Explaining the Big 3 to my colleagues...

[Demo18cc]

All I say is that I'm going to Excelsior in NY which is a state school on the same level as any state school. Being military it's hard to find someone that actually sit in class.

[chiquitacobbe]

I guess one nice advantage I will have when I finish my degree at TESC is that I lived in NJ til I was 35 and only moved out of state 7 years ago. So I'm thinking people will not know of many schools outside of the normal large Ivy league ones. And being from NJ originally will look better to the unknown eye. Honestly I really don't care what people will say. My spouse graduated from a b&m school in NJ and no one where we live now has ever heard of the school. (Unless they follow the Dallas cowboys and Miles Austin). Lol. But seriously, people judge because they don't know and that's a shame.

Hopefully no one is discouraged about it. Just keep doing what you're doing and be proud of your accomplishments.

[cookderosa]

I totally agree with the over-sharing part, it probably came off as defensive. Plus, the self doubt is definitely there too. Most of the people I hang with these days have their masters and beyond, so they assume I'm working on grad school as well. I think it's kind of a blow when they find out that I've gotten as far as I have in my career, just from having some community college credits. The truth is, I had to work harder at my job to get there and now I'm as far as I can get without having a bachelors degree.

It's been hard, but I think I need to just stop caring about what everyone else is doing and worry about getting it done. Then I'll worry about explaining to employers.

I totally get that. I worked in the community college with only an associates degree. After 4 years of lining up for the "required" faculty activity of graduation processional and being asked what type of hood I needed.....barf. I didn't like having less education than my peers- and mind you my REAL peers didn't even have degrees, but my academic peers were snotty. Whatever. Anyway, I wasn't trying to be snappy when I said to keep it to yourself, I was being serious. Inviting opinions does what good? I had a hard time not talking with EVERYBODY about my latest CLEP or exam. Come here, we'll talk with you. Talk and talk and talk to us. After you finish (and you will finish!) you can enroll in grad school locally or at a distance- and "that" might feel a little more comfortable to talk about, but if not, that's ok too. I'd bet out of my 10 closest friends, maybe 1 or 2 could even tell you what I'm in school for right now. It feels like a big deal, but most people really are not all that interested. And these are people that love me lol.

[cookderosa]

Not all "college days" stories include a graduation, if you were to press for details.

Oh, this just has to be posted AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN!!!!!!

Getting into college is a piece of cake, very few EVER get out with a degree. About 85% of people will enroll in college, but fewer than 26% will EVER graduate with a bachelor's degree. Look it up, and remember that. Making it through is a HUGE deal. Don't let people bring you down.

[taylor]

All I say is that I'm going to Excelsior in NY which is a state school on the same level as any state school. Being military it's hard to find someone that actually sit in class.

Actually Excelsior is not a state school. COSC and TESC are.

[taylor]

OP, I was in similar shoes as you. Shortly after I graduated from TESC, I got an inside sales position at a large Asian company and one of my colleagues was a Cornell grad. He boasted about his alma mater all the time while I really didn't talk about TESC at all. I pretty much just told him I got a degree and mainly talked about the last B&M I attended for 2 years, so he probably assumed I graduated from there. Now if I had thought he and I were going to be close I probably would've been more transparent about my degree but I knew we wouldn't be grabbing a beer anytime soon. Then I moved onto a Fortune 100 company and went through the same deal where most of my colleagues graduated from well known schools. I did fess up that I graduated from TESC to one of my colleagues there, a UCSD alum, because we did happy hour together from time to time:ack:.

[Stitching Belle]

only to find out that both of them did go to college - hence where their own stories came from - but dropped out short of finishing

I was one of those, before finding out about the Big 3!

[rvm]

You don't need to be a defense attorney. The only person you have to validate COSC to is yourself. As you know, it is a RA school within the Connecticut State university system just like UNC Chapel Hill is a RA school within the North Carolina university system. All schools cannot be in the top 100 schools in the USA and all grads cannot come from Ivy League or well-known colleges.

I agree with everyone who said to be quiet. Every time you open your mouth, you become a target for everyone who wants to prove their alma mater is the better school or belittle you for not finishing your degree right out of high school. When you want to talk about what you're doing, come here.

When I do talk about it (which is very rare), I tell people I'm taking the courses for grad school which I didn't take the first time around. They rarely every ever ask where I'm going or which courses I'm taking.

Last but not least, your friends in teaching positions are most likely learning that the trend is toward online learning, even at B&M schools. They most likely feel very threatened by that, either b/c they don't understand the benefits, feel they will lose control or lose their jobs all together. Almost every RA college or university offering 4-year degrees (in the USA) accepts some CLEP, DSST and/or offers some of their classes online. Just b/c the old profs can't acclimate to the winds of change doesn't give it any less credence.

[SDO]

I really like some of the explanations in this thread http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...-them.html, especially dcan's post (#4) and posts #15 and 3 by Lyanne and mrs. b.

[mobiusbox]

You don't need to be a defense attorney.

Agree. I think part of it is guilt and shame from having "screwed up" years before. I also sometimes feel like maybe I don't deserve to be on the same team as some of my coworkers that have advanced degrees. It's a self confidence issue that I have developed in the past five years or so, and I can't seem to shake it. So getting the degree is also going to help with that problem as well.

I rarely talk about it too, but I feel like that needs to change. Mainly because I think that most of my friends and coworkers think I have nothing going on in my life, when actually I devote a huge chunk of my time to finishing school. To be honest, I am very excited to be going to a strictly online school and it's making an impact on what I want to do with my life afterwards (want to switch from UI/UX software design to instructional design for online learners). I don't think I could even go back to brick and mortar classes after being able to sit in my jammies cranking out my quizzes/assignments. It's convenient and eliminates a lot of excuses that I had for going back previously.

As for CLEP / DSST, I've tried to explain it from the point of these credits being popular for folks in the military to take. Most of my friends seem to be more accepting when I explain it that way.