Academic fresh start or no?

[ReyMysterioso]

Don't worry about those F's. When you're a transfer student, colleges generally only calculate your "institutional GPA", that is the GPA you earned at the school you graduate from. So you can easily make the dean's list, graduate with honors etc.... HOWEVER. If you eventually apply to grad school, depending on the grad school/what program, they may look at your overall career GPA and those F's would pull down your "career GPA" and that could have some effect on whether you get accepted into this or that program. Some programs may only look at the last 60 credits you earned. Some may not worry about your GPA for admission. It really varies.
But don't worry about it too much. A couple bad grades won't destroy your future or your ability to get into grad school (if that's even something you want to do.) I promise you'll be perfectly fine even with the F's.

[bjcheung77]

@Thenson, you really need to give us some more details... by reading what you have mentioned, competency based degree may or may not be for you. On this board, I usually recommend 3 things, Certs, Degree, Experience. You have two of the three, so the degree you're seeking shouldn't really matter. As mentioned by members of the board, you can go for a TESU CIS or the UMPI BLS MIS... there are so many ways to play this out, we just need to know what the variables are in play to help you best, cheap, easy, fast, with extra ROI/Value.

In order to help you more, you should provide us your age, commitments (since you're a new dad), what other things may "take away your time" from studies, do you volunteer, etc? Last but not least, we should also know which institution you have the F's and what your current credits look like, list them out so we can help you further. The only way to get an academic refresh is at the school you have the F's, you retake them, or if they have academic forgiveness, get them to "forgive" those credits...

[Thenson]

Thank you everyone. Sorry that I did not give much information to go off of. 

I am in the USA. Stay at home dad right now, I have a lot of time to get this done.. I owe it to my daughter to get it done, she's 2 . Fiance works weekend nights as a nurse. I've delayed the degree for 12 years by working as an EMT, I tried to get it done the past two years, but I made a bad decision on the school I chose to go to..... But when it all comes down to it, it's my fault and I'm owning up to that. Had I reached out and asked for help from people in the beginning, I'd probably not be in this predicament . 

The Details: 


Regular credit classes are as follows: 

English Comp I -3
Intro to Philosophy -3
General Psychology -3
Anatomy & Physiology I -4
Anatomy & Physiology II -4
Intro to Visual Arts -3
Personal Finance -3
US Government -3
And
Some BS Foundations class they pushed on me to take because they treat everyone as if they are a senior in high school -3

These classes formed the EMT certificate/diploma:

Introduction to EMS -3
Basic EMT I -6
Basic EMT II -6
EMT Extended Skills -4

Then further on, more “technical” credits are: 

EMT Preparatory -6
Principles of Pathophysiology -4
Patient Assessment -3
Airway Management -2
Prehospital Pharmacology -3
Medical Situations -6
Clinical Experience I -3
EMS Operations -4
Patient Management -4 
Trauma Emergencies -3
Clinical Experience II -3

My goal is to take whatever is missing via Sophia, then enroll in a self-paced or I guess an open enrollment do it as fast as you can degree. 

But, the more I read around here, I feel like I have a very large amount of credit hours that I was assuming are worthless, but may not be….? 

Also, every class listed here is one that has an A or B grade. The F's I mentioned before may actually be listed as withdrawals on the transcript, not totally sure how that'll work out, but I felt reassured to see someone mention that it'll be there but won't necessarily destroy your future lol because that's kinda how I feel at this point.

---

@Thenson, you really need to give us some more details...  by reading what you have mentioned, competency based degree may or may not be for you.  On this board, I usually recommend 3 things, Certs, Degree, Experience.  You have two of the three, so the degree you're seeking shouldn't really matter.  As mentioned by members of the board, you can go for a TESU CIS or the UMPI BLS MIS... there are so many ways to play this out, we just need to know what the variables are in play to help you best, cheap, easy, fast, with extra ROI/Value.

In order to help you more, you should provide us your age, commitments (since you're a new dad), what other things may "take away your time" from studies, do you volunteer, etc?  Last but not least, we should also know which institution you have the F's and what your current credits look like, list them out so we can help you further.  The only way to get an academic refresh is at the school you have the F's, you retake them, or if they have academic forgiveness, get them to "forgive" those credits...

Sorry I forgot the couple questions you asked when I made the updated post. I'm 30, there's not much that is going to take away from my study time other than just being stay at home father and main caretaker of my daughter, I do get help from my fiance but she works 3 nights a week and also has two sons who are with us on alternating weeks, which they are older and in school so she is busy with the schedule for them/homework,etc. So, there's time. No other obligations at the moment. 

All of my credits are from regionally accredited community colleges. Jackson State Community College and then Snow College. Snow is where the F's/Withdrawals are at.

