Accelerated Completion Degrees

College itself has been fairly rough in terms of time management and the basics required to the point where I just want to finish the degree quickly. I was considering taking an online accelerated degree program that's accredited such as the University of Phoenix, Kaplan University, or Bellevue University. I realize that it's just for the sake of creating a piece of paper that says I'm qualified to grind down four years of a slightly higher level education, but would it be worth it in the short term as I am looking to get into a second degree bachelors of nursing just to get through the massive hoops that are made for those that do not have a bachelors degree.

It depends who is hiring you, but in my experience those with University of Phoenix or similar on their resumes just get laughed at because it isn't considered a legit degree program by many.
As you said, a degree (unless in a specific field) pretty much proves you can stick with something for 4 years, but that means 4 years at a decent school, not online or correspondence courses.
Case in point about how good their level of education is, the guy that sits next to me spent the first two weeks of our evening Intermediate Accounting class bragging about how this class will be a breeze because he has passed it twice before at two different schools, one of which was Univ. of Phoenix. They made him take it again because the first two schools didn't count for credit. He went from bragging about his easy A or B and is now is on track to probably ending up with a D+

I suppose I'm a little confused here. You're having trouble with "time management" and "the basics required." If you're having trouble with time management now, do you think you will fair better if you take more courses more quickly? I can understand if you're having trouble with time management due to having to attend courses and handling a job at the same time. Online courses could potentially give you more flexibility and make it easier to work while completing your degree. However, if it's just a matter of time management in general, then I don't know if switching to a more compressed schedule is a wise idea...

Also, what do you mean by "the basics required"? Do you mean the basic skills required to take courses or the basics of life (food, shelter, etc.) due to running out of funds for college tuition and books and the like?

If it's the former, then again this isn't the way to handle the situation. If it's the latter, then yeah it's understandable.


As for the respect given to online degrees, it is generally increasing by employers, but beyond that I couldn't give you any more details and I don't know if some online degree programs such as those from University of Phoenix are help in lower esteem than others.

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Originally Posted by Anonymous

College itself has been fairly rough in terms of time management and the basics required to the point where I just want to finish the degree quickly. I was considering taking an online accelerated degree program that's accredited such as the University of Phoenix, Kaplan University, or Bellevue University. I realize that it's just for the sake of creating a piece of paper that says I'm qualified to grind down four years of a slightly higher level education, but would it be worth it in the short term as I am looking to get into a second degree bachelors of nursing just to get through the massive hoops that are made for those that do not have a bachelors degree.

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Okay, so you are trying to get a Bachelor's degree from U. of Phoenix, and then go to a traditional 4-year institution for a Bachelor's of Nursing? Are you expecting the Phoenix degree to help you get accepted to a traditional program?

If I'm understand you correctly, then you need to call the school that you'll end up applying at. Ask them how grades transfer from programs like Phoenix and how admissions regards students with that type of experience. No one here is going to know how a school views Phoenix as well as the school itself.

As far as potential employers: if you have a traditional degree in an unrelated field and a Phoenix degree in a related field (for example, I studied Biology (BS) and Management (BBA) and I'm going into technology consulting), employers are still going to focus on your overall academic achievement less, and look into your prior experience more than anything. I realize this doesn't apply to you directly, because nursing is a different job market, but in general an internship/work experience is more valuable than a degree, provided you have a degree in something.

One important thing to note, though... if the traditional school you're looking at attending accepts transfers from Phoenix or similar programs, then you can probably take a number of core courses at Phoenix and transfer them without an employer ever having any idea. A number of Bio/Pre-med kids do this over the summer to pass Organic Chemistry, then transfer the credit (and a lot of schools do similar things outside of the top 20.)

tl;dr call the school. They'll know more than us.