# Umass Amherst and the Quinn Bill



## JLT770 (Jun 7, 2007)

I browsed the Quinn Bill website and found that UMass Amherst was on the list prior to Jan 1, 2004, but not on the new list. I attended UMass from Sept 2003 til May of 2007 and was wondering if anyone could shed any light on why UMass Amherst was dropped from this list?

I graduated with a BA in Sociology with a concentration in Crim Justice. I declared my field of study after Jan 1, 2004 so is my education meaningless when it comes to the Quinn Bill? I assume that because it wasnt a BA in CJ, but just a "concentration" is the reason for this.


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2007)

JLT770 said:


> I browsed the Quinn Bill website and found that UMass Amherst was on the list prior to Jan 1, 2004, but not on the new list. I attended UMass from Sept 2003 til May of 2007 and was wondering if anyone could shed any light on why UMass Amherst was dropped from this list?


Colleges & universities had to voluntarily apply to the MA Board of Higher Education for Quinn Bill certification after the standards were reviewed and updated. A lot of schools didn't bother once they saw some of the requirements, which include a certain percentage of courses taught by full-time faculty with Ph.D. degrees.

If UMass-Amherst didn't apply, it might have to do with that major not being especially popular, or maybe they have a lot of graduate assistants teaching courses, not full-time Ph.D.'s. I don't know for sure why they didn't apply, you might want to ask them.



JLT770 said:


> I graduated with a BA in Sociology with a concentration in Crim Justice. I declared my field of study after Jan 1, 2004 so is my education meaningless when it comes to the Quinn Bill? I assume that because it wasnt a BA in CJ, but just a "concentration" is the reason for this.


ANY college degree is far from worthless, but you're correct that it won't be automatically accepted for the Quinn Bill. However, there is a waiver process, but I think that's mostly for graduates of out-of-state CJ programs that wouldn't know about the Quinn Bill.

The upside of this is that you pretty much have to go on to get your Master's degree, should you be hired by a Quinn department. That's what you should be striving for anyway, but I know a lot of people who stopped at the Bachelor level and allowed themselves to be satisfied with 20%. Trust me, that extra 5% is huge over the life of your career, especially for pension purposes.


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## MPDReserve (Jan 14, 2007)

I was under the impression that if the college I graduated from was on the list when I graduated, it would count for the Quinn bill, whether it's on the list now or not. Am I correct? I hope so.

Nevermind, I asked the question before I looked for the answer...


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## JLT770 (Jun 7, 2007)

Delta784 said:


> The upside of this is that you pretty much have to go on to get your Master's degree, should you be hired by a Quinn department. That's what you should be striving for anyway, but I know a lot of people who stopped at the Bachelor level and allowed themselves to be satisfied with 20%. Trust me, that extra 5% is huge over the life of your career, especially for pension purposes.


Yeah i was thinking that i would work on my masters, while i was on the job. I don't have the money for grad school right now. Im in the hole for my Bachelors and would like to start work to pay it off ASAP. I do not like being in any debts. Anyway if i get my Masters while on the job would that count or do i need to go onto the job with my masters?


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## Guest (Aug 14, 2007)

JLT770 said:


> Yeah i was thinking that i would work on my masters, while i was on the job. I don't have the money for grad school right now. Im in the hole for my Bachelors and would like to start work to pay it off ASAP. I do not like being in any debts. Anyway if i get my Masters while on the job would that count or do i need to go onto the job with my masters?


As long as you're on a PD with the Quinn Bill, it doesn't matter when you get the degree, provided it's from a school on the approved list.

I took one semester off after my Bachelor's, then started graduate school. I know myself, and if I waited any longer I never would have gone back. I'm a big proponent of getting it out of the way in one fell swoop, I was in school year-round for 5 years to get everything finished, and now I don't have to worry about it ever again.


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## SinePari (Aug 15, 2004)

Delta784 said:


> I was in school year-round for 5 years to get everything finished, and now I don't have to worry about it ever again.


Agreed. 3 classes per semester here. Some guys would rather work 3 details per week. I'd figure to get it done now because sooner or later, somebody is gonna pull the plug on Mr. Quinn.


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