Explaining the Big 3 to my colleagues...

[mobiusbox]

Having a bit of an issue. Every time I tell one of my coworkers that I'm in school, they ask where. When I try to explain that I'm taking a fast track method of getting through my undergrad degree, they ask if it's a purely online school and I explain to them that it is but they are RA. Is there any one else that's been to a Big 3 school, that started to feel a little embarrassed because of the way people react? I'm actually very proud to FINALLY be finishing up something I started years ago, but I can't help but feel like other people think it's a cop-out way of doing things, or that it's not something they can even relate to.

I'm almost to the point of changing the subject when I'm out with people that start talking about their "college days". I feel like COSC has been more challenging than ANY of the brick-and-mortar schoolwork that I did waybackwhen...it's just a quicker timeline.

Has anyone else had the problem of explaining that these aren't "fake" programs when out with friends or colleagues? I think part of it is that some of my friends actually teach at physical campuses and they don't want to have to learn how to teach online formats (and that's going to be an issue for them in the future, because it's not going away).

[Katzepatra]

I am really new to all of this but I've been plotting for the last 2 months. I am currently enrolled in a local community college and have had MAJOR issues with them - I was kicked out of 3 sessions back to back due to their mismanagement of paperwork (easiest way to explain it). When I finally got into my classes last fall, it dawned on me that I wouldn't get my associates until this year at the earliest and I since need a BA/BS asap, I trolled around until I found this forum. I went ahead and registered for classes for this semester and they are DRAGGING to the point of inducing panic. I hate my teachers :ack: and I hate that I can't back out of the classes since I do need them for my degree however it will allow me to blaze ahead with alternate methods.

I'm currently working on my own degree plans and have already shared my goals with friends and family . I have a hard time only in that people have no concept of what this is. I found that it helps to tell people your in an adult degree completion program - for some reason people I've encountered seem to accept the idea when its refered to that way. It seems to trigger question relating to night school and self paced course work, things a lot of people have heard of. I have no idea why it makes a difference since its getting a degree and really has little to do with being an adult as college bound teenagers could do the same darn thing if they knew about it and had the motivation to. My thought is it makes sense in a traditional way; my mother completed her masters via night school and I have friends in nursing programs with night classes and advanced certificate programs that are self paced.

I run into the issue of people not understanding how I can go from having 18 credits (enrolled in 9 additonal online) and expect to have a "4 year" degree of 120 credits by this Christmas. As of right now, I will have 27 credits by May if I do nothing else but my classes however, since I'm starting to schedual CLEP and DSST tests as well as starting ALEKS, I will have far more. I've told people I'm doing "duel enrollment" to explain ALEKS as the math classes I needed were just not offered at my B&M school for their online program (which I'm in). The tests are the hard thing to explain - I say that you can pay to sit for a final exam and get credit for the class if you pass however that scares everyone I talk to.

I haven't had the issue of people thinking its fake and I feel thats due to the wording I've used. Personally, I wouldn't let it bother you - the degree is the end, this is just the means and the end is the same whether you do it this way or like they did. I'm happy to not have "college days" instead, I had adventure days that still make my friends jelous :reddevil:

[bluk30]

Haha Yeah, we've all been there.

It really has nothing to do with your educational path, distance learning has been around for decades, you're just making the people around you feel
insecure. They don't know how to deal with the cognitive dissonance of realizing they've been screwed over for a good chunk of their lives so they
turn things around and bring you down in any way they can.

I mean think about it. Imagine how emotionally scarring college must be to most people. You're a kid thrown to the wolves and they're stuck in that
abusive relationship for 4-7 years. When they finally do escape, they are usually in crippling debt. Point it out to them and they have no recourse
but to turn it back around on you or collapse into a sobbing heap in the corner.

When I tell friends that I graduated in 9 months for 6 thousand dollars they get angry. Not because of what I did, but because something inside of
them realizes that they paid 75k too much and wasted years of their lives. Let's face it, if these people COULD have done things "our way" THEY
WOULD HAVE! They just weren't clever or disciplined enough to pull it off. Oh well.

Frankly, I think a lot of people feel nostalgic about their "college days" because they're experiencing Stockholm Syndrome.

Most people are not capable of doing things like we do on this board. Be proud.

[freddy]

People tend to shut up real fast when I tell them I get the same amount of credits for $100 and 2 weeks of studying as they would get paying $500-$1000 and being stuck in a class for 4 months.

