UMPI to brick and mortar college for Masters

[yuktadoctor]

Hello Guys,

My first session here at UMPI is going great and I am on track to graduate by this December. This has got me thinking if I should try graduate school at a traditional school. My degree is a BA in Accounting, so I'd like to go for a Masters in Accounting or in Finance.

I am not sure how grad school admissions committees will see my transcript with 45 credits completed in a semester. Also, I am not sure what I'd do about recommendations as I barely interact with professors. I guess my professional references might save me though! I was considering completing some CPA exams before applying to grad school and also acing the GMAT to show I could hand handle their coursework.

If any of you have made this kind of a jump, I'd love to hear your story. You guys have really motivated me to get my degree after being in and out of school for 8 years and I am very grateful to you.

[ss20ts]

I had one of my professors several times and earned really good grades in all of her classes. I had a few phone calls and Zoom meetings with her throughout my courses. I asked her for a letter of recommendation and she gave me one no problem. I was in grad school over the summer. No one cared how many credits I completed in a semester. They only checked to see that I had a completed bachelor's degree. I earned a 4.0 so if someone gave me a hard time I would have told them off. I worked my tail off to complete my UMPI degree.

[yuktadoctor]

I had one of my professors several times and earned really good grades in all of her classes. I had a few phone calls and Zoom meetings with her throughout my courses. I asked her for a letter of recommendation and she gave me one no problem. I was in grad school over the summer. No one cared how many credits I completed in a semester. They only checked to see that I had a completed bachelor's degree. I earned a 4.0 so if someone gave me a hard time I would have told them off. I worked my tail off to complete my UMPI degree.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. CBE is not well known in my country so it was disappointing to see some people in Grad school that I had talked to talk it down and also indirectly talk down my hard work. I guess I should try for grad schools in the US/Canada, but the cost is very prohibitive for me.

BTW, if my final grading rubric shows "exceeds" in all components, does that mean I will have a 4.0 in that class?

[bjcheung77]

Which country are you from? I thought you were from Canada. Canadian universities and their educational programs are very similar to US, it's the accreditation that's different. CBE programs aren't available yet either, but that may change in the future, just like other common wealth countries like Australia/New Zealand, they have royal charter in their province or state to grant degrees for public universities, for private ones, they go through the provincial/state regulatory bodies.

When you graduate from a CBE program from any US institution, the degree shouldn't indicate it was "CBE" or online, vs butt-in-seat. Unless of course your school is an exclusively online university, there are B&M schools with online degrees, there is a difference and that is the main difference. UMPI and many other CBE have "butt-in-seat" programs, you should be good at grad school. If you decide on a local grad school program, that may or may not be your cheap, easy, fast solution.

Don't worry about which degree/program/school you have graduated from, there are so many variables. Many come from diverse backgrounds and have gone from a small unknown college up to the big leagues, you just put your best foot forward and work hard, show them what you've got and apply to the programs you want to apply to. Make sure you hit all prerequisites...

[ashkir]

I had one of my professors several times and earned really good grades in all of her classes. I had a few phone calls and Zoom meetings with her throughout my courses. I asked her for a letter of recommendation and she gave me one no problem. I was in grad school over the summer. No one cared how many credits I completed in a semester. They only checked to see that I had a completed bachelor's degree. I earned a 4.0 so if someone gave me a hard time I would have told them off. I worked my tail off to complete my UMPI degree.

Same here. I've hadprofessors super willing to work with me.

[yuktadoctor]

Which country are you from? I thought you were from Canada.  Canadian universities and their educational programs are very similar to US, it's the accreditation that's different.  CBE programs aren't available yet either, but that may change in the future, just like other common wealth countries like Australia/New Zealand, they have royal charter in their province or state to grant degrees for public universities, for private ones, they go through the provincial/state regulatory bodies.

When you graduate from a CBE program from any US institution, the degree shouldn't indicate it was "CBE" or online, vs butt-in-seat.  Unless of course your school is an exclusively online university, there are B&M schools with online degrees, there is a difference and that is the main difference.  UMPI and many other CBE have "butt-in-seat" programs, you should be good at grad school.  If you decide on a local grad school program, that may or may not be your cheap, easy, fast solution.

Don't worry about which degree/program/school you have graduated from, there are so many variables.  Many come from diverse backgrounds and have gone from a small unknown college up to the big leagues, you just put your best foot forward and work hard, show them what you've got and apply to the programs you want to apply to.  Make sure you hit all prerequisites...

Thank you that was really inspirational. I will continue to work hard and meet all requirements that they set out and I also realized that interaction with professors is not a one way thing, I should probably approach them first myself. All my professors have been really kind with their feedback so far.

I am a Canadian Permanent Resident.

[ss20ts]

I had one of my professors several times and earned really good grades in all of her classes. I had a few phone calls and Zoom meetings with her throughout my courses. I asked her for a letter of recommendation and she gave me one no problem. I was in grad school over the summer. No one cared how many credits I completed in a semester. They only checked to see that I had a completed bachelor's degree. I earned a 4.0 so if someone gave me a hard time I would have told them off. I worked my tail off to complete my UMPI degree.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. CBE is not well known in my country so it was disappointing to see some people in Grad school that I had talked to talk it down and also indirectly talk down my hard work. I guess I should try for grad schools in the US/Canada, but the cost is very prohibitive for me.

BTW, if my final grading rubric shows "exceeds" in all components, does that mean I will have a 4.0 in that class?

You won't know your grades until they are posted after the term ends. 

I don't typically explain CBE to people. I have a bachelor's degree from the University of Maine. That's all the vast majority of people care about. UMPI has a graduate degree. If you're in Canada that may limit your options, but UMPI is available to international students....they don't even consider Canadian students to be international.

[canuckian]

I would double check the program and school combo you’re interested in. In Canada, for MAcc programs forex, many schools require a GPA from your last 60 credits/2 years. If you don’t have that many graded courses, you may be risking your application.

ETA: I don’t know if you’ve actually looked at CPA requirements, but I can almost guarantee that you won’t be able to sit the CPA exams immediately post your UMPI degree. You’ll probably even need to take prep courses first, depending, before you can be admitted to PEP nevermind sit the exams.