Advice on Quick Bachelor's Degree - Mil student

[MilesToGo]

Hello! I would appreciate some help building a plan for Excelsior's BS in Liberal Arts. I have put this off for too long and am just looking to complete a Bachelor's degree as fast as possible. 

Your Location: Hawaii USA
Your Age: 35
What kind of degree do you want?: I just need a Bachelor's in anything, as fast as possible.

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:

2021-05-28, Natural Sciences, Score 57
2021-07-30, Social Sciences And History, Score 59
2021-09-20, College Mathematics, Score 51
2008-05-13, English Composition With Essay, Score 68
2013-08-26, American Government, Score 43
2011-03-16, Info Systems And Computer Appl, Score 62
2021-06-21, Analyze & Interpret Literature, 68

Any certifications or military experience? Yes. I have graduated from both the Chinese-Mandarin and Korean basic language courses at Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). I have an Associates from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) that I am transferring. I also have an AA from DLIFLC, as well. 

Current Plan (120)
I do not have a plan, currently. I believe that DLIFLC offers 45 credits from the school. I know that military training offers credits, so does CCAF, and I have my CLEPs that I mentioned above. I have some very, very old credits awarded when I was a teenager attending community college as a civilian but that was a long time ago. 

Here are the requirements from Excelsior University on this degree:

120 credits are required for the Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts. A structured concentration Logistics Operations Management is also available. A minimum of 12 credits in any two different arts and science distribution areas and 9 credits in the remaining distribution area: humanities, social science/history, and natural science/math. This includes Ethics, and at least 2 credits in college level mathematics and at least 2 credits in natural science.

My main goal is to complete this within the year, as fast as humanly possible. I am comfortable with writing essays so that's not a hurdle but I want to transfer in as many credits as possible towards the Excelsior degree as I can so that I can complete this ASAP.

Thanks for your time

[rachel83az]

Any particular reason why you decided Excelsior and not TESU or UMPI? UMPI would likely be faster and cost less. TESU would cost a bit more than Excelsior, but possibly be easier/faster and accept more of your current credits.

Excelsior requires 30 UL credits, and obtaining them can be a lengthy process - though 6 can come from the cornerstone & capstone. TESU only requires 18 UL credits, with 3 coming from the capstone. UMPI degrees are variable, but it's less than 30 UL credits and you can get them all at UMPI in 1 or 2 sessions (2-4 months).

[MilesToGo]

Any particular reason why you decided Excelsior and not TESU or UMPI? UMPI would likely be faster and cost less. TESU would cost a bit more than Excelsior, but possibly be easier/faster and accept more of your current credits.

Excelsior requires 30 UL credits, and obtaining them can be a lengthy process - though 6 can come from the cornerstone & capstone. TESU only requires 18 UL credits, with 3 coming from the capstone. UMPI degrees are variable, but it's less than 30 UL credits and you can get them all at UMPI in 1 or 2 sessions (2-4 months).

Hey Rachel,

Thanks for the UMPI suggestion. I spent some more time browsing the forum after my post. I will definitely look into UMPI. I'm not sure about their accreditation but I'll research it. 

This is really just a checkbox for me so the faster the better.

[rachel83az]

UMPI is fully RA. It's a state school. Arguably, the name sounds better than TESU or Excelsior (also state schools).

[allvia]

You should write out the courses you have from both of your associate degree (I assume the CLEP exams are part of them).  Saying you have the degrees don't actually tell us what existing credits you have to work with. See this post for format - https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid335173

You may be able to grab quite a few credits with your foreign language skills (LL/UL) by taking ACTFL exams, I know this has often been recommended to gather quick (UL) credits.

Also Excelsior University (EU) is a non-profit RA located in NY, but it's not a state school. TESU (NJ) & UMPI (ME) are both RA state schools. However, RA is what matters more - which all three are.

[dfrecore]

Include your CCAF, JST and old CC courses as well. Those will all come into play for any degree you get (and at least TESU and EU will want to see those credits from your old CC).

The most important will be from the DLIFLC (which may be on your JST), because you may have UL credits covered, which would make a BALS (TESU) or BLS (EU) easier/faster to get.

So put those credits on here ASAP so we can help you figure out which school will be your best bet!

[davewill]

TESU is much cheaper for active military than it is for the rest of us because you can meet the residency requirement with TECEPs (credit by exam). I think it would be cheaper and possibly faster than UMPI. Given your diverse set of credits, I'd enroll at TESU and send in transcripts, just to see how they are applied. I'm not sure if that's a good idea for Excelsior or UMPI, but others will. Having a concrete idea of how your credits apply to a degree would help a lot.

[rachel83az]

Completely slipped my mind, but Excelsior now charges $300 for each transcript evaluation after the first one. I would not recommend them unless you're 99% certain that you have everything locked and loaded for your Excelsior degree.

[dfrecore]

TESU is much cheaper for active military than it is for the rest of us because you can meet the residency requirement with TECEPs (credit by exam). I think it would be cheaper and possibly faster than UMPI. Given your diverse set of credits, I'd enroll at TESU and send in transcripts, just to see how they are applied. I'm not sure if that's a good idea for Excelsior or UMPI, but others will. Having a concrete idea of how your credits apply to a degree would help a lot.

Agreed - especially if you have UL credits.  And we know with almost 100% certainty how credits will apply to TESU.

I'd still put them on here though - so you can find out much earlier than TESU will tell you.

And I didn't notice that you were active duty military, so yes, TESU is a GREAT option for that - you could pay $150/TECEP x 6 = $900, and then $750 each for the cornerstone & Capstone = $1500, add the $298 audit fee and you're at $2698 for tuition and fees there - and then just add the credits you need to finish your degree, of which you may not even need much.  You could graduate this summer.

[ss20ts]

If you're active duty military I would NOT recommend UMPI because they do not allow active duty members any leeway in the schedule. If you can't finish a course by the end of the session, you'll automatically fail. Doesn't matter if you're deployed. I would agree with Dave on TESU and how much more flexible TESU is for military folks especially with the TECEPs counting as RA credit.