Earning Multiple Degrees

[natshar]

A year ago I asked all three.

TESU said NO.

COSC said they would consider it at the BS level, but would not give me a direct answer.

Excelsior College said yes but must be in a different area.  No BS in Business again, etc.

After being genuinely curious and searching through this forum from other threads and the schools themselves. This is what I found. Helpful information for anyone planning on multiple degrees, take note.

TESU: A definite no. One can earn four undergrad degrees total: consisting of two associates and two bachelors. If one has already earned two degrees from a different institution they will not grand a third at that level. A double major must be in the same degree type, ex a BA in History and Pysch, but I can't do a BA in History and Business since Business is BSBA. A double major from TESU counts the same as two Bachelors degrees. So after earning a double major bachelors you can't earn another bachelors. TESU doesn't allow you to earn two bachelors degrees at the exact same time. Finish one degree first, then go ahead and earn 24 different credits (12 for an associates) to get a second. If you earned the credits for both at the exact same time, it might not count as 24 different credits for the second. Kind of frustrating.

In my own personal example, I have two associates degrees so I am not eligible for another associates. However, I have zero Bachelors degrees so I am eligible to earn up to two if I so choose.

https://www.tesu.edu/academics/catalog/award-of-degrees

COSC: Upon reading this forum and hearing multiple stories, it appears they will not give a direct answer to anyone. They will award a second degree, providing it is in a different area than the first. My guess is a third Bachelors degree will probably be allowed if it is in a completly unrelated area. This will probably take lots of hoops to go through in order to get it approved. In a totally made up example, say someone had an engineering degree and a finance degree. If they wanted to attend Charter Oak to earn a degree in Early Childhood Education, it probably could get it approved. But such a case like that would be rare. Especially considering Charter Oak doesn't offer too many majors, most people with two degrees would probably have some overlap. Still it is interesting reading the threads about Charter Oak's mysteriousness towards a third degree. I wonder what they are hiding...

https://www.charteroak.edu/prospective/a...degree.php

Excelsior: A third degree can awarded but it requires permission and can't overlap the two previous areas or types of degrees. Kind of like the example above for Charter Oak. It must be new area of study completely different. Again, this makes it difficult because Excelsior doesn't have tons of majors. Maybe nursing degree would something one would pursue a third degree for? But after looking though the forums, I've found although a third degree is possible, it requires lots of permission and verification. I'm missing the link but I believe a second degree must have 30 credits not used for the first for a Bachelor, so I'm guessing this would be the same for the third also.

In short:
Unless you are making a complete 360 career change, earning a third bachelors or associates degree seems mostly hard to do, pointless and useless. 

Thomas Edison understands the fact that people "hack" their way to a degree and doesn't want people to cheat the system. Meanwhile, Excelsior understands adults change careers and aren't necessarily trying to hack the system. And Charter Oak? Charter Oak is hiding something.