CJ AS to BA or BS with minimal class time?

[AnalysisParalysis]

Hello,

After much reading and researching I think I am on the right path, but I want to get some input before I start anything.  

I have 17 years of law enforcement(non-sworn) work experience at the local government level.  I’m looking to get a BA/BS, but the benefit of getting it isn’t huge so it is only worth it if I can utilize methods here of minimizing the time commitment from me.  After transferring RA credits, I prefer DSST over ACE, but any ACE credits I can get is better than enrolling in an actual course.  Any direction or assistance is appreciated.  Thank you!

Your Location: California, United States. 
Your Age: Old enough
What kind of degree do you want?: Any BA or BS
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 
CA community college - AS Criminal Justice 77 Units
Most of the core classes:
Intro- Criminal Justice
Intro-West Civilization
Concepts-Criminal Law
Principles/Procedures-Justice System
English Comp
College Algebra
CJ - Community Relations
Intro-Probation/Parole/Corrections
Physical Geology w/Lab
Intro to Philosophy
Contemporary Urban Issues
Social Problems
Legal Aspects of Evidence
Juvenile Procedure
Botany
Criminal Justice Report Writing
Narcotics Investigation
Elementary Spanish I

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 
Do FