If you had to choose.

All of this is good advice, but only from the perspective that you appear to have done your homework and understand what is at stake. Be aware that much of this advice is from armchair atheletes who are opining whether American football is "better" or "harder" or "more pure" than Aussie football, having never played football themselves (except maybe in high school).

Advice is advice. Opinions are opinions. Some of it is even "correct." I personally have difficulty with accepting as authoritative judgements as to the quality of this program or that who have not done them, or something comparable.

 

"I personally have difficulty with accepting as authoritative judgements as to the quality of this program or that who have not done them, or something comparable."

Sorry, typing too fast, this was meant to say:

I personally have difficulty accepting, as authoritative, judgements as to the quality of this program or that *from those* who who have not done them, or something comparable.

 

Rich, I realize I have be absent from posting messages lately, but I have to comment, after your discussions with me, you now say you do not recommend CCU and other unaccredited universites. Please Clarify, and understand this is not an arguement, I just need clarity. This seems to conflict with your other post. Thank you.

 

Try www.tourou.edu

 

Not necessarily. Many people "put" into life, only to find themselves unrewarded. Others "take" from life, rewarded. This is the essence of scams. Life isn't easy, even, or fair. Caveat Emptor.[/B]

Rich Douglas

 

If you are Reserve Marine Corp then you have TA? You can go NAU and use TA plus their military scholarship.

They are a member of North Central Association, and they ain't cheap at first glance. After TA and scholarship they get down to community college prices though.

I'm in the military too, but a smaller and older branch.

Jim

 

Also try Northcentral University. They have a full scholarship to NCU for Army National Guard or Coast Guard. From what I have seen of the reserves you should be easily able to switch to ARNG (especially if you are just an E-5 or E-6 and your MOS has some equivalency).
http://www.ncu.edu/arngi/

North (who to answer your question is not Ollie)

 

Sgtbroderick,

There are two issues to consider, utility and quality (i.e. how useful the degree is and how good the program is... the two are not synonamous).

Ignoring foreign programs, utility might be envisioned on a continuum... with Harvard on one end and a degree mill on the other. There are certain criteria which greatly increase utility... the most significant, but not only, being RA. The important thing is to try to ensure that the utility of the degree will meet your needs. Two points to remember; 1) degrees without RA do have some utility 2) RA alone does not guarantee utility.

Quality. "Generally" RA degrees are of higher quality however this is not always the case. I have some "portfolio" credits from a RA school... these are so easy to get, it is a joke. I have seen some requirements from non-RA schools which clearly require more than what is required for some portfolio credits. Others have testified to, without preparation, completing short exams which are awarded RA credits. Again, I have seen non-RA courses which clearly cannot be completed without some hours of preparation. Bottom line, a RA degree may not have as much utility but neither should you hang your head in shame that your degree is necessarily inferior to a RA one.

Personally... there is a difference between acquiring a degree (RA or otherwise) and pursuing an education which results in a degree. True, it may take longer, require more effort and cost some more but there is an incredible satisfaction when you pursue a world-class education and are finally awarded the degree which testifies to your accomplishment.

 

North,

I cant believe you said "From what I have seen of the reserves you should be easily able to switch to ARNG" to a Marine. If we were having drinks in a bar I'd jokingly say "Have you lost your mind?"

S/F
MB, Who knows now for sure your not Ollie!

P.S. Thanks for the info.

 

Well, I know once a Marine always a Marine. But I do know a guy who was a Marine and then became an Army enlisted guy. Still did all the grunt stuff (air assault - aka dope on a rope/airborne/pathfinder).

For a free education you might consider it.

Okay practice....."Over hill over dale....the army goes marching along".

North (ex army NCO)

 

Lewchuck,

Wow, a reply from the famous Lewchuck! Thanks for the advice. (I think Laurie is going to be upset).
I'll let you in on a little secret though. I have attended Harvard U. JFK School of Gov. and it was great. I learned so much. The problem is the cost. I want to go again and have the opportunity, just no dinero!

