The RA or No Way Debate Continues

Here's the list of NY Regents accredited schools:

http://www.highered.nysed.gov/ocue/accreditation/handbook/directory.htm

My favorites are Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan Kettering and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. All three of these are big-time research institutions with international reputations. (Carol Greider, one of the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology, did some of the work that won her the prize during her time spent as a fellow and faculty member at Cold Spring Harbor.)

Here's another cool one, the Christie's auction house, which offers a NY-Regents accredited masters degree in Modern Art, Connoisseurship and the History of the Art Market. I expect that this degree has lots of recognition and clout among art dealers and is competitive with any number of RA degrees. Christie's in London offers similar degrees, these 'validated' by the U. of Glasgow.

 

hi

I agree with all the points made by people responding in this thread...

 

I think this highlights an ongoing problem. To responsibly evaluate the quality of a program requires 1) actual knowledge of that school and the scholarship it produces, as well as 2) breadth and depth of knowledge of the particular field of study to place the school within. Summing up a school by labels is so easy and tempting, though, because it allows everyone to position themselves as experts. The people who have developed some actual expertise in a particular field sometimes get drowned out by people asserting:

“My school is RA so it’s just as good as any other RA school, and anyone who says otherwise is just prejudiced.”

“My school’s DETC accreditation is still recognized accreditation, so it’s as good as any other accredited school and anyone who says otherwise is just prejudiced.”​

Just because subject matter expert advice is subjective doesn’t mean it’s less valuable. I was very fortunate to receive some good advice from some people who knew their chosen field. As an adult with one university degree already, it was a bit humbling, but it allowed me a change of direction which has made all the difference.

 

This is profound for other reasons... The world of academe is filled with rule- followers who refuse to examine an the individual or the subject matter expertise of the individual, but instead use labels to dismiss them by the name of the University affiliation or the accreditation (or lack thereof) of the University.

 

Indeed, sloppy thinking abounds.