Big Brand Name Schools

[Merlin]

I am now looking at Doctoral programs in the US (my native country), and they have never seen someone with an MA and no BA. (common in the UK). In the UK I could move directly to a PhD. But now that I'm back in the US, and in Covid times, I have to go back and do a BA.

To play devil's advocate for a moment here... since you already have a UK master's and you say that it isn't a problem for a doctoral degree in the UK, then why not just look for a distance-learning doctoral degree from an international university in the UK or elsewhere? There are plenty of highly ranked universities in the UK and elsewhere that offer distance learning degrees at the doctoral level.

I earned my degrees in the US and I'm looking at doctoral programs right now. My current top choice is a Ph.D. program in the UK. A lot of schools are offering distance-learning options now with Covid. Not to mention, UK schools tend to be much less expensive than US schools at the same quality level.

If that isn't something you're interested in, you can always just look at getting a quick and dirty bachelor's degree from any school just to say you have a bachelor's degree to meet entrance requirements. It doesn't have to be a big name school. If you're looking at doctoral programs most admission boards will likely be looking at your master's degree as your primary academic credential anyway, assuming it is in the same subject area as you're seeking a doctoral degree in. Not to mention, graduate admissions boards really just want to see a strong overall application package and most people suck at that. Your CV, statement of purpose, and letters of recommendation are often weighted much higher than your school, GPA, or GRE/GMAT scores. If you can show your passion and demonstrate that you have what it takes to graduate and publish, they are likely to consider you a strong candidate regardless of what school your bachelor's degree came from.

That said, if you really want to attend a highly-ranked traditional B&M school for undergrad, and you have the funds and a few years to do so, then you're likely to not find a lot of options here to help you since most big-name colleges aren't going to accept a lot of alternative credits. Most will accept a few CLEP exams but that's it. CUNY accepts like 30-40 credits from alt. credit providers, but that is on the high side.