Don't want no stinkin DL grads!

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by SurfDoctor, Jun 8, 2010.

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  1. SoldierInGA

    SoldierInGA New Member

    If your resume states that you lived and worked in Iowa for the past 9 years yet have an MBA from Edinburgh Businesss School, Edinburgh Scotland or some MS from Bostonn University or George Washington Uniiversity awarded last year, then that'd be a dead giveaway if not just a matter for questions.

    IMO, if a company or university thumbs their nose at my resume or application for such a reason in a 2010 post-recession job environment, then I'm blessed not to be working there.
     
  2. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    The articles fails to cite references, but I know this is the case with some departments at UF.
     
  3. The_Professor

    The_Professor New Member

    Why drag the Hungarians into this?
     
  4. imalcolm

    imalcolm New Member

    Funny, I used to live next door to a former NASA engineer who told me that at least some of the video was faked.
     
  5. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    Speak of the devil. Here is a job posted on CareerBuilder in my career field that says:

    "Four year degree from a respected "brick and mortar" school. Please no online degrees."

    [FONT=&quot]Full Job Details[/FONT]

    I guess I shouldn't tell them about my online degree! :eek:
     
  6. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Once again it's a financial institution. Very interesting.
     
  7. Cyber

    Cyber New Member

    I seriously think that this trend of outrightly rejecting DL degreed job applicants is orchestrated B & M schools and the professors that teach in those schools. Why? because less students are attracted to their institutions resulting in low enrollment for them and this is how they are fighting back. The part that really gets me is the fact that most of the adjunct jobs go to B & M professors. For DL schools to remain viable, they must start hiring adjuncts that only have DL degrees since those are the folks that keep them in business. DL schools should reject B & M professors for DL jobs - "since they cannot feed from they same finger that they continuously bite."
     
  8. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Very good point. It will never happen, but it should.
     
  9. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    Actually, I don't think so. The job is finance related, but the ads says the job is for "one of the most respected and most well known Government contractors in the world." I'm guessing it is a large technology firm such as BAE, Boeing, GE, and the like.

    What I'm not sure is, is it the client that doesn't want the DL degree, or the staffing firm?
     
  10. jerryclick

    jerryclick New Member

    Staffing firms are noted for putting in inane job requirements just to reduce the number of applicants they have to wade through.
     
  11. eilla05

    eilla05 New Member

    Thanks! That is what I thought. Im totally good as my school offers a B&M as well.

    Allie
     
  12. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    This infuriates me. I'm really at a loss of words at this point. This reeks of discrimination...
     
  13. Marylandgal

    Marylandgal New Member

    Is there anyway to hold companies responsible for discrimination against DL grads? Am I wrong in assuming that government agencies are supposed to be equal opportunity employers? I think that this ad is an example of them not being just that.
     
  14. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    They are asking for a lot for $45,000 - $50,000 /Year. They want you to relocate, take a low paying job, and have a degree from a good school? What if you went to Penn State online? They would never know, after a few years of working there you could be like, by the way bitches, I went to online school. (sorry I've have had a few)
     
  15. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    In theory you could just list your degrees without dates and wait until you are asked. I believe the fact that you are living/working in one area then going to school in another is a dead giveaway.

    I think I would rather not work for someone who was so short sided and ignorant.
     
  16. gettingthere

    gettingthere New Member

  17. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    Not to discredit your personal experience but I think this post requires a like response.

    For profits, like UofP specifically, have driven innovation in DL offerings in both how learning can be accomplished and in driving a "student/customer focused" program. While the recruitment practices of some for profit schools like UofP do indeed tarnish their image there is no doubt that without their innovation and challenging of the rules we would likely not have near the distance learning alternatives we do today. Remember the internet was not always an accepted medium for education and even today you'll still find a crusty professor or two who do not consider it to be "real" learning.

