Best use of a Pell Grant

[amomwholearns]

Hello everyone. I am confused about some options I have and would like to get your opinion. I am a stay at home mom wanting to get a degree. It's mainly for personal fulfillment, but I think it would be neat to be able to teach English online as a way to help bring income into our house. Outside of that I'm not really sure "what I want to be". 

Originally I was looking into art degrees and I saw that TESU has a BA in Art, but I can't figure out how to get the UL art classes needed for that degree. As mentioned in my title I do have a pell grant so I could take a fair amount of art classes at my CC to meet the requirements of LL art classes. I choose art because it is what I am most interested in and I could see myself teaching art classes in a non-traditional school setting. (think homeschool co-ops and the like) 

I have found one Art History online bachelors degree but it'll cost about $28k per year and that's just not in the budget. 

I have hesitations of using my pell grant and just getting a traditional degree because I honestly don't think I can hold focus for 4 years. We have plans to have children, buy a house, have a wedding, etc. and because I am doing this mainly for a sense of self fulfillment I don't really see that desire lasting once life starts to pick up for us. 

Also, for context I am signed up for Sophia and have taken 18 credits on there, but they don't transfer to my CC.   Aside from that I have nothing. Sophia works well for me because it's self paced and I'm able to get through them fairly quickly which is appealing since I have time on my hands now. 

So my question is what do you think the best use of my Pell grant would be? Does anyone know how to get the UL art credits for the TESU BA in Art? Should I consider another option? I don't want to rule out the possibility of grad school (if I can ever decide what I want to be when I grow up), but at this point that is a far off pipe dream, maybe. 

[ss20ts]

A BA in Art is easiest to do on campus because of the studio art requirements. I've taken numerous studio art courses and they are very time consuming and have to be completed on campus. No way around that. Art history is a bit different, but usually you take a good amount of studio art with it.

First, you need to figure out what degree you want and what you want to do with it. First you say it's for personal fulfillment. Then you want to teach English online. Then you say you want to teach art to homeschoolers.

A Pell Grant is awarded annually. Just because you receive it this year does not mean you will receive it next year or that the amount will stay the same.

[amomwholearns]

A BA in Art is easiest to do on campus because of the art studio requirements. I've taken numerous studio art courses and they are very time consuming and have to be completed on campus. No way around that. Art history is a bit different, but usually us take a good amount of studio art with it.

First, you need to figure out what degree you want and what you want to do with it. First you say it's for personal fulfillment. Then you want to teach English online. Then you say you want to teach art to homeschoolers.

A Pell Grant is awarded annually. Just because you receive it this year does not mean you will receive it next year or that the amount will stay the same.

I guess for me they are all 3 in the same reasons. I don't NEED a degree so getting one would be for personal fulfillment. I was just spitballing the things I could do with it, but none of those reasons are reasons I am actively seeking one.

[hsfamfun]

You do not really need a degree in art to teach art to homeschoolers.  We have local artists in our area who teach art to homeschoolers, but I have no idea if any of them have degrees in it.  By all means, if you are interested, then study art.  However, you CAN get a degree if you would like.  Art is just an area that is very hard to find the upper level classes you will need.  The easiest degrees to get using alternative credit sources that you see on this board are Liberal Arts and Business.  You could take the art classes you are interested in with the Pell Grant at your local CC and put them towards a Liberal Arts degree at one of the Big 3.  You can use any leftover funds from the Pell Grant to fund your alternaive credit classes.