A degree plan for someone that has no idea what major or college they want?

[LevelUP]

I had a thought.

What would be a good degree plan for someone that has no idea what they want to do?

If you can commit just 10 min to start a college course, guess what? You're now a college student!

It's free to sign up with Sophia, and the first lesson is free for every course.
https://www.sophia.org/

Possible courses that fulfill General Ed requirements of most colleges we recommend

• English Comp I & II
  
• Public Speaking
  
• Ethics
  
• Environmental Science
  
• Human Biology
  
• College Algebra
  
• Intro to IT
  
• Introduction to Sociology
  
• Intro to Psychology
  
• U.S. Government
  
• Macro/Macroeconomics
  
• U.S. History I & II
  

Business Path (starter)

• Intro to Business
  
• Project Management
  
• Principles of Management
  
• Financial Accounting
  

Computer Science and IT(starter)

• Introduction to Web Development
  
• Introduction to Relational Databases
  
• Introduction to Programming in Python
  

Math (starter)

• Introduction to Statistics
  
• Introduction to College Mathematics
  

Some Free Electives Courses for Fun or Curorsity

• Spanish I
  
• Visual Communications
  
• Personal Finance
  

Many degree plans except for WGU have room for electives, so if a course doesn't fit a plan, it won't go to waste.

Another idea would be classes that explore different fields.

Thoughts?

[davewill]

Personally, I think that person would be better off working or getting other life experience to help them decide what they want to do. Taking GenEds aren't likely to help that much, and without a concrete goal, maintaining motivation to take courses will be a challenge.

[rachel83az]

There are plenty of students who come here with "life experience" and who still aren't sure what degree they want/need. I'm not sure if there is a good, generic, answer to give them.

[origamishuttle]

I really like the concept of a generic plan, maybe including courses that are common to the most recommended degrees? A tabular format similar to the Sophia.org Equivalency List could work. The free portion of Sophia is a clever idea to get exposure to the possibilities, although I would lean toward Modern States to start, given that it's free and CLEP is accepted at the broadest range of schools. A couple more to consider would be TADA and Saylor.

[SweetSecret]

I have been mostly telling it people to start with Modern States as well and generally direct them towards English and math to start. I don't necessarily think a general degree is bad because there's just so many jobs now that do require just checking the box. It's nice to know what you want but sometimes people also want things that aren't readily available from many schools.

[ss20ts]

One thing to keep in mind is that every school has their own very of gen eds. There's a complete lack of consistency across the nation. Some schools will only accept CLEP or AP. Some are very selective in those as well. Some schools have time limits. I've been to a few schools who required your English and math classes to be within the last 5 years. I'm not sure what has changed in English in the last 5 years. Maybe so you might remember how to write a paper? Because you can't google that. /sarcasm.

With the list above, I wouldn't take Visual Communications. You're better off with macro and micro econ.

[origamishuttle]

With the list above, I wouldn't take Visual Communications. You're better off with macro and micro econ.

Why not all three? 

[ss20ts]

With the list above, I wouldn't take Visual Communications. You're better off with macro and micro econ.

Why not all three? 

Visual Communications doesn't transfer to a bunch of schools. Some only accept it as a general elective. Economics is always useful. It's far more useful in every day life than Visual Communications which isn't much of a course.

[bjcheung77]

There are so many variables in play, it really depends on their age and if they're still in high school or a few years out of high school... for those still in high school, most recommended would be dual enrollment instead of the ACE we usually use. For max transfer, AP, CLEP, dual enrollment for courses that don't have AP/CLEP... up to 90 credits can be done before they graduate.

For those who have already graduated, it's best for them to complete the template/addendum so we'll know their situation and advise accordingly. I usually advise a mix/match of certs, degree, experience, the prospective student may have number of certs or a number of years experience in a field already, without knowing that, it's hard to provide a generic answer/degree to fit each person.

[dfrecore]

Possible courses that fulfill General Ed requirements of most colleges we recommend

• English Comp I & II
  
• Ethics
  
• Environmental Science
  
• College Algebra
  
• Intro to IT
  
• Introduction to Sociology
  
• Visual Communications
  
• U.S. Government
  
• U.S. History I & II
  

Another idea would be classes that explore different fields.

Thoughts?

Most schools require more GE than you listed, so I'd add the following:

[*]Public Speaking
[*]Spanish I
[*]Intro to Statistics
[*]Intro to Sociology
[*]Human Biology
[*]Intro to Psych
[*]Macroecon or Microecon
[*]Personal Finance (not for GE, but just because it's important)

I'd probably also say that some Business courses wouldn't be a bad idea


[*]Intro to Business
[*]Principles of Management
[*]Financial Accounting