So a friend of mine (let’s call him “Bob”) is currently earning a BA (political science) from a for-profit university. My question is basically, how does his employment prospects look after graduation? In what fields if any?
Some background…
Regionally v. nationally accredited universities
It’s sort of counter-intuitive but a regionally accredited school is what people typically think when they think of “college”, including state schools, ivy league etc.
A nationally accredited school is some place like ITT Tech, a vocational, for-profit institution. Generally credits are transferable from a regionally accredited school to nationally, but not vice versa.
Bob
Bob has had a pretty rough academic career. After high school his mom basically doctored his GPA in order to get him into a first tier university. After a semester or two the school caught on (I think a fellow student from our HS tipped them off) and he was more or less expelled (not sure what sort of sanctions or regulatory steps were taken).
Without a lot of options, he joined the army and he served 6 years including a tour of Afghanistan after which he was honorably discharged. He’s currently receiving some treatment for PTSD and a bum knee as a result of his service.
After a year or so sort of enjoying civilian life I guess, he began attending a for-profit school. I questioned his decisions a few times but given his academic history, I realized his options were probably limited. The tuition and living expenses are covered by the vet’s office. He has been attending the school for a bit less than 2 years I think.
I agree grade fraud is fucked up but I don’t really want to discuss how he had everything coming because I feel he has been through enough as a result. What I’m curious to know is what his options are. He probably can’t transfer to a better school because of the accreditation issue.
He’s actually a smart kid if not the most competent and I feel what he’s doing right now is a tremendous waste, but at the same time I don’t know what other options he has. He’s basically a war vet in his late 20s with grade fraud in his record. I fear after graduation he’ll be back at square one with a degree of questionable value. I guess I should be happy he’s not paying for it out-of-pocket. And he says he’s getting good grades.
BUT I do realize he’s a grown-ass man and far from my responsibility but he’s never been too psychologically stable and if you add joblessness and PTSD into the equation, things might turn ugly. I think I’m just rambling now.
I guess the question is, given his circumstances what are his best options?
Thanks for reading.