Matt Staten graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in anthropology and archaeology. He loved the field and was eager to apply his skills in the real world.
But that was in December 2009, the depth of the recession. After he’d worked for the federal Bureau of Land Management for six months, his contract expired, and government budget cuts shrank the number of other available jobs in archaeology.
After months of looking for another position relevant to his degree, Mr. Staten broadened his search. He worked at a hospital. He worked at a brewery. He delivered car parts.
He knew that the odds of finding meaningful employment in his field were against him.
“I think by that point, I had gotten to the place where I had gotten over the idea of doing something you love for the rest of your life,” he said. “I felt a little jaded at that point.”
So he went back to college for a degree in computer science. After completing three courses on his alma mater’s campus, he learned about a new online, postbaccalaureate program in computer science that Oregon State was starting. It was designed with people like him in mind: recent graduates, unable to find a job with their liberal-arts degrees, who were looking to learn technology skills in high demand. The program could be completed in one year, and it would provide a real bachelor’s degree.
Mr. Staten signed up.
In a recent report, the Education Advisory Board, a research-and-technology company, advises colleges to consider recruiting students for second bachelor’s degrees. “Students with undergraduate degrees in the liberal arts and humanities can qualify for more jobs and elevate earning potential by supplementing their degrees with coursework in high-demand fields,” like computer science, accounting, and data analysis, the report says.
In an economic climate that continues to be tough, there is certainly a large market of potential returning students.
Postbaccalaureate education is not a new phenomenon. For decades, colleges have offered programs to prepare graduates to apply to medical school, and accelerated programs offering second bachelor’s degrees in nursing have become common pathways to careers in that field.
But the idea of marketing second bachelor’s degrees to young people like Mr. Staten is a new one, and it’s gaining traction. Oregon State began its online computer-science program in the summer of 2012, and since then 106 people have graduated. This fall 1,370 students are enrolled.
Colleges that have long allowed people to enroll for second bachelor’s degrees are seeing increased interest in departments that teach in-demand skills. Postbaccalaureate enrollment in Boise State University’s computer-science program has more than doubled since 2010, from 21 to 55, says its chair, Tim Andersen.
Mr. Staten, having received a job offer even before finishing his second degree, was hired as a product specialist at the Huron Consulting Group, managing databases for clients.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been more satisfied with a decision than that,” he said of enrolling in the Oregon State program.
A ‘Fully Trained Jedi’
For students looking to gain marketable skills, the notion of going back for a second bachelor’s degree might not immediately come to mind. More-traditional options include getting a master’s degree or a certificate at a community college.
The key to marketing the second degree, said the Education Advisory Board, is to present it as complementary rather than a do-over.
Chauncy Faulkner, who graduated from Oregon State in 2007 with a degree in psychology, considered a certificate program when she wanted to move into software engineering. Then she found out about the Oregon State program.
“I could spend a year doing a certificate and have nothing to show for it, or I could spend a year and have a bachelor’s degree to show from a respected university,” Ms. Faulkner said. “That’s what I ended up doing.”
Getting a master’s degree in computer science is not an option for many students who lack the requisite mathematics and programming courses. But many jobs in the field don’t require the higher credential, and since a computer-science master’s program often calls for only seven courses, companies are looking for a solid undergraduate background. As Mr. Andersen put it, they want “only a fully trained Jedi knight.”
“I would never advise someone to get a master’s degree without a bachelor’s degree,” said his colleague at Boise State, Jim Buffenbarger, an associate professor of computer science and adviser to second-bachelor’s-degree students.
Good for Everybody
For students, the potential benefit of a second bachelor’s degree in computer science is a lucrative career.
Employers find the programs appealing, professors say, because they produce candidates qualified for the increasing number of available programming jobs.
Terri Fiez, a professor and director of strategic initiatives in Oregon State’s department of electrical engineering and computer science, conceived of the one-year, online postbaccalaureate program in response to demand from nearby software companies, and mindful of the many recent college graduates who couldn’t find work.
“The combination of those two things,” she said, “led me to think about, How do we realign their backgrounds with where the jobs are?”
In Idaho, too, Mr. Andersen said, businesses were clamoring for more people with programming skills: “We have locally quite a few software companies, and there’s a shortage of people to fill their open positions. Companies are demanding.”
The companies that send representatives to the semiannual job fairs held by the Oregon State program have been impressed, Ms. Fiez said.
Mr. Andersen, at Boise State, reported a job-placement rate of 100 percent.
For programs that integrate postbaccalaureate students into traditional classrooms, their professors and classmates benefit, too. “These students, in my opinion, are better than average,” Mr. Andersen said. “They’re motivated, more mature, work harder, and they know what they want.”
The cost of a second bachelor’s degree can be a hardship, though, especially for unemployed or underemployed recent graduates.
Tuition for Oregon State’s postbaccalaureate computer-science program, for example, is $30,000. According to Claire Colvin, head adviser in the College of Science at Oregon State, seekers of second bachelor’s degrees are ineligible to receive federal grants. They might qualify for federal loans and university financial aid, but if they’ve previously taken out loans, they may run out of funding.
“It can be a bit of a rarity to get a scholarship as a second-degree seeker, which is a bit of a challenge,” she said.
For Mr. Staten, the program expenses at Oregon State were burdensome. He worked 20 hours a week as a carwash attendant during his four quarters of classes to help pay the tuition, he said.
“I had taken a lot of student loans to finish my first degree,” he said. “So when I went back to do the second one, I ended up hitting the cap that Oregon State would lend me.”
Students getting second bachelor’s degrees at Boise State pay the same tuition per credit as traditional undergraduates, although they are eligible for computer-science scholarships from local businesses.
Mr. Staten is still paying off loans, but because of his current job and salary, he believes his decision to go back to college has paid off.
“I’m certainly more able to pay for the loans I had now,” he said.