The validating question for this whole "Is-distance-learning-accredited?" discussion: do you have a personal testimony or do you have any friends/family/classmates who have graduated with a distance learning degree and landed a good job?

Check out this post for starters:

Big Three Grads, What Did Your Degree Do For You? - Distance Learning Discussion Forums

Thanks! The fourm was quite informative; the discussions were quite peppery!

Well the way I see it, you need to plan your career. If you want to be a high ranking executive at a big firm you might need an ivy league degree.

If you want a different job, you can get a degree from pretty much anywhere as long as you have a good gpa and other stuff to back it up. volunteer work, community involvement, work history. Personally I don't see the need to spend the tuition (50k a year) at some of the top schools if you don't plan to use it. Or unless daddy is paying for it and its not your money.

__________________
Houston, Texas
B.S. - Liberal Arts, Excelsior College

That's if you can get into an Ivy. My daughter did all the right things, had 2300 out of 2400 on her SATs, took all APs this year, straight As, has her Girl Scout Gold Award, is a Lt Gov in Key Club, her high school's most distinquished student, mock trial, raises funds for the Childrens Specialized Hosp, is an artist that went to Gov school for the arts, and the list goes on and on. Yet she was wait-listed or rejected at Ivys she applied to. The competition these days is HUGE. One Ivy admits to giving extra weight to certain areas that my daughter doesn't fit into, such as alumni connections, athletics and minority.

So that discussion on that other forum really was not in reality when some posters talked about needing a big name education. There are only limited spaces in those colleges. So what do employers do? Only hire the limited number of alumni from Ivys? Of course not.

Anyway, the one poster that started that thread seemed to me as though he was one of those that tries to stir things up, as one of the other posters suggested.

__________________
LuBee
I finshed all of my credits for a BA in Art from TESC
CLEP Credits:
6 Biology (67)
3 US Hist 1 (67)
6 SS & Hist (68)
3 US Hist 2 (66)
3 Amer Gov (67)
6 Amer Lit (73)
6 Hum (73)
3 Ed Psy (71)
3 H G & D (70)
3 Intro Psy (74)
3 Intro to Soc (75)
6 College Math (68)
6 A & I Lit (72)
DSST:
3 Intro Computing (65)
3 Here's to Your Health (64)
Other Credits:
3 PLA Painting 1
3 TECEP Psy of Women (78/100)
3 TECEP Art Hist 2 (81/100)
3 Dept Exam English 1
45 Traditional

I don't agree that only IVy Tech graduates can be Top Executives .

I am doing my degree at EC Majoring in Finance after which I intend to enroll in a traditional MBA school.

And My goal with My EC degree is to get into TOP Executive and not just any Job, and I believe I will be able to achieve it even with the EC and degree and an addition MBA


If any EC degree can only get you some job, then it would not be worth it, I personally believe it can get you want ever you need it to get you, if you put in the effort

Mapalo

I agree with Mapalo that you don't need to be Ivy League to be CEO.

"14 of the CEOs at S&P 500 companies held undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin. That puts it in a tie with Harvard for first place, ahead of Princeton, Stanford, Yale, and the University of Texas."

In the Headlines

...and for what it's worth, Harvard Extension is open admission (AA, ALB, ALM). Take some classes, do well, congrats-you're-in...and very affordable.

Where else can you get a Ivy League masters for $20k? This idea that it's un-atainable or unapproachable to the masses is just rubbish. If you want Ivy League - look no further than Harvard Extension (pure and simple).

Just my 2 cents.

Greg

Pugman
I agree with you, I am personally going to take some classes at Harvard Extension next semester.
I live right at the campus of Harvard Business school in Cambridge my husband is getting an MBA here,
Once you attend one full semester at harvard extension you qualify to do the rest of the courses online, so you can easily get a BA in Libral arts here,

But nothing beats the cost of testing out (Clep and Dantes)

Again even with EC you can get into the Top Executives, I am shooting for Private Equity or investment banking my self and I will get there

Mapalo

[quote=LuBee]That's if you can get into an Ivy. My daughter did all the right things, had 2300 out of 2400 on her SATs, took all APs this year, straight As, has her Girl Scout Gold Award, is a Lt Gov in Key Club, her high school's most distinquished student, mock trial, raises funds for the Childrens Specialized Hosp, is an artist that went to Gov school for the arts, and the list goes on and on. Yet she was wait-listed or rejected at Ivys she applied to. The competition these days is HUGE. One Ivy admits to giving extra weight to certain areas that my daughter doesn't fit into, such as alumni connections, athletics and minority.

QUOTE]

Minority? That is rubbish! So people outside can get in before the majority of people? Doesn't that make you mad? Sounds like your daughter should be a shoe in for an IVY.

No offence to any miniorities.

__________________
Houston, Texas
B.S. - Liberal Arts, Excelsior College

Great discussion so far! All this feedback about master's degrees is encouraging to me as a young person. So...the "weird" distance learning people actually can, and DO make it in the real world...wow .

Any suggestions for a "babe in the woods" aspiring for higher education (i.e. Masters, Ph.D)? Spec., any ideas of how a GPA works with Thomas Edison? Would a tradational college take my GPA from Thomas Edison courses ONLY, or is the GPA also calculated from my CLEPS/DANTES scores? Any and all ideas, comments, and suggestions would be welcome!