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This is Terry's account of how he got started at Penn Foster, as well as his ongoing studies towards his online Marketing degree. Read about the various pitfalls of balancing homework with family, as well as his two jobs, personal life, and volunteer work.
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Every once in awhile, I am forced to defend my choice of
degree program at Penn Foster
College. This email that I received was actually a
response to my defense of nationally accredited schools such as Penn
Foster College
and Ashworth University:
“I know you Ashworth (or Penn Foster) students
are slow but, come on. nonetheless, I will gladly shred apart your statements.
First of all, Ashworth (and Penn Foster) are accredited by the DETC which
means.....absolutely nothing. You or I could submit an application for
accreditation to the DETC and
probably get it. As long as you pay the fee, and say your a college, you
can get the DETC seal of
approval. Secondly, If you are allowed to take your exams on-line with no
supervision, then your paying a fake college for a worthless
"degree". And spare me the whole "there is supposed to be a
proctor" sentiment. Ashworth can't enforce that rule and it is
embarrassingly easy to exploit the lameness of that rule. Any college that
is legit is going to require their student who take on-line classes to complete
their exams on campus with a teacher. If the college does
not require that-or can't require it because there ISN'T an actual
campus-the college is not legitimate, and no matter how much you rant and rave,
kick and scream, and pretend it isn't so, you can't change that fact.”
I will leave out the name
of the sender of the email to protect the ill-informed. Penn Foster College, and Ashworth University, are both nationally accredited by an accrediting body recognized by
the U.S. Department of Education and CHEA.
That means that both of these schools are legitimately accredited. Do they have the same accreditation, or carry
the same weight as a school like Harvard or MIT? No. However,
these schools serve a purpose.
Some students enroll in
programs at nationally accredited schools so they can beef up their own work
skills, which will later benefit them on the job. Others enroll at these schools and intend to
transfer their credits to another school so they can continue their
education. The schools they transfer to
may be either nationally or regionally accredited. Is there a guarantee that a regionally
accredited school will accept transfer credit from Penn Foster College or Ashworth University? No. Of course, there is no guarantee they will
accept all, or any, of a student's credits from another regionally accredited school,
either.
As for it being “easy” to
gain accreditation with the DETC, I
doubt that I could start my own university out of my home (TCord College) and obtain accreditation from the DETC. The DETC has site inspections. They are an accrediting agency which has been
around for several decades. Not all
schools which apply for DETC accreditation gain it. If it were so easy to gain DETC accreditation, there would be many, many more
schools accredited by the DETC.
There are other colleges,
including regionally accredited colleges, which use online and proctored
exams. In fact, some regionally
accredited schools don’t use exams at all, but instead use writing assignments
as a means of assessment. Schools such
as the “Big Three”…Excelsior, Thomas Edison State College and Charter Oak State
College, do not have college campuses in the traditional sense. Does that mean they are not “legitimate”?
I think this person’s
problem isn’t necessarily with nationally accredited schools like Penn Foster College, or Ashworth College, but with distance learning in general. Education has come a long way over the past
two or three decades, and distance learning is gaining wider acceptance every
day. Plenty of schools have embraced
distance learning (yes, this includes Harvard).
Employers recognize that workers who have distance learning degrees are
valuable assets. To believe otherwise
simply because a college doesn’t conform to your own ideas about what makes a
school a “real” school is simply foolish.
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I have to admit, I'm pretty excited. I'm finally on the last chapter of my Financial Accounting text book! After I finish this chapter I will be ready to take my final online exam for this course. The end of the Financial Accounting course couldn't come soon enough for me. This was probably my least favorite course of all of the courses I have taken through Penn Foster College so far. Not only was it the most difficult for me to get through, but it has dragged down my grade point average, and I just plain don't find accounting an interesting subject. I guess I'm not a number cruncher. The final chapter of Financial Accounting deals with preparing a statement of cash flows, and it every bit as exciting as it sounds. Once again, the final online exam will be 25 questions, and it deals quite a bit with compiling the statement of cash flows. After this course, I get a bit of a break with the Economics course, which is basically a Principles of Macroeconomics course. Although this course is much longer than the Financial Accounting course, I predict I will get through it much quicker. Then, it's back to another accounting course: Managerial Accounting. I have set a goal of being finished with the second semester by the end of September. I then plan to apply to Excelsior College and see just how close I am to finishing my BA. At that point, I will have a decision to make: complete the BA at Excelsior, or move on to Semester Three with Penn Foster College. I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it. Trying to actually complete the AS in Marketing through Penn Foster College would not be a bad thing. Despite the accounting course, I am still enjoying my studies with PFC. It will also give me some time to save up the cash to enroll in the graduate program I have my eye on: the MA in Communications, Media and Public Relations at the University of Leicester. I plan to take my next exam no later than Thursday. Hopefully I'll have a good grade to report!
