I just joined intracert- and with IC's help, got a 68 in Sociology.

I am so inspired by everyone's determination to finish, and I am in awe at Brian Fey's speed at finishing three degrees!

1-But now what? If I finish my BA (I am taking core classes in Organizational Management at Ashford U- online, and clepping everything else) who takes an online BA? What are my options for a Masters?

2- What will be the reaction of people hiring when they see my degree? Does anyone know? How does this compare with b/m degrees in the real world?

I am 37, married to a great guy who is also back in school while working; have six kids, hold three jobs, and am attempting to get my degree by December 07.

Any advice?

Thanks! Etta

Hello Etta -

Welcome to the IC-Forums-Classroom and CONGRATS on passing your Sociology exam!!

As to you degree/diploma concerns, there is no difference noted or listed indicating D/L or B&M. It isn't necessary and/or required to indicate how/where you obtained your degree on an application and more importantly D/L degrees are prevalent these days and considered an acceptable practice if not a standard one.

Thanks for your compliments too and Good Luck!!

__________________
ShotoJuku +
A.S., B.S., M.S.

Always be ready to release your mind and be willing to listen to the advice of others. Remain flexible. - Gichin Funakoshi

__________________
ShotoJuku +
A.S., B.S., M.S.

Always be ready to release your mind and be willing to listen to the advice of others. Remain flexible. - Gichin Funakoshi

A terminal degree is in the long-term plan, once I (a) get through my undergrad and certification hoops and (b) can find a reasonably priced distance program that doesn't focus on the I-want-to-be-a-principal crowd. (Maybe my google-fu is bad, but is an online or limited-residency PhD, EdD, or EdS in communications disorders, literacy, or reading really that out of the question?)

Of course, you'll be Dr. Brian long before then!

__________________
one CLEP to go. Pursuing BS English Lit, Excelsior College (115/120) + K-8 certification & MAT, University of Alaska Southeast (15/51).

IC works! Credits by exam to date: 51

GRE: Literature in English (60th percentile / 18 cr)
CLEP: A&I Lit (72), Intro Soc (72), Am Gov (69), Intro Psych (77), Intro to Ed Psych (73), US History I (69)
DSST: Environment & Humanity (70), Civil War (63), Foundations of Ed (68), USSR (54)

On Deck: CLEP Biology, Multicultural Education, Technology in Instructional Design

I am not considering a "terminal degree" at this point. I intend to finish my BS in May-June 2008. After that I might consider a Masters if I find the right program, but I have no intention of going beyond that.

I guess I'll ask now: is anyone familiar with an online MBA program with a "name" (like U Penn or Penn State or Florida State) that is nationally accredited, BUT allows for some flexibility about the time period? All of the big name MBA programs I looked at have set 1-year and 2-year programs with a large price tag. I am looking for one that I can take slowly enough to have my employer pay for most of it ($5250/year)

I know that a lot of people are going to ask "Why not CCU or Western Governor's" so I'll answer that ahead of time. To me, a 4-year degree from Excelsior College seems impressive enough for most jobs. If I am applying for a job that actually needs an MBA, I have a feeling that the name will matter. Please let me know why you disagree, though!

P.s. It looks like I'm going to be in your graduating class, cinderly

__________________
Chris
120 credits, 3.60 GPA, B.S. General Business, Excelsior College to be conferred 6/20/08

CLEP Accounting-71, Humanities-70, Marketing-78, Macro-70, Sociology-66, HG&D-72, Management-77, American Gov't-63, Business Law-73, Edu Psych-67, Biology-71; DSST MIS-66, Statistics-78, Principles of Finance-66, Money & Banking-65, Health-65, Business Law II-69, Environment-68, HRM-70; ECE Ethics-A, Org Behavior-B, Info Lit-P, Labor Relations-C, Ops Mgt-A, Business Strategy-B

Awesome! Let's hope I can make it, too.

I haven't looked into MBA programs much, but I think they're more likely to be prevalent than, say, a M.S. in Physics, just due to demand. I'm not sure what the requirements on the more time-sensitive programs are, but one option would be to figure out your target program and acquire credits up to the transfer-in threshold elsewhere, at your own pace.

When I was just north of Houston in September I saw billboards everywhere for Texas A&M's MBA program. No idea of their ranking, but they definitely pass the "name recognition" test.

Business Week seemed to view Emory pretty favorably for part-timers.

There's always Heriot - aren't they pretty well respected?

__________________
one CLEP to go. Pursuing BS English Lit, Excelsior College (115/120) + K-8 certification & MAT, University of Alaska Southeast (15/51).

IC works! Credits by exam to date: 51

GRE: Literature in English (60th percentile / 18 cr)
CLEP: A&I Lit (72), Intro Soc (72), Am Gov (69), Intro Psych (77), Intro to Ed Psych (73), US History I (69)
DSST: Environment & Humanity (70), Civil War (63), Foundations of Ed (68), USSR (54)

On Deck: CLEP Biology, Multicultural Education, Technology in Instructional Design

Reading various threads and talking with various people made me curious about motivations here. If you're a grad student or intend to become one:

1. What grad degree are you pursuing/planning to pursue?

2. Why are you pursuing a grad degree? How will it benefit you personally or professionally?

3. Why did you choose this particular school to attend (or groups of schools to apply to)? You can leave out the school name(s) if you prefer privacy, I'm more curious about the "why" part.

