The Big Three As a Back Door

I went the other way around. I earned a BA in Social Sciences in residence with Washington State University. I had some military credits, FEMA credits and mixed those with some CLEP's and earned a BA in Psychology from TESC. In all I had to earn 33 credits to complete the BA in Psych from TESC. After CLEP's/ECE's/TECEP I ended up only taking 4 courses from TESC to earn the second BA degree. I also used the Military Degree Completion Program that TESC offered active duty students at the time. I don't believe I had to pay their 6 month or yearly enrollment fee which saved me thousands of dollars. Great program too.

The disadvantage for me is that the two degree's are pretty similar in that they are both considered Social Science degrees. The only advantages are that I earned a second degree in a subject that was interesting to me and I was able to pocket money from my GI Bill which was the main reason I attended any college these past 14 years.

I would not recommend getting two similiar degrees like I did. It looks stupid and I generally don't tell anyone I have two unless it's specifically asked for some reason. If I was going to back in time I would have spent that extra time on another Master's degree instead of the second BA. I would have also tried for a degree in Business or Technology or something that was not as closely related to the Social Science degree I already earned.

 

Where do you know this to be the case? In my experience working in higher education, I've seen just the opposite--credits evaluated on their own merits to see if they align with the degree requirements, with the caveat that you must still meet the residency requirement. Most people with coursework-based degrees wouldn't have too much trouble, as the courses would likely overlap, but I don't see institutions just automatically permitting alternative credit in this fashion.

 

I get your point now. Yes, some schools do allow gen eds to be considered fulfilled in this kind of situation.

That being said, I can very easily see a registrar's office at a more traditional school balking at the idea of a degree chock full of alternative credit if the school itself does not recognize such credit. If there is any wiggle room in the catalog at all, then it could be very difficult.

After all, this scenario is essentially an attempt to undermine the academic policies of an institution. If the school picks up on that, the reaction might not be so pleasant.

 

I was enrolled in two undergraduate programs--one residential and one virtual (CCAF) when I ran into both of their limits on transferring credit for testing (30 and 24, respectively). I was bemoaning this, wondering what made the 30th credit good and the 31st credit bad when a colleague told me about the Regents program, now Excelsior. Boom! I did a B.S. (business) in 18 months and another bachelor's a few months later.

I still ended up in night school, but earning an MBA instead....

 

This situation is most likely to show up with gen ed requirements waived, but ending up very short of the 120 semester hours required for the degree because of their limit on testing credit - normally thirty hours or so.

 

Foobar,

Thanks for succinctly stating what I was trying to say! Long week....

 

This is my take on testing credit.
My local USF allows only 35 credits of testing credit, including AP, IB, CLEP, DSST to be applied to their degree programs.
However, if I have a BSBA from TESC with lots of testing credit and I want to get into USF's MBA, they will look at my transcript and see that I have the prerequisites: a bachelors degree and the courses they require: macro, micro, stats, etc. The fact that I have a lot of gen eds as testing credit will most likely not come into the picture. The testing credit cap is for getting a degree at USF, not for fulfilling prerequisites for the graduate programs.

However, if I have ACE credit for accounting (which I do from Straighterline) they may ask me to take accounting at USF. However if I had CLEP credit for accounting, they would consider it waived because the school has an articulation policy that grants equivalency to the CLEP Financial Accounting test to ACC1101.

So my answer to all of this is to go ahead and test out and don't worry about how many testing credits you have, but make sure that your credits will articulate into the right courses at the school in question. Most schools have this information posted online so its easy to find.

Also, if the only requirement for entry is a bachelors degree, then you are set. That was the case at NCU for its MBA program so they didn't even look at my credit sources, just that I completed a bachelors degree. The same goes for USF's graduate certificate in web design. They just checked for a completed bachelors degree on my transcript.

 

Hey Ryoder, do you know anywhere other than NCU/for-profit institution that just requires a bachelors degree for entry? I have completed my TESC degree with mostly ACE credits and very few RA credit. I am kind of scared applying to a MBA program at a state/local university that may question me on my ACE credits. Any ideas fellas?

Not that I got anything against for profits, but the last case scenario I rather try a for-profit. I just want to see what my options are for a non-profit institution.

 

This is an excellent idea, and something I am seriously considering. My situation is a bit different in that I have a BS from Bellevue University and an AS from Excelsior.

As MC mentioned above many schools offer 2nd bachelor's degree programs to any student with an RA 1st bachelor's.

OSU offers a 2nd BS in Computer Science, while USU offers a 2nd BS in Communication Science & Disorders.

 

You will not have any issues, I have looked in to many schools and there weren't going to be any problems at any of them. I am currently at a tier 1 school, Duquesne University, and have plenty of non-traditional credits.

 

After I took my B.S. in business from Regents, I went into the AF Reserves and headed home to San Diego. I was interested in pursuing my MBA, so I applied to the local state school, San Diego State University. At the time, SDSU had a two-year (full-time) MBA. The first year (30 s.h.) was made up of foundational courses for those without degrees in business, while the second year (30 s.h.) was the actual MBA. Graduates of bachelor's programs in business accredited by the AACSB would have the first year waived entirely. But if you had a degree from a non-AACSB program, SDSU would evaluate your undergraduate transcripts and waive foundational courses on a course-by-course basis. Because I had a degree via Regents (non-AACSB), however, they chose to completely ignore my testing credit. Thus, they waived exactly one (of 10) foundational courses.

I took my MBA at National University instead, which recognized my degree and waived all of its pre-requisite courses.

This is the only time I've ever been aware of any difficulty regarding my USNY (Regents) degrees.

Ironically, when I was accepted by the Air Force to be an AFROTC instructor, I asked for--and was approved for--assignment to.....SDSU! In the AFROTC program, the host university has the right of refusal because the officers become assistant professors with full faculty status and rights. SDSU approved me and my Regents bachelors' degrees (and my National MBA). I never became a student, but I was on faculty for 4 years. Better parking, anyway.

 

I don't see this as an issue at all. For the vast majority of MBA programs, the BA/BS will be a "check the box" issue. Go for it.

Shawn

 

Hmm. Sounds good, thanks for ideas! Will be on my search for an MBA! Hopefully a university in my home state, Florida.

 

I've never understood why someone would get two distinct Bachelor's degrees (I can understand a dual major at the same school). As soon as my B.A. was bestowed, I left undergraduate programs in the rear-view mirror and started looking at graduate programs. I have two Master's degrees, but I think it's much different at the graduate level, since they can be teaching credentials.

 

I did it because I could. I took two exams (one GRE and one CLEP) to tack on the second degree. No trouble and kind of fun.

Same with my two associate "degrees." The first was a result of a bunch of CLEP and DANTES exams I'd already taken. Then second was from CCAF; I didn't earn it until I took a course in my MBA program that met the final remaining requirement. The only reason I bothered at all was (1) I did nothing extra to get it, (2) it was free, and (3) it was an expectation in the enlisted Air Force. (Ironically, about a year later I was a commissioned officer, rendering the CCAF thingy moot.)

No, I agree with Bruce. I would not have gone out of my way to do it, and I agree that two master's create a much larger distinction. No one's ever cared that I had two bachelor's degrees.

I wonder about two doctorates, though....

 

I have a coworker that's about to complete a second bachelors. I think he's wasting his time, but it's his money. He basically told me he's a slacker that can't handle graduate school. I wish he'd quit asking for my opinion.

 

Oh, do tell, what's your second doctorate going to be in?

 

Any recommendations?