Quote: (09-20-2012 08:47 PM)Wayout Wrote:
I am thinking about getting a Master's degree. I need it for a better pay scale here in the US. I am not fond of too much studying. I have been a student for too long as it is. I want to have a social life.
Ideally I would like to do it online for one year and one year in person. I need to have a job right now for financial reasons.
Basically, I am lazy and would like to score with hot girls while getting a degree.
Norway,Germany, Sweden- seem to be the most attractive countries,still have to support yourself financially and I don't speak the language to get a job.
Any thoughts from anyone who has done it?
EASIEST? It probably depends upon what's easy for you - if you don't have skills that make learning easy, you will need to develop them first.
In Europe, there is an extension of the EU to regularize degrees along a credit-unit basis like in the US, and make academic learning and training more transferable. It is called the "Bologna Process"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process
and some 47 nations in the EU and outside of it have signed up since 1999.
The first step makes the university degree process more like the US (or Canadian) one - 3 or 4 years for a first degree (varying depending if it is technical or research degree), then one to two for a masters, then at least three to doctorate.
Unfortunately, this "harmonization" along American lines is affecting the UK's own higher ed approach, making traditional US busy work more important than simply showing that you've leaned what you need to know! How far along this might be, I don't know.
The US method is "course-unit." You take a certain number of courses in the right unit combinations, and VIOLA! out pops your degree. How dull!
Post-undergrad education in the UK traditionally meant original research and an appropriate demonstration of what that research means - ie, little US-style "seat time." For example, a book in he humanities or a research paper in sciences or a patent in engineering.
I did the University of London's external (ie, distance) MS in Environmental Management. (It has since been rebranded as "London International"
http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/)
Assessed entirely by a series of two or three hour-long papers (ie, written exams), drawing on memory and self-study. The catch? These exams are only offered annually in the same calendar week or two. (Oh. Plus, you'll never be spoon-fed the exam questions themselves - you have to create a well though out answer by the seat of your pants. YOU WILL however know the type or general depth and length the question demands because you get to see past exam questions.)
Many people can neither read well nor write about what they've read, thought, and remembered. But if you can, then this degree program may well be right for you. And with only two or three (and rarely four) months study-prep like me.
The greatest advantage of the University of London master's is its world-wide recognition: it typically ranks behind Oxford and Cambridge Universities and ahead of most others in the UK like Durham and the "Red Brick" uni's. Within the UK itself, this issue of reputation can get more thorny, but outside the UK, it's pretty simple: high-quality, high-reputation, and less than half the cost of a US masters (if it is even offered).
And yes - at least when I did my MS - you could do some of the degree by distance as well as there at London! (I don't know about today.)
When I did my work, they had just made the distance course the same as those taught at London in London. (they have always maintained that "external" or distance exams are graded on the same level as those in the University London by "internal" or "on campus" students.)
London invented distance degree learning in 1858 to serve the overseas needs of its Empire. Many "corresponding schools" from then later became universities in their own right in their respective commonwealth nations.
Recently, what with the fracking oil and gas bonanza in the US, petroleum engineering masters degrees have become popular. London offers one. As do one (or two more) in Scotland, even cheaper!
I advised a tall Ukrainian blonde immigrant (who married and divorced an American in Boca), on her cheaper distance degree options on this masters last year. (She decided to stay with the Colorado School of Mines, (which is in her new neighborhood) anyway.
(To suss out all your options, see degreeinfo.com and search the bulletin board for masters degrees. This place is the resource that lead me to London a decade ago. This site can lead to surprising opportunities: for example, I know that the University of Lund in Sweden offered a distance masters in GIS online - TUITON FREE - and entirely in English! That tuition free option was dropped, but the degree may well be low-cost, still. I saw it first there tow years ago or so at degreeinfo and went to the Swedish web site to check it out! It was real.)
London even offers you the option of starting out proving yourself with a "foundation" course or "Diploma for Graduates" option. If you can start out with success with this unfamiliar method, you may then be invited to the full master's degree (if it's offered). I did it this way myself.
Wayout, do some research and some self-assessment and report back here with what you find!
REFERENCE London International Programmes at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_...Programmes