Big Three Grads, What Did Your Degree Do For You?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by thaddoc, Nov 7, 2006.

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  1. I know, I'm two years late, but I had to reply. No one thinks any of these colleges are on par with a "Tier 1" school, however, people like me aren't even remotely concerned with what tier a school is on. It's just not important to me, nor many others. For the majority of people in the country it is much more important to have a degree than it is from what school it came from (how many millions of people have gotten an excellent education at a community college or state university- and yet, none of these are considered among the top schools in the country), and certainly puts them in a better position than not having one- especially for someone, again like me, who is more than capable of succeeding in college but completely incapable of actually attending, or paying for, classes.
     
  2. ITJD

    ITJD Guest

    I think that what needs to be said here is that all of these people, regardless of whether they dropped out or not, had the drive to complete a PhD if they really wanted to.

    These people had the combination of drive, intellect and business savvy to do these things without going through the process and hoops of a degree program. Therefore they did not need one and rightly chose to focus their time in other directions.

    It's nice to hold up the paragons of success as an example of why a formal education doesn't matter, but for the majority, it's just not an appropriate comparison and just justifies to the uninformed that they don't need something they really should have regardless of what school they got it from.

    Two cents, respecfully.
     
  3. Brez

    Brez Guest

    I have to disagree, mind you I know I am on an island with my opinion, but then again it is my opinion.

    I spent 2 years absolutely gutting it out at the Dallas County Community College District. With the exception of 2 classes I finished 2 Associates all via DE/Online. I finished with a 3.91 GPA and was getting hounded by the local Universities. I even had a 50% scholarship offer to SMU (Southern Methodist University).

    Now I did the right thing, did my first 2 years at CC, didn’t spend very much (Wish I had known about Clovis Community College back then!) so I felt I had a little bit of an opportunity to get a degree that would be personally fulfilling and have a great reputation, so I did mountains of research and ended up at Penn State via Distance Education. I will be spending about $24K-$25K completing my bachelors with them and when you take in the approximately 10K I spent at CC college I am getting a $80-$100K Bachelor’s from Penn State for about 35K.

    When I did all the research regarding the price, this ended up being cheaper than SMU (even with the scholarship) and about equal to the University of Texas system (I live in Dallas), whether it be Dallas, Austin, etc and any other of the schools that I spoke to since they wouldn’t accept all of my CC transfers, military credits, and other industry continuing education. Penn State accepted 84 credits of transfer which encompassed even those things from my personal industry certifications….the only university that was willing to do so before I paid a dime!

    So I do agree with the theory that the name doesn’t matter, however for me it did. It carries many of the soft and unspoken reasons of why we go back to school as working adults. It is a “second chance” for some of us that did not have the opportunity or the ability when we were young and stupid or had to grow up very fast when we were young, it carries a pride of knowing that “I did it!”, and finally through my research I found that Penn State has one of, if not the biggest alumni associations around the world. So for my 35K total not only am I getting a great degree from a great institution, I am getting a network that is enormous and well heard of, especially here in the US.

    Anyway, if I had to do it all over again the only thing I would have changed would be the CC aspect, I would have done the Clovis CC route instead of DCCCD, however I would still be at Penn State. I love the school, the professor’s are the same at University Park, my counselor is amazing, they did all of my financial aid, and if I ever have a question I get a response within the same day, even if it is at 10:00 at night. The experience has been amazing, I wouldn’t change it for anything.

    Just my two cents regarding being the .01% and it “not mattering.”

    Neil
     
  4. Brez

    Brez Guest

    I have to disagree, mind you I know I am on an island with my opinion, but then again it is my opinion.

    I spent 2 years absolutely gutting it out at the Dallas County Community College District. With the exception of 2 classes I finished 2 Associates all via DE/Online. I finished with a 3.91 GPA and was getting hounded by the local Universities. I even had a 50% scholarship offer to SMU (Southern Methodist University).

    Now I did the right thing, did my first 2 years at CC, didn’t spend very much (Wish I had known about Clovis Community College back then!) so I felt I had a little bit of an opportunity to get a degree that would be personally fulfilling and have a great reputation, so I did mountains of research and ended up at Penn State via Distance Education. I will be spending about $24K-$25K completing my bachelors with them and when you take in the approximately 10K I spent at CC college I am getting a $80-$100K Bachelor’s from Penn State for about 35K.

