1 + 1 + 1 = MS or MA?

June 21, 2010 8:50 AM

I have a lot of grad school credits, I've done executive education at Ivy League institutions, and I have over a decade of work experience. Is there anywhere - accredited and reputable! - where I can combine this, add in a thesis/dissertation or some other contribution, and come out at the end with a Masters Degree?
posted by anonymous to education (5 answers total)

Well, a ton of places. Except that they probably won't accept your previous graduate school credits (what are these is exactly? your question is a bit short on details) for transfer (they might accept a limited number for a phd program but probably not for a masters program) unless the program you choose uses the same courses - and are in the same institution - as the ones you have already taken. Your exec education teaching and decades of working experience will help you get into a program but will not be transferable into credits either (even for a MBA). Probably a good idea to use your experience to enhance/focus your thesis work.
posted by Bwithh at 9:08 AM on June 21, 2010

Bwithh hit the nail on the head. I would add that to get a Masters degree from X University is similar to purchasing an item of a particular quality: a Toyota Camry is similar to a Honda Accord, but in most respects, they differ. In other words, an MA from X University is similar but not the same as an MA from Y University.

That said, you can't show up to a Toyota dealership with a bunch of Honda parts and expect them to build you a car. Even if they did, what you ended up with would not be a Toyota. And since universities are responsible for the quality of education they provide (symbolized by the MA degree), they normally do not allow for more than 6-9 transfer credits.

This also depends a lot on the degree you want to get. A business degree may allow more transfer credits than, say, a music degree. It's also possible that you could substitute your work experience for the internship that is often required for many MA programs.
posted by johnxlibris at 9:35 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Johnxlibris is right. Grad degree is partly correlated to the money that you spend. You could strive for some scholarship at a decent school for having done well on your grad courses. this way you can cover for retaking those courses or similar courses. Especially in b-schools, they don't accept too much transfer credits from a different institution, unless they qualify as prerequisite courses for the main program.

Even if they are same courses and transferable, you have to go through so many hurdles. Anyway, good luck!
posted by icollectpurses at 10:38 AM on June 21, 2010

I think your best bet is to see if there is a program at the place where you got your previous graduate credits. Otherwise, at least in the US, a graduate degree is not just about a thesis, but usually about a certain baseline & brand of training/knowledge imparted by the particular institution. A reputable institution won't typically give out degrees to people when they can't guarantee themselves that the person has their particular brand of training, hence the difficulty of transferring credits. Just doing a thesis (which, experience or no, a student usually isn't actually in a position to start right away) won't guarantee this. Also, it sounds like you may already know this, but pretty much any institution offering you much in exchange for "life experience" is a scam.
posted by advil at 11:07 AM on June 21, 2010

You really haven't provided enough detail for this question to be answerable, and in any case shopping around for the easiest path to any random MS or MA, without regard for the specifics, seems like a weird, diploma-millish thing to do. What subject do you want a master's degree in, and why?

At the undergraduate level, a broad general education is one goal (among several others) of the curriculum; this is the main justification for many institutions in accepting random grab-bags of transfer credits as a part of the bachelor's degree. But general education is not a goal of graduate-level training; a master's degree signifies intensive training in some specific discipline or field of knowledge. So you can't just assume that "grad school credits" are the same thing everywhere; rather, to use them, you'd have to demonstrate that they fill the same specific role that one specific course would've served in one specific degree program.

And YMMV, but I think it's very unlikely you'll find credit for "work experience" being given by any meaningfully non-diploma-mill graduate degree program — that is, unless the work is specifically, directly relevant to the degree subject (like if you've been working in epidemiological research and are studying for an MPH).
posted by RogerB at 11:08 AM on June 21, 2010