Back to school after 23 years

[carebear_007]

The last time I was in school it was to get a Graphic Design Specialist Certificate from a now defunct college.

My self-esteem (especially in a professional setting) has always been affected by my lack of a degree. It's always been my dream to have a bachelor degree and I'd like to start that now during my 40s. I've been trying to get my feet wet and trying to understand all of the requirements, acronyms, and 2021 changes. As a full time working, single parent, who's also home schooling a child due to shelter-in-place, I'd like to choose a degree that I'm already familiar with. For starters, I'm leaning towards psychology more so because of my experience plus the fact that I've ready a lot of self-help books. But I do think that BSBA would be more beneficial for me in this point of my career as an Executive Assistant.

I've laid out my map for both. From what I gather, I need to start with taking the UL classes. Which is the least intimidating out of the classes? I'm afraid that I'll try and then mistakenly choose an incredibly tough class and get intimidated to continue. Also, it seems like Sophia and Study.com are the best places to start. Because I'm a single parent with a minor who I can't leave alone and we're currently in SIP, I can't afford to take a CLEP test outside of my home (at least not now). But I'm sure that'll change towards the end of the year. Without minimizing the hard work that everyone has put in obtaining their degrees as I appreciate and envy everyone that's put in the effort and hard work for their degrees, I'll appreciate any input and please feel free to tell me which path is the least expensive and easiest. Thank you so much

[monchevy]

The last time I was in school it was to get a Graphic Design Specialist Certificate from a now defunct college.

My self-esteem (especially in a work setting) has always been affected by my lack of a degree. It's always been my dream to have a bachelor degree and I'd like to start that now during my 40s. I've been trying to get my feet wet and trying to understand all of the requirements, acronyms, and 2021

You can do it! I'm 57 and I just started in June. Doing it for the same reason as you.

[Merlin]

The last time I was in school it was to get a Graphic Design Specialist Certificate from a now defunct college.

My self-esteem (especially in a work setting) has always been affected by my lack of a degree. It's always been my dream to have a bachelor degree and I'd like to start that now during my 40s. I've been trying to get my feet wet and trying to understand all of the requirements, acronyms, and 2021

You can do it! I'm 57 and I just started in June. Doing it for the same reason as you.

Doing this in your 40's is no big deal. I'm over 50 like monchevy. I completed my bachelor's and master's degrees within the last two years. Primarily for personal satisfaction reasons as described above since I didn't really need the degrees for my career. I'm on hiatus to do some research and relax a bit, but I am planning to start on a Ph.D. or maybe another master's degree within the next year or so.

Age doesn't really factor into it. In fact, it may make getting degrees easier... you've got a lot more life and career experience to draw upon to push through classes faster. Particularly if you take advantage of the competency-based options we outline in this forum. Like using ACE credit sources like StraighterLine, Study.com, etc. in conjunction with schools with high ACE transfer allowances and/or attending a college with competency-based degree programs like WGU, NAU, SNHU, UMPI, Walden, etc.

I'd like to choose a degree that I'm already familiar with. For starters, I'm leaning towards psychology more so because of my experience plus the fact that I've ready a lot of self-help books. But I do think that BSBA would be more beneficial for me in this point of my career as an Executive Assistant.

If I were you, I'd go with whichever one is more interesting to you. Neither is likely to help directly in your job (unless you think you can get a pay increase or move into a better position in your company or another because of the degree). When job hunting, most employers just want to see that you have a bachelor's degree and don't care what it is in. So it really comes down to what you'll enjoy doing since that will go a long way in helping to ensure that you complete the degree.

Personally, I went with a BSBA but nearly all of my GenEd's and electives were Psychology courses. Part of me feels like I would have been happier working on a psychology degree, or at least adding psychology as a second degree. But at the time, I was more concerned about keeping myself motivated to complete the degree quickly so I could move on to an MBA. I am considering going back for an MS in Psychology, which I think would be quite interesting.

Good luck!

[davewill]

A couple of thoughts. Does your company have any sort of tuition assistance? It's a very common benefit, which could be extremely valuable, especially if you have no plans to change careers. What school did you go to before? Even if it's defunct, the credits are possibly still accessible. Generally some other school will be assigned to issue transcripts for former students.

if you've been working as an executive assistant, you'll probably find the coursework for the BSBA to be pretty familiar... And definitely useful if you want to branch out into other jobs in the company. However, if the Psych degree would hold your interest better, I'd go that way. As always, the most valuable degree is the one that you finish. If the business courses will bore you then it will feel like a slog.

[P226mem]

in case you didn't know, modernstates.org is one way to lower the cost of CLEP exam and test center fees. Take their brush up course and get vouchers for free. Won't help with the child care issue with SIP, but if that part gets a solution down the road, and you still need clep exams, be sure to keep that option in mind.

[rachel83az]

Right now, I would not recommend bothering to study for CLEP. Shelter-in-place likely means that the testing centers are closed. Even if they are not closed, there's no guarantee of when you'll be able to even take them. And, honestly, once you account for the lost time and transportation fees for going to the CLEP center, it's cheaper just to use SDC and Sophia anyway.