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This post will piggyback somewhat with a recent and very insightful post by Cajun about the new DETC accredited schools. The DETC also recently gave final approval recently to new programs and courses offered by currently accredited schools. These programs will drastically expand the offerings of these nationally accredited schools, giving distance learning students even more choices. The new programs/courses given final approval include: Allied Business Schools, Inc
• Life Science A/B
• Texas Real Estate Commission Legal Update
• Texas Real Estate Commission Ethics
• Essentials in Health Information Management
• Small Business Management
• HTML
• Texas Financing Strategies
• Texas Fair Housing
American Graduate University
• Master of Supply Management
American Sentinel University
• Bachelor of Science in Web Design & Development
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Andrew Jackson University
• Associate of Science in Health Care Management
• Composing Your Personal History
• Associate of Science in Psychology
Ashworth University
• Introduction to Financial Statements
• Introduction to Psychology
• Online Business Management Program
• Four new MBA concentrations: Health Care Administration, Human Resource Management, Marketing, and
International Business
• Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice
Aspen University
• MBA in Finance
• RN-MSN Bridge Program
• Master of Science in Health Science
Australasian College of Health Sciences
• Associate of Applied Science in Complementary Alternative Medicine
• Master of Science in Complementary Alternative Medicine
California Coast University
• Associate of Science in Criminal Justice
• Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice College of Humanities and Science, Harrison Middleton University
• Bachelor of Imaginative Literature
• Bachelor of Natural Science
• Bachelor of Philosophy in Religion
• Bachelor of Social Science
• Bachelor of Science in Education
• Bachelor of Arts in Education
Sessions Online School of Art and Design
• Game Art Certificate
The Taft University System
• Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.)
Weston Distance Learning ~ McKinley College
• Associate of Applied Science in Human Resources
• Associate of Applied Science in Accounting
• Associate of Applied Science in Marketing Some of the standouts to me include the Bachelor's degree programs at Harrison Middleton University, and the new MBA concentrations being offered by Ashworth University. As the DETC continues to accredit new schools and the expanded program offerings of those schools, it is proving that it is much more than an accreditor of vocational degree programs. Many of these programs are so new they are not yet listed on the Web sites of the schools, but keep checking back often. I'm sure they will waste no time making these programs available to students.
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Honestly, I’m now sure how I’m going to pass this Financial
Accounting course I am currently taking through Penn
Foster College. PFC isn’t exactly MIT, so this course should
be a breeze, right? Wrong!
Last night, I sat down at 7:30
pm to take my third 25-question exam. I finished at 2
AM. This is not good, not
good at all. When I take the final exam,
I will have only an hour to complete it, so this does not bode well for my
chances. To top it off, I scored a 76 on
this exam. This has dragged my semester
average down to a 79, or a high “C” so far for the semester. Yuck.
I have two more chapters worth of reading and one more exam
to take in this course, and I can say the end of this course can’t come soon
enough for me. Unfortunately, the
Managerial Accounting course is coming up later this semester.
I have to honestly say I have no aspirations whatsoever of
becoming an accountant. I know this is a
required course, but this will have no application to my current or future job
duties at all. I guess that’s one of the
things that makes me resent taking accounting courses.
Also, I got a response to my loan application to help pay
for the tuition to attend a graduate program at the University
of Leicester. The answer was “You want a loan? (Insert evil laugh here). Are you SERIOUS?” Actually, I received a professionally
written form email telling me what I already knew: my credit stinks, and even with a co-signer,
I am out of luck. Foiled by medical bills
again.
I am still determined to come up with the funds to attend University
of Leicester, even it if means
putting that plan on hold for a year until I finish my BA first and save the
funds on my own. My wife has always told
me I am stubborn, and she is right.
These setbacks will only make me work harder to achieve my goals. I was once told “you can never be a TV
reporter without a college degree”. Two
years later, I was on the air working as a TV reporter, through a combination
of hard work and constantly lobbying the news director for the position.
Perhaps not now, but eventually, I will be a student at a U.K.
distance learning school.
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As I mentioned here previously, I’ve been giving serious
thought to enrolling in the University of Leicester’s MA in Communications,
Media and Public Relations. The subject
matter is right up my alley, and getting a graduate degree would be huge for my
career. The University of Leicester is
located in the UK, but they do have a number of distance learning graduate
degrees. The school is considered one of
the top 200 universities in the world.
Yesterday, I took the plunge and applied for a private loan
to pay the $14,000 tuition for the two year program. I can defer payments until I graduate, and I
plan to save the money during those two years to pay off the loan once I finish
the program. My credit is not the
greatest, due to medical bills, so I’m really keeping my fingers crossed on
this one.
It might seem odd to go for a graduate degree before I have
my undergrad, but it is possible at the University of Leicester. The school has informed me that a certain
number of years of work experience will qualify a student for entry into the
program. I have more than 20 years of
journalism experience under my belt, which the school has informed me is more
than sufficient for entry into the program.
My plan at this point is to finish this semester at Penn
Foster College as quickly as possible, and get a credit evaluation done at
Excelsior College. The last time I
checked, that was about $60. If I am as
close to my BA as I think I am, I will just knock out the rest of my requirements
and get the undergraduate degree. In the
meantime, if I get the loan for the graduate program, I will enroll at the
University of Leicester after I finish the semester at PFC. I will then likely finish the BA after I
complete the requirements for the graduate degree. It would be strange to get a graduate degree
before my undergrad, but I’m sure I’m not the only student who has ever done
such a thing.
Right now, I’m just hoping for the best and waiting to see
if my loan is approved.
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