I want to go to graduate school!

[ss20ts]

I haven't finished my bachelors yet. I'm still deciding of which of the big 3  to go to. 

I want to go to grad school after I finish up. I'm unsure what program I want to attend. 

Anyway, which of the big 3 would give me a better chance at getting into a masters program?

Something for you to consider. You may not want to go to one of the Big 3 if you want to go to grad school. I say this because people take courses from a variety sources such as Sophia and Study.com which are ACE credit not RA credit and you will not receive a letter grade. Grad schools always have a minimum GPA requirement for acceptance and typically a minimum number of credits that are included in the GPA which is quite often your last 60 credits so you need a letter grade for those credits for grad school. Two schools you may wish to look at since you will need RA credit is WGU and UMPI. Both are competency based programs so you won't be on a semester schedule. You'd move at your own pace like you do on Sophia and Study.com.

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My only take is that maybe one name might sound more appealing than another. Personally, I like Thomas Edison over the others. Excelsior sounds like an old-fashioned medicine, and Charter Oak sounds like a regional bank. That means nothing about the quality of those schools, but if I had to nitpick that would be it, lol.

As an aside, I notice allvia's status light says "Away". I didn't know that status was available. I thought only "Online" or "Offline" were available. Interesting.

Excelsior is part of the New York State motto which means "ever upward" and it's included on the state seal.

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Everything you said makes perfect sense. I will just focus on the bachelors degree. So far, anything that interests me requires “a bachelors degree” and I have 125 RA credits as well, so that is in my favor.

Keep in mind that most grad schools will calculate your GPA from the last 60 RA credits. So the 125 credits from over time won't necessarily count. It's the most recent credits that count. It's kind of a weird thing to think about. Do you have any idea what kind of degree you're looking to complete?

So I can’t get a bachelors at COSC and then get an MBA at WGU?

I didn't say that.

[eLearner]

Excelsior is part of the New York State motto which means "ever upward" and it's included on the state seal.

Yes, I know. I'm from New York. I actually enrolled at Excelsior briefly many years ago for a credit transcript arrangement which didn't work the way I had planned (no one's fault, well, maybe mine). But even most people in New York probably wouldn't be able to tell you the state motto without looking it up. It's just not part of our every day speech to go around saying "Excelsior!", lol. But my post was really lighthearted, it's not a knock at all on the quality of the school.

Agree with this. The name should not be the most deciding factor.

Of course not, but names do matter. For every person like the people who visit and chat on boards like these, there are thousands more people in hiring positions who don't, have never heard of most of the schools we talk about, and one with a name that doesn't roll off the tongue and doesn't sound conventional can raise a red flag.

[ss20ts]

Excelsior is part of the New York State motto which means "ever upward" and it's included on the state seal.

Yes, I know. I'm from New York. I actually enrolled at Excelsior briefly many years ago for a credit transcript arrangement which didn't work the way I had planned (no one's fault, well, maybe mine). But even most people in New York probably wouldn't be able to tell you the state motto without looking it up. It's just not part of our every day speech to go around saying "Excelsior!", lol. But my post was really lighthearted, it's not a knock at all on the quality of the school.

Excelsior is on our new license plates. We see it all the time. It makes me think of some old timey effervescent beverage.

[eLearner]

Excelsior is part of the New York State motto which means "ever upward" and it's included on the state seal.

Yes, I know. I'm from New York. I actually enrolled at Excelsior briefly many years ago for a credit transcript arrangement which didn't work the way I had planned (no one's fault, well, maybe mine). But even most people in New York probably wouldn't be able to tell you the state motto without looking it up. It's just not part of our every day speech to go around saying "Excelsior!", lol. But my post was really lighthearted, it's not a knock at all on the quality of the school.

Excelsior is on our new license plates. We see it all the time. It makes me think of some old timey effervescent beverage.

I honestly hadn't noticed that. I don't think I've ever given any attention to license plate text as I drive. Most cars I see where I live still have the yellow plates though, I still have mine. Hmmmm, I guess I notice the color but not the text.

