 credit hour PhD from Touro in Health Sciences. Total graduate credit hours would be graduate 72 hrs (no foreign language requirement).

Now compare that with a clergyman with a doctorate who has completed a 90 credit hour Master of Divinity (Greek langauge and maybe Hebrew) plus the 36 hour plus (some are up to 60 credit hours) Doctor of Ministry. Their total academic investment in graduate credits would be 126 (or more).

A theologian would have even more and stiffer langauge requirements on the way to the ThD/PhD.

Quite a lot of variation

North

 

CA Options

You may want to consider CA Approved options, I had applied to several schools, before making my decision. However, if you are interested in the Social Sciences/Counseling/Psychology, you may want to consider SCUPS, I condsidered them for HR, they typically require 8 courses, open book, with assignments and readily accessible RA part-time faculty. No Thesis required. Reasonably priced, and with the CA Approved option fairly accepted. Hopefully, OR will grant CA approved schools eventual dispensation, as they are CA Approved and meet regulated requirements. Also, I beleieve in CA you can even practice with a SCUPS PHD. Other options exist, such as CPU, PWU, FTU, etc. Depending upon the need for accreditation, the State Approved option may be a consideration. Good luck and godspeed in obtaining your degree.

RJT

 

Re: CA Options

Or fairly unaccepted. Or unfairly unaccepted, if you'd like. I'd ask for some data to support your premise, but I'm a realist.

Have you simply gotten tired of shilling for only one substandard, unaccredited school, and decided to take up the banner for all of them?

8 courses? No thesis? Gimme a break.

 

If we want the easiest and quickest options, then why in the hell should we even care about course content or educational standards? But if we do care about those things, isn't there a problem with the whole premise of this thread?

 

If it is GAAP why should it matter? Are there different levels of learning that occur between 1st and 4th tier institutions? If you can get the credential, should that matter? In some cases it doesn't, such as licensure. However, if you care about the best educational standards, it probably should. That is the exact reason why some people look down on this forum, if it is GAAP, it is equivalent, without regard to the process of learning. While I realize accreditation supplies confidence that it is at least this rigorous, I also believe there is something more that needs to be said, depending on your objectives.

Regards,
Tony

 

While I was researching Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead, I'm pretty sure I ran across several 27sh master's programs and at least one 24sh master's (of a weird nomenclature--Master of Information Technology or something), all offered by regionally accredited schools. I can't remember if any made it into the book.

Master's programs that require fewer than 30sh are pretty rare, and most M.A. and M.S. programs require at least 33.


Cheers,

 

Can you explain how you calculate that a University of London Master's degree requires less work than a US 30 semester-hours degree? UK Master's degrees are, in most universities, rated at 180 UK credits, which in terms of workload equates to 45 US semester-hours. Some universities, like London, which have a mainly exam-based assessment regime do not use the credit rating system, but their degrees will involve a comparable workload.

Malcolm S Jenner

 

A colleague at work is enrolled in a USQ master's. It requires 8 courses. I asked if he felt that each course required the equivalent of one-and-a-half U.S. courses, considering a 12-course master's pretty normal. He felt it was a close call; that the USQ courses required a lot more reading than a typical U.S. course (naturally, in his somewhat limited experience--a limit most of us would share), but the work assignments weren't any more difficult. The program is designed so that one can complete it in two years, taking two courses for four semesters. I seem to recall that the DL master's programs at U. of Leiceister were the same way (with a master's dissertation at the end).

I don't think "taught" UK or Australian degrees are significantly more or less difficult than their U.S. counterparts.

(I did a 75 q.h.--equivalent to 50 s.h.--MBA. It required 15 courses. If you didn't have the 4 prerequisite courses, you could include them in the total of 15. But if you did, you still had to take 15 courses. Weird.)

 

My USQ program requires a minimum of 12 courses, each of which I would estimate to be comparable to a U.S. 3 semester-credit course. I will have to take at least 14 courses (to satisfy various prerequisites). But of those, 7 are explicitly undergraduate courses and some of the others are the types of courses that in U.S. would be open to both advanced undergraduates and graduate students. It's fine with me, since what I am looking for is an undergraduate-level education. But is it really a Master's degree?

 

Not less than 30 semester-hours of work in total, but less than 30 semester-hours of postgraduate-level work (the remainder being undergraduate-level). The U. of London program is 2 years, but the prospectus explicitly states that the exam at the end of the first year of the program is at a final-year undergraduate level. (I am not saying that it's easy -- just that it's at the undergraduate level!)

What I call a pseudodegree (which would be better called a pseudo-graduate degree) is one where 50% or more of the requirements are at the undergraduate level. There are some Master's degrees (from well-known universities) for which I would consider the entire program to be at the undergraduate level.

 

London University seems to be out of line with the many of the rest of UK universities in respect of its postgraduate diploma requirements. At London these seem to be about half of a Master's programme, and require a lower grade of pass than that required for progression to the rest of the Master's programme. Other universities (like my own) set a postgraduate diploma at two-thirds of a Master's degree, with no difference in the level of pass on any individual course. We allow not more than 30 credits (out of the 180 total) to be at final-year undergraduate honours level (roughly equal to US Master's level) to be included in posgraduate diploma and Master's programmes.

Malcolm S Jenner

 

Isn't all this very depressing!

I've spent most of my life in academia. My concern/interest has been in the encouraging oof people to 'think, criticise and analyze'. How dreadful that we have reduced everything down to course units, time put in and credit hours. I think I am in an age gone by. The Uk is now going down the same route as the USA! Even worse, there is now a European initiative to find 'common experience' so that cresdits and courses can be cross-cultural! Pathetic and a waste of time. Why would anyone want to have anything to do with the German, Italian or French educatio systems?!?! We are in the hands of regulators and administrative bureaucrats who like to see, and think, in terms of enclosed, regulated systems rather than the spread of knowledge, learning, wonder and understanding.

Should you wish to know...I'm in my early 50s not at the end of my career!

Education and learning is not about 'hoop' jumping!

Ivan Illich (Deschooling Society) published earkly 1970s:

Learning is unhampered participation in meaningful settings.

So, how do we create more situations in which people can find themselves, relate to what is going on around them, and contribute in ways which mean something TO THEM, not just governmental and accrediting administrators I (and those people who go along wioth such systems) who think (and act!) in terms of clock and semester and unit? Education should be about awakening the desire to learn and know3 more not just completing set clock hour curriculum exercises!

I despair!

'telfax'