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

[LevelUP]

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.

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.

I would agree there is no clear answer, and it might depend on each situation.

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.

A Sophia-like equivalency list sounds like a great idea.

TADA is free so definitely that's a good place to start as well.

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.

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.

Agree English is a good place to start since writing is a big part of college. 

A lot of schools do only accept APs or CLEP's so generally, if someone is, for example, thinking of going to a flagship school in their state, then only doing APs and CLEPs is a good idea.

Took out Visual Communications and added Micro/Micro

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.

If they are on the forum and at least settled with the idea of doing one of the recommended online degrees but are not sure of which school or major, then they could do alt credits such as Sophia to dip their toes in the water. Otherwise, they could do CLEP's or try some certs, etc.

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

[*]

Added business path and other suggestions.

[LevelUP]

I wanted to add that going for a FREE Board of Governors (BOG) Associate's degree from Pierpont is a smaller goal that can be done in 2-3 months.

So the process for someone could be:

1. Spend as little as 10 min to try the first lesson of courses for free through Sophia
   
2. Start doing some G.E. type courses
   
3. Work towards a FREE Associate's degree
   
4. Work towards a bachelor's degree
   

Pierpont
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pi...egree_Plan

Places to earn free or near free college credit are:

• Modern States (CLEP exams)
  
• TADA (Coursera certificates)
  
• OnlineDegree ($9 per exam but a lot slower than Sophia)
  
• Saylor ($5 per exam but a lot harder than CLEP exams)
  

[davewill]

That AAS isn't likely to help them very much in a career, and they could end up with a bunch of credits they can't use in a bachelor's program. It's different if they already have a bunch of random credits, and they just need to fill in a few to get the AAS, but to do it from scratch without knowing where or what bachelor's they want...it's a potential waste.

[dfrecore]

That AAS isn't likely to help them very much in a career, and they could end up with a bunch of credits they can't use in a bachelor's program. It's different if they already have a bunch of random credits, and they just need to fill in a few to get the AAS, but to do it from scratch without knowing where or what bachelor's they want...it's a potential waste.

I would say that if they do some of the free stuff, and some of the cheaper stuff (like a month or two at Sophia), it certainly can't hurt.  Getting partway to a bachelor's is better than nothing.  And it may help them to figure some stuff out: Do they hate self-paced or do they go ham and do 30cr in a month of Sophia?  Do they love CLEP exams, or do they do better with courses?  Do they like video-based stuff or textbooks?  Do they hate the GE but love the business courses?  Hate business but loved earning certs through TADA? All of that is as valuable to learn as the credits they earn.

[rachel83az]

Plus, 120 credits sounds like a lot. An Associate degree is half that and so seems at least slightly easier to obtain. Getting an Associate can provide a boost of confidence needed to continue on to the Bachelor's degree they actually need but we're too scared to attempt.

[davewill]

If we assume the student has decided to DIY their degree, what does seem doable is a subset of alt-credit courses that we know will work in all the schools that we tout here, and in most/all of the degree programs. It's not going to be a huge list, but it's not zero. Once they finish that, If the best decision they have is to do that AAS, at least they are informed.

[dfrecore]

If we assume the student has decided to DIY their degree, what does seem doable is a subset of alt-credit courses that we know will work in all the schools that we tout here, and in most/all of the degree programs. It's not going to be a huge list, but it's not zero. Once they finish that, If the best decision they have is to do that AAS, at least they are informed.

It's pretty easy, because the BOG AAS degree has a very limited number of requirements:
3cr in Communications
3cr in SocSci
3cr in Computer
6cr in Math and/or Science
45cr of Free Electives

[davewill]

If we assume the student has decided to DIY their degree, what does seem doable is a subset of alt-credit courses that we know will work in all the schools that we tout here, and in most/all of the degree programs. It's not going to be a huge list, but it's not zero. Once they finish that, If the best decision they have is to do that AAS, at least they are informed.

It's pretty easy, because the BOG AAS degree has a very limited number of requirements:
3cr in Communications
3cr in SocSci
3cr in Computer
6cr in Math and/or Science
45cr of Free Electives

What we really want is the other way around, a set of classes that can be fit into all of the various degrees we know how to DIY, ideally without leaning too heavily on the free electives in any one of the degrees.

[dfrecore]

If we assume the student has decided to DIY their degree, what does seem doable is a subset of alt-credit courses that we know will work in all the schools that we tout here, and in most/all of the degree programs. It's not going to be a huge list, but it's not zero. Once they finish that, If the best decision they have is to do that AAS, at least they are informed.

It's pretty easy, because the BOG AAS degree has a very limited number of requirements:
3cr in Communications
3cr in SocSci
3cr in Computer
6cr in Math and/or Science
45cr of Free Electives

What we really want is the other way around, a set of classes that can be fit into all of the various degrees we know how to DIY, ideally without leaning too heavily on the free electives in any one of the degrees.

It's pretty easy to pick a bachelor's degree from one of the schools we discuss here, and then work backwards into the BOG AAS degree.  You can't really go wrong though, because if you decide to take a bunch of courses via Sophia, and end up with this degree, you're not out much money; and then whatever you decide later, you have those credits to bring into whatever bachelor's you take.

I'm not sure how else you'd do it, if you don't know what bachelor's you want.

[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.

If they are on the forum and at least settled with the idea of doing one of the recommended online degrees but are not sure of which school or major, then they could do alt credits such as Sophia to dip their toes in the water. Otherwise, they could do CLEP's or try some certs, etc.

Yeah, for now I'll just stick to what I mentioned above... It really depends on the student needs/wants, we can help them further if we get more details from them.

I wanted to add that going for a FREE Board of Governors (BOG) Associate's degree from Pierpont is a smaller goal that can be done in 2-3 months.

So the process for someone could be:

1. Spend as little as 10 min to try the first lesson of courses for free through Sophia
   
2. Start doing some G.E. type courses
   
3. Work towards a FREE Associate's degree
   
4. Work towards a bachelor's degree
   

Pierpont
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pi...egree_Plan

Places to earn free or near free college credit are:

• Modern States (CLEP exams)
  
• TADA (Coursera certificates)
  
• OnlineDegree ($9 per exam but a lot slower than Sophia)
  
• Saylor ($5 per exam but a lot harder than CLEP exams)
  

That's a good plan, hopefully Pierpont doesn't end the freebie by adding additional costs or changing/enforcing the requirements to require 12 RA graded credits... it's a good degree for someone who doesn't know what to ladder to or want something before they go into a Bachelors program.