Hi, folks. I'm new to the board and have a couple of questions. Would dual majors be a way around the effective limit of two Bachelor's degrees? Say a dual major at Excelsior and another at Charter Oaks? What of undergraduate certificates? If a student received a Bachelor's degree in a business discipline and a certificate in Computer Science then what would be the value of the certificate on its own and as entree to a graduate program in Computer Science that required a BSCS for admittance?
I would imagine that you would qualify to enter into an MSCS degree, however, would probably have to take some prerequisite courses considering some certificate programs in technical studies have exclusivley applied courses such as programming, lan, etc. and leaves out the theoretical courses like calc, discrete math, etc. So, lets say you had a BA in business (and the highest math course it had in math was an applied calculus or something similar). You had a certificate in compscience which would cover alot of the lower level course work in a compsci major but still required upper level coursework in CS. You would probably have to finish discrete math (perhaps some more calculus) and upper level CS courses. Of course, different CS programs from different schools will have different admissions requirements. So, you would probably have to find out where you stand at a specific school and take it from there. Hope this helps! Best Regards, Bill
Thanks for the reply, Bill. The college certificates I've looked into in the past have all had prerequisite requirements. If, for instance, there were math requirements for the courses within the certificate then those math courses would have to be completed just as they would be within a degree program or the certificate would not be awarded. Of course I can't say that is true of all schools. I'm bringing up college certificates primarily because of some of the discussions I've read here. There is much talk of second degrees where, I think, certificates following a first degree should suffice for gaining "employment enhancement" or admission to graduate programs. If the idea gets batted around here then I guess I'll find out.
I don't believe that Excelsior allows dual majors. I would surmise (based on all of their tuition plans) that neither TESC nor COSC allow it either. You need to reenroll after your first degree to get another degree. Then again, neither TESC nor COSC allow majors anyway. You would be stuck with a liberal studies concentration. An undergrad certificate is essentially (usually) the principles of the area. Your later post describing prerequisites for the certificate does not negate the fact that there will still be prerequisites for the master's program. Tony Good luck in your studies, and you are in the right place to ask questions.
Re: Re: Dual majors and certificates I'm not sure about COSC, but that's not quite right for TESC. As with many schools, TESC refers to their BA "concentrations" as "majors" (both informally and in print). They do allow students to pick up two of these for one degree, and in fact I did just that (Psychology and Computer Science). The catch is that you need to complete all of the requirements for both majors/concentrations before you graduate, and if you graduate with one, they will never allow you to go back and finish another. Also, the way that TESC's tuition plan works, a student is enrolled for 365 days, regardless of degrees granted. I was told that I could complete an additional degree (BSBA) within my enrollment period, so long as I earned 30 credits after the first degree was granted. However, I decided that it wouldn't be worth the hassle and the cost (exam fees and additional graduation fee) to pick up another bachelor's from the same school.
I don't know about RA requirements but in New York it is probably still true that a second Bachelor's degree requires not just a full complement of courses within the major but additional humanities (whatever) courses as well. Being able to take, within one degree, a second major or a major and a minor would therefore be of benefit to some people. BTW - I'm 57 years old so my terminology and understandings of the process may be passe if not just wrong. BTWW - I'll take the opportunity to add my gratitude to Dr. Bear for helping to demystify the higher educational underworld.
