Trouble Picking which Degree to Go For! - Any advice?

[ss20ts]

As someone pretty steeped in education/hiring, I wouldn't recommend a MAOL. It's more of a check-the-box sort of degree versus actually having practical value. Especially considering these degrees usually require a fair degree of networking to have much conventional use. How much do get in a yourpace situation? I don't know, but I am guessing not a ton.

If you do go to an MBA program, PLEASE make sure it is from a ranked school. There are a million online MBAs and the majority aren't worth their salt. An MBA is one of the few degrees where reputation, rankings and networking all matter greatly.

If its a check-the-box situation, ignore everything I have said.

An MBA can also be a checked box. Many of us have years of experience. An MBA from Harvard is not going to do much for many us. We'd be in debt up to our eyeballs. Networking can be done outside of a college program. Most of us are adults so we'd only attend a ranked program part time and not be on campus so our networking would be limited anyway. Plenty of people have MBAs from schools no one has heard of and they have great careers. There's no need to buy into the hype of ranked schools.

[cclocks8]

As someone pretty steeped in education/hiring, I wouldn't recommend a MAOL. It's more of a check-the-box sort of degree versus actually having practical value. Especially considering these degrees usually require a fair degree of networking to have much conventional use. How much do get in a yourpace situation? I don't know, but I am guessing not a ton.

If you do go to an MBA program, PLEASE make sure it is from a ranked school. There are a million online MBAs and the majority aren't worth their salt. An MBA is one of the few degrees where reputation, rankings and networking all matter greatly.

If its a check-the-box situation, ignore everything I have said.

It's kind of a check the box situation. In my job I work directly with Fortune 100 & 500 leadership, and am on various boards with a lot of people leaders. My connections are there, but a lot of the jobs in my field require bachelor's degrees and prefer master's. If something happened to my current job I'd have a ton of interest, but probably wouldn't meet corporate requirements.

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Stick with Sophia on the science lab. We have not seen the actual post about it from Facebook as it was removed. There has been ZERO discussion about this on Discord. I wouldn't stress. We don't know the backstory about that thread so keep on trucking until we hear otherwise.

Fingers crossed!

[Duneranger]

As someone pretty steeped in education/hiring, I wouldn't recommend a MAOL. It's more of a check-the-box sort of degree versus actually having practical value. Especially considering these degrees usually require a fair degree of networking to have much conventional use. How much do get in a yourpace situation? I don't know, but I am guessing not a ton.

If you do go to an MBA program, PLEASE make sure it is from a ranked school. There are a million online MBAs and the majority aren't worth their salt. An MBA is one of the few degrees where reputation, rankings and networking all matter greatly.

If its a check-the-box situation, ignore everything I have said.

An MBA can also be a checked box. Many of us have years of experience. An MBA from Harvard is not going to do much for many us. We'd be in debt up to our eyeballs. Networking can be done outside of a college program. Most of us are adults so we'd only attend a ranked program part time and not be on campus so our networking would be limited anyway. Plenty of people have MBAs from schools no one has heard of and they have great careers. There's no need to buy into the hype of ranked schools.

My comment was directed at both, obviously, if you've been in the field decades its moot. But for someone who is a fresh grad in their early or mid 20s (or a new career) and trying to have their career take off, I wouldn't recommend it.

No idea where this guy is at and I was just throwing it out there as I was a hiring manager.

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As someone pretty steeped in education/hiring, I wouldn't recommend a MAOL. It's more of a check-the-box sort of degree versus actually having practical value. Especially considering these degrees usually require a fair degree of networking to have much conventional use. How much do get in a yourpace situation? I don't know, but I am guessing not a ton.

If you do go to an MBA program, PLEASE make sure it is from a ranked school. There are a million online MBAs and the majority aren't worth their salt. An MBA is one of the few degrees where reputation, rankings and networking all matter greatly.

If its a check-the-box situation, ignore everything I have said.

It's kind of a check the box situation. In my job I work directly with Fortune 100 & 500 leadership, and am on various boards with a lot of people leaders. My connections are there, but a lot of the jobs in my field require bachelor's degrees and prefer master's. If something happened to my current job I'd have a ton of interest, but probably wouldn't meet corporate requirements.

