Empty Handed

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Kizmet, Nov 1, 2019.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    It took me several years from first acquisition of college credit to graduation with my AA from Excelsior. Before then, I would always make sure to lively-up the education section of my resume- emphasizing that I had a decent collection of college credits as well as some informal, but extremely valuable, training. It helped in a few instances to get me hired and in one case to help me get higher pay.

    I've always assumed that "some college" looked better than no college on an application, but as I consider the question today, I wonder how common it is for employers who look at people who never finish as quitters.

    In any case, my AA will always have a special place in my heart because it was my first degree and was undeniable confirmation that my previous credits had amounted to something meaningful. I used to hang the diploma on my wall proudly and, quite often, stop everything and stare at it in amazement. No matter what ever happened in my life from then on, I would always be able to say I had a college degree. Even if it was *just* an AA.

    **After writing this post, I decided to add my AA back to my signature here on DI. Sure, the BA makes it redundant, so I never put it on my resume, but it very much is part of my educational history and it means so much to me personally.

    If more people knew about the Big 3, it's possible that the completion gap would close up considerably. At least, among those who have the need or desire to finish.
     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2019
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  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    My first AA was my first degree. My second associate's was my fourth. Weird journey.
     
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  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I've always wanted to go back and finish an AA in Music, just because.
     
  5. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I've got two associate's, two bachelor's, and two doctorates. But only one master's. Why?

    Because all of that "two degree" stuff is by happenstance. I never set out to do that.

    I did my first AA at USNY Regents. I had the credits already banked because of a ton of CLEP and DANTES exams, so I paid my fee ($75 at the time) and got my degree.

    I did my second associate's degree, an AAS from the Community College of the Air Force. Because my bachelor's degrees (which I'll describe in a moment) were almost entirely by examination, and because CCAF had a weird policy limiting how many credits by testing you could apply, I didn't complete the requirements for the AAS until I was in grad school. I took a managerial finance course in my MBA program that met the AAS requirement and finished the degree. This was right before I was commissioned as an officer--an event which would have made me ineligible for the degree.

    My two bachelor's degrees are weird, too. I did both at USNY Regents as well. The first, the BS in Business, was almost entirely by testing. I took some night classes, but I typically took a 3-credit class and then passed a 12- or 15-credit AP or Regents exam. Eventually, I took the 30-credit test in Business that ETS used to offer. (Can't recall the name; sorry.) This, along with two classes, ended up being what qualified me for the BS degree. Everything else was subsumed by exams.

    My BA (Concentration in Sociology) was also very nontraditional. Regents had a requirement that you had to earn 30 new credits to get a second bachelor's. So I took then GRE Subject Examination in Sociology, which was worth 39 s.h. at the time. Boom.

    My MBA was from National, and was earned through a mix of classes, online (self-paced through Plato) classes, independent study, and transfer credits that far exceeded the published limit. Move along, nothing to see here....

    You know (or can find out) about my two doctoral degrees. Ho hum.

    So, every first degree I earned--even the AA--at each level had some impact on my career. But the second degree at each level never, ever did. Not once. Under no circumstances did having that second degree do a thing for my career. They never got me a job, qualified me for teaching something, etc. But they were each every special and I'm glad I did them.

    Now, if I could only finds a self-designed master's degree program like the ones we had at Union back in the day....

    “Whatever is not nailed down is mine. Whatever I can pry loose is not nailed down.”
    -- attributed to Collis P. Huntington​
     
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