[rachel83az]

Assuming you don't already have an Associate degree, you could get the FREE one from Pierpont: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC

What Sophia classes have you done so far? If you do the Google IT Professional Certificate + Intro to Web Development from Sophia, that's your 15 credits for the Information Systems Area of Emphasis. Then, to meet the Gen Ed requirements, you'd take: Visual Communication OR Communication at Work. You have science covered. You may have Social Science covered with Government & Philosophy. Take Intro to IT to meet Computer Literacy requirement. And that's it. You otherwise have the 60 credits needed to get the degree.

That way, if something happens tomorrow where you have to go back to work, at least you have an Associate degree!

Do not take English Comp II at Sophia. There are much better options (that depend on which school/degree you choose). Spend a day or two looking at the given options: WGU, TESU, Purdue Global, Peirce, Excelsior, NAU and see which one feels like the best fit for you. Once you've chosen a school and a degree, we can help you with a plan!

• Based on what you've already said, I would discard Purdue as an option. They are very writing heavy. 
  
• NAU probably won't accept most of your credits. You wouldn't be starting entirely from scratch, but it'd be close.
  
• WGU has few gen eds and NO electives, so you'd basically be starting over from scratch with the credits you have. But they are true competency-based, with most classes being passed with an exam of some kind or sometimes a project (I think). Not a lot of writing, so people are able to speed through the degree when they have enough time set aside to do so.
  
• We don't know a lot about Peirce, but they're kind of expensive (unless you get a full Pell Grant and/or qualify for one of their scholarships, then they're much less expensive). For Technology Management, it looks like they'd accept most of your credits as either gen eds or electives. They also seem much more open than the others to helping you plan your degree with alternate credits from places like SDC and Sophia.
  
• TESU will accept some of your credits, but Comp Sci has 30 credits of electives and a BSBA CIS only has 15 credits of electives. They can also cost about as much as Peirce, but it would be split into multiple payments and would be even less if you've got the Pell Grant. They're making changes on January 1st that will make their Comp Sci degrees more difficult to obtain with alternate credit. But it will still be possible to do so, if you plan ahead.
  
• EC should accept many of your credits, but not all of them. You can see the estimated cost breakdown I did earlier in this thread. If you choose EC, dfrecore should be able to help you make a plan for them.
  

There is also UMPI. Unfortunately, right now, they only have a Management Information Systems Business degree and not a true Comp Sci or IT degree as such. But they would probably be the cheapest option, even if most of your EMT/technical credits aren't accepted. They're also true competency-based, with classes being completed either with one project/paper or an exam.

Let us know what you decide, or if you have more questions to help you narrow things down even further.

[carrythenothing]

The technical credits should also count toward the BS in Health Services Technology at TESU: https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/Current/...Technology

If you're a Nationally Registered EMT, you can also receive up to six credits through the TESU Professional Learning Review (a few might overlap with your existing credits): https://www2.tesu.edu/oplr/client.php?client=NREMT

[bjcheung77]

@Thenson, when you studied at Snow College, was it the Competency Based program for $1700/term? If you were having trouble with Competency Based degree programs, then you may want to reconsider continuing with Competency Based degree programs... In that case, my recommendation would be to remain taking Sophia.org/Study.com courses towards the Big 3. I am leaning towards recommending you Excelsior as they only need 7 credits and they take ACE/NCCRS, TESU if you are going to take 16 credits for residency, you can transfer the rest in...

---

Here's a similar recommendation: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid353021

[rachel83az]

@Thenson, when you studied at Snow College, was it the Competency Based program for $1700/term?  If you were having trouble with Competency Based degree programs, then you may want to reconsider continuing with Competency Based degree programs... In that case, my recommendation would be to remain taking Sophia.org/Study.com courses towards the Big 3.  I am leaning towards recommending you Excelsior as they only need 7 credits and they take ACE/NCCRS, TESU if you are going to take 16 credits for residency, you can transfer the rest in...

---

Here's a similar recommendation: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid353021

EC requires MORE than 7 credits for an IT degree, unless there's been some change that I missed somewhere. Sure, you can get a BALS/BSLS at EC, but then why not go with COSC? COSC would be even cheaper than EC for a BALS and I think OP would only really need 30 UL credits for COSC.

[Thenson]

@Thenson, when you studied at Snow College, was it the Competency Based program for $1700/term?  If you were having trouble with Competency Based degree programs, then you may want to reconsider continuing with Competency Based degree programs... In that case, my recommendation would be to remain taking Sophia.org/Study.com courses towards the Big 3.  I am leaning towards recommending you Excelsior as they only need 7 credits and they take ACE/NCCRS, TESU if you are going to take 16 credits for residency, you can transfer the rest in...

