Grad School Feedback

[cookderosa]

I wanted a second opinion of the two programs I have narrowed down for grad school.  


Plan A

MS in Human Environmental Sciences at The University of Alabama.  

http://bamabydistance.ua.edu/degrees/ms-...iculum.php


Pros:

$394 a credit and only ten courses needed to graduate
You create your own curriculum with the help of an advisor which gives it flexibility  
Possibly no research methods or capstone course
Can transfer in six credits
Financial planning courses

Cons:

Not sure if it is testing intensive or requires mainly written papers (I prefer papers)
Not sure what the degree can be used for

I am not sure if there is any utility in this degree if I choose to pursue a W2 career in the future, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Or

Plan B

Liberty University MA in Interdisciplinary Studies

https://www.liberty.edu/online/arts-and-...y-studies/

Pros

31 credits with 15 transferrable  
No capstone
Flexibility in two areas; I would choose Economics and Government
UCCS courses are transferable at $420 a course
Option to see course syllabus before choosing (testing/writing)

Cons

5 courses at about $1500 a course
A research methods course
Much harder to get an A (94%)


Thanks for your help with this matter,

Chris

since both are general education degrees, I have a few thoughts.  (1) if you don't know what a degree is for, it's not the right degree.  Grad school is SO. MUCH. WORK. for it to be resume bling.  In my opinion, of course.  
(2) if you want to go to grad school but it doesn't have to help your career, go for price.  
(3) I have a STRONG preference for degrees that allow you to earn 18 credits with the same prefix.  Liberty stops you short.  "18 credits" is the "magic number" for college-level teaching, which is an excellent side hustle - gave our family extra spending money for 18 years. I left that for a while, pretty sure I'd moved on, but last year I got back in.  Anyway, even if you think it's not for you, know you're excluding yourself without 18 of the same credits in something.

Jennifer,

Excellent feedback, I was hoping someone would touch on the subject of teaching.  Since Alabama only uses the CSM designation, it would limit my options toward teaching consumer science - which I think is very limited.  With Liberty, I suppose I could do an extra six credits in each discipline and teach two subjects.

At this point, I have no intentions of teaching down the road, but the "never" attitude has bitten me in the butt one too many times.  

Thanks for the great feedback!

Instead of paying for extra courses, it looks like your electives at Liberty could match your area of study (12+6=18) which could work. https://www.liberty.edu/media/1270/INDS-MA-D.pdf

When I look at their course options, not every area offers 6 classes- looks like government does, I don't see economics. https://www.liberty.edu/media/1238/mainds/GradAOS.pdf

Since you open to suggestions, another popular liberal arts program is through Western New Mexico University. They also allow you to split 2ea 18 unit areas of study or as many as 3 different ones. https://interdisciplinary.wnmu.edu/graduate/masters/