<p>There is no way that somebody with an undergrad degree from Harvard Extension school should be admitted to any non-liberal art graduate programs at any school.</p>
<p>I’m not too impressed by HES grads. My wife worked with a girl who went to Harvard Extension. She passed herself off as a Harvard grad and often conveniently dropped the Extension part. After a while, most people just assumed she went to Harvard until they scratched the surface a bit to find out more info. I’m not saying this is the case with all grads, but I’m sure she’s not the only one playing this game.</p>
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Ignoring all else,classes over about 1.5 hours are less effectiveness - even with a break, you start to retain less of what it is being delivered. This is from my sister-in-law - she worked for Penn State for a number of years as part of their instructional support group (cannot recall what it was actually named) to try and keep instructors in line with “best practices”. These included limiting instructional times to 1.5 hours or less.</p>
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No, I am saying that even if the material is the same, the Tuesday students will absorb less of it thant the MW students, and will generally suffer by comparison in exams. They will on average get a slightly lower grade.</p>
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If the admissions and/or instructional standards are different, then the degrees are not equivalent.</p>
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In your brother’s case, this is more of a learning style issue - some people, like your brother, learn best on their own or with “on-demand” assistance (i.e. office hours or emails). Others learn best through discussion. I had to take a short course to be a TA focusing on the different ways people learn, and how best to accomodate them. For people who will not get anything out of the lecture, the lecture format is irrelevent. For those who learn primarily through the lecture, the lecture format is paramount.</p>
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<p>Actually, no, it has nothing to do with that whatsoever. It has to do with the comparison of the effect of your learning style vs. your talent/motivation. Let’s face it: if you’re just not talented and/or motivated enough to learn something, you’re just not going to learn much no matter what your learning style may be or how many lectures you attend per week. </p>
<p>Again, that serves to reinforce the point that whatever effect the lecture style may have, it’s going to be relatively small compared to far more important factors.</p>
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<p>Oh really? Then consider Latanya Sweeney. Her undergrad degree was from the Harvard Extension School. She was then admitted to the PhD program in EECS at MIT. Now she is the Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon, one of the top-ranked CS programs in the world. </p>
<p><a href=“http://dataprivacylab.org/people/sweeney/[/url]”>http://dataprivacylab.org/people/sweeney/</a></p>
<p>Yet according to your logic, MIT should not have admitted Sweeney, is that right?</p>
<p>I was exaggerating a bit, but MIT also admits few students from less-prestigious schools but with great research background.</p>
<p>On the other hand, tell me how an ALB degree is as prestigious as an SB degree from Harvard DEAS or AB degree from Harvard College when extension school admits almost everyone who meets minimum requirement without having to take SAT/ACT, while Harvard College admits around 10% with much substantial requirement? </p>
<p>HES is like the community college department at Harvard.</p>
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<p>Is there anybody here claiming that it is? I don’t see anybody, but if there is, perhaps you should take it up with them.</p>
<p>you did claim it.</p>
<p>Oh really? Where? Please point to the quote where I specifically said that the two were equivalently prestigious.</p>
<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>To give you some background…I graduated from Wharton undergrad in 2008. For the past 2 years or so I’ve been working in M&A (mergers and acquisitions) in both investment banking and now at a Fortune 100 tech company in the Bay Area. </p>
<p>Given the rigor of Wharton’s UG program and its similarity to the MBA program I’ve never really considered getting an MBA for the following reasons:
- The coursework would be very repetitive (i.e. I wouldnt really learn anything)
- I already have the Wharton network (one of the few benefits of most MBA programs is the network)
- I’m not really looking to switch careers (another reason many people pursue an MBA)
- I was recently promoted to a post MBA position (no real financial benefit for me at this point to go and get an MBA)
- It’s expensive and I have to stop working for 2 years (given my current progression I think I could have a faster career velocity if I stayed and worked)</p>
<p>…so the only realy reason left to get an MBA is just to have a masters level degree. Personally, I think over the next few years (as it is somewhat true already) a masters level degree will become the new standard for senior executives. </p>
<p>Given the above I want to do a masters degree, purely for the title/degree but don’t want to waste my time/money on an MBA. Recently I found out about a program at Harvard’s extension school which is a Master in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Management…the program is very cheap (the cost could easily be covered by my firm’s tuition reimbursement), I can complete a good part of it online and I can likely work from Boston for a few months to complete the required on-campus courses. </p>
<p>I think this accomplishes the goal of having a masters level degree for the resume…at the end of the day the CV would list:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, B.S.E., Concentrations in Finance and Management</li>
<li>Harvard University, A.L.M., Concentration in General Management</li>
</ul>
<p>I wanted to get people’s opinion on the program…Given my goal/situation is it worth it or just a waste of time? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance for the help!</p>
<p>I am not highly qualified in the business arena, but why not consider a Master of Finance?</p>
<p>so I really have 6 options for an advanced degree…</p>
<p>1). MBA - Noted the reasons why I don’t want to pursue.