---

Stick with Sophia on the science lab. We have not seen the actual post about it from Facebook as it was removed. There has been ZERO discussion about this on Discord. I wouldn't stress. We don't know the backstory about that thread so keep on trucking until we hear otherwise.

Fingers crossed!

Makes sense, good luck!

[allvia]

You can always take Sophia's Chemistry with the Lab ('D') to meet the lab and take Sophia Human Bio without ('C').  I have a theory that the Facebook issue posted was that the person took something other than the Sophia HUMAN Bio w/lab (like the new microbiology, or took a miss-matched combo course/lab) and that is where their issue was. What we know (knew - I still think 'know') was that the HUMAN biology with Lab met the requirements, but Sophia has added quite a few lab sciences recently. Either way, Sophia offers more than one way too meet the science requirements.

[MichaelDoesMarketing]

Bio + Bio Lab is still accepted. I reached out and asked her and she said there's no truth to them not accepting it. I just transfered it in.

[bjcheung77]

Bio + Bio Lab is still accepted. I reached out and asked her and she said there's no truth to them not accepting it. I just transfered it in.

Thanks for making this clear... it's still transferring as before...

[dfrecore]

As someone pretty steeped in education/hiring, I wouldn't recommend a MAOL. It's more of a check-the-box sort of degree versus actually having practical value. Especially considering these degrees usually require a fair degree of networking to have much conventional use. How much do get in a yourpace situation? I don't know, but I am guessing not a ton.

If you do go to an MBA program, PLEASE make sure it is from a ranked school. There are a million online MBAs and the majority aren't worth their salt. An MBA is one of the few degrees where reputation, rankings and networking all matter greatly.

If its a check-the-box situation, ignore everything I have said.

An MBA can also be a checked box. Many of us have years of experience. An MBA from Harvard is not going to do much for many us. We'd be in debt up to our eyeballs. Networking can be done outside of a college program. Most of us are adults so we'd only attend a ranked program part time and not be on campus so our networking would be limited anyway. Plenty of people have MBAs from schools no one has heard of and they have great careers. There's no need to buy into the hype of ranked schools.

My husband does not even have a bachelor's degree; but he does have a vast network of people in his field from 20+ years of experience.  It is just as easy to create a network from work as it is to create one at a school.  They both take plenty of work to create, and maintain.

Also, I NEVER recommend getting an expensive MBA from any school, let alone a ranked one.  That's just totally unnecessary. Going to a local state school would give you as many networking opportunities in your area as an Ivy, without you having to move out of state to pay a gazillion dollars to attend some far-away school.  And an online program is never going to give you the network that you could get from meeting people in person.  You could easily join a group where you met with people from your industry, and do just fine that way.

[MichaelDoesMarketing]

Hello!

I am planning on applying to UMPI this September for the upcoming October start, and would love some advice on which degree to choose and a quick check over on my plan!

Your Location: US

Your Age: 34

What kind of degree do you want?: Trying to pick between BLS in Management, BABA Management, & BA History. End goal is MAOL in Organizational Leadership

Any certifications or military experience? no military, have AAS from Pierpont

Budget: $3K for Bach, 8k for MAOL

Commitments: job, kids, family

Dedicated time to study: 3-4 hours weekdays, 12-16 hours weekends

Timeline: I'd like to finish the bach degree either in 1 or 2 terms, not sure on MAOL

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: 2k per year through job

Current Regional Accredited Credits: 30

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 3 Clep, 43 Sophia

Spreadsheet with current credits and plan


I still have to fulfill a few gen Ed requirements: Comp II,  Foreign Language, US Gov, & Human Bio+lab. I was planning on taking Comp II and maybe US Gov at UMPI, and doing Spanish 1 and Human Bio at Sophia over the next month. If I still have time before the September application deadline, I'll knock out US Gov at Sophia as well. (On average, I finish a sophia class in about 4 hours, longest took a week because of grading.)

Questions: 

I saw a thread that Human Bio+Lab was no longer being accepted from Sophia - has that been confirmed? If so, I guess I'll have to do it at UMPI...

Does my plan look pretty good?

The reason I'm having trouble picking between the 3 degrees 

I think BLS would probably be easiest/fastest, so that's at the top of the list. BA History, mostly just because I'm a history nerd and being able to engage with material will make it faster and more fun. BABA in Management because it "looks better" than a BLS. 

