Were you influenced by the NAME of your school?

Its name sounds similar to a chain of mental health facilities in my region.

 

I think it's a great name. It embodies robustness and integrity. I grew up in New Britain, CT, and some of my friends went to the Charter Oak School there.

 

For those interested in the Charter Oak name,
http://www.ct.gov/ctportal/cwp/view.asp?a=888&q=246528
The Charter Oak name can be found on all sorts of things (businesses, etc.) all over Connecticut. It's always a bit of fun to see the college decals stuck on car windows. Around here it's just another (great) part of the state college system.
Jack
(Hey Bill, I've got a very solid Southern Maine connection myself. I've been connected to the Ogunquit area since I was a little kid)

 

Now who would go and do such a dastardly deed as name a university after a rude, ill-bred, illiterate barbarian who ought to rot in Hell for what he did to people far more civilized than himself?

 

And supremely better than its previous name: The State Board for Academic Awards (which still exists). I'd take Excelsior any day. (But I don't have to, having graduated from The USNY itself.)

 

I'm not exactly thrilled with the name of my undergrad alma mater (Curry College), but they offered what I needed, in the time frame I needed it. I also knew I was going on to graduate school, and I'm quite content with that name (UMass-Lowell).

 

If you truly want a positive halo effect with your degree - go Ivy league (or Skidmore College or UMUC).

If you go with Excelsior, however, and major money matters, you can also be positively surprised at people's ignorance: I discovered a registrar at a major private western university believing that "Excelsior" as a USNY member was really SUNY, Albany. It wasn't anything I did to create this impression - it was simply how they (mis)understood the facts of my transcript because US higher ed is so large, complex, and confusing.

Now, if a registrar at a big university is going to make a positive (and unwarranted) attribution, what are the odds that any average employer will do much differently? (SUNY itself is enormous and over complicated.)

So I say 'don't worry.'

Besides - college degrees are a dime a dozen in many places in the US. The real monetary payoff comes with masters degrees, according to the federal BLS. If it's income that matters most to you in job seeking, I say aim higher - get the first degree the fastest-cheapest-best-legitimate, but aim for the next!

 

Maybe that goes for you if you live in New York State. However, for everyone living outside of NY, it would be pretty much the same whether you graduated from Excelsior or from a school listed above.

To boot, I think Excelsior isn't the ugliest name around. Probably about one-third of American Colleges(same goes for British and Australian ones) have peculiar sounding names and they still draw hundreds of thousands of students who apparently don't get embarrassed by the name.

 

Heck Yeah! I saw it was called "University of Dayton" and I thought it was "University of Daytona". Once I realized my mistake I saw the very favorable girl to boy ratio there and went to school there anyway. But then I was never the reasonable and stable adult I am now.

 

For the king of all odd names you need to take a step down to the prep level. My friends' sister used to work here and it was a frequent source of snickers....expensive though.

http://www.gda.org/

 

Currently I am reading the Andrew Jackson, the Life and Times by H.W. Brand.

It's really good and I recommend it.....I'm not sure if you are speaking of Jackson's exploits with the Brits or the Indians (Native Americans)....doesn't matter though....atrocities were committed by all involved during those times of open conflict and war.....I haven't studied upon it much but have read enough to know that what we considered atrocities....

1.) skinning the heads of the dead and torturing the captured

and what they considered atrocities

2.) burning of crops and houses

differ. The difference between America and other nations is that America apologizes for victory such as in WW2 dropping of the A-bomb....

But then don't take my opinion as fixed as I am still learning about this era and it may change as my personal reading increases....after all, I just recently became interested in history before WW1.

My personal belief is that a detestable act by one side does not automatically constitute a detestable act by the other….but then, it’s easy for me to say sitting on my comfortable couch in my warm house feeling safe at the moment…..I wasn’t there.

 

Interesting. Dr HW Brands was my professor when I took 20th Century Diplomacy class at Texas A&M. He was/is an amazing historian. I hung on his every word. He is now teaching at the University of Texas.

 

My next book is "The First American" about Ben Franklin....