Also, don't forget that you do need 24 RA credits for a TESU degree. If you have any old college credits, I would apply to TESU ASAP to see where they put the credits. You might be surprised by what they'll accept and where they put it. You should also enroll if you are sure that you want to go to TESU. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Th..._to_Enroll

That said, COSC also has both a BSBA and a Psych degree. They would be slightly cheaper than TESU's offerings, even with the requirement that you take Psych statistics at COSC itself.

Another option is that if you transfer in everything from Sophia, a BSBA from UMPI could be even cheaper still: https://online.umpi.edu/programs/ ss20s and ashkir here are both doing degrees at UMPI. Finishing in 2 or 3 terms (assuming you've transferred in Sophia) is apparently quite doable.

[monchevy]

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you're in your 40s, you likely have many years left in the workforce. The way today's job market works is that you have to apply electronically... and most of those systems will not even allow you to submit an application unless you can check the degree box. It's a required field. I have been shut out of so many opportunities for that reason. You need a degree to even apply now. And you can't sell yourself and your experience unless you can get your CV seen by a human. That should be an incentive to finally get this done. It was for me. I was so tired of being shut out and looked down upon for not having a degree, despite decades of proven experience in my field.

I started in mid-June and I'm already at 75 credits, or halfway through my junior year.

[rachel83az]

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you're in your 40s, you likely have many years left in the workforce. The way today's job market works is that you have to apply electronically... and most of those systems will not even allow you to submit an application unless you can check the degree box. It's a required field. I have been shut out of so many opportunities for that reason. You need a degree to even apply now. And you can't sell yourself and your experience unless you can get your CV seen by a human. 

This is a really good point! I've only ever applied to jobs where a degree isn't required but there are fewer and fewer of those available. And the jobs where a degree isn't required tend to be low-paying ones that probably wouldn't hire someone with decades of job experience anyway. Even if you've been in the same job for years, you never know when your company is going to go under and you're going to be out of work. I'm sure that most of the employees at Enron had no idea that they were going to be out of work soon. So, get that degree! You never know what the future will hold.

[ss20ts]

I am in my mid 40's. I completed 2 associate degrees over 2 decades ago. I went back to school last February just before my entire state shutdown. The struggle was real, but one thing I had to focus on was my coursework. I started off at CSU Global and was very stressed with the amount of work their courses required. I started taking some Sophia courses because Sophia was free at the time. I discovered that I could do a competency based program and set deadlines for myself to complete a course. I actually stuck to those deadlines. This led me to transfer to the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI). I will be completing my bachelor's degree next month. Then I'm off to grad school. UMPI has an online competency based bachelor's degree program. You're on your own schedule. It's up to do to do the coursework. We don't have weekly deadlines like traditional programs. You need to research schools and pick which program works best for you then start taking courses from places that they will accept credit from and work in that degree program. Don't just start taking courses without this or else you'll be wasting time because a lot of courses won't transfer. You can totally do this!!

[carebear_007]

The last time I was in school it was to get a Graphic Design Specialist Certificate from a now defunct college.

My self-esteem (especially in a work setting) has always been affected by my lack of a degree. It's always been my dream to have a bachelor degree and I'd like to start that now during my 40s. I've been trying to get my feet wet and trying to understand all of the requirements, acronyms, and 2021

You can do it! I'm 57 and I just started in June. Doing it for the same reason as you.

Doing this in your 40's is no big deal. I'm over 50 like monchevy. I completed my bachelor's and master's degrees within the last two years. Primarily for personal satisfaction reasons as described above since I didn't really need the degrees for my career. I'm on hiatus to do some research and relax a bit, but I am planning to start on a Ph.D. or maybe another master's degree within the next year or so.

Age doesn't really factor into it. In fact, it may make getting degrees easier... you've got a lot more life and career experience to draw upon to push through classes faster. Particularly if you take advantage of the competency-based options we outline in this forum. Like using ACE credit sources like StraighterLine, Study.com, etc. in conjunction with schools with high ACE transfer allowances and/or attending a college with competency-based degree programs like WGU, NAU, SNHU, UMPI, Walden, etc.

I'd like to choose a degree that I'm already familiar with. For starters, I'm leaning towards psychology more so because of my experience plus the fact that I've ready a lot of self-help books. But I do think that BSBA would be more beneficial for me in this point of my career as an Executive Assistant.

If I were you, I'd go with whichever one is more interesting to you. Neither is likely to help directly in your job (unless you think you can get a pay increase or move into a better position in your company or another because of the degree). When job hunting, most employers just want to see that you have a bachelor's degree and don't care what it is in. So it really comes down to what you'll enjoy doing since that will go a long way in helping to ensure that you complete the degree.

