Bachelor of Liberal Studies and the Area of Focus

[Holmes]

Hello,

In 2020 catalog, Excelsior makes it clear that students, in bachelor of liberal studies, can declare an area of focus that will be mentioned in their transcript, given that they have such and such credits in a single discipline.

However, in the latest catalog, they have removed this phrase, and the only concentration that is available in BSLA is Logistics Operations Management!

Does this indicate that you can't declare an area of focus? If yes, why would they do that?!

[dfrecore]

I think they messed up the catalog! But I would just call and ask.

[TwinMom]

Hello,

In 2020 catalog, Excelsior makes it clear that students, in bachelor of liberal studies, can declare an area of focus that will be mentioned in their transcript, given that they have such and such credits in a single discipline.

However, in the latest catalog, they have removed this phrase, and the only concentration that is available in BSLA is Logistics Operations Management!

Does this indicate that you can't declare an area of focus? If yes, why would they do that?!

I was wondering the exact same thing because I saw that the verbiage was missing  a couple days ago.  At least they also removed the requirement for 2 depths from the catalog. Please report back when you find out because mine were going for a concentration in Psychology.

[Holmes]

I was wondering the exact same thing because I saw that the verbiage was missing  a couple days ago.  At least they also removed the requirement for 2 depths from the catalog. Please report back when you find out because mine were going for a concentration in Psychology.

Well, they replied: «We no longer have the option to have an Area of Focus for the Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts degree».

[bjcheung77]

They are making it easier for people so they don't have to focus on any specific area of focus. Before, they required you to take two area of focus and an option for a third. This way, it's like a BS Liberal Arts with no concentration, so you can create your "own" set of courses without limiting it to be a particular subject or two. In other words, it's possible to make this cheaper, easier, faster to finish, and to which ever courses that interest you. At the end of the day, it's still a Liberal Arts degree...

[Holmes]

This is true. However, for many of us, we need an explicit indication, either in the diploma or in the transcript, that the degree fulfills a certain area or discipline. I can design my own computer science list of courses indeed (that could outclass some of BS of computer science degrees out there), but unless the person who checks my transcript is really knowledgeable, they will not recognize it as such without the explicit "major/concentration" thing.

[dfrecore]

I was wondering the exact same thing because I saw that the verbiage was missing  a couple days ago.  At least they also removed the requirement for 2 depths from the catalog. Please report back when you find out because mine were going for a concentration in Psychology.

Well, they replied: «We no longer have the option to have an Area of Focus for the Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts degree».

This is strange - because they JUST introduced the AoF.  Previously you had to have 2 depths, but they didn't call the the AoF.  So I'm not sure why they'd introduce something, and then come back and get rid of it before they even implemented it.  So weird.  Also not sure why they'd want to get rid of it at all!  I thought it was an awesome addition to the degree.

[Holmes]

This is strange - because they JUST introduced the AoF.  Previously you had to have 2 depths, but they didn't call the the AoF.  So I'm not sure why they'd introduce something, and then come back and get rid of it before they even implemented it.  So weird.  Also not sure why they'd want to get rid of it at all!  I thought it was an awesome addition to the degree.

More strange is the only concentration they offer =) . As we all know, Logistics Operations Management is the most requested major of all time.

[dhillbilly]

It is great they are getting rid of the depth requirement. The 12 credits each in two specific disciplines did take some flexibility away. It would have been nice if they had left the Area of Focus in place as a choice. It was nice to get practically any focus you wanted listed on the transcript. For 21 credits(6 upper level), you had a kind of "minor". They have had this practically forever. Why get rid of it know? I never got the point of the concentrations they recently added. Maybe military?