The Marine Corps now accepts baccalaureate degrees from nationally accredited institu

"The Marine Corps now accepts baccalaureate degrees from nationally accredited institutions for the purposes of applying to officer candidate programs.

Marine Corps Administrative Message 234/03 announced the new policy on May 15, 2003. Previously, the Marine Corps had only accepted bachelor's degrees from regionally accredited institutions when establishing basic qualifications for its officer candidate programs. Now, bachelor's degrees earned from nationally accredited institutions will also be accepted when an individual applies for a Marine officer candidate program.

According to the message, "Critical thinking and decision making skills, coupled with the ability to communicate thoughts and orders, are essential to success as a Marine officer." The message also noted that recent trends in expanding quality educational opportunities had led to the policy change. Efforts by APUS on behalf of students attending nationally accredited institutions contributed to the Marine Corps decision to review the policy.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard already accept bachelor's degrees from either nationally or regionally accredited institutions for officer program qualification."

APUS Newsletter, June 2003

Applicable paragraph from MARADMIN 234/03:

"3. ACTION. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, BACCAUREATE DEGREES FROM NATIONALLY, AS WELL AS REGIONALLY, ACCREDITED INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF OFFICER CANDIDATE PROGRAM APPLICATION."

http://www.usmc.mil/maradmins/maradmin2000.nsf/0872a7ac9a4c08a6852569b9000bc3f1/ac4aecd789ce187b85256d280007879e?OpenDocument

 

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Supply and demand will open many doors.

Within 10 years the majority of non-science related doctoral degrees will be earned via distance learning. Thus acceptance of said degrees will be advanced.

 

I'm not 100% sure but I don't think the USAF accepts nationally accredited degrees for officership. Perhaps Rich Douglas could chime in on this one....

 

I know what RA is.

What is "National Accreditation"?

 

Me Again,

DETC is and example of national accredidation (there are others as well).


Wow! I thought the Marine Corps (and all other branches) already accepted NA degrees. Apparently I was wrong!


Best Regards,
Bill

 

According to APUS, the Air Force does indeed accept nationally accredited degrees and credits for OTS:

"Officer Training School (OTS)

USAF Headquarters recently clarified their policy with regard to applicable credits toward Officer Training School. As a result of a petition by APUS, on behalf of a student applying to OTS, credits and degrees from nationally accredited schools are now accepted toward the qualifications."

http://www.apus.edu/APUS/General_Information/accreditation.asp

I expect to see Rich return anytime now. His 3,000th post should be news that he is now Dr. Douglas.

 

The FBI and other Federal law enforcement agencies have accepted NA degrees for basic admission standards for quite awhile now. It would be interesting to see if RA-degree holders were given preference or extra points over NA-degree holders. The last I checked, the FBI web site didn't make any distinctions.


Bruce

 

Disclaimer: I know very little about the FBI.

The quality of the institution in hiring individuals for Federal government positions, in general, has little affect on the decision to hire. The reason is fairly simple. Scores are developed for each applicant using their federal resume and the top 3?? are pulled. A determination of who to hire is made based upon that list and if no qualified individuals are found in that list another one will be generated. The location and quality of the school has no affect on the score.

There are special hiring programs that may be focused at individual schools or more subjective methods of selection is used, but for general hiring purposes this is not true.

John

 

With the exception of policy-level positions (which are mostly political appointments, not civil service anyhow) and positions in the "hard" sciences, my observation is that the relative prestige of your accredited degree-- or which DoE-approved accreditor-- is less important than the fact that you *have* a degree, and that the degree is in a relevant field. A lot of strange things happen during rating panels, but I've never seen / heard the degree's origin (assuming proper accreditation) being given particularly great weight. (The "old boy" network might still play a role in some agencies-- whether by coincidence or otherwise, certain schools seem disproportionately represented in the Special Agent ranks of the FBI, but that's not tied to accreditation issues per se.

 

Just out of curiosity, which schools tend to be disproportionately represented?


Tom Nixon

 

My impression? In this area, it seems like I can't swing a dead Brown Teal without hitting a University of Maryland alumnus on the FBI payroll. George Washington University seems to have contributed quite a few, also.. even after the demise of John Edgar Hoover, LLB (1916). Before somebody suggests that this is due to my proximity to those two schools, note that the 'BI is pretty indiscriminate about the duty locations of new agents.

(Hoover, incidentally, was a graduate of GWU's "night school." Highly non-traditional in that day.)

 

I've also seen a large amount of Boston College grads in the FBI ranks, at least around here.


Bruce