Advise needed on what's feasible on a tight timeline

[victor_pv]

Long story short, I just got laid off from my current job as Lead Systems Admins. by no fault of my own (company decided to lay off x% of the workforce, and took out mostly remote workers). I never completed a degree, thought I started twice. once in Spain and once in the US, and I am wondering what's the fastest and cheapest way to get a degree, whether Bachelor or Associate, to add to my resume to try to move to a manager position.

Longer story:
I'm originally from Spain and started an engineer degree there over 20 years ago, didn't like it and quit after 1 year, and have been working in IT my whole life. I moved to the use 17 years ago, and decided to enroll in a Community college to try for finish a degree. Got into a network security AAS and completed 18 more credits before life got in the way. They also transferred in some credits from my Spanish college. I have a bunch of classes left to complete there that were impossible with my schedule. Very few are online, and even those require meeting at least once in the week during work hours. Now I may have a better chance being unemployed, but I wonder if there is a faster. I also want to find another job as soon as possible, and that would likely get in the way of attending school on week days during work hours.
I considered WGU a while back, and a few months ago I decided to start taking Sophia classes to try to get into the Cybersecurity or a Business Management degree. I got admitted to either at WGU.
At Sophia, I have completed 18 credits, could possibly complete a few more really fast if necessary, and also completed the Google IT support course in coursera (piece of cake due to experience).

From reading all I could find, seems like the BOG degree from Pierpont would have been a golden ticket a few months ago, but I didn't know about it until yesterday.
I have read all posts I could find related to this subject and seems like perhaps UMPI is my best option, but I am not clear what they take in for transfer. I have submitted the application to Pierpont anyway since i saw the conflicting info about 12 credits having to be from them or any RA/NA school (have 24 from my RA community college). Perhaps anyone knows if they make any exceptions or are changing the rules, or another school somewhere offers a similar program.

Can someone tell me if there is any way to obtain an Associate Degree fast and easy with my existing education, no more than a couple of months time? if so, where?

If I can't complete a degree fast, I'd rather not spend any time on it now, and instead focus on getting a new job and perhaps some more IT certifications.


Here are the details:
Your Location: Texas, USA
Your Age: 49
What kind of degree do you want?: Any acredited, either Associate or Bachelor.
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 24

Austin Community College Total Credits: 24 (they show 36 in their system with the transfers from Spain, but I am not sure any other college would take those)
College Algebra, 3, A
Technical Writing, 3, A
UNIX Op Sys I, 3, A
Firewalls & Network Security, 3, A
Network TCP/IP, 3, A
Information Security, 3, A
English Composition I, 3, A
Fundamentals of Networking, 3, A


Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 33

Sophia/Credly  Total Credits: 18
Introduction to Web Development, 3, Pass
US History I, 3, Pass
Environmental Science, 3, Pass
Introduction to Nutrition, 3, Pass
Introduction to Sociology, 3, Pass
Critical Thinking, 3, Pass

Google/Credly  Total Credits: 15
Google IT support, 15, Pass


Any certifications or military experience?
Comptia CTT+
Comptia Storage+
VMware VCP 5, 6, 7, 8

Budget:
as low as possible

Commitments:
None

Dedicated time to study:
Right now as much as needed as I'm unemployed

Timeline:
10 weeks or so, by then my former company stops paying me and I need to have a job

Tuition assistance/reimbursement:
No

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, great initial post to get the ball rolling, you've got the addendum and template done as well. Just curious, you don't have any kids, or pets, how about a spouse? I suggest the balanced mix/match of certs, degree, experience.

Since you're from Spain, it'll not be as controversial when I say the following option, I suggest you do the ENEB double or triple Masters when they have a sale. Have it evaluated as RA Bachelors, Grad Cert, and even have a secondary Validential evaluation as a Masters.

If that's too controversial and you want RA only, then do the UMPI AALS/BLS with a combo of minors, I suggest both PM & MIS. You just add the AALS as a second program and forget it as the BLS with the two minors would complete the AALS.

Last but not least, you can do a combo of both of them, and also get the 3-4 classes towards the MAOL if you ever wanted to get the MAOL later, you'll be 3 classes ahead of schedule and you can probably finish in 1 session for the MAOL vs 2 sessions.

[jg_nuy]

I would recommend UMPI, as you have close to 90 credits and could finish things up in 1-2 sessions. See the plans here:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:UMPI

[victor_pv]

Welcome to the board, great initial post to get the ball rolling, you've got the addendum and template done as well. Just curious, you don't have any kids, or pets, how about a spouse?  I suggest the balanced mix/match of certs, degree, experience.

Since you're from Spain, it'll not be as controversial when I say the following option, I suggest you do the ENEB double or triple Masters when they have a sale.  Have it evaluated as RA Bachelors, Grad Cert, and even have a secondary Validential evaluation as a Masters.

If that's too controversial and you want RA only, then do the UMPI AALS/BLS with a combo of minors, I suggest both PM & MIS.  You just add the AALS as a second program and forget it as the BLS with the two minors would complete the AALS.

Last but not least, you can do a combo of both of them, and also get the 3-4 classes towards the MAOL if you ever wanted to get the MAOL later, you'll be 3 classes ahead of schedule and you can probably finish in 1 session for the MAOL vs 2 sessions.

I have to read what ENEB is, I didn't know about it.
I had a wife and her kids until I divorced 2 years ago, that's the part of life that got in the way when I was taking classes at the community college. After I divorced the only responsibility left is a low maintenance dog.
I have a follow up question, if I am going for the BLS at UMPI, why add the AALS? if I understand everything right, the BLS is the better one to have. If I have to complete it to obtain the AALS, then what's the benefit of adding it, other than having a lesser degree in my resume?

[bjcheung77]

ENEB WIKI is in my signature, controversial for some people, others are just fine with it... I like to max/mix things together to get the most out of what's available as I don't have tuition assistance or reimbursement, I need to get crafty in obtaining the cheap, easy, fast credentials or credits, ENEB is an option to do this...

AALS is a Liberal Studies degree, just like the BLS, the BLS allows minors which means you can minor in MIS, Project Management, etc, whatever you're interested in that they offer, or do the BBA with a concentration they offer. The main reason I get people to do the AALS is because it's FREE and no extra classes or work needed...

Some use the AALS as a spring board, starting point, or target to ladder into the Bachelors, it's like a mini ego boost to get the momentum going. Because there are no extra classes you need to take, some use this to max the electives, and have a minor in CJ, Psychology, or something in addition to the BLS.

What it boils down to is, for UMPI Associates to showcase you've got liberal studies in other subject areas not related to Business, especially for careers or jobs that are looking for more classes in liberal studies subjects. TESU has the AA/AAS/AS ASBA, I tell people to do the same thing, have a different subject matter Associates.