Why did you chose your degree?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by eilla05, Jul 6, 2010.

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  1. eilla05

    eilla05 New Member

    Did you chose it based on self interest? Monetary gain? Something else?

    I am just curious what the determining factor was for most of you.

    I have struggled with what subject to get my Masters with because my interest is wide ranged. I have fallen back to what I originally wanted to do (counseling) and will hopefully add a cert later to teach a different subject :)

    So why did you get the degree(s) you have?
     
  2. peejcj8

    peejcj8 New Member

    Path of least Resistance, Avaition job=Aviation College, Avaition Degree.

    In 2000 I had just seperated from the Navy and started a Navy Civ job. I had GI Bill in hand and went to the Education services Building to see about using GI Bill for private flying lessons. I saw ERAU's office and grabbed a flyer, decided to work toward a degree instead of playing.

    7 years later! I had my BS in Professional Aeronautics and still had 7 months of Gi bill left so in 2008 I started my Master of Aero.

    I have actually become addicted to going to school, after I finish my MAS I plan on possibly attending ODU for my MBA.

    Long range goal is to teach Aero and Logistics courses with ERAU online.

    Eric
     
  3. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    All of that, and plenty of something else. That's a very broad question to ask, given that it could refer to the degree level, major or school or all of the above.

    I love learning. I always have. I was the one kid in elementary school who knew that he wanted to go to college, whereas his classmates all whined that they just wanted to never ever go back to school again. DL has given me the opportunity to do college studies without it cramping my style and getting in the way of more important things. The fact that I am a nerd among nerds (I've been called out for being a nerd, even here on DegreeInfo, where everyone fits that description) definitely played a big part in my decision in going for a degree.

    I work as an interpreter, and am doing very well for myself without a degree at all. After much thought, I concluded that I didn't need or even have a desire for a degree in interpreting or translation, since I am self-taught and already hold appropriate professional credentials. Getting a degree, as opposed to simply learning on my own, will boost my marketability to more clients AND allow me to negotiate a higher rate from them (with a little more experience and a degree combined, I will likely be making $10-15 MORE than I am right now in about 5 years). It also qualifies me to work in all 50 states as an interpreter, as some require a degree along with certifications, and allows me to meet the minimum requirements of other types of certifications (for example, the ATA translation certificates).

    Lastly, I chose my majors, Psych. and Soc. for a variety of reasons. For one thing, my nerdiness hormones run wild when I study the subjects. I am fascinated, and will not be bored at all in my studies. Also, they are subjects that I feel to be incredibly important, and I wanted to have a well-rounded background in both. I really want to be able to use both Psych and Soc to help me understand myself and others, and to give me a framework for the study projects that I have in mind for after I graduate (I want to have a large breadth of knowledge of mankind's history, literature, languages and linguistics). Since I work in human services, I find the majors to be apropos to my job, and they are sufficiently general enough that I would not stuck in my current line of work, should I one day prefer something different, move, or the market dries up and I need to figure something else out.

    The amount of research I have done on DL has helped me to figure out how I can do it all while making good use of my free time for study and not spending more money than I can pay out of pocket. At this point in my life, my obligations are not so great, but that could change at any time. NOW is the time for me to do this. All factors considered, it makes so much sense for me to get a degree, that it would be foolish not to.
     
  4. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Very good reasoning, MC. Get those degrees when you are unencumbered by a wife and children. While they are wonderful, they make getting a degree much more difficult due to demands on your time.
     
  5. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I went with IT Management because it fit well into what I was doing at my job. I also thought of that as a good way to make some extra cash as an adjunct. When I am done with my "work" degrees, I will look at something for fun. Probably not a degree or certificate - maybe just a class or two.
     
  6. peejcj8

    peejcj8 New Member

    First Sentence of my first post and I went 1 of 3 on the spelling of Aviation, opps!
     
  7. rcreighton

    rcreighton New Member

    For over twenty years, I felt like I did not need to finish my college degree as I had been mostly successful up to that point. Then, due to the impending recession, constant upgrades in technology, and working in a bloated industry with too many competitors, I found myself as part of a reduction in workforce at one company, a second company closing, and a third one that went bankrupt, all in the span of just under three years. I knew I had to try and make a career change but without a degree, no one would take me seriously at my level. Since I was a manager of organizations, I chose to get my bachelor's degree in Organizational Management. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to continue and am now working on my MBA. Both degrees are being used to further my personal knowledge base and assist in marketing myself to potential hiring firms.
     
  8. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I'm working on my PhD mostly because I'm not satisfied with my accomplishments yet. I have a stable job and a fairly bright future, but I'm not yet content. I'm working on my degree mostly out of interest but I have several other motivations. It means an automatic pay raise for a teacher. This raise will not cover all of my costs but it will take out some of the sting. Having a doctorate also opens the door to more administrative positions for a teacher. I'm also not opposed to doing some adjunct work on the side, if available.
     