[IrishJohn]

When I tell friends that I graduated in 9 months for 6 thousand dollars they get angry. Not because of what I did, but because something inside of them realizes that they paid 75k too much and wasted years of their lives. Let's face it, if these people COULD have done things "our way" THEY
WOULD HAVE! They just weren't clever or disciplined enough to pull it off. Oh well.

I wouldn't say that is true for many of them. Remember that for a lot of folks this is a generational thing or the traditional method is all they know about. Most folks have never heard of the Big 3 or this forum and given how college is usually sold to the public wouldn't even think to look for them. I myself only knew about B&M schools or the online diploma mills prior to 2009. As the alternatives like this become more available this will all change. it will just take some time. For now just be glad you've had the fortune to discover what these others have not.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Having a bit of an issue. Every time I tell one of my coworkers that I'm in school, they ask where. When I try to explain that I'm taking a fast track method of getting through my undergrad degree, they ask if it's a purely online school and I explain to them that it is but they are RA.

You're pursuing your degree at Charter Oak State College, Connecticut's state college for adult learners. It's part of the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system.

Charter Oak has specialized in degree completion programs since its founding in 1973. Excelsior was founded in 1971, TESC in 1972. Clearly, these weren't "purely online" colleges in the sense your coworkers are thinking in the early 1970s! But what they offer their students today is much the same thing as they offered then, with online courses added.

[bluk30]

...whoops, double post

[bluk30]

I wouldn't say that is true for many of them. Remember that for a lot of folks this is a generational thing or the traditional method is all they know about. Most folks have never heard of the Big 3 or this forum and given how college is usually sold to the public wouldn't even think to look for them. I myself only knew about B&M schools or the online diploma mills prior to 2009. As the alternatives like this become more available this will all change. it will just take some time. For now just be glad you've had the fortune to discover what these others have not.

That's just it. None of this is new. The Big 3 are just the latest in a long line of options for nontraditional education.
John Bear has been publishing a guide to doing things "our way" for the last thirty years. It's been widely ignored.

How to Get the Degree You Want: Bear's Guide to Non-Traditional College Degrees: John Bear: 9780898150803: Amazon.com: Books

I see where you're coming from, but I guess I'm just a cynic. I don't see a lot of fortune going on on these
forums, I see people doing months (and years) of research, making plans, and going the road less traveled.
The majority will never be willing to do that.

In a way, nontraditional education is like astronomy. It's always there. It will always be there. If a person is
too foolish or proud to simply look up, then it's no one's fault but their own.

[alleycat]

When I was getting my degree I actually did not speak about it to anyone. Why? Because I was not going to put up with people's comments and looks. Honestly. When I was done. Then I made the annoucement. I was also an enrolled student at a local college because I was involved in Art and Interior Design. I took all of these wonderfully earned credits along with other credits that I received through, Clep, DSST, FEMA, Aleks ect and created my BA in Humanities. Believe me I planned this degree. I looked like Patton in the war room somedays as I charted, planned and mapped out my degree. I always knew I would transfer into one of the big three. Because I knew it was my best solution.

Alot of people are what I like to call "degree snobs." Many people do not possess what it takes to finish a degree on your own terms. I think they are afraid of the challenges of seeking a degree by the road less traveled.

[Jonathan Whatley]

THE COLLEGE-LEVEL EXAMINATION PROGRAM (CLEP)

The College-level Examination Program (CLEP) makes it possible for anyone to earn up to two years of college credit through a series of weekend tests. Over one thousand colleges and universities recognize the examinations and give credit for it. After a slow start, 240,000 exams will be administered in 1972-73.

There are two types: General and Subject. The General Examination is in English Composition, Mathematics, Natural Science, Social Science-History and Humanities. All are multiple-choice and take about seventy-five minutes each. The Subject Examinations are in thirty-four different fields, are multiple-choice and take ninety minutes each. […]

Although the CLEP people did not originally design the program for students going to college, or of college age, it is an excellent opportunity to complete two years of college soon after high school. […] Of the one thousand schools who say they will give credit, less than half are explicit about it. It is necessary to shop around to get full credit for your exam results. […]

CLEP is an accurate measuring instrument. The rising cost of undergraduate education guarantees its acceptance.

– pp. 29-30 of John Coyne and Tom Hebert, This Way Out: A Guide to Alternatives to Traditional College Education in the United States, Europe, and the Third World. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1972. (There's a little more here.)

They note the Regent's External Degree program of the University of the State of New York, now Excelsior. They note a proposal for "New Jersey Open University," which probably became Thomas Edison, and a proposal for a "College of Independent Learning" in Connecticut which probably became Charter Oak.