I agree, Excelsior does sound oddly refreshing, lol.

[rachel83az]

Funnily enough, Excelsior doesn't make me think of an old-timey health drink. As a fan of antiques, it makes me think of something else entirely. 

That said, I don't think either Excelsior or Charter Oak are bad names, personally. If either of them had an affordable CS degree, I would've chosen them instead of TESU.

[eLearner]

Funnily enough, Excelsior doesn't make me think of an old-timey health drink. As a fan of antiques, it makes me think of something else entirely.

That is something. Now I'm curious to know why they call that excelsior.

EDIT: According to the Grammarist, it was a "band-aid" kind of situation. Somebody made a brand name (excelsior) of the material, it popularized and became synonymous with the material itself.

https://grammarist.com/interesting-words...wood-wool/

[ss20ts]

Better than Regents College which is what it used to be. Why Regents? We have the Board of Regents in NY which regulates the public schools and colleges....and the annoying as hell Regents Exams which are meaningless outside of NYS.

[dfrecore]

I haven't finished my bachelors yet. I'm still deciding of which of the big 3  to go to. 

I want to go to grad school after I finish up. I'm unsure what program I want to attend. 

Anyway, which of the big 3 would give me a better chance at getting into a masters program?

Something for you to consider. You may not want to go to one of the Big 3 if you want to go to grad school. I say this because people take courses from a variety sources such as Sophia and Study.com which are ACE credit not RA credit and you will not receive a letter grade. Grad schools always have a minimum GPA requirement for acceptance and typically a minimum number of credits that are included in the GPA which is quite often your last 60 credits so you need a letter grade for those credits for grad school. Two schools you may wish to look at since you will need RA credit is WGU and UMPI. Both are competency based programs so you won't be on a semester schedule. You'd move at your own pace like you do on Sophia and Study.com.

---

My only take is that maybe one name might sound more appealing than another. Personally, I like Thomas Edison over the others. Excelsior sounds like an old-fashioned medicine, and Charter Oak sounds like a regional bank. That means nothing about the quality of those schools, but if I had to nitpick that would be it, lol.

As an aside, I notice allvia's status light says "Away". I didn't know that status was available. I thought only "Online" or "Offline" were available. Interesting.

Excelsior is part of the New York State motto which means "ever upward" and it's included on the state seal.

---

Everything you said makes perfect sense. I will just focus on the bachelors degree. So far, anything that interests me requires “a bachelors degree” and I have 125 RA credits as well, so that is in my favor.

Keep in mind that most grad schools will calculate your GPA from the last 60 RA credits. So the 125 credits from over time won't necessarily count. It's the most recent credits that count. It's kind of a weird thing to think about. Do you have any idea what kind of degree you're looking to complete?

SOME grad schools will calculate your GPA from the last 60cr.  Some will use last 30.  Some will use a comprehensive GPA of ALL graded credits. Some will more heavily weight courses in your major.  It really just depends.  Very rarely will "all" or "most" schools do anything.

If you want to go to WGU, then I would just go ahead and get your degree at one of the Big 3.  BTW - which master's degree will you be wanting through WGU?

[eLearner]

Better than Regents College which is what it used to be. Why Regents? We have the Board of Regents in NY which regulates the public schools and colleges....and the annoying as hell Regents Exams which are meaningless outside of NYS.

I forgot it used to be called that. I actually liked that name better, but it wasn't great either.

You want some awful names, try Bottega or Goucher (pronounced GOW-chur). Yikes.

[Thorne]

Better than Regents College which is what it used to be. Why Regents? We have the Board of Regents in NY which regulates the public schools and colleges....and the annoying as hell Regents Exams which are meaningless outside of NYS.

I forgot it used to be called that. I actually liked that name better, but it wasn't great either.

You want some awful names, try Bottega or Goucher (pronounced GOW-chur). Yikes.

How about the previously unfortunately-named University of Maryland University College?