  9. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    For my undergrad degree, I "chose" it because both my parents went there :) I really had no idea what I wanted to do after high school, but I'd always been involved with computers, so, I went in that direction.

    For my grad degree, I chose it because I wanted to learn. I had no career goal in mind, but wanted to study in a more intensive/focused environment. It ended up being a good choice, although knowing what I now know about distance education, I might've chosen a cheaper option! :)
     
  10. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    I just want one. I started out needing one for work, but that is no longer the issue. At this point I enjoy learning, but I just need to get one.
     
  11. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    For me it was probably my employer paid tuition - it paid for around 1/2 my BS and both my graduate degrees. Then the subjects I chose were job related however the MSQA is applicable to any business or service sector.
     
  12. Fortunato

    Fortunato Member

    Well, to be honest...

    When I decided to go back to school and finish my degree (actually, when I decided to get SERIOUS about finishing my degree after several previously aborted attempts), I had just finished a six-month stretch of unemployment. During that six months, my lack of a degree had hurt me for the first time in my career, and I was determined that it would be the last. I was (and still am) working in IT, and although my last two positions had been nominally "senior" management roles, the truth was that I had been leading small teams in small companies, and my primary experience was as a mid to senior level application developer and network specialist. Without a degree however, I wasn't getting serious looks for management roles, and I really, really, really hated the idea of going back to the help desk.

    Luckily, I found a great employer who valued my experience and my attitude, so I was in the process of getting back on my feet, but I never wanted to find myself in that position again. So, as I pondered what I was going to study, I set out these criteria:

    1. I had to be able to study it online. I had tried night classes before, and if I missed a class or two (and I always did) my grades would slip. Asynchronous learning was going to be essential to me.

    2. It had to be cheap. At the time, I was deep in debt from being out of work, and I was in no position to be applying for loans, because my personal credit was trashed. At the same time, my previous year's income was relatively high, so grants were out of the question. Low cost per credit hour was crucial.

    3. It had to be relevant. The only programs I would have seriously considered were Computer Science, IT/MIS Management, or Business Administration. Although I'm a programmer, I'm more of a web applications guy than I am into hard-core CS, so it wasn't entirely essential that I study computers. But I knew that some business courses were going to be part of the plan, because I saw my future in technical management, not as a code monkey.

    4. They had to be willing to take me. Like I said, I had made several previous attempts at a degree program and had run up a (very) sub-2.0 GPA. Many schools won't even look at transfer applicants without as least a 2.0, and usually the bar is much higher.

    I had (unfortunately) never heard of degreeinfo, so my degree search efforts consisted of using Yahoo!'s directory of online college programs, which led me to eCollege.com. At the time, eCollege was selling schools a platform to run their online programs on, and in an attempt to help these schools market themselves, they were running something of a degree search engine that let you find programs and courses offered via their partner schools. I must have spent literally days on that web site, clicking and exploring and reading about the different schools. I kept coming back to one school in particular, the University of Wyoming.

    UW offered a BS in Business Administration that was targeted at students who had earned an AA in Business Administration from one of Wyoming's community colleges. It was cheap, at about a hundred and twenty bucks a credit hour, it was fully online, and it was in a major I was interested in. The only remaining question was whether or not they would take me. Luckily for me, the AA was not required for admission. I had about 80 hours worth of transferable credit, so I gathered up my transcripts, filled out an application, and fired them off.

    I was accepted. With conditions.

    Basically, "with conditions" means that you come in and immediately go on academic probation. You are limited in the number of credit hours you can take, you have to discuss your course plans in detail with your advisor, and you had better not fail a course, because you are on thin ice, buddy. I also had to backfill a good number of lower-division business administration coursework that was not available through UW.

    Still, I was accepted. With conditions.

    Of course, if you've read my sig line, you know how it turned out. I used CLEP and DSST exams to fill the gaps in my lower division coursework, and ended up taking 48 credit hours worth of courses directly from Wyoming, which made me eligible to graduate with honors. Once I had my BSBA in hand, I set my sights higher, and naturally looked to do an MBA. I started off targeting full-time programs, but ended up in the Cross-Continent MBA program at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. After the MBA, I felt like I needed to tie up some loose ends, and that's why I'm in the Finance Certificate program at East Carolina, which I will complete at the end of this month. Once I've finished the certificate, I am 95% sure that I am done with formal education, at least as a student. Maybe one day, I will do some adjunct teaching or go back and do some leisure courses, but for now I intend to focus on earning a return on my education investment.

    You asked what the "determining factor" was. For me, it was knowing that I never want to feel as insecure as I did back in the summer of 2002, facing mounting debt and seeing no job on the horizon. My degrees don't guarantee me a job - I know that, but having them means I've eliminated one more excuse that the HR drones would use to throw my resume on the discard pile. The most important decision for me was that I was going back to school, and that I was going to finish this time. The other choices, even what I majored in, weren't as important as simply knowing that no matter what, I was going to hang a diploma on the wall.