As an author he is fairly critical of his topics...in this case Andrew Jackson....he doesn't bash them, but he doesn't buy into the hype either.

You had him as a professor? I'm envious.

 

When I got commissioned in the Air Force, I noticed that my education record showed that I had two bachelor's degrees from SUNY Albany. I called the folks who handle officers' education records--the registrar's office for the Air Force Instistute of Technology. They're supposed to know this stuff. Anyway, I ended up having someone argue with me, insisting that I'd gone to SUNY Albany. Gee, you'd think I'd know a thing like that! (Especially when I'd never been to New York except for the first few months of my life.) I'm sure they've got a code for Excelsior College now, but back then it was a real headache getting my record corrected. (I didn't want anyone later on saying I let something like that slide.)

 

Dr Brands is a walking encylopedia. I think I have over 30 pages of notes for his class. One day he went from 1877 to 1910, giving the highlights for almost each and every year in between. It was amazing. I remember when we spoke on Robert Dalleck's Franklin D, Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945 and I was the only New Deal scholar in class. It seemed, although I maybe wrong on this, that Brands was not the biggest Roosevelt fan out there. I conceded on the point that Roosevelt did not end the Depression and I "think" he conceded to the point that Roosevelt was tinkerer and a cheerleader. ( The fireside chats) It was my feeling that was what the United States needed at the time. Again, I have so much to tell about him and not enough space to write. Suffice it to say, his class was like being on the History Channel. He actually walked us through a History Channel episode when the historians are interviewed. Priceless.

 

You know...

The Crossfire is built on the Mercedes SLK - you're essentially buying a Mercedes 'cept it bears the Crossfire as a name.

A degree from an RA institution is a degree from an RA institution - especially when it comes to Dist Education ( B&M is a horse of a different breed which we shall not saddle this time round ) What's in a name? Silly or not, it's the quality of the education that matters.

Unless you come from an Ivy League School and you can throw "Oxford" or "Hardvard / Yale / whathaveyou" on your resume under Bachelor / Masters / Doctorate degree, why bother? Money doesn't grow on trees (now if you have a money tree, send me the seeds!) so in most cases on this board and other LD orientated boards alike, the $ counts. Most of us embark the LD Degree tour because we are working stiffs - with responsibilities. I didn't choose FHSU because of the name - what mattered to me was that they offered a degree which suited my interests and was affordable. Would it bother me if I went to "Skyblue University" ? Not in the least - as long as it at least met my educational needs (hopefully even surpassed).

Does the name matter? To you it obiously does - which is why this thread was started...

Cheerio!

 

These are great points. As with the Chrysler/Mercedes example, two cars can share the same basic design and even be built in the same plant. However, the end product can be much different in overall fit and finish. I suspect the only people that would claim a Crossfire is "essentially a Mercedes" are Chrysler salespeople and Crossfire owners that believed Chrysler salespeople. Anyone that has owned both a Honda and Acura (or Toyota or Lexus) can easily tell the difference between the two auto products that originate from the same parent company. Claiming all RA DL degrees are equal is sort of like claiming all cars with 4 wheels are equal.

My undergrad degree is from COSC. Most people do not give the school name a second thought. It helps that I lived in CT at the time I earned the degree (no questions). An Executive (newspaper) Editor once asked me, "is that one of those schools that advertise on late night TV?" When I looked at the big three, I chose COSC because I couldn't stand the Excelsior name and (more importantly) COSC best fit my needs when compared to TESC. The name of your school, while very superficial, should be considered. After all, that name will most likely go on your resume for the rest of your life. That may have very little impact on a person's professional career. However, I have met UoP graduates that were less than proud of the school (despite being RA).

 

I think your inclusion of UoP grads rather disproves your point about the importance of names. UoP has acquired a negative reputation to some not because of the name but because of how the school has functioned, or failed to function. At least that's what I've learned from DL learners and UoP posters to this board.

If UoP could simply shed its skin, adopt a new name, rebrand itself for high quality ed experience - surely it would have done so.

-Orson