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Thread: M.A. with AMU/APU

  1. #1
    Member TGS's Avatar
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    M.A. with AMU/APU

    All,

    Given the peanut gallery at pf.com, I wanted to ask and see if any of you have taken courses with AMU/APU, specifically at the Masters' level. I'm leaning pretty heavy on enrolling in their M.A. Intelligence program with a concentration in Criminal Intelligence.

    Just wanted to see if anyone had anything to say, good or bad. If you were involved in an Intel program at another school, I'd also like to hear what your experiences were. If you were in a related study area, such as national security, international relations/conflict resolution, C.J., ect; I'd also appreciate if you could PM me your experiences with your school......This is a fairly small crowd I imagine, so if you want to post I imagine that would be helpful to others even though I created the thread about AMU/APU.

    Thanks,

    Tyler

  2. #2
    I looked at them a while back as I needed to pick up some graduate level history classes for an adjunct teaching gig. In the end, I ended up passing on them due to the lack of a brick and mortar institution backing the degree. This probably wouldn't be an issue for non-academic career advancement, but in academic circles snobbery and elitism is alive and well.

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    Thanks for the response! I admit that having AMU or APU on my resume doesn't sound very good. It sounds like some sort of place that gives GED's.....

    But hey, apparently it's accredited and I haven't heard anyone say their degree isn't worty, besides guys with scholarly careers as you noted. I'm just wondering why even APU is so damn inexpensive. $11,000 for an MA? Really? I thought they were a little more than that. Is there something I'm missing?

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by TGS View Post
    Thanks for the response! I admit that having AMU or APU on my resume doesn't sound very good. It sounds like some sort of place that gives GED's.....

    But hey, apparently it's accredited and I haven't heard anyone say their degree isn't worty, besides guys with scholarly careers as you noted. I'm just wondering why even APU is so damn inexpensive. $11,000 for an MA? Really? I thought they were a little more than that. Is there something I'm missing?
    Make sure that it is regionally accredited (I think that it is) versus nationally accredited. This is another area in which academia and real world don't meet as to a casual observer it would seem that national would be superior to regional, but this isn't the case.

    AMU/APU provides a great service to professionals and military types that otherwise wouldn't be able to get a degree or just having the degree opens up career avenues. I also like that they have plenty or degree and certificate options that meld into military and emergency management fields.

    As for personal worth associated with a degree, I have three. One is an associates from a junior college, one is a bachelors from a regional university, and third is a masters from the number three ranked program in its field. The masters is the one that turns heads, but the associates has more personal worth to me as far as personal and academic growth, and the bachelors means more to me for other personal reasons. Other than the career doors that it opened, the masters just doesn't mean that much to me.

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    Member TGS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jlweems View Post
    Make sure that it is regionally accredited (I think that it is) versus nationally accredited. This is another area in which academia and real world don't meet as to a casual observer it would seem that national would be superior to regional, but this isn't the case.

    AMU/APU provides a great service to professionals and military types that otherwise wouldn't be able to get a degree or just having the degree opens up career avenues. I also like that they have plenty or degree and certificate options that meld into military and emergency management fields.

    As for personal worth associated with a degree, I have three. One is an associates from a junior college, one is a bachelors from a regional university, and third is a masters from the number three ranked program in its field. The masters is the one that turns heads, but the associates has more personal worth to me as far as personal and academic growth, and the bachelors means more to me for other personal reasons. Other than the career doors that it opened, the masters just doesn't mean that much to me.
    Yup, they're both regionally and nationally accredited. In addition, some of their degrees also have various business accredidations.

    Their intel program actually looks pretty good. It's the largest and most diverse in the nation, which isn't saying a WHOLE lot since there's very few schools that offer intel. Moreover, I have a friend in the exact job I'm going for and he's found it to help in his day-to-day work and just tonight has convinced me to go for a concentration in Intel Operations vice Criminal Intelligence, so it looks like a degree that will be of genuine usefulness. Not to mention it actually looks interesting.

    On this, SLG, if you're reading I might try giving you a call sometime in the next few days about this and what my buddy and I discussed today. I'd like to get your opinion being more experienced as well as having worked with more employers.

    jlweems, thanks for the info and advice, I appreciate it.

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    jlweems,

    Hey man, I'm interested in sending you a PM but your inbox is full. Could you make some space and let me know?

    Thanks!

    -Tyler
    "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by TGS View Post
    jlweems,

    Hey man, I'm interested in sending you a PM but your inbox is full. Could you make some space and let me know?

    Thanks!

    -Tyler
    Sorry. I just cleared room. I got an automated message just now about the box being full.

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