Question: DegreeInfo Investment

I have a coworker whose undergraduate degree is a BFA. She, with great pride, often brings up the fact that she spent four years making pottery and never took any of the stuff others had to take. No public speaking. No intro to philosophy. No English Lit. Pottery and pottery accessories.

It's still a bachelors. It still qualified her for entry to an MS in HR program just the same as any other bachelors would have. Is it "fair" that she made pots and I had to take more academic pursuits? Meh. The fairness of it, I suppose, is that her bachelors is a BFA while mine is a B.S. Another person, I went to Scranton with him, he earned somewhere around 30 credits through independent study at the same school where my only attempt for a single 3 credit independent study had been rejected. Fair? Sure. He got approved because he was studying classics and the classics department consisted of one professor who was elated someone actually wanted to study classics. From the sound of it, the last 12 credits or so were rather informally obtained.

It is what it is. People like to think that the path to a legitimate degree is all uniform. It isn't. Exams, classes, alternative credit, independent study can, and regularly are, all used. Though, the flip side of this is that I think this murkiness is what a lot of mill apologists use as cover. But, barring a better and more uniform system, we have to at least trust that an RA school are cranking out the closest approximation to a "legitimate" degree that is available, no matter how you get it.

 

Sounds like the Brit. and Euro system, to me. Distinct absence of gen. ed requirements. You want to learn IT - your curriculum is 100% IT and IT-related, e.g. computer-related math, etc. No French, no history, no psych. Same principle as the pottery BFA you mentioned. You do want to learn history? Well, here it is - 3-4 years of nothin' but. You'll know history when you finish. Anything else - you're on your own.

I bet that lady makes damn fine pottery!

Nah! We shouldn't trust anything of the sort. Ever. That better and more uniform system may just be available - in UK and mainland Europe.

 

We (Canada and US) should grab it - right now.
"Make all their good ideas our good ideas." - Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp.

 

BTW - Neuhaus. I wish your colleague every success in her Master's studies and her HR career. She has much to be proud of with both degrees. No "murkiness" there - none at all. Two fields well-learned - with concentrated, close-focused study and hands-on experience. No "multiple guess."

 

I'm sure she appreciates it. She's doing just fine. Whenever I find someone who is trying desperately to break into HR, I offer the same advice, get the certs. That's how I got in. That's how she got in. We were peers for a time now I'm just ever so slightly senior to her. She is a valuable member of the HR team. She also makes one hell of a berry bowl.