Online Bachelor of General Studies from B&M

Greetings Everyone,
What are some thoughts on Bachelor of General Studies degrees? If I chose this route I can complete my degree in a year. The degree would come from a traditional B&M with an online program. The goal would be entrance into a graduate program.

 

One good aspect of such a degree is that there a lot of them around and so you could probably find one that's from a well known school and at a good price. One potential drawback is that some grad programs may see such a degree as inadequate preparation as you won't have many credits in any one particular area. It's going to depend on the subject area of your grad degree and the policies of the specific school.

 

USF has a BS in General Studies available online. As far as the spend to complete that depends on how many credits you have and how much effort you put in.

 

Yes Randell is right. I was enrolled in that program and the staff is very helpful. You need to take 24 credits in a concentration. The concentrations include business, information technology and others. They require 2 core courses and 6 electives. You also have to fulfill all of the gen ed requirements for the university and graduate with 120 credits. So for me, I was able to CLEP out of some electives, take another history CLEP and one DSST and then I was left with the 24 IT credits. I decided at the last minute to go with TESC's BSBA CIS because I could finish it faster and get started on my MBA quicker.

 

Texas Tech has a good one.

 

UMass has one too:

Degree List - UMassOnline

 

Thanks for all the thoughtful input. Kizmet had mentioned there are possible negatives associated with such programs. Some members of the forums had completed General Studies or Liberal Arts programs. Has your undergraduate degree hindered entry into a particular graduate program that you were interested in, or has it been a non-issue?

 

Sauron, which graduate program were you thinking of pursuing? I think the choice of grad program would play a key role in whether or not a BS in General Studies would be a deterrent.

 

Atrox, thats a good question. That graduate program I am interested in is the ALM in IT at HES. I am taking classes at the Extension School now but it is just CSCI E50-A for undergraduate credit.

 

To earn a general Ed or interdisciplinary ba or bs for entrance into a graduate program is wise, so long as that graduate school/program requirements are met by the degree. If it maximizes transfer credits at the undergraduate level it is s good choice.

It is MUCH better to have a degree than several misc credits!

 

Look at the graduate degree's entrance requirements and make sure your general studies program contains those required courses. If you want to get into a computer science masters for example, you need to have a few computer science undergrad courses like architecture, algorithms, discrete math etc. Make sure you take those courses in the general studies degree and I think you should be fine. You can also call the schools you are interested in and advise them of your plan and ask if it is going to work.
From what I could tell of the general studies in IT at USF, the concentration was 24 credits while the BS was 48 credits, so choose those credits wisely.

 

yeah, ryoder added a few more details than me but I think that's pretty much what I meant...if you want a masters in chemistry then maybe you should be sure that you take a few chemistry courses, etc. grad school admissions staff can be picky about these things.

 

FHSU: BGS ($174 /undergraduate credit hour)
General Education - Fort Hays State University

 

From FSU's Graduate Comp Sci Degree.

Note: For those students who do NOT have an undergraduate BS degree in Computer Science, the following courses or their equivalents at another institution must be completed before the graduate degree will be awarded. The list assumes courses in basic programming skills.

Each newly admitted student must meet with the Director of Graduate Studies to complete a form indicating if any of the following must be taken. The form will be maintained in the student's file and checked during the departmental graduation check.

Also note that if a student has a BS in CS from another institution (not FSU) there may be one or more courses that we require that were not required at the student's institution. These courses must be taken prior to graduation.

The courses in the list below are pre-requisites to one or more of our graduate courses.

COP 4530 Data Structures (listed as: CGS 5425 - Object Oriented Programming with Data Structures)
COP 4531 Algorithm Analysis (listed as: CGS 5427 - Algorithm Design and Analysis)
CDA 3100 Computer Organization I (listed as: CGS 5267 - Principles of Computer Organization)
CDA 3101 Computer Organization II (listed as: CGS 5268 - Principles of Computer Organization II)
COP 4610 Operating Systems (listed as: CGS 5765 - Principles of Operating Systems)
COT 4420 Theory of Computation (listed as CGS 5429 - Introduction to Computer Theory)

MAC 2311 Calculus I
MAC 2312 Calculus II
MAD 2104 & 3105 Discrete Math

STA 4442 Introductory Probability I

 

Major, the cost per credit hour is excellent. A BGS with a concentration in Information Networking and Telecommunications would be good preparation or complement graduate coursework at HES.

Ryoder, I am also am looking at TESC again to see if a BA in CSCI can be completed. I am currently taking programs that may be applicable to an undergraduate CSCI program. I just think that the BGS route will be faster.

 

FHSU has a very competitive tuition rate for its degree programs except for the online MBA program at $400 per credit hour is overpriced IMO.

 

I earned a BSLS from Excelsior. My credits included many engineering and math credits and I had no problem getting accepted simultaneously into the two masters programs I applied to. I subsequently did both programs serially.

So make sure you have credits related to the subject of your masters. You work experience helps in getting accepted into a masters program.

In my opinion a BGS sounds better than a BSLS since some people think of liberal studies are left wing oriented studies.

 

Does Indiana University offer an online BGS?

 

Indiana University East offers a BGS.

 

Thanks Ian. I was wondering about that myself. I am somewhat liberal but I don't want people think that I am way out there to take up studying it.