A question to the group. Mr. Douglas stated that the programs at the non RA schools are substandard. What makes that so? What in their syllabus or curriculum makes it bad compared to an RA DE school? Also, don't all schools start out with no accreditation? From my understanding it takes 3 to 5 years to get it. So a good new school is no good until it gets the rubber stamp? Finally, isn’t accreditation voluntary? It kinda sounds like "well yes it is voluntary, but your dammed if you don't". I know that ORU is non RA, but that is ok because it related to the church. Yet I've heard good things about it.

S/F
MB

 

I don't recommend unaccredited schools. If one is compelled to go to one for a degree, there are certainly better and worse ones. I've maintained a pretty positive outlook on CCU (and Columbia Pacific and California Pacific, for that matter), but that's not the same as recommending them.

Rich Douglas

 

I think a fairer statement would be that unaccredited schools have a much higher chance of being substandard vs. regionally accredited. Some schools that are academically solid (like Bob Jones University, not Oral Roberts as you mentioned), choose not to apply for accreditation for religious reasons, some legitimate schools (like Cal Coast) choose not to apply because they most likely wouldn't get it, and many mills like to claim bogus accreditation to fool consumers. A "subsection" would be a school like Northcentral University in AZ that is unaccredited, but just received RA candidacy status, and seems to have been legitimate since day one. You're right about all schools being unaccredited at first, but when 20+ years go by without even an attempt (like CCU), you have to take that into account.

Why are legitimate unaccredited programs mostly inferior to RA schools? I think there are many reasons, including residency, full-time faculty, granting of life credit, academic rigor, history of the school, and probably a thousand other things. Like I mentioned, there are academically solid schools like BJU that have valid reasons for not being accredited, but IMO they are very much the exception.

IMO, going through life with an unaccredited degree is kind of like driving a Geo Metro through a blizzard...you may make it to the end, but chances are good you're going to get stuck or wipe out along the way. An RA degree is like going through the same blizzard with an M-1 tank.

Bruce

 

Since you're indifferent to accreditation, it shouldn't be a negative if it is regionally accredited. Here's one with $165./hr tuition: www.amberton.edu .

Depending on where you are in the BA process, you could go to a community college (some are DL) and take some year 1 and 2 courses for under $100./hr.)

 

I'm sure glad I sold my Geo Metro last month, Bruce. I'm going to the tank dealership first thing tomorrow!

Russell

 

Colleen,

I am very curious about your comments on Century and would like to learn more about its utility in the health management field. Therefore, I have a few questions that I hope you can answer: Which health management organizations regularly accept Century grads? How many Century grads do you know in this field? Based on a Century degree were these personnel able to get jobs in this field and/or promotions?

In addition, my question applies to other state approved doctorate degrees. I have seen many large corporations only willing to accept RA degrees. How widespread have you seen the use of unaccredited doctorates?

Thanks,

John

 

Make sure you get the latest model, the Abrams M-1A2 main battle tank. At the risk of sounding pretentious, this is the "Harvard" of tanks.

Bruce

 

Checked it out this morning, Bruce. But alas, it was much too expensive for my budget, and also required too much work. So I settled for a less-than-wonderful model. Don't tell anyone, but the one I bought is the "Trinity College & University" of tanks. The average person will never know the difference.

Russell

 

I have quite a bit going on in my life too with work, family and so on. I also finished 3 years of credits in about 7 months at Excelsior. I now have a RA degree and have been accepted into RA Graduate schools without any problems. All of it cost me around $2300 (includes tuition, books and exam fees). I would urge you to check it out. It was extremely flexible.

 

John,

I belong to several health care professional organizations and I do not know of them accepting or rejecting Century grads. My health care experience is in management not the clinical end so I cannot address that area.

I know several Century grads in this field. Three of my coworkers got their Ph.D through Century and I have met many folks through the Century program. These students range from hosptial administrators to pediatric physical therapists. Century has an Embanet system as one way of communicating with students and through this system we can communicate with one another. It is an internal email system with forums for different degrees.

I do not know any Century grads that have gotten promotions due solely to their degree. In our organization, as well as others, promotions are due to many factors, only one being education. In today's world, I find promotions based more on performance than education.

Are state approved doctorates widespread? I can only spreak for what I see. Most of my colleages have stopped their education with the MBA. Others that I know that have moved forward have degrees from Century or CCU.

Regards,
Colleen