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I am beginning my research of schools (applying next cycle) and am wondering what the differences are between a part time and a full time program, other than credits per semester and the time it takes to get the degree. Are part time programs less prestigious? Are they looked down upon by future employers? How does one compute into class rank, are you only ranked against other ptimers?

AEIOU wrote:Are part time programs less prestigious? Are they looked down upon by future employers? How does one compute into class rank, are you only ranked against other ptimers?

1. Somewhat but not by much.
2. Somewhat but not by much.
3. Depends on the school; I know for sure some schools combine, but I think some schools do not combine. I've seen a school just take everybody with X or less credit hours and compute GPA cutoffs for those students, so part-timers and full-timers are in the same ranking.

Here at SMU, PT students are lumped in with FT for class rank purposes. However, SMU also does not differentiate between PT and FT on diplomas and whatnot.

Whether it makes a difference to employers probably has something to do with the applicant. If you're 22 and don't have a real job or family or anything, they might not look as favorably on you in the PT program since it could appear to be gaming the system.

If you're 30 with a family and a regular job, then it probably won't make any difference to an employer.

Kalvano makes a good point re: employers. And I should have qualified above, different employers/people will have different opinions.

Thanks to both of you for the input.

AEIOU wrote:I am beginning my research of schools (applying next cycle) and am wondering what the differences are between a part time and a full time program, other than credits per semester and the time it takes to get the degree. Are part time programs less prestigious? Are they looked down upon by future employers? How does one compute into class rank, are you only ranked against other ptimers?

The following is based on my experience (third-year PT student).

1. No.

2. For OCI purposes, generally, no. OCI employers seem to categorize students (top 10% + LR, t25% + journal, above median, etc ...). At the OCI phase, most employers didn't even realize I amva PT student. I had to deliberately point out my status at the start of each interview with something along the lines of: "As you can see from my resume, I work FT and attend class at night." Most interviewers seemed to be pleasantly surprised by that detail. At the callback phase it was a major point of emphasis brought up by virtually every interviewer; most wanted to discuss the logistics of working FT and attending class at night.

3. At my school, PT students are members of the class of 201X, it just so happens that they started a year earlier than the FT students in the class of 201X. The PT students are ranked with their classmates after their second year in the PT program (the first year for the FT class of 201X). PT students have a rough understanding of their class rank after the first year by looking at percentile cutoffs for previous classes.