Degree completion (very, very unusual case)

Okay, no, I'm doing it. I really have the advanced degrees I need for where I want to be and go professionally, and I'd just love to do a program purely for personal enrichment. Does anyone know of any well-respected B&M degree completion programs in liberal arts, liberal studies, multidisciplinary studies, etc.? Right now I am looking at:

Penn State: Letters, Arts, and Sciences
U of Minnesota: Multidisciplinary Studies
Oregon State U: Liberal Studies

I'm sure there are many, many more. Quite honestly, I am not quite sure how to start a comprehensive search. If someone knows a unbiased search engine, I'd be very grateful. The ones I've tried seemed to pitch online for-profit schools such as Ashford, Walden, etc.

 

Try this list:

https://www.google.ca/search?as_q=degree+completion+bachelors+degree&as_epq=%22distance+learning%22&as_oq=liberal+arts+interdisciplinary+studies&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=.edu&as_occt=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=&gws_rd=ssl

 

Nice query, thanks!

 

Easy route below:
Evaluate all your foreign credits by ECE and send them to Excelsior for an Evaluation. Test out your level of German for credits at Excelsior, this should give you enough credits to be close to complete a BS degree at Excelsior.
You might be short few credits, just complete the credits left with the University of Idaho for cheap credits.
Excelsior degrees are granted with the label "University of the State of New York" so this adds some credibility to the diploma.

My wiife did something similar with her Canadian credits and French knowledge. She was short about 20 credits that were completed with credits from University of Idaho and one excelsior college course.

 

No, the diploma that I have at home reads "University of the state of New york" from 2013. Same for the transcript.

 

I always use these websites to search for undergraduate programs.

Online College Degrees | Accredited Online Degrees by Subject - eLearners.com

99% of the schools here are traditional. None of them are for-profit.
https://secure.electroniccampus.org/e-learning/

This website lets you filter for type of accreditation and profit status.
Online Degree Search Results: 933 Accredited Online Bachelor Degree Programs | GetEducated.com

 

I always played with the idea of getting a degree in History or religion but MA degrees in these areas do not come for cheap.
I always thought that a TESC or Excelsior College would be a good option, you can finish a degree from these two schools for few thousand dollars using previous credits and then specializing in an area of interest.
The are good options for people looking for a generic RA degree.

I have few friends with similar problems with MS degrees from the UK. The UK system allows people to get a MS degree without a Bachelors but then this looks odd when applying to jobs in Canada or the US when the BS degree is expected.
Other people have degrees from foreign countries and just need a generic RA degree to give some credibility to a resume as some employers are bias against degrees from developing nations, the Excelsior or TESC degree also provides good options for this type of student.

 

Thanks for these suggestions. I think it's great that TESC, Excelsior, etc. provide these affordable routes to degrees for savvy learners, but with my situation being what it is, I am only interested in degrees from "big name" schools at this point.

Thank you! I'll take a look at these.

 

As few pointed out, a MS degree is 30 credits while a BS is 120 credits. Any "big name" school would allow at the most 50% credit transfer so you are looking at 60 credits of extra work for a BS.

TESC, Charter Oak and Excelsior are about the only American schools that can be earned with almost 100% credit transfer.

None of them are prestigious but I think is the best one can get with older credits from a variety of schools. I don't know how old are your previous credits but most schools put a limit in terms of age of credits are and are not so generous when it comes to credit transfer from foreign schools.

I think there is no free lunch here, it is the flexible vs prestigious and you cannot have both.

 

A lot of the big name schools actually require 60 credits and let you transfer in additional credits. Penn State, for instance, requires 34 credits to be taken at PSU. My oldest credits are about 14 years old, but then again I am looking at degree completion programs for working adults, so I'd be surprised if they didn't accept at least some of them.

Tertiary education is very much a buyer's market in the US. I have a track record of being a successful student and a successful online learner. I don't require financial assistance of any sort. I don't mean to sound overly self-confident, but I think I'm a pretty good deal for any of the schools I am planning to apply to.

You're right, of course, that a BA is potentially more expensive than an MA, even with transfer credit. If I can't transfer a lot of credits, I'd have to reconsider. But I guess I'll have to submit transcripts to find out. I'll keep you guys posted on how things go.