03-29-2016, 02:50 PM
Hello everyone,
Although I used this forum extensively for information when I made the decision to enroll at Thomas Edison State College (now Thomas Edison State University), I never registered for an account. I've read a few threads with people asking how difficult it is to gain admission into top tier graduate program with a Bachelor's degree from an online college. I just went through this process so I though I would share my good experience. First, I'll give everyone some background information regrading my situation.
When I first enrolled in college I attended East Tennessee State University due to its location (in my hometown) and inexpensive tuition. After completing two years of my degree in History (with a concentration in religious studies) and earning fantastic grades, I decided to transfer to a more well respected university that had a stand alone religious studies department with a broader range of courses. During my last semester at UW, my father was diagnosed with a life threating illness. In light of this, I decided to withdraw in order to spend time with my family and help support my mother. After giving up the lease on my apartment in Wyoming and depleting my savings in order to move back to Tennessee, I was faced with a difficult decision: would I wait until I could save the money to move back to Wyoming and finish my degree there, or look for an alternative course of action. After realizing that it may be quite a long time before I could move back to Wyoming, I looked into Thomas Edison State College and decided to enroll. I was initially going to re-enroll at East Tennessee State to finish my degreeâespecially considering I had already earned 60 credits thereâbut they required that I enroll for at least a year in order to be awarded a degree (they require your entire senior year to be completed at their institution). I was only required to take a few courses at TESC to fulfill the degree requirements and enrolled in January of this year. My degree will be awarded in June.
Now, on to the interesting bit. I have always been determined to attend graduate school and my dream is to eventually earn a PhD in religious studies. However, I am also very interested in academic librarianship and rare books, so earning a degree in library science has always been something I've considered. So, I performed months of research finding a library science program that parallels my interests and finally decided I would apply to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC is usually considered one of the 'Public Ivy" schools and is always ranked by every conceivable index as one of the best public universities in the world. In addition to this, their library science program has a #1 ranking. In other words, the program is extremely competitive and they are practically the only library science program that actually tuns away a significant number of applicants. I had great references, a 3.8 overall GPA, well written essays, and four letters of recommendation, but I was extremely nervous that my TESC degree would result in a big fat rejection letter. Well, a few days ago I received my acceptance letter in the mail! I will be moving to Champaign in a few months and will be enrolling at UIUC for the fall 2016 semester.
Even though I only earned 12 credits from TESC, my story proves that you can get into some of the most prestigious universities in the world with a degree from TESC (and probably any of the Big 3 online schools). In fact, there was absolutely no discernible difference between the courses I took at TESC and the online courses I too at ETSU or UW; the courses were well formulated and the mentors were excellent. For example, the Liberal Arts Capstone that I took resulted in a 63-page thesis that required more research and commitment than anything undertaken at my previous universities. Although I recognize the benefit of brick-and-mortar universities insofar as it allows students to establish valuable relationships with faculty, I would not hesitate to recommend TESC as a viable alternative.
Do you think the large number of credits I earned at brick-and-mortar universities played a large role in getting accepted?
Although I used this forum extensively for information when I made the decision to enroll at Thomas Edison State College (now Thomas Edison State University), I never registered for an account. I've read a few threads with people asking how difficult it is to gain admission into top tier graduate program with a Bachelor's degree from an online college. I just went through this process so I though I would share my good experience. First, I'll give everyone some background information regrading my situation.
When I first enrolled in college I attended East Tennessee State University due to its location (in my hometown) and inexpensive tuition. After completing two years of my degree in History (with a concentration in religious studies) and earning fantastic grades, I decided to transfer to a more well respected university that had a stand alone religious studies department with a broader range of courses. During my last semester at UW, my father was diagnosed with a life threating illness. In light of this, I decided to withdraw in order to spend time with my family and help support my mother. After giving up the lease on my apartment in Wyoming and depleting my savings in order to move back to Tennessee, I was faced with a difficult decision: would I wait until I could save the money to move back to Wyoming and finish my degree there, or look for an alternative course of action. After realizing that it may be quite a long time before I could move back to Wyoming, I looked into Thomas Edison State College and decided to enroll. I was initially going to re-enroll at East Tennessee State to finish my degreeâespecially considering I had already earned 60 credits thereâbut they required that I enroll for at least a year in order to be awarded a degree (they require your entire senior year to be completed at their institution). I was only required to take a few courses at TESC to fulfill the degree requirements and enrolled in January of this year. My degree will be awarded in June.
Now, on to the interesting bit. I have always been determined to attend graduate school and my dream is to eventually earn a PhD in religious studies. However, I am also very interested in academic librarianship and rare books, so earning a degree in library science has always been something I've considered. So, I performed months of research finding a library science program that parallels my interests and finally decided I would apply to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC is usually considered one of the 'Public Ivy" schools and is always ranked by every conceivable index as one of the best public universities in the world. In addition to this, their library science program has a #1 ranking. In other words, the program is extremely competitive and they are practically the only library science program that actually tuns away a significant number of applicants. I had great references, a 3.8 overall GPA, well written essays, and four letters of recommendation, but I was extremely nervous that my TESC degree would result in a big fat rejection letter. Well, a few days ago I received my acceptance letter in the mail! I will be moving to Champaign in a few months and will be enrolling at UIUC for the fall 2016 semester.
Even though I only earned 12 credits from TESC, my story proves that you can get into some of the most prestigious universities in the world with a degree from TESC (and probably any of the Big 3 online schools). In fact, there was absolutely no discernible difference between the courses I took at TESC and the online courses I too at ETSU or UW; the courses were well formulated and the mentors were excellent. For example, the Liberal Arts Capstone that I took resulted in a 63-page thesis that required more research and commitment than anything undertaken at my previous universities. Although I recognize the benefit of brick-and-mortar universities insofar as it allows students to establish valuable relationships with faculty, I would not hesitate to recommend TESC as a viable alternative.
Do you think the large number of credits I earned at brick-and-mortar universities played a large role in getting accepted?
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