Is it possible to 'hide' a degree?

[sarg123]

I agree with SolarKat. There are so many variables to this that it is impossible to make a blanket statement of any sort about any degrees.

Generally speaking, the more prestigious the university, the better your degree. Obviously a degree from an Ivy League is worth a lot more than a degree from a "regular" college. I think the assumption on this forum, however, is that the Ivy League colleges are not on the table, so we'll take them out of the equation for now. A lot depends on your major, so that's part of the equation as well. There are so many degrees from B&M universities that are pretty much useless for finding a job - psychology, sociology, and history are three concentrations that come off the top of my head. So, in those fields, it really doesn't matter where you got your bachelor's. In general, if you're planning on continuing to graduate school, it doesn't either matter too much where your bachelor's is from - so that's another plus for the big three.

It's really best to do your research before you make a decision about this - as sometimes it matters, and sometimes it doesn't.

Personally, I'm hoping that in my case it won't matter too much. I'm hoping to get my degree in Business/Accounting through TESU - I am doing this because, at my age, and with kids/job and other responsibilities, this is the only option that is really available for me. Also, since I am not looking for the traditional anyway, (I'm planning to start working only part-time) it may not matter too much where I got my degree. But I think that there is definitely a bias against online degrees in general, and in my area in particular, so it may work against me once I start looking for a job. A lot will depend on the attitude of the person doing the hiring, I guess.

As for cost... yes, a degree from the big three is really inexpensive, but depending on many factors, a degree through a regular college does not necessarily cost that much either. There are many low cost options such as community colleges, there is FAFSA, and in my state there is TAG, in NY I think it's called TAP, in NJ they have the NJ Stars program, and many colleges give generous scholarships.

Someone mentioned this earlier, but it's worth repeating - if you get into Phi Theta Kappa from community college, you can get very generous transfer scholarships. You don't have to be a genius to get this - community colleges are generally geared toward the average person, so if you are reasonably intelligent, take school seriously and do homework, and study for tests, I think it's not that hard to get. I just applied to an online four year college - I found that I would be able to get a bachelor's degree practically for free! It was really tempting, but I decided I'd rather finish faster and pay a bit more money. I think it will end up costing me about $3500 to finish up with TESU - I'm trying to tell myself that that's really not so much for a degree, but it's $3500 more than I would have to pay if I went to the online college!

Also, as SolarKat mentioned, you are just not going to get the same skill set from the "testing out" method. In the "relatively easy" community college that I just went to, a paper was required for EVERY class, including chemistry. You also had to take some kind of math - and my classes were much harder than ALEKS (you were also actually graded, as opposed to just needing a 70%). It seems like it is possible to graduate from any of the "big three" without EVER having to write a paper. Look, I know that you really don't need that skill for real life (for most people), but if someone like that goes to a regular graduate school, they will be in over their head.

There are SO many scenarios where a big three college degree is a great option - but to say that it's exactly the same as a B&M degree... I would say that really, really depends on what you need the degree for.