Met with some banking HR people on campus today.

[KittenMittens]

I'll bet once you get deeper into the HR process stuff like RA, AACSB, etc. matter more. It might get you past the first hurdle though. A lot of that also depends on how big the company is that your trying to work for. I'm sure a small mom and pop operation would care less. That is all based on nothing, by the way. I have no experience with that or inside information. I do really hope it doesn't work that way, for what it's worth.

It is a really interesting experience, though. I'm glad you took the opportunity to ask and to share it with us.

@KittenMittens - Just out of curiosity, how would you view a candidate with a Penn Foster degree or certificate. Many of their certificates are RA and they have been in business a lot longer than their competitors. How would any of you view them?

ETA: I asked about Penn Foster because so many people on this board advocate using their courses. I'm even re-thinking my opinions on taking a few or getting a certificate, maybe. The ability to pay a small monthly fee is really appealing. For 125 years they've been doing what they do, and many people in years past would not have thought twice about one of their credentials. Should they be treated differently than other for-profits, or are they just to be accepted as collateral damage in this bad media frenzy?

I think the RA vs. NA debate comes into play because some jobs care, others don't. If you get an NA degree, you limit your choices to only those that don't care. With RA, at least, you have a bigger pool to choose from. In the business/banking world, I think there are several other factors that come into play.

Penn Foster is a joke too. Open book finals, ability to take exams/quizzes twice, courses that take a few hours, using openly searchable test banks, no proctors for finals, etc; and it's not like they don't know - they just don't care. Those standards are so abysmally low I think very lowly of Penn Foster as well as I'm sure many do. The only reason why I and others are ok with using their courses however is because once it's on the RA college transcript, graduate schools/employers/etc. couldn't really care any less or don't know/bother. Why? Because all they care about is if the bachelor's transcript is "regionally accredited."

I admit that there are some online college courses through RA colleges that can also be a complete joke, but on a whole, RA colleges are on a whole different calibre than NA ones which really are an embarrassment to higher ed academically at least. Sure, if a student wants a piece of paper to feel better about themselves that's fine I guess, but at least one has to wonder why these schools weren't able to become regionally accredited in the first place and it's because their standards are just too low.

Though there are some RA schools that can be easy to complete a degree, there is still a certain level of academic rigor to it all - including TESC, COSC, and Excelsior. Besides, you can get an RA degree for far less than an NA one, and I believe you can't even get federal aid for NA schools which are also typically for profit.

So will an employer care where you went to school? Maybe, maybe not. State/feds/military absolutely care if it's RA no matter what. But what if it's University of Phoenix which is RA like others have said? It has a bad reputation that it can hold you back and as strange as it sounds, it could be argued that it looks better to have no UofPhoenix degree on a resume rather than one at all.

ETA: I asked about Penn Foster because so many people on this board advocate using their courses. I'm even re-thinking my opinions on taking a few or getting a certificate, maybe. The ability to pay a small monthly fee is really appealing. For 125 years they've been doing what they do, and many people in years past would not have thought twice about one of their credentials. Should they be treated differently than other for-profits, or are they just to be accepted as collateral damage in this bad media frenzy?

I think the RA vs. NA debate comes into play because some jobs care, others don't. If you get an NA degree, you limit your choices to only those that don't care. With RA, at least, you have a bigger pool to choose from. In the business/banking world, I think there are several other factors that come into play.

Eh, I get that some or a lot of employers wouldn't know or check about the RA vs NA distinction, but with so many candidates from RA schools, why settle for less especially when an RA degree can be had for cheaper, will literally open more doors in government and graduate school? In the end you get what you put into something I guess.

Ironically, even the people who work at Penn Foster, as I am sure at most/all NA schools went to RA schools. See the CEO of Penn Foster for instance: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fbritt

As to getting certificates from Penn Foster that are RA? I don't really know. I mean I guess it's better than nothing, but I haven't been impressed with the academic quality or lack thereof of Penn Foster courses. I don't know how they could be 3 credits a course. But anyways, if it were me, I'd pocket the money and spend them on certificates from established reputable programs.

Also, I'm only speaking about the academic side, I have no idea what the technical/vocational aspects are like, so I can't really speak much for those, except probably with a hunch that they're not too great either.