2). Part-Time MBA - I could pursue this option since a few good schools UChicago Booth, Northwestern Kellogg, Berkeley Haas, etc offer them. The difference here is that they are pretty pricey, and take 2-3 years to complete, travelling every other weekend to Chicago (well except if i went to Berkeley).
3). Executive MBA - I’d have to wait a few years to get this but again its more pricey and similar in structure to the part-time programs (travel every other weekend). Also one of my reasons for getting an advanced degree is to get some upside in terms of career progression (get a promo or two out of it)…at the eMBA level it doesnt help that much.
4). Masters of Finance - Most of these programs are 1 year and generally full-time and since i’d like to keep working these dont work. Also there are no “brand name” (HYP, Stanford, etc.) schools that offer these on a part-time basis.
5). Masters of Management (or equivalent) - same problems as #4</p>
<p>6). Continuing Education Programs - Harvard’s program is good in that it is effectively a masters with a concentration in management (or finance they have that option as well), it gets you the Harvard name on the CV, it is part-time and partially online (so it works with my schedule), and it is extremely cheap (to the point that I would pay $0 out of pocket).</p>
<p>If you have an UG degree from a Wharton, don’t lower yourself by doing masters at HES. A Wharton degree doens’t look right when you put it with an HES degree. </p>
<p>If you want to do a master, do something in Finance, or Engineering. There are tons of part time masters programs in Finance and Engineering (check Georgia Tech, Duke, Columbia (distance education is available at Columbia / Duke / GA Tech), Cornell, and even Penn where you got your UG degree from). </p>
<p>If you want to put Harvard on your CV, then get a degree from their Engineering School or Business School that actually says Masters of Science/Art in XYZ Field.</p>
<p>Look at the UChi part time program, it is prestige. I have a relative almost finished. His company reimburses. Admissions are competitive.</p>
<p>Find out if your company values an extension program before you spend time or money on it.</p>
<p>for the OP, I’d think a degree from Boston U or UMass-Amherst would be more valuable than an extention degree from any school. As for law school and other admissions, while there may be exceptions, I doubt it is very often that someone who went to extension will be admitted. I am willing to listen if anyone can find stats to the contrary.</p>
<p>does anybody know if classes taken say at northwestern SCS would transfer to another school?</p>
<p>Im in complete agreement. People like cosmicfish ignore the fact that for many adults this is their only viable option.
For instance, lets pretend that I met all requirements and gained admission to North Western University. Then what? If, like most adults, have a full time 9-5 job, how can I attend? On the other hand, I can understand why the academic credentials wont have the same weight as regular degrees, but in making a hiring decision, employers would look at the person as a whole taking in consideration actual experience, which a freshly graduates will not have.
So my recommendation to the person who originated this tread, would be pursue a Bachelors degree at a top school in any of their continuing education programs, if the objective is to use that degree to advance your career in a field in which you are already working. Conversely, if you can afford to attend a regular NON-for profit and decent University during regular hours, then, by all means do that.</p>
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<p>From my first response, post #2 in this thread:
So please tell me what I ignored.</p>
<p>For anyone reading this thread with an open mind, ignore the obviously bitter/jaded opinions from uninformed posters who are overly concerned with prestige. </p>
<p>The Extension School was founded as an evening lecture series, then became a place for teachers to get accredited and finally morphed into distance/evening program for non-traditional and professional students to get degrees. If you fall into this last category, it might be for you. Since I’m in my 50s and want a second masters degree and can do half the degree from my home office, it makes sense. </p>
<p>There are a lot of people who take Extension or summer school courses, but few graduate (I have four more to go myself). Many of the classes are taught by Harvard professors, but many are not. You have access to tremendous assets, but yes, there are differences in HUES and the rest of the university. I never heard anyone point to the 2 hour classes as an issue; not sure how to respond to that. As far as networking goes, while it certainly more difficult to build relationships in the distance mode, once you graduate you can join your local alumni club (and, of course, the Harvard Clubs in Boston and NYC). And graduate classes are holding steady at $2,000 each which is much less than the $4,500 I was looking at over at Columbia. </p>
<p>I’ll leave you with a couple of thoughts. The first is that the classes and the degree programs are challenging since Harvard isn’t going to hand anyone a degree without them working for it. The second is that knowledge isn’t something to be kept exclusive, like a country club. The more educated people we have, the better off we all are.</p>
<p>Agree with Bullneck, it seems very unlikely that Harvard would lend its name to a sub-standard degree program. While admissions standards to HES may not present a major obstacle to entry, it could be that the courses themselves are comparable in rigor to regular Harvard classes and the percentage of those admitted to HES who actually obtain a degree is actually very low.</p>