    When I did all the research regarding the price, this ended up being cheaper than SMU (even with the scholarship) and about equal to the University of Texas system (I live in Dallas), whether it be Dallas, Austin, etc and any other of the schools that I spoke to since they wouldn’t accept all of my CC transfers, military credits, and other industry continuing education. Penn State accepted 84 credits of transfer which encompassed even those things from my personal industry certifications….the only university that was willing to do so before I paid a dime!

    So I do agree with the theory that the name doesn’t matter, however for me it did. It carries many of the soft and unspoken reasons of why we go back to school as working adults. It is a “second chance” for some of us that did not have the opportunity or the ability when we were young and stupid or had to grow up very fast when we were young, it carries a pride of knowing that “I did it!”, and finally through my research I found that Penn State has one of, if not the biggest alumni associations around the world. So for my 35K total not only am I getting a great degree from a great institution, I am getting a network that is enormous and well heard of, especially here in the US.

    Anyway, if I had to do it all over again the only thing I would have changed would be the CC aspect, I would have done the Clovis CC route instead of DCCCD, however I would still be at Penn State. I love the school, the professor’s are the same at University Park, my counselor is amazing, they did all of my financial aid, and if I ever have a question I get a response within the same day, even if it is at 10:00 at night. The experience has been amazing, I wouldn’t change it for anything.

    Just my two cents regarding being the .01% and it “not mattering.”

    Neil
     
  5. nyfaisal

    nyfaisal New Member

    With TESC degree, I was able to get into Baruch's MBA, and NYU SCPS. Also, I can now apply to jobs that requires college degree!
     
  6. nyfaisal

    nyfaisal New Member

    to the guy's bashing bill gates-- he was a really good student in high school and college. Check his SAT score below--it's almost perfect 1590 out of 1600. Why would not Harvard admit him? Also, are you now going to say that College Board gave him a high score because of his dad's money?
    Well, W Bush had higher SAT score than Clinton, but that does not make him smart either. But SAT score and HS GPA are determining factors for college admission.

    http://www.powerscore.com/sat/help/celebrity_scores.cfm
     
  7. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    >>

    Wrong? You were obviously well educated.
     
  8. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member

    SAT scores are also just a measure of how well you test. I scored in the 1450+ range when I took mine back in 1999. It didn't matter- I still ended up at a community college and then went straight into work. I couldn't afford to go to school then, period, even with some of the scholarship offers. I had to go straight into business, so I did and finished my B.A. 9.5 years later. Sometimes you can be intelligent, but unless you're extremely motivated or can financially do it, it won't matter anyway.
     
  9. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    Big 3 grads again...

    OK, I am bumping this thread because I am sending the link to one of my graduates.

    Student has an AS - Business Administration from LCO Community College and has credits from Winona State and UW - Madison (nothing above 200 level). He has about 100 credits from the three schools.

    He is a director at a local casino and would like to earn an MBA, probably from UW-Eau Claire or UM - Duluth. He wants to do a B&M evening/weekend program for a couple of reasons: 1) He believes he would do better in an classroom environment, 2) Networking opportunities.

    Of course, before the MBA, we have the Bachelor's Degree hurdle. I am going to meet with him next week and discuss the Excelsior BSLS degree and present the GRE Subject Test option to him.

    Taking classes this summer for him is NOT an option, it's the busy season at work and he won't have the time to do it. I do think he could be ready for a October GRE sitting.

    One of his other concerns is the utlility of a Big 3 degree. We've checked UW-Eau Claire and UM-Duluth's MBA admissions requirement, and for both schools it's the standard GMAT + graduation from a RA school, so no problems, but...

    So, I'd like some feedback from Big 3 grads about the utlility of their degree (especially Excelsor - BSLS grads), along with advice about this option. Thanks!

    Shawn
     
  10. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    Who's bashing? All I see is a reference to Bill Gates going to Harvard (true) and being a rich kid (also true). Nothing about him not being smart. In fact, I think he is one of the smartest buisnessmen out there. Maybe not Sergey Brin of Google, but close. In addition to be a savvy opportunist, Bill is known to be a competent teenage programmer/hacker, doing his first commercial work while still in high school. I remember some software engineer (iirc a free software activist - no friend of Bill's) examining portions of Altair Basic he helped Paul Allen to write. This programmer said pieces written by Bill show high degree of skill, using nontrivial tricks to make code smaller - in 8080 machine code (then a new microprocessor architecture). Impressive hacking.
     
