Pathways Degree Program being discontinued

I work in this field….I have a few suggestions when looking for a program…

1) Do a search on career builder for the positions you are interested in. Look at what degrees they are requiring. Too many people pursue a program and then find the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

2) Go for Regional Accreditation – National Accreditation isn’t as respected as Regional Accreditation.

3) Look for programmatic accreditation as well. Some programs have programmatic accreditation — for Business it’s ACBSP or AACSB, for Project Management, it’s PMI-GAC accreditation, and for Electronics Engineering it’s TAC of ABET. Not that those are your programs, but those are ones I’m familiar with.

What degrees are you interested in? You can private message me if you aren’t comfortable sharing details like this in the open forum.

I went through California Coast University. It is nationally accredited but not regionally accredited. From what I understand national accreditation meets the minimum standards for federal jobs (meaning that if the job you are applying for requires a degree and you have a degree from a nationally accredited school, you meet that minimum standard). However, there are big differences between national and regional accreditation and you should be aware of the limitations of not having a regionally accredited degree.

I believe Curt would warn you against going nationally accredited. I believe what you should do can depend on what you want to do with your degree. In some sense you can get what you pay for. Anyway, I believe your request was for referrals to regionally accredited online schools. Therefore I will get off my soapbox.

I am sorry to see the Pathways program go. From my understanding it was a bargain and a true service to the people enrolled in the program.

So what are the acronmyns for national and regional accreditation respectively?

Hi AmyJ,

That really sucks. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Unfortunately I can’t find a list anywhere of which programs were cut. There seems to be a decent list of programs that are still available. I have a couple of suggestions / questions.

Can you ask any BYU-PW advisor what options you have? If there is a similar degree or certificate you may be able to continue in Pathways without losing much time.

1. The Pathways classes won’t transfer anyplace else. I can still apply for BYU-Idaho Online in the fall as a Pathways student if I complete the last trimester successfully and find a degree program that I can work with.

2. I am located in the Lansing, MI area.

3. Because I have an A.A. already, I am transferring into a 4 year program. I wanted an online degree program because I work full time and have family responsibilities.

I currently run the technical support help desk for a grants management software company. It is draining, but I have some flexibility when not taking calls, and the pay I feel is generous for what I actually do.

The beautiful thing about IT, or any computer work, is that it is more about what you know and what you can do, more than any degree you could have. Most degrees have very little to do with the job you get. At best, I feel a BS/BA is just another hoop to jump through. If you want to go the Computer Science/Developer route, instead of spending another couple years in college, you can easily get a good career by taking a few cheap/free online courses and building up a solid portfolio. I highly recommend checking out Udemy. Also, there are plenty of bootcamps that have a job guarantee, and pack plenty of training while padding your portfolio in a 12-16 week period for relatively cheap. If you can find and manage an in-person bootcamp course (keep in mind, most require 70-80 hours a week), that’d be the way to go.

There are also a number of online coding bootcamps, that also provide a more at-your-own-pace training and also come with a job guarantee. The two that come to mind are Viking Code School and Flatiron. Flatiron gives half-off scholarships to all women who apply, which as a man kind of erks me, but as a woman I’d recommend taking full advantage of. Both schools also have free prep courses (200-300 hours), so you can try things out and see if its a good fit.

If you can get the right training and have a few good projects under your belt, the pay is phenomenal, you’ll always be in demand for work, and depending on who you work for, you get to work flex hours and often from home. In addition, you can take up freelance work for extra cash.