Avoiding Evil

If you have ever been an extension student then you might understand some of the woes I am going through right now with my Masters degree. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has an extension plan that is supposed to help the student to graduate in three years because all of the required classes are on a three year rotation pending that you take classes in the summer and winter break months.

If you take all the classes they offer during this time then you are supposed to end up with having everything you need. Looks good in theory when you are ready to begin school, but then when you are three years into it you begin to notice the downside of the deal. I took every computer class and extension class that I could and ended up with 33 extension hours and 27 on line hours which leaves me with only 19 on-campus hours. Here is the rub, you have to have at least 30 hours of on-campus credits to graduate and I am left with two classes that are required for me to graduate that I can only take as on-campus credit and they are not offered this year during the J terms, which means I am either going to have to take these classes at another school, or I am out of luck and have to wait another year or two just to get two classes.

The sad part about this is that I know I can get what I need at Covenant and MoBap but unfortunately these schools cost twice as much. To take one three hour class at Midwestern it costs about $300. That same three hour class at Missouri Baptist would be $800 and that same three hour class at Covenant is $1100.

So here are my options. I need to take History of Christianity I and Pastoral Care and Counseling in order to meet requirements, and then I need 5 more hours of on-campus credit to graduate which will give me 90 hours instead of the required 89 hours. I am trying to work it out with Missouri Baptist to take The History of Christian Thought I as a directed study in order to get that credit. I have also been trying to get the professor from Midwestern to do a directed study with me in his Pastoral Care class, but unfortunately I’ve tried to contact him and e-mail him and I have received no reply at all. If I can get those two classes out of the way then I only have elective hours to get and I will be finished. My ultimate goal would be to finish it all by the spring… however that might be a lofty goal if I can’t get these required classes.

My other option would be to take pastoral care at Covenant, but I am trying to avoid that at all costs do to the tremendous price that Covenant charges.

If you are thinking about becoming an extension student you should keep in mind that at some point you might run out of classes that you can take and be fighting to try and graduate. Hopefully things will work out.