    All that aside my experience with for-profits has been mixed. At Ashford University the first 3 classes or so were packed with every type of student imaginable, the open enrollment encourages this. We had 40 students of everyone from near business geniuses who had made their millions several times over to a woman who just 3 years ago was living in her car and homeless but trying to get ahead. (BTW she was one of my favorite peers and did quality work, I'd love to meet her in person). We even had the typical medium sized business managerial types who generally did just enough to get by. When I started the program we had around 40 people to a class, maybe just under. By the time we finished with all the quantitative courses we were down to between 11 and 13 people, most had either dropped or transfered to a lesser Organizational Management Degree which allowed some classes from the MBA to be transfered over and didn't require the math. I can tell you everyone that passed through Ashford's MBA program either knows their stuff or knows enough to survive.

    On the flip side my experience with Tarrant County Community College was frightful. The students were often burnt out professionals looking for a change (these were at times excellent students) and of course your fresh out of high school kids who don't know what else to do with their time and generally are just as disruptive in the college classroom as the public school (the song Smoking in the Boys Room comes to mind). I did find the average "quality of student" to be nowhere near that of the for-profit I attended but what can I expect, it's a community college.

    But I also attended Western New Mexico State University and had a horrid experience. They combined undergrad and grad students in the same class and simply made the grad students do more discussion posts. The quality of students was obviously quite a mixed bag since undergrads were within our ranks and a professor even asked if he could send one of my papers to some of the other students to show them what an APA formatted paper looked like. I didn't mind so much but the school had other serious flaws that I couldn't deal with.

    Lastly at Bellevue I am enrolled in what I consider one of the better designed MIS masters level programs out there. Even still I have had at least one group project that all but fell apart at the end because of the piss poor quality of work (or lack of any work) some people in the program were turning out. In fact in at least one case I found myself writing to my professor that I was amazed this person qualified to graduate with an undergraduate degree, given the quality (or lack thereof) of their work at a graduate level.

    The fact is any open enrollment university will attract all types of students, some exceptional and some not. The beauty of an open enrollment school is that the actual coursework will do the screening of those "worthy" of the credential, which I personally think is the only true predictor of success or failure in a given program. Trial by fire if you will.
     
  18. jaer57

    jaer57 New Member

    I've found this to be true in my experience. The two foundations courses at the beginning of my UMUC degree program had about 30-40 students in each. Now my classes have about 15-20 students. I can only imagine those students who dropped out or didn't continue beyond the foundation classes couldn't continue academically. The only thing I find annoying about open enrollment is having to work with some of those who shouldn't be in the program in the first place. But at this point those people seemed to have been weeded out in the first two classes...
     
  19. cjzande

    cjzande New Member

    I'm afraid this is all "perception vs. reality," which is something homeschoolers are very familiar with. While things have certainly improved in the last decade (probably thanks to above average test scores and high numbers of college-bound grads), there are still people out there who insist there is "no way" a homeschooled student has received as "good" of an education as his public/private-schooled peers.

    I can remember when things really started changing for homeschoolers, when colleges and universities went from skeptical to reluctantly accepting to actively recruiting. Even so, there's always an article here, a forum post there, with people talking about how bad homeschooling is. Some people will *always* resist the concept, I think.

    It seems to me that people with DL degrees are in the same position. Hopefully, more and more people with DL degrees will get out into the workforce and prove themselves to be hard-working, competent employees, which will slowly bring the business world around, and even if certain academic groups always turn their noses up - like the NEA still does with homeschooling - it will only be a slight annoyance or nuisance, vs. actually detrimental to one's career. (I guess the exception would be teaching positions, which may be hard to get for a long time to come, which I find ridiculous, personally.)
     
  20. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    The problem is that it's very difficult to prove that the reason you didn't get the job was because your degree was earned through distance learning. Imagine the kind of evidence you'd have to produce. Typically, you don't even know who the other candidates for the position might be. Maybe someone actually WAS more qualified than you, etc.
     

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