Psychology Bachelor’s I can complete in 10 months from scratch? + How can I help out?

[wiggle932]

Been doing a lot of research on this forum, Reddit, and the Wiki to find the program that’s right for me (Perplexity Spaces and making a You.com agent were much easier for finding relevant answers on this site than the search function ). It looks like UMPI is going to be the right choice for me, but I want to confirm with the folks here first.

I’m looking to become a school psychologist and want to apply to brick-and-mortar graduate programs in Texas next January. I researched the programs in Texas and they generally want to see a GPA for the final 60 credit hours, so if I’m not mistaken, I’ll have to do half of my credits (20 courses) at the bachelor’s program I choose.

Your Location: Texas, USA
Your Age: 23
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelor’s in Psychology
Current Regional Accredited Credits: None
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: None. I know that Sophia and Study.com are going to be important for getting ACE credits.
Any certifications or military experience? No
Budget: $12,000
Commitments: 30-40 hours per week of substitute teaching at various schools, volunteering in professional school psychology associations
Dedicated time to study: 25 hours per week
Timeline: Need a degree by the end of 2025, so 10 months from now.
Other info: I don’t do well on exams unless they’re open-book. I prefer to write, and if I’m not mistaken, SNHU and UMPI are the only universities where I can complete a degree without exams.

My priorities are getting a high GPA to be competitive for grad school, and earning the degree by the end of 2025 so I can apply by the grad school deadlines in January.

My questions:

1. Grad schools generally want transcripts from all universities attended - how often have y’all heard of grad schools asking for the ACE credit transcripts from places like Sophia and Study.com? Do the grades in those courses show up on the university transcript, or do they just show as transfer credit? Asking because I plan to not focus much on my general education ACE credit courses and just earn minimum passing grades.
   
2. Which universities are best for my situation? UMPI and SNHU seem like the only viable choices since a degree can be earned without exams, but I know that SNHU allows only up to 3 courses per 2-month/8-week term, so I can’t complete 20 courses in 10 months.
   
3. Anything else I should be aware of? Feel free to share links to other threads that would be useful for my situation.
   
4. I’m in serious awe at the involvement of some of the users here like @bjcheung77, @rachel83az, and @LevelUP, volunteering to help people out like me. Curious about what motivates y’all to voluntarily spend so much time here, especially when you have other obligations? How can I give back as someone who is new to this and can’t offer much advice? Perhaps I could provide my degree plan on the wiki once I’ve finished the degree?
   

[jg_nuy]

UMPI is competency based, so you are only limited in the number of classes that you can take in an 8 week session by your time, availability and ability to write for them. Here is the psychology degree plan and the general education links:

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...ts_Roadmap
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan

For ACE credits, if needed for the grad application, you should be able to send via Credly, which has no grades. Otherwise you can submit a transcript via Parchment.

Here is a link to minors in case you want to add any
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_!Minors

[LevelUP]

If you plan to take 20 courses at an online college, UMPI is by far the best option for saving both time and money.

Be sure to take statistics for your math requirement, as many master's programs have it as a prerequisite.

[Vle045]

Great choice! I work in Special Education. We always need school psychologists

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, you can do the BA Psychology degree and add some additional classes or even a second major. With the budget and time you have set aside for your educational journey, you can do the following: BA Psychology & BABA with a concentration of your choice, you can transfer in all the gen eds, electives, plus some of the classes for each major...

Basically, I would then select the 20 classes that can't be transferred and if you need an extra few classes, you can take the 3-4 that can go towards the MAOL. Completing the double major will prepare you for both Business & Psychology related fields, instead of just Psych related professions... You should work on a balanced mix/match trifecta of certs, degree, experience...