Bachelors Degree Planning Guidance

[intergalacticyam]

Hi All!  I've been reading through so many of these threads the last few days and I'm hoping for a little guidance.  If this is the wrong area, please feel free to move it! 
Essentially, the goal is law school, but unless I want to go to California, I need a bachelor's first.  I'm a pretty accomplished HR-Tech Manager currently, so it seemed like TAMUC's new HRDev degree would be a good choice, but when I found LawShelf, I was enamored.  All of those classes would be amazing to take.  That said, I know most institutions don't accept the NCCRS credits as readily anymore. I got a little overwhelmed trying to consume all of this information after reading through the Wiki, and would appreciate any guidance.


Your Location: Denver
Your Age: 35
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelors
Current Regional Accredited Credits: None
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: None
Any certifications or military experience?: No
Commitments: I have a fulltime day job, but have flexibility being remote. No spouse or kids.
Budget: Ideally less than 10k, but flexible.
Dedicated time to study: 2-3 hrs per day, sometimes more.
Timeline: A year would be ideal, but I want to stay realistic. 
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: Unfortunately not.

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, I didn't know Denver had intergalactic-yam! And I love sweet potato fries! Anyways, LawShelf has a degree partnership with DEAC (NA) Crestpoint U, they're somewhat expensive, so I would design my own degree plan instead by following their degree plan requirements!

This is how I would do things! Get a degree from TAMUC, TESU, or UMPI that allows a max of electives, in fact, take 90+ credits from Sophia.org with their 4 month plan if you need to. Then spend X amount of time getting the classes you want from LawShelf, like the 10 they have in the example degree.

90 credits from Sophia.org in 4 months = $299, 30 credits from LawShelft.com = $300
You should also get some Coursera Certs in Business, IT, PM, etc to round out the education.
You still need to then decide where to finish your degree, the rest of the remaining fees are there.

Yes, if you add the credits together, you get more than 120 (more like 150+) for the trifecta of certs, degree, experience.
10 classes from LawShelf that goes towards Crestpoint: https://www.lawshelf.com/bbaview
Colleges that accept LawShelf classes into their degrees: https://www.lawshelf.com/partnersview

[intergalacticyam]

Welcome to the board, I didn't know Denver had intergalactic-yam! And I love sweet potato fries!  Anyways, LawShelf has a degree partnership with DEAC (NA) Crestpoint U, they're somewhat expensive, so I would design my own degree plan instead by following their degree plan requirements!

This is how I would do things!  Get a degree from TAMUC, TESU, or UMPI that allows a max of electives, in fact, take 90+ credits from Sophia.org with their 4 month plan if you need to.  Then spend X amount of time getting the classes you want from LawShelf, like the 10 they have in the example degree.

90 credits from Sophia.org in 4 months = $299, 30 credits from LawShelft.com = $300
You should also get some Coursera Certs in Business, IT, PM, etc to round out the education.
You still need to then decide where to finish your degree, the rest of the remaining fees are there.

Yes, if you add the credits together, you get more than 120 (more like 150+) for the trifecta of certs, degree, experience.
10 classes from LawShelf that goes towards Crestpoint: https://www.lawshelf.com/bbaview
Colleges that accept LawShelf classes into their degrees: https://www.lawshelf.com/partnersview

Sweet potato fries are the business.  But I just chose my playstation name instead of coming up with anything original lol. Thanks for this feedback!  I noticed their partnership with Crestpoint, but didn't love the value of Crestpoint for what I'd get.   I'm not married to taking EVERYTHING from Lawshelf, I just really enjoyed what I saw. I appreciate the perspective so much, when I started consuming all the info, I got a little anxiety-freeze for a moment. (Forever agonizing over the 'right' choice lol) This is really helpful starting info. THANK YOU.

[karehiro]

I've mentioned this other times but you'll have to treat law school applications a bit differently than the standard advice here of trying to get as many alt-credits as you can because law school is different than most graduate schools. For law school applications you're gonna need a bare minimum of 60 graded credits from RA institutions in order for LSAC (the law school application system) to report your cumulative GPA to schools.

What this means is that if you want to be accepted to any selective law school, you're gonna have to make sure your GPA is reported. Law schools do accept students without a GPA, however they are a tiny minority of outliers and they normally are international students without a 4.0 GPA scale system in their countries. And these students even if they are accepted to good programs are not eligible or recommended for many scholarships that are based on GPA (the other big thing is LSAT score which can qualify you for competitive scholarships, but you'd be precluded from numerous others without a GPA). 

I would recommend taking only 60 alt credits from Sophia/Study.com/other resources before you transfer to an institution like TAMUC or UMPI which gives out RA graded credits. Don't do WGU as their model is a pass/fail system and likewise wouldn't report to LSAC, unless if you were to do your first 60 graded credits at an RA institution (such as a community college or UMPI) and then transfer over.

GPA+LSAT are the two most important things for a law school applicant, far outstripping very other factor, and scholarship offers are also based on those two factors, so take those the most seriously. To this end I'd recommend either UMPI or TAMUC which would fit your purposes and budget the best.

[intergalacticyam]

I've mentioned this other times but you'll have to treat law school applications a bit differently than the standard advice here of trying to get as many alt-credits as you can because law school is different than most graduate schools. For law school applications you're gonna need a bare minimum of 60 graded credits from RA institutions in order for LSAC (the law school application system) to report your cumulative GPA to schools.

What this means is that if you want to be accepted to any selective law school, you're gonna have to make sure your GPA is reported. Law schools do accept students without a GPA, however they are a tiny minority of outliers and they normally are international students without a 4.0 GPA scale system in their countries. And these students even if they are accepted to good programs are not eligible or recommended for many scholarships that are based on GPA (the other big thing is LSAT score which can qualify you for competitive scholarships, but you'd be precluded from numerous others without a GPA). 

I would recommend taking only 60 alt credits from Sophia/Study.com/other resources before you transfer to an institution like TAMUC or UMPI which gives out RA graded credits. Don't do WGU as their model is a pass/fail system and likewise wouldn't report to LSAC, unless if you were to do your first 60 graded credits at an RA institution (such as a community college or UMPI) and then transfer over.

GPA+LSAT are the two most important things for a law school applicant, far outstripping very other factor, and scholarship offers are also based on those two factors, so take those the most seriously. To this end I'd recommend either UMPI or TAMUC which would fit your purposes and budget the best.

This is incredibly helpful, thank you so much

[bjcheung77]

In addition to that, you can always do the double degree or double major, as I mentioned in another thread for a prospective student going for law and other studies that required 60+ graded credits. For example, UMPI BA and UMPI BABA double major... You can get the 60 credits that are graded, and transfer in the 90+ credits I mentioned earlier with Coursera, Sophia, etc...

[ss20ts]

I would recommend taking only 60 alt credits from Sophia/Study.com/other resources before you transfer to an institution like TAMUC or UMPI which gives out RA graded credits. Don't do WGU as their model is a pass/fail system and likewise wouldn't report to LSAC, unless if you were to do your first 60 graded credits at an RA institution (such as a community college or UMPI) and then transfer over.

There have been a handful of WGU grads who went onto law school.