---

Here's a similar recommendation: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid353021

 it’s not that I had difficulty with competency, it’s that there was no scale to measure or assess competency in their program. It was completion based. As in, finish every lesson, then you’ll get a grade. Just like all normal classes, but with way more writing/essay content where it wasn’t necessary. For example the finance class was 90% essay content and I had mastery of the topic from the beginning (Finance is a hobby; Clark Howard fan since I was 14 years old..) but it didn’t matter because there was no scale to measure your mastery 

I do extremely well with properly administered competency. I can test out off most things. So I want to make sure we’re on the same page there lol

---

@Thenson, when you studied at Snow College, was it the Competency Based program for $1700/term?  If you were having trouble with Competency Based degree programs, then you may want to reconsider continuing with Competency Based degree programs... In that case, my recommendation would be to remain taking Sophia.org/Study.com courses towards the Big 3.  I am leaning towards recommending you Excelsior as they only need 7 credits and they take ACE/NCCRS, TESU if you are going to take 16 credits for residency, you can transfer the rest in...

---

Here's a similar recommendation: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid353021

EC requires MORE than 7 credits for an IT degree, unless there's been some change that I missed somewhere. Sure, you can get a BALS/BSLS at EC, but then why not go with COSC? COSC would be even cheaper than EC for a BALS and I think OP would only really need 30 UL credits for COSC.

I looked at cosc, they appear to be one of the more expensive ones ? I think, unless I looked at it the wrong way. It was $400-ish per credit on top of another $200-ish fee for what I can’t remember. they look good, it is just one I haven’t heard of until recently so I’m not as familiar with them compared to wgu or excelsior

[rachel83az]

COSC, like EC and TESU, only absolutely require that you take 6 or 7 credits with them. In theory, you can transfer in everything else. In practice, this isn't something that you can do with every degree. With COSC, you can only really get a BALS degree cheaply. Maybe psychology (but that door might have closed when they stopped accepting Coopersmith). EC, I think you can do BALS or maybe History. An IT degree requires you to take more classes from Excelsior. TESU has more options, but they're becoming less viable lately.

[Thenson]

Assuming you don't already have an Associate degree, you could get the FREE one from Pierpont: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC

What Sophia classes have you done so far? If you do the Google IT Professional Certificate + Intro to Web Development from Sophia, that's your 15 credits for the Information Systems Area of Emphasis. Then, to meet the Gen Ed requirements, you'd take: Visual Communication OR Communication at Work. You have science covered. You may have Social Science covered with Government & Philosophy. Take Intro to IT to meet Computer Literacy requirement. And that's it. You otherwise have the 60 credits needed to get the degree.

That way, if something happens tomorrow where you have to go back to work, at least you have an Associate degree!

Do not take English Comp II at Sophia. There are much better options (that depend on which school/degree you choose). Spend a day or two looking at the given options: WGU, TESU, Purdue Global, Peirce, Excelsior, NAU and see which one feels like the best fit for you. Once you've chosen a school and a degree, we can help you with a plan!

• Based on what you've already said, I would discard Purdue as an option. They are very writing heavy. 
  
• NAU probably won't accept most of your credits. You wouldn't be starting entirely from scratch, but it'd be close.
  
• WGU has few gen eds and NO electives, so you'd basically be starting over from scratch with the credits you have. But they are true competency-based, with most classes being passed with an exam of some kind or sometimes a project (I think). Not a lot of writing, so people are able to speed through the degree when they have enough time set aside to do so.
  
• We don't know a lot about Peirce, but they're kind of expensive (unless you get a full Pell Grant and/or qualify for one of their scholarships, then they're much less expensive). For Technology Management, it looks like they'd accept most of your credits as either gen eds or electives. They also seem much more open than the others to helping you plan your degree with alternate credits from places like SDC and Sophia.
  
• TESU will accept some of your credits, but Comp Sci has 30 credits of electives and a BSBA CIS only has 15 credits of electives. They can also cost about as much as Peirce, but it would be split into multiple payments and would be even less if you've got the Pell Grant. They're making changes on January 1st that will make their Comp Sci degrees more difficult to obtain with alternate credit. But it will still be possible to do so, if you plan ahead.
  
• EC should accept many of your credits, but not all of them. You can see the estimated cost breakdown I did earlier in this thread. If you choose EC, dfrecore should be able to help you make a plan for them.
  

There is also UMPI. Unfortunately, right now, they only have a Management Information Systems Business degree and not a true Comp Sci or IT degree as such. But they would probably be the cheapest option, even if most of your EMT/technical credits aren't accepted. They're also true competency-based, with classes being completed either with one project/paper or an exam.

Let us know what you decide, or if you have more questions to help you narrow things down even further.

Thank you. Honestly I probably feel the most comfortable  with WGU since they’re the one I’ve looked into for many years. But if they don’t accept many credits then…I thought they accepted up to 90 transfer? I’m totally ok with not getting much from my emt  classes, as I always assumed they would not transfer anywhere. So if I have to take a whole bunch of sophia classes to fill in gaps, that is fine

I will check out the associates from pierce. No credits from Sophia yet, I did the trial and was going through communications smoothly so I’ll do well with them 

Why not do the composition II at Sophia? Does it not transfer as easily or…? 

Anyways thank you everyone. I appreciate the help