Guide to Online Education > Online Education In-Depth > Meet Real Online Students > Angela, M.A. in Liberal Studies
"I think when I first started in college, I didn’t understand what it was. It wasn’t important to me at first," she admits. "By the time I got my 24 credits, I was looking forward to getting it."
Name: Angela Lipman
Age: 18
Career Goal: To work in print journalism
First College Class: A summer course taken at the age of 11
School: Excelsior College
Target: M.A. Liberal Studies, April 2007
The situation came to a head when Angela earned enough credits for an associate’s degree. But it was not awarded because she did not have her high school diploma. In a case heard all the way up at the State Supreme Court in Albany, she was again denied her diploma--and in subsequent maneuverings almost forced into high school.
Ultimately she sat for the G.E.D. in New Jersey, perfunctorily closing that chapter of her educational life.
She was then free to focus on, and take full advantage of, the college experience. After all, that was why her father had proposed that she enroll so early in life.
"I felt she was as competent academically as a college student," Daniel explains. "And there was a greater menu of courses in college than she could get in elementary school."
Indeed, she did revel in a rich variety subjects such as voice, chorus, drawing, painting, sculpture, biology, anthropology, tai chi, kung fu, and flamenco dance. Some electives she took, not for the degree, but to expand her horizons.
Through a combination of courses taken at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City College of New York and Touro, as well as CLEP and DANTES exams, she was awarded two undergraduate degrees from Excelsior.
She earned an A.A. in Communications with an emphasis on Speech and Theater in 2004, and a B.A. in Communications in 2005.
Her thesis, which required a research introduction in addition to the creative writing portion, represented a year’s worth of work. She studied medieval literature, philosophy, and alchemy.
"It’s been challenging," she admits.
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