Since I'm planning to do the MAOL, I'm not sure how important the BABA vs BLS thing is. I don't really need a Bachelor's degree for my job, it's more of a personal achievement thing and future proofing. My career path is internal communications & marketing with a sprinkle of instructional design for corporate training, so the MAOL is the end goal.

Any advice on which path to take?



UMPI still accepts Human Bio + Human Bio Lab. The other post...that person misunderstood. I spoke with Jessica today and she said there are zero plans to not accept it. I just transferred it in from Sophia this week with zero issues. Definitely take it on Sophia. It's kind of glitchy, but not difficult in the least.

[Duneranger]

As someone pretty steeped in education/hiring, I wouldn't recommend a MAOL. It's more of a check-the-box sort of degree versus actually having practical value. Especially considering these degrees usually require a fair degree of networking to have much conventional use. How much do get in a yourpace situation? I don't know, but I am guessing not a ton.

If you do go to an MBA program, PLEASE make sure it is from a ranked school. There are a million online MBAs and the majority aren't worth their salt. An MBA is one of the few degrees where reputation, rankings and networking all matter greatly.

If its a check-the-box situation, ignore everything I have said.

An MBA can also be a checked box. Many of us have years of experience. An MBA from Harvard is not going to do much for many us. We'd be in debt up to our eyeballs. Networking can be done outside of a college program. Most of us are adults so we'd only attend a ranked program part time and not be on campus so our networking would be limited anyway. Plenty of people have MBAs from schools no one has heard of and they have great careers. There's no need to buy into the hype of ranked schools.

My husband does not even have a bachelor's degree; but he does have a vast network of people in his field from 20+ years of experience.  It is just as easy to create a network from work as it is to create one at a school.  They both take plenty of work to create, and maintain.

Also, I NEVER recommend getting an expensive MBA from any school, let alone a ranked one.  That's just totally unnecessary. Going to a local state school would give you as many networking opportunities in your area as an Ivy, without you having to move out of state to pay a gazillion dollars to attend some far-away school.  And an online program is never going to give you the network that you could get from meeting people in person.  You could easily join a group where you met with people from your industry, and do just fine that way.

Highly depends on how high up the food chain you want to be. Many state schools are ranked and name/prestige does matter for certain echelons/spheres of work. 

Some job fields just need a box checked, for those it doesn't matter (government is one example or if you have a ton of local experience as you stated).

Is it going to be a 100% thing every time? No but it is one of the few degrees (aside from law) where it does matter. As a counter, where you go to medical school does not really matter (Sans FMG or Caribbean).

[dfrecore]

If you do go to an MBA program, PLEASE make sure it is from a ranked school. There are a million online MBAs and the majority aren't worth their salt. An MBA is one of the few degrees where reputation, rankings and networking all matter greatly.

If its a check-the-box situation, ignore everything I have said.

An MBA can also be a checked box. Many of us have years of experience. An MBA from Harvard is not going to do much for many us. We'd be in debt up to our eyeballs. Networking can be done outside of a college program. Most of us are adults so we'd only attend a ranked program part time and not be on campus so our networking would be limited anyway. Plenty of people have MBAs from schools no one has heard of and they have great careers. There's no need to buy into the hype of ranked schools.

My husband does not even have a bachelor's degree; but he does have a vast network of people in his field from 20+ years of experience.  It is just as easy to create a network from work as it is to create one at a school.  They both take plenty of work to create, and maintain.

Also, I NEVER recommend getting an expensive MBA from any school, let alone a ranked one.  That's just totally unnecessary. Going to a local state school would give you as many networking opportunities in your area as an Ivy, without you having to move out of state to pay a gazillion dollars to attend some far-away school.  And an online program is never going to give you the network that you could get from meeting people in person.  You could easily join a group where you met with people from your industry, and do just fine that way.

Highly depends on how high up the food chain you want to be. Many state schools are ranked and name/prestige does matter for certain echelons/spheres of work. 

Some job fields just need a box checked, for those it doesn't matter (government is one example or if you have a ton of local experience as you stated).

Is it going to be a 100% thing every time? No but it is one of the few degrees (aside from law) where it does matter. As a counter, where you go to medical school does not really matter (Sans FMG or Caribbean).

I'm willing to bet that my advice of not worrying about school ranking is going to apply to 98% of people, and your advice to go o a ranked school will apply to 2%.