Fast Masters Degree?

[dcan]

I was under the distinct impression that RA beat NA regardless of what level of school you are attending. But recently I've seen things written to the effect that RA/NA is not the only split at the grad level and above, and that it is not as relevant. For MBA the issue becomes AACSP vs ACBSP and then whether you are "Top 5" or "Top 10" or whatever ranking out of all business schools in the country. That just means "I graduated from blah blah prestigious school and blah blah" which is impressive to other people who went to the same kinds of schools, and since they are the ones doing the hiring it becomes an issue for executive level work I guess.

For other degrees I'm not sure how much RA/NA becomes an issue, or even if it is very relevant at all, other than for whether or not an RA school would accept you as a PhD candidate with an NA master's -- would they even recognize it as a "legitimate" degree prepping you for high-level research? No idea.

Clarification: RA is THE way to go for undergrad, period. You can transfer RA to NA, but not the other way, so why screw around with NA at all for your undergrad degree? But for grad and beyond I think it may be a bit less straightforward.