Post
by Administrator » Thu Nov 22, 2007 12:24 pm
.
It's a bit of a judgment call. I might be wrong, but this is my best guess:
1) 7 years of studying (assuming you attended the full year for each grade level)
2) 4 years of studying (the Bachelors degree is a 4-year degree)
3) 1 year (the Masters is usually a 1 year program, from the info you posted)
However, an on-line course may not be recognized, so you might not be able to claim 3). The institution that issued the Masters needs to be credible and properly registered.
For example, I "studied" for "nine" years to get my Bachelors'. I changed school and majors several times, I dropped out and worked several times, sometimes I worked part-time and studied simultaneously.
In the end I graduated with 148 credit hours, even though the core of my degree only required 122 credit hours. The extra 26 credit hours would equate to almost a full extra year, but they really ended up counting as electives because they were not required for my final degree. Many had been required under different degrees I had been in previously.
I think it is obvious that I could not claim 9 years and reasonably expect them to swallow that.
But, it was a 4-year degree program, so that's what I would claim and be able to credibly defend. Even if I tried to claim five years of studying, it was not "officially" part of the degree I obtained.
Maybe I could defend five years, but I'd hate to put it down and be rejected for falsifying the application. The application could be rejected without me ever getting a chance to defend myself, and my defense might still be rejected even if I did get a chance.
Technically, I might even claim 6 years of university studies, based upon my credit hours. I have taken an additional 30 credit hours of undergraduate and graduate courses since obtaining my degree.
Further, when I changed schools, about 20 credit hours were not transferred, so if I parse out the years by credit hours taken (198 total, about 20 of which were graduate level courses), I could divide by 16 (a rather full semester course load) and get 12 semesters minimum and therefore 6 years minimum.
If I really wanted to play the numbers game, I could try to stretch it out (divide by 14 credit hours) and count the graduate courses at 12 credit hours per semester and try to claim 7 or even 8 years.
I have not even tried to list the two to three years of graduate-level research I performed in Universities, which could conceivably be listed as internships. Rather, I would list those positions specifically as work experience.
However, I only have one 4-year degree to show for it.
This is my attempt to logically figure it out, and I always estimate conservatively to put me into a position of strength should I be challenged.
the Admin