I figure some folks here want a master's just to have that advanced degree, even if it's irrelevant to their career goals. My boss is the COO of a very small company and has an MS that's irrelevant to both her position and our company's expertise. Normally she doesn't refer to it, but when she has to deal with certain categories of clients that MS gets added to her name and title immediately!


Okay, I'll answer the question first.

1. After completing my BS in English Lit, I intend to pursue a master's in instructional design with an emphasis on e-learning technologies. Translation: I want to analyze the training needs of an organization and then design classes/programs (preferably with a heavily web-based component) to meet those needs.

2. This will be a career change, as I'm currently in low-level HR after having left IT. I've always been interested in training & development, but until I moved into HR I had no idea you could make a career of it. There are plenty of instructional designers who have come up through the ranks, but the master's gets into heavy duty learning theory and organizational development. It's strongly recommended for current practitioners, and pretty much mandatory for those new to the field.

Someday I may want to pursue a second master's in American Studies, just for fun. I have a particular interest that falls under that category and it would be such fun to dive into the research!

3. All five programs I'm considering are state universities with top-notch reputations in the field, and offer the degree entirely online (although you may need to visit campus to defend your thesis/portfolio). Although cost is not the biggest consideration, I've eliminated one excellent school from consideration because its out-of-state tuition rates push the tuition/fees over the $30k mark; the other universities charge in-state tuition to online grad students no matter where they live.

Capella has a popular program that's competitively priced, but when I submitted the form to get more information, a pushy enrollment "counselor" called the next day - I HATE THAT SO MUCH. (their privacy policy states that if you're on the Do Not Call list, they will email for permission before calling - I am, and they did not, grrrr)

Who's next?

__________________

Candidate: BS/Liberal Studies, Excelsior College

April 4: Literature In English GRE (630, 78th %tile)
April 17: Penn Foster ENG103 Information Literacy (A)

The Dantes Stampede, May 29 - June 29:
Western Europe Since 1945 (67); Human Resource Management (68); Organizational Behavior (76); Principles of Supervision (66); Introduction to Business (69); The Civil War & Reconstruction (70); Technical Writing (70); Foundations of Education (68); A History of the Vietnam War (74); The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (67)

Scheduled:
July 6: CLEP College Algebra

And then a nice long vacation where no one is allowed to ask me anything except "would you like another iced tea?"

I would like to get a masters but am not sure what arena would be best. My two favorite options would be either Entreprenuership or something in the public speaking/political science arena. I am still not sure what I want to pursue long term so a masters will have to wait until that is all figured out. I would like to get a masters from a B&M school just to experience a classroom.

__________________

I would like to study systems science, described by Portland State University (where I hope to attend at least for the certificate) as "the study and application of general methods of problem solving and general principles governing systems of widely differing types". It involves modeling and can be applied to anything from manufacturing to fish populations.

My employer will pay tuition for a MBA, so I'm also looking at Chadron State or Jacksonville State.

Phillip

__________________
Principles of Management 77
Intro to Sociology 74
Principles of Marketing 78
Information Systems and Computer Applications 75
Intro to Psychology 80
Intro Business Law 72
A & I Lit 75
Next: DSST Ethics, MIS & CLEP Macroeconomics

I'm working toward my Masters of Arts in Teaching at one of the University of Alaska system schools. I chose this program because I am attempting to change fields from environmental remediation (tech editor/tech support) to education in order to pursue my long-held dream of teaching in a public school setting. This program is distance-based and leads to institutional recommendation for State of Alaska certification as a K-8 generalist. (I'll be seeking to add single-subject 6-8 endorsements through Praxis exams. Joy.)

The personal benefit of this program is that I get to expand the best six hours of my week (reading program volunteer) into a full-time job while continuing to work full-time for the next six to twelve months and moving into substitute teaching once I hit the more time-intensive methods courses. The professional benefit is that not only will I be qualified to teach, I can seek employment as a teacher prior to the completion of the program and look forward to a pay hike on completion of the degree.

Beyond the MAT and initial certification, I'm evaluating my options. There are a number of intriguing MS, MEd, EdS, and EdD programs in literacy education (my proposed field of specialization), brain-based learning research, and communications disorders, all of which coincide with my research interests. I'd also like to earn my reading and mathematics specialist certificates within my first five years as a classroom teacher because I hope to create an interdisciplinary classroom with those fundamentals as cornerstones, perhaps with a Paideia-flavored instructional approach.

The big reason I chose UAS over UAA (which is local) was the ability to continue working and the ability to earn certification for K-8 instead of K-6. UAS edged out a similar program at a local private university because I am not interested in paying triple the tuition costs for a slightly more prestigious name.

__________________
one CLEP to go. Pursuing BS English Lit, Excelsior College (115/120) + K-8 certification & MAT, University of Alaska Southeast (15/51).

IC works! Credits by exam to date: 51

GRE: Literature in English (60th percentile / 18 cr)
CLEP: A&I Lit (72), Intro Soc (72), Am Gov (69), Intro Psych (77), Intro to Ed Psych (73), US History I (69)
DSST: Environment & Humanity (70), Civil War (63), Foundations of Ed (68), USSR (54)

On Deck: CLEP Biology, Multicultural Education, Technology in Instructional Design