A friend keeps trying to persuade me NOT to do DL, because...

he assures me that after I do an online Bachelor's, no "reputable" post-graduate institution will validate/accredit/whatever my degree, and they will allegedly give me a hard time to admit me.

Is that true?

What is the 411 if I want to do an Online Bachelor's but want to do a B$M Masters???


Help!!! (please)

 

As long as your degree is fully accredited, no reputable school will ever care whether you were studying in the classroom or at your kitchen table.

 

To put it bluntly, your friend doesn't know what he's talking about. As long as the degree is from a school with regional accreditation, there are hundreds of very reputable graduate schools that won't think twice about it.

 

Thanks, guys. I assumed that if the online degree I finish is accredited by the proper agencies, I wouldn't necessarily find problems in postgraduate, but I just wanted to make sure.


Bruce, I have been looking for a Social Work program that allows me to do a double major with Criminal Justice, but it's been hard to find. I am probably leaning (heavily)towards a BA in Criminal Justice from http://www.calcoast.edu/ (This has a rolling enrollment program and a curriculum that promotes self-pacing, basically allowing students to finish their degrees as quickly or as slowly as they possibly can)

I think I will make all my elective courses in psychology and social work-related classes, since I wanna do a MSW/JURIS DOCTOR eventually...

What do you think?

 

CalCoast is nationally accredited, not regionally accredited (RA).

Since you are already thinking about grad school options, I recommend sticking with a RA program. There are quite a few distance learning RA criminal justice programs available.

 

Thanks!


Man, some of these distictions are confusing at first, I had assumed that "nationally" would supercede "regionally" as far as widespread recognition and acceptance.
Is one more reputable/important than the other, or is it just an arbitrary thing ?

 

There are six regional accrediting bodies in the US: Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

I believe that all state colleges and many private colleges are RA. For instance, credits from a school that's part of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools should transfer to a school from any other regional accrediting body and vice versa granted that the school offers an equivalent course.

Schools like California Coast are nationally accredited by DETC (Distance Education & Training Council). These credits typically won't transfer to a RA school, and some employers may not recognize the degree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation

 

WRONG! It depends on the school!!!!! For example, the Marine Corps Institute is accredited by DETC, but Troy University accepted most of my credits there.

 

Social Work is one of those majors that doesn't have many options with DL; unless you do a double-major or two undergrad degrees, I don't think that's available. I'm personally not aware of any combined programs, DL or otherwise.

If one of your goals is to enter a regionally accredited graduate school, I strongly recommend you earn a regionally accredited undergraduate degree. There are many, many options listed in my sig file, and while some links may be broken (I've been lazy and haven't updated in awhile), some searching can find whatever isn't still linked.

Do you want to be a social worker, or a lawyer?

I think you'll agree that RA schools which accept NA credits are still very much the exception, rather than the rule.

 

I graduated from CalCoast and was accepted at a reputable RA MBA program. I still am going to end up pursuing a RA BLS from Excelsior because I may end up teaching some day. I'm not sure if I ever will or not, but I decided to go for it anyway.

 

My signature speaks for itself...don't really have to worry about RA and NA issue.

 

We've come a long way in the past 4 or 5 years with acceptance of DETC-accredited degrees by regionally accredited schools, but few would argue that regional accreditation is still the gold standard.

I continue to agree with Bruce that with so many excellent regionally accredited DL options, it's hard to argue in favor of a DETC-accredited school unless:

(a) they are offering a really specialized degree unavailable from a regionally accredited school;

(b) you already have a plan mapped out and are confident that the limitations imposed by a DETC degree won't limit future career or graduate school options,

(c) there's a much, much better deal financially on a DETC degree, which is frequently a factor, or

(d) you're absolutely confident you'll never want to go beyond whatever terminal degree the DETC program offers.

I will add that there have been a lot of people who were quite certain they never wanted to go beyond a bachelor's degree, but 5 or 10 years later changed their minds and found their options more limited, so I think it's a choice you should consider carefully.

You might want to take a look at Athabasca University (athabascau.ca). They offer a bachelor's in Human Services which seems to be a similar curriculum to a BA in social work, and they also offer bachelors and, I think, graduate degrees in criminal justice.

They make reference to other Canadian schools offering the masters in social work, but don't say which schools, or whether they are DL programs

 

Adams State College www.adams.edu offers an online BA in Sociology that offers concentrations in both Social Welfare and Criminology.

 

Also, Athabasca University, while located in Canada, is Regionally Accredited by Middle States Association of Colleges.


Best of Luck!

Tom

 

Are there any other institutions that just like California Coast, offer truly self-paced programs that you can finish as quickly or as slowy as you can? (Preferably RA?)

 

I'm going to assume that no self-paced courses can be allowed to go on indefinitely, ie. they are capped at 6 or 9 months.

If so try LSU for RA
http://is.lsu.edu/courselist.asp?nid=102&Level=CO&Online=0

and

Penn Foster for another NA
http://www.pennfoster.edu/

 

I think some people are put off by DL colleges due to private companies such as Phoenix, AIU, Kaplan, Capella, DeVry etc. that market themselves pretty heavily.

 

Try Louisiana State University (RA) or Penn Foster (NA)

 

Ashworth College is another option, and they offer everything from an associate degree to a masters degree.

 

In 2000, when I surveyed registrars and admissions officers regarding acceptance of various kinds of degrees, roughly 20% would accept a DETC or other nationally-accredited degree always, 20% usually, 20% occasionally, and 40% rarely or never.

I suspect Chip is right when he writes that things have improved for the nationally-accredited degree acceptance, but I haven't seen any data. Coach Turner, who has posted here, was conducting a survey comparable to mine, I hope he will share his findings.