Personally, I went with a BSBA but nearly all of my GenEd's and electives were Psychology courses. Part of me feels like I would have been happier working on a psychology degree, or at least adding psychology as a second degree. But at the time, I was more concerned about keeping myself motivated to complete the degree quickly so I could move on to an MBA. I am considering going back for an MS in Psychology, which I think would be quite interesting.

Good luck!

Wow! Way to go!

I thought about what you said and I looked back at my path. I'm leaning more towards Psychology now.

---

A couple of thoughts. Does your company have any sort of tuition assistance? It's a very common benefit, which could be extremely valuable, especially if you have no plans to change careers. What school did you go to before? Even if it's defunct, the credits are possibly still accessible. Generally some other school will be assigned to issue transcripts for former students.

if you've been working as an executive assistant, you'll probably find the coursework for the BSBA to be pretty familiar... And definitely useful if you want to branch out into other jobs in the company. However, if the Psych degree would hold your interest better, I'd go that way. As always, the most valuable degree is the one that you finish. If the business courses will bore you then it will feel like a slog.

Unfortunately, my work doesn't provide tuition assistance. I'm not particularly married to being an exec asst. I'm open to seeing what else is out there. I went to a technical school called Silicon Valley College. It was a 13 month course just learning about various different software. I wouldn't even know how to find out if there are any transcripts or what I could use them for.

---

in case you didn't know, modernstates.org is one way to lower the cost of CLEP exam and test center fees. Take their brush up course and get vouchers for free. Won't help with the child care issue with SIP, but if that part gets a solution down the road, and you still need clep exams, be sure to keep that option in mind.

I did find out about modernstates just a few days ago. That will definitely be in the back pocket to use for the future.

---

Right now, I would not recommend bothering to study for CLEP. Shelter-in-place likely means that the testing centers are closed. Even if they are not closed, there's no guarantee of when you'll be able to even take them. And, honestly, once you account for the lost time and transportation fees for going to the CLEP center, it's cheaper just to use SDC and Sophia anyway.

Also, don't forget that you do need 24 RA credits for a TESU degree. If you have any old college credits, I would apply to TESU ASAP to see where they put the credits. You might be surprised by what they'll accept and where they put it. You should also enroll if you are sure that you want to go to TESU. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Th..._to_Enroll

That said, COSC also has both a BSBA and a Psych degree. They would be slightly cheaper than TESU's offerings, even with the requirement that you take Psych statistics at COSC itself.

Another option is that if you transfer in everything from Sophia, a BSBA from UMPI could be even cheaper still: https://online.umpi.edu/programs/ ss20s and ashkir here are both doing degrees at UMPI. Finishing in 2 or 3 terms (assuming you've transferred in Sophia) is apparently quite doable.

I just recently signed up for degreeforum and was able to put together some sort of a guide for me to start on. I've thought all these years that the only way to accelerate a degree was through clep. Now I'm seeing all of these other resources and it's so much more promising for a person like me. I narrowed it down to TESU because it's the only place where I was able to find complete comparable courses. I wanted to create a similar path for COSC but was unable to find resources. I hadn't even considered UMPI because it wasn't one of the 'big 3'. I'll definitely look into UMPI also. I wanted to make sure that I start at a school that wouldn't require me to fly there at any given point to have to take a course in person because they wouldn't accept all the credits.

---

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you're in your 40s, you likely have many years left in the workforce. The way today's job market works is that you have to apply electronically... and most of those systems will not even allow you to submit an application unless you can check the degree box. It's a required field. I have been shut out of so many opportunities for that reason. You need a degree to even apply now. And you can't sell yourself and your experience unless you can get your CV seen by a human. That should be an incentive to finally get this done. It was for me. I was so tired of being shut out and looked down upon for not having a degree, despite decades of proven experience in my field.

I started in mid-June and I'm already at 75 credits, or halfway through my junior year.

That's awesome! I wish I had started sooner. The idea was just so intimidating to me. But you know, I tell myself, I went through a horrible divorce and custody battle and have had to learn how to write and file my own declarations in court and represent myself because I couldn't afford a lawyer. If I can do that I should be able to do this. It's just a matter of being determined. What was the very first class did you take?

---

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you're in your 40s, you likely have many years left in the workforce. The way today's job market works is that you have to apply electronically... and most of those systems will not even allow you to submit an application unless you can check the degree box. It's a required field. I have been shut out of so many opportunities for that reason. You need a degree to even apply now. And you can't sell yourself and your experience unless you can get your CV seen by a human. 

This is a really good point! I've only ever applied to jobs where a degree isn't required but there are fewer and fewer of those available. And the jobs where a degree isn't required tend to be low-paying ones that probably wouldn't hire someone with decades of job experience anyway. Even if you've been in the same job for years, you never know when your company is going to go under and you're going to be out of work. I'm sure that most of the employees at Enron had no idea that they were going to be out of work soon. So, get that degree! You never know what the future will hold.

Absolutely! Plus even from a self-esteem stand point, I think it would be so great to have one. I work with so many people who have degrees and I feel like I'm always left with my tail between my legs whenever the topic comes up.