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    My Bachelor's degree from Charter Oak was good enough to get me into a Master's program at George Washington University, a tier one school in my field, so I'd be pretty surprised if UW-Eau Claire or UM-Duluth turned up their noses at it.

    -=Steve=-
     
  12. I haven't posted in this thread in over 3 years, but since then I've gone from admission to Indiana's MBA program to completion and now entering a MS in Information Systems for University of Illinois Springfield, another AACSB program.

    Neither blinked an eye during the admissions process (although UIS wanted all of the CLEP/DANTES/ECE/TECEP transcripts, grr). I don't know if UW or UM have easier or tougher admission processes than Indiana, but it shouldn't be an issue.

    Standard formula = GMAT * Undergrad GPA. If you have high scores in both plus work experience it's usually a no-brainer.

    The other option, depending on his time availability after the summer is to look at a Excelsior General Business degree, which also helps with any MBA leveling courses. When I completed it back in 2005 I did it all via testing but I believe there's at least one course requirement now (the capstone). Just double check both UW and UM for required pre-reqs into the MBA program - he might want to CLEP/DANTES them as electives for the BSLS.

    Good luck - it CAN be done, if you're disciplined.
     
  13. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    USNY (BS, 1980 and BA, 1981)

    Direct results:

    Hired by Xerox
    Made a financial aid director for a trade school
    Admitted to several graduate schools
    Commissioned as an Air Force officer
    Advanced credit towards PMP

    Subsequently (in no particular order):

    Earned an MBA
    Earned a Ph.D.
    Faculty at several schools (San Diego State University, Webster University, University of Phoenix, Bellevue University)
    Offered three university deans' positions
    Training management career, currently at the GS-15, step 10 level
    Admittance to....?
     
  14. salami89

    salami89 New Member

    Sad to say my degrees made me overqualified, unemployed and in debt
     
  15. abnrgr275

    abnrgr275 Member

    Shawn,

    Another DL forum had a recent thread indicating that Excelsior College will no longer be granting credit for GRE exams in the near future. A poster indicated that July 1, 2010 is the drop dead date for a new student to apply and enroll at Excelsior College in order to ensure that GRE exams would be accepted as college credit.

    Just wanted to let you know about Excelsior's upcoming policy change related to GRE exams as that was one of the options you were inquiring about for one of your graduates.

    abnrgr275
     
  16. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Although I did join in on some of the speculation in that other forum, I feel the need to say that at this point, it is just an unconfirmed rumor. The only information about it anywhere is in that one thread of the one forum from a single person who says he/she heard something from his advisor (hearsay, that is). We can't know anything until (IF!!!) an official announcement is made.
    This isn't something the poster knew, rather, he/she asked a question about this and no one knew the answer, but plenty of people paniced.
    Really, it is just speculation piled on to more speculation, being founded, welded and constructed with speculation. I think it is unlikely (though not impossible) that Excelsior would wait until the very day before a major policy change to announce and enforce it simultaneously; it would alienate too many prospective students and would result in damaging their reputation.
     
  17. tiffer

    tiffer New Member

    I think that the thread in question has been updated with a confirmation from other Excelsior students.
     
  18. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    Thanks for the info

    I met with my former student on Tuesday night. We agreed that the General Business degree at Excelsior is his best bet. He needs 4 DSST Exams and 3 EC courses for his degree.

    We mapped out a schedule that has him taking the 4 exams over the summer, along with study materials, and then enrolling at EC for Fall Semester.

    Thanks for all the help!

    Shawn
     
  19. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Nice! Don't forget to direct your student to instantcert.com. Even if the student doesn't want to pay for the flashcards, their forum (which is found at degreeforum.net) has a much larger community of test takers than this site does. Is one of those DSSTs statistics? If so, did you consider ALEKS for that requirement?
     
  20. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    He doesn't need math - he completed stats and calculus. Basically he needs upper division courses/exams.
     

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