It’s not every day you find out a bona fide university long ago awarded you a graduate degree you never knew about. Not some honorary degree but a legitimate Master of Arts degree in engineering. Well, I just discovered it happened to me. And before you start questioning its authenticity, let me assure you it is indeed valid. Here’s the story. I did my undergraduate work at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California (it’s a good school, traditionally ranked #1 or #2 in undergraduate engineering programs by US News and World Report). I could have just gone for a B.S. degree in engineering, but the school offered another option. Stay on for a fifth year and earn a Master of Engineering degree. It sounded attractive, so at the beginning of my junior year, I applied and was accepted. The only catch was that Harvey Mudd was only accredited to be an undergraduate institution; they couldn’t award graduate degrees. So, in some arcane way, they teamed up with Claremont Graduate University across the street to award the degree. The story I was told was that at graduation after my fifth year, Harvey Mudd would award my Master of Engineering degree first, then follow with my bachelor’s degree. That way the ME degree would qualify as my first degree, which would allow them to retain their undergraduate accreditation. And that’s what happened. At the graduation ceremony, I received a nice diploma stating that Harvey Mudd College was conferring on me a Master of Engineering degree. Hidden away underneath it in the same presentation folder was the diploma for my B.S. degree in engineering. I never really understood what role Claremont Graduate University played in all this until I recently received a letter from their alumni association. They were asking for a donation because I was a CGU graduate with a Master of Arts degree in Engineering. Having never heard this before, I contacted their alumni association and was assured that, yes indeed, I have an MA degree in engineering from their university. At this point in my career it’s too late to have any impact on my resume, but it’s a nice little surprise—two master’s degrees for the price of one! And by the way, Harvey Mudd ended their M.E. program some years later because of the complexity in administering it. The only downside is that I now have one more school I should give donations to every year.