    Thanks for prompting me to go back over the start of my educational journey. I've spent the majority of the last decade in one academic program or another, and the closer I get to the end, the more fondly I look back at the beginning. I hope that you come to a decision that does as much for you as the decision I made did for me. Best of luck!
     
  13. eilla05

    eilla05 New Member

    You are funny! Up to this point I do not have one either! I went straight to working on my BA without an associates ( I did get my lower division at Community college to save money).

    I have found that I love learning as well and I am really good at it ;) I make good grades (now, was not always this way) and I enjoy the knowledge I have learned over the years :)
     
  14. dr.penguin

    dr.penguin New Member

    I've been interested in psychology since my first class in high school. The human mind astounds & intrigues me. I double majored in psychology & communications. I chose communications simply because the classes were fun & the psych profs were great people. I didn't really want to DO anything w/ it, it's just the way the cards fell when I was in school.

    For my graduate work I chose I/O Psych & Organizational Development. I realized that I had somewhat of a passion for getting the most out of work. I mean, we spend most of our adult lives at work or thinking about work. When I heard there was a field of study regarding helping companies & people work SMARTER, I knew that's what I wanted to get into.
     
  15. cravenco

    cravenco New Member

    This will be a long, drawn-out reply. "Personal enrichment".

    From BA to (on-going) D.A.
     
  16. EllisZ

    EllisZ Member

    After high-school I went off to college. Like most 17 year olds I had no bloody idea what I wanted to do. Computers were a hobby, and being the type that is oblivious from the obvious I never considered it as a career. During my summer break I started working in a bank in their computer operations division. I apparently impressed someone because I was essentially running their LAN & PC division by the time the summer was over. By that point I was working full time and school took a break. (You really can't say no to good career opportunities!)

    A few years later I decided to go back and finish my degree before I needed it. By now it was also painfully obvious what field I needed to study. I enrolled in a NJ State college's Computer Science program. I was mostly complete when I had to move due to a family illness. (and no, the school had NO interest in working with me, so I finished at the school now known as Excelsior.) (Guess which school does NOT get alumni dollars from me!)

    After finishing my Masters (also in a computer related field) I began to teach as an Adjunct. I *LOVED* it. In fact, if it paid more I'd do that full time.

    Which leaves me at a fork in the road: Do I pursue an Ed.D. with a focus on Instructional Technology for my terminal degree? Or do I pursue a Ph.D. or D.Sci in a computer related field with a focus on education?
     
  17. eilla05

    eilla05 New Member

    Personally if it were me, id make sure I could pay the bills but I would do whatever I enjoyed most. It seems from your post that would be teaching so that is what I would get my Phd . Id rather be payed less doing something I loved than be paid more doing something I dislike or didn't like as much :)
     
  18. EllisZ

    EllisZ Member

    I generally agree. (and I don't want to de-rail this thread so I'll keep it brief.) I need to get my expenses down first. I chose to live the big-salary life-style to go with the big-salary, so once I can pare that back a bit I'll be good to go. I also paid quite a lot for my Masters and need to pay that off too.

    But, my current job affords me the joys of both of my loves, Education and Technology. I'm currently a consultant as well as the de-facto education manager for my group. Some days I get to implement technology, some days I get to write code, other days I'm doing curriculum development or teaching. I've managed to let my employer know what I enjoy and they've been kind enough to fully utilize my talents. I'm sort of thinking about the next chapter. I don't know when that is, but I want to prepare for it. I'm thinking either degree would serve me well. I'd rather do the Ph.D or D. Sci if I can find it at a reasonable price. If not, the Ed.D. would serve me in my immediate position quite nicely.
     
  19. StefanM

    StefanM New Member

    I did my B.A. straight out of high school. I wanted to work in churches. (I'm no longer doing that, though I am working at a religiously-affiliated college.) Fortunately, I had a full scholarship, so I didn't acquire any debt for my degree here.

    When I was working for a for-profit college, I took some business courses here and there, but I didn't finish a degree. I mostly did this because the courses were free, and I had no business background.

    Now I'm pursuing my M.A. in Human Services on my own dime (translation: student loans). I originally was in the M.A. in Professional Counseling program, but I realized I wouldn't be able to complete the internship and practicum without quitting my current job (not an option, as I bring in the only income in my household). I quickly transferred to the M.A. in Human Services, with a business concentration to get some double utility. The counseling courses help me in student advisement, and the business courses help with the administrative functions of my job.

    I'm doing some research for other degrees (either a master's in business or an Ed.D.). If I had to guess, I'd say I'll probably do the Ed.D. in Higher Education so that I can advance in higher education administration.
     
  20. jeezem

    jeezem New Member

    well, I didn't get it yet, but basically to advance in my career, doors open of you have the appropriate degree from an appropriate institution, your group of piers grows to include people who have a similar level of education also, opens up networking opportunities, and is also for personal satisfaction/enrichment/achievement, of knowing that I'm capable of getting accepted and completing a program.
     

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