Skipping Bachelor's to go directly into a Masters program - Thoughts ?

My 2 cents, I don't think it would be much of an issue with potential employers, as long as you 1)never plan on changing careers, and 2) you don't ever plan to pursue a higher level graduate degree or a government job.

EBS is sort of known for allowing people in without a bachelors degree, and in all my years as the East Coast Alumni Ambassador, the only time it was an issue was when 1) or 2) applied.

With your experience, previous undergraduate work, and IT certifications, you could be most of the way to a bachelors degree from one of the big three like Thomas Edison State or one of the other big three.

 

It can be a problem for immigration purposes, most immigration or work permits need a certain number of years of training in order to be granted.
Technically, you only have one year of training in your profession and most visas would require at least 4 years.

A possible solution would be to use your existing training and turn it into a bachelors degree. Excelsior college and Thomas Alba Edison State University accept IT certifications and previous University degree.
Most likely you will end with around 60 credits of the 120 required and would need to take general education courses such as Math, Social Science, etc to complete but you can take cheap courses from places like study.com to complete

I completed a second bachelor degrees in Technology in Computer Technologies with the use of my IT certifications at Excelsior. I just needed to complete few classes to graduate. I never had a problem getting a job in IT but my background was in Math, Business and Electrical Engineering and many times employers prefer Computer Science or IT graduates so thought the computer technology degree would help in some situations.

The British System is very commercial, they allow people to skip the bachelor's and then do a Masters but I find that many of these people then lack the basic Math and quantitative skills so they become a problem when you need them to do some basic math work. Many British schools allow this mainly to attract people from others countries but the work experience and IT certifications would never replace math and science courses.

 

Some teaching jobs can be problematic without a bachelors degree. Some schools need a certain number of years of post secondary education in order to be eligible. The MSc would count as one year of education but most jobs at CC colleges require at least 4.
Another solution would be to do a PhD in CS. This would count as 3 years of education so it would make it 4 all together but a BS at a place like Excelsior would be way easier.

 

A lot of applications I've seen over the years ask for your highest level of education and allow you to list only that. I've also noticed on LinkedIn that a number of people only list their highest degree and nothing else.

In my mind, if you're able to go into a Master's program and meet the challenges to successfully finish it, why on earth would I care about your Bachelor's degree when you've just demonstrated a higher level of education that exceeds the Bachelor's level?

 

It is mainly for mobility issues, Canada and Australia go by the number of years of education for immigrant visas. One year MSc does not equal to 4 years of a BSc degree.
USA working permits most of the time require 4 years of professional education as well.I know some people from India sometimes have problems qualifying as many computer degrees in India are only 3 years.

I completed a UK MSc degree in Accounting and Financial Management, I applied for admission into a CPA program in Canada a while ago and was only given two year of courses from the 5 years required. In few words, a BSc in Accounting from Canada is better for this purpose.

However, the OP might not care about immigration or mobility so the MSc might be good enough in particular if he or she does not work in the US.

 

We can debate this all day, the reality is that you will have to talk your way thru your unique looking "Education" portion of your resume.

Spending 5 mins during an interview explaining the concept of a masters degree without an undergraduate to someone who most likely isn't as familiar with the non traditional approach vs talking about your skill sets and accomplishments is not beneficial for you.

In my experience, in the US anyways.

My advice, like most of the posts on this board, look into the Big 3 and get an under grad from one of them. This will solve most of the problems you will encounter.

Good luck!

 

It is more common than you think just disclosing your Masters degree and not your bachelor's in a resume. Many people do not disclose their bachelors mainly to avoid bias against them as this reveals your nationality. I know people from Iran for example that do not disclose their bachelors as this gives up their nationality as many employers might be bias against them because of this.

What is your advice in case of this? Should the national from a country that is not well seen in the US also get a degree from the big three to avoid bias at the time of hiring?

A second bachelors would still need extra 30 credits of work and the question is how many employers would actually care or toss your resume if your Bachelors is not in your resume.

 

Then should the Iranian applicants change their names, as well? They're pretty easy to spot. This degree-hiding business sounds ridiculous. I'd figure university-educated immigrants would be smarter than that - and I'm sure most are.

Bias by nationality is, of course very wrong - but how does this non-disclosure protect the applicant from it in any way at all, when his/her origin is clear from a name? I'd think hiding a degree (or anything else) would tend to make him/her more suspect, to anyone unduly xenophobic in the first place. Additionally, many have also earned a master's or higher degree in their country of origin so... what's the point? Education - no matter where completed (except a degree mill) is not something to hide -it's something to be proud of.

And employers who refuse to acknowledge this and discriminate on nationality are complete idiots - and who wants to work for idiots? In this century, nobody should have to.

J.

 

Don't know why I just remembered this, but here it is. Last summer I was apply to FHSU for my second masters. I originally wanted to start in the fall so I submitted my stuff a little late. Then while waiting for an admission decision I decided I'd like to get a head start and take a summer class. I emailed them asking if I could start without formal admission to the program and just take a single class as a non degree seeking student. They said that wouldn't be a problem, but they didn't have my undergrad transcripts yet, only my grad. So according to our conversation, it didn't matter to them that I had a masters, to take graduate level classes there I needed a bachelors. So in case you want to go back to school in the future, it might be wise to get a bachelors.

 

Would it help if no bachelor but a master and 20 years experience

 

Any thoughts ... I'm curious if experience would make A difference with acceptance