HES Now Allows Subsequent Master's in Similar Fields

For many years Harvard Extension School disallowed students from enrolling in or graduating with a Master of Liberal Arts if they held a graduate degree in a similar field. A poster on r/harvardextension now reports that HES emailed them,

Looking at HES' pages for several ALMs where eligibility criteria are listed, mentions of the old policy appear to be removed.

HES continues to disallow students from enrolling in or graduating with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts if they hold any prior bachelor's.

 

This is interesting as it is not abnormal for a graduate school/program to prevent someone from pursuing a similar degree. I wonder what the rationale behind this decision was?

 

To avoid a head-to-head comparison in a self-control study?

 

I have no idea why anyone would want to duplicate a graduate degree.

The time, cost, and goofy title of the HES degrees aren’t even remotely worth it to me, even for an association with the Harvard name, but to each their own.

 

Similar could mean sociology and psychology or mathematics and statistics. At least in the past, TESU considered their general social science degree to be similar to any of the single social science subjects that could be used in the social science major. You would have to justify earning two degrees with overlap. There could be a reason why someone with a general humanities degree could want a more focused degree in philosophy or religious studies.

 

They ARE goofy. They even cause dispute within the Harvard community. If you take a masters, it is a Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies. Yet, on the website they constantly refer to "history degrees" and the like. They're playing it both ways.

The issuer of the degree--as with all schools at Harvard--is Harvard University. Yet, for this school only, they want you to list your school as "Harvard Extension School." It's like they want the money but don't want to give up the prestige.

But people beat this all the time by listing their degrees however they wish. If I did such a degree, I'd list it as "Master of Liberal Arts (History), Harvard University." Let 'em do something about it.

But here's the other thing: it doesn't matter very much. Not anymore. When I did my MBA in the early '80s, the MBA was the "it" degree. Getting something else in a business-related area was considered "MBA-lite." But now there are so many more degree titles available--desired, even--that no one really cares. I can't imagine someone being told their MA in Management wasn't good enough. Same with their Master's-of-whatever-it-says from Harvard.

 

Most participants in this thread myself included have what might be construed as two similar degrees at the same level!

 

I feel targeted

 

My master's degrees are bridged from Telecommunications (Technical Engineering) to Technology Management (Technology & Business) to Business Administration (Business Management)

 

I wonder what the rationale behind this decision was?....

A study by the business office at Harvard regarding how many students HES was turning away likely resulted in someone seeing dollar signs.

 

I don't see what is wrong with being in a similar field. If someone has a Master's in Accounting and now wants to get a degree in Financial or Economics, it is reasonable.

 

I agree. My only concerns would be:

1) what the students' expectation is for transfer credit.

2) how many classes would have overlap,

and 3) if the incoming student would have enough credits remaining to meet the university required in-house minimum to graduate.

I suppose depending on credits one can always ladder similar programs.

UIUC has a 30 credit MS in Management and a 30 credit MS in finance and they both ladder into the 72 credit UofI MBA.

So that is three degrees at the end of the journey.

 

HES does not accept transfer credit at the graduate level, except for a very few partnerships by which a specific certificate may ladder towards a master's. Also, one HES course cannot count towards more than one HES master's.

 

That was one of my points

 

Lot of colleges and universities are not allowed double dipping.

 

The school was a much better deal 10 or 20 years ago, when I attended. Back then the tuition was reasonable and they readily gave you a 50% discount if you had any financial hardship.

Also, I'm sure you remember the lack of distance learning programs from solid schools 10 or 20 years ago. When I went it was basically impossible to find a master of science and computer science online at any school that didn't require a bachelor's of science and computer science, regardless of how much work experience you had. Now there are a flood of options at amazing prices.

I'm sure that it's still quality education, but you can find quality education at other places for less money these days.

 

A Masters would cost around 40,000 at
$3,340 ($805 per credit) x 36 credits. Is it worth it? For some people, the prestige of being a Harvard graduate might make the expense acceptable. Not sure if a Mid-Atlantic accent comes with it.

 

Properly not! Most people don't treat HES as Harvard University. I have seen people criticize that it is mislead to list HES as Harvard University alumni. The most return in investment would be low price tag prestigious and local.

 

Why wouldn't they? HES was established in 1910 and is part of the faculty of arts and sciences of Harvard University.