sanantone Wrote:I'll tell my story to give an example of what can happen. When people go to get a graduate degree, they usually don't want just any degree. I was looking for a program in international relations, political science (internationally focused), area studies, security studies, government (depending on curriculum), or history (depending on the curriculum). I looked at hundreds of programs. Since my overall GPA was low, and I barely had a 3.0 on my last 60 credits, my options were extremely limited. I was not going to pay more than $400 per credit hour, and I did not want to take the GRE (my advice is to just take the GRE, it's not that bad). In the end, I was left with two programs: Angelo State University and the American Public University System. I chose Angelo State because it's not a for-profit. Not only did I not want a Master of Liberal Arts with a concentration from Harvard Extension, but I couldn't afford it. Their graduate courses are $800 per credit hour, and there's an on-campus requirement. I couldn't quit my job and have enough money to move from Texas to Massachusetts where the cost of living is sky high.

Anyway, I managed to bump up my GPA on the last 60 credit hours by taking community college courses. In about a calendar year, if I recall correctly, I finished 48 credits for less than $3,000. The Pell Grant completely covered the cost.

sanantone Wrote:Not $800 per credit hour, but $2400 per 4-credit course. It's still expensive for me at $24,000 for the degree. My PhD will cost less.

Leherself Wrote:... The downside of course is that at least some of your courses have to be taken in person if you want to earn the actual MA. ...

Leherself Wrote:Gotta pay a premium to get that Ivy League paper. That said, apparently the "average" cost for a Masters in the U.S. is between $30k and $120k, so by that light Harvard Extension is still fairly reasonable. $600 per credit ($2400 per course 4-credit course) is less than what TESU or Excelsior charge for graduate courses, and certainly many people would consider it a better buy. The downside of course is that at least some of your courses have to be taken in person if you want to earn the actual MA.

Honestly, I'm deeply interested in their Anthropology/Archaeology focus, but since I plan to be a teacher I'll have the combined benefits of partial tuition reimbursement (because of continuing education requirements) as well as having summers off where I should be able to earn my in-person credits if I decide to go that route. The local school's graduate tuition is about $500 a credit, so it's not a significant factor either way.

On the other hand, there's absolutely nothing wrong with shopping around for less expensive programs. Many of my current coworkers have had significant success with AMU/APU degrees, for instance. Even better is if you can find a partially or fully-funded graduate program - the downside of online education is that scholarships and graduate assistantships tend to be much rarer than they are in brick and mortar degrees. The upside of online education is that you usually have a better chance of being able to continue working full time.

In reference to the op's original questions - I highly recommend playing around with this calculator --> Calculate Your GPA Ultimately, do whatever you feel is necessary to get to your goals, but keep in mind that often one Masters degree is very much like any other Masters degree as far as employers are concerned. Consider the costs (in effort and time as well as money) and benefits of whatever plans you're considering. It's not really saving anything if you spend a whole lot of extra time and effort on your undergrad in order to "save" something on your graduate school program. It's also worth looking deeper into your prospective school's admissions process - many schools have low minimum standards but much higher stats for the students that are actually admitted (a program that I was once considering has a minimum admissions GPA of 3.0, but their average admitted student has a 3.8). I wouldn't recommend going to a lot of extra effort unless you're really sure it'll pay off later.

davewill Wrote:From what I read on their site, you can satisfy the on campus requirement with online classes that include in an intensive weekend on campus, so someone with a more normal job could do it. Of course, the travel will increase what it costs to get the degree.