question

Hi! Can someone tell me what "the big three" is?

 

Hey, I'd like to know that, too! I keep seeing that phrase here, and I always wonder, big three what?

 

OK, so that was my stupid joke. On this board, when we refer to the Big 3 we are referring to three universities that have all come to be known for allowing people to largely "test out" of courses or otherwise accumulate credits through various means. By doing so a person can, if the manage it skillfully, get through there degree quite quickly and at a very low relative cost. The three schools are Charter Oak State College, Thomas Edison State University, and Excelsior College. You can use our search widget to find discussions on this subject or you could start here

https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/which-one-of-the-big-3-is-1.41192/

https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?forums/clep-dantes-and-other-exams-for-credit.15/

 

I was under the impression that the original usage of the term"the big three" on this forum referred to Walden U, Capella and the Union Institute.

 

I can't judge the "origimal" usage; however as far as I remember, "Big 3" referred to TESC/COSC/Excelsior. "Big 3 Assessment Colleges". I credit this forum for introducing me to these schools; my wife ended up doing her Accounting degree at EC and had put it to good use. We would absolutely not be able to get an RA degree for her in any other way, not on my grad assistantship.
Of course, the newer DegreeForum.net board sort of took the Big 3 flag from this place, and is now the best source on all things Credit By Exam.

 

Nope. Never.

 

Oh wow ... and here I was thinking it was Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill!

 

or

 

I'm a Spurs fan.

 

Well I'll take the Spurs over the Heat.

 

I think we can now safely say that this thread has been successfully hijacked.

 

Steve, I recall a number of years ago I reviewed a post on this forum where a poster used the phrase " The Big Three" and noted the three schools I mentioned. You expressed your liking his use of this phrase and your agreement with the names of the three schools. I believe that the name of Capella then was the Graduate School of America.

 

Sounds impossible to me. For one thing, I have never endorsed profit-making universities, and both Walden and Capella (formerly TGSA) are for profit. (The closest I ever came to an endorsement of TGSA was when they earned CACREP accreditation. That one still impresses me.)

The only instance in which I have used the phrase for other than COSC/Edison/Excelsior is when describing master's degree programs which, at one time (some 30 years ago), had their own big three: Antioch, Goddard, and Vermont College (then part of Norwich University). None of them are major players at all today.

So, Jan, if you're sure that I made the statements you attribute to me, cite it specifically instead of from fuzzy memory. If you can tear yourself away from IUGS. Better yet, get a life. (Sorry, couldn't resist. Actually, I could, but have no desire to do so.) In short, even to discuss the Big 3 issue apart from the usual definition of the term amounts to bullshit.

This should be a one-page thread, since Kizmet accurately answered the OP's original question. (Although she did refer to getting "through there degree" rather than "through their degree." But I can forgive that since I like Kizmet. But I don't like Jan, who has occasionally been known to make a pain in the ass of herself. Or himself, since Jan's gender has never been established. But I digress . . .) Anyway, I'm sure that by the time this is done, a simple question will have turned this into a 15-page thread, most of which will be digressions.

Of course, I jest. Or do I?

 

"I think you should speak to someone regarding your extreme ambivalence. The insight may be helpful."

 

True. I would just add that Western Governors' University might be added.

I believe that the more intelligent sort of person acquires education many places during the course of their lives. On the job, various sorts of informal non-credit training, by their own reading, through pursuing hobbies... So I strongly support the existence of places where people can being their out-of-class learning and convert it into university credit, identifying the voids and gaps where work still needs to be done.

I have had some concern over the years that people were gaming the system and "earning" degrees in subjects they had never studied and knew little about. So the prior-learning assessments need to be credible and robust.

 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Or maybe Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya.

 

Great formatting, Jan - the majority of your message was lost in the quote section.

Nonetheless, it's nice to see that some things do not change. If our dear readers want to see Jan at her best, go to one of her earliest threads - https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/is-it-necessary-to-lock-a-discussion.49089/ - it's a bitch fight galore and, yes, I use that term to apply to both genders. (Speaking of sexism, I wonder what happened to Luciano...)

Not to go off topic in this thread, there's one thing about which I wonder... Jan came to this forum seeking a doctoral program, and she now spends much of her time here talking about IUGS. (I predicted at the time that Jan would not earn a doctorate because she is unable to submit to a doctoral committee's authority. My prediction still stands, at least with regard to legitimately accredited doctorates.)

Nonetheless, was she actually dumb enough to enroll in IUGS? (That, of course, is a rhetorical question.) If so, she deserves our sympathy for her lack of judgment. But not our empathy - we can still laugh at her.

 

What's truly entertaining and obvious regarding Steve's ad hominem devaluing comments is that it is an attempt to detract from the fact that when he received his "Name it and Frame it" doctorate from Union, the doctoral level scholarship necessary to obtain this degree was not on par with today's standards for doctoral level academic work. In short, it would not meet the criteria on any basis to obtain a doctorate.

Nice try Steve, but the more you attempt to devalue other posters, the more obvious is your insecurity regarding the academic quality of your doctorate. Just an observation.

 

Nice try, Jan. But pathetic people like you are the reason I came up with my variant of Chevy Chase's famous phrase: I have an RA Ph.D. And you don't. (Nor has anyone who has ever used the "Name It & Frame It" doctoral phrase.)

So if you're naïve enough to actually get an IUGS doctorate, let's whip 'em out and compare them then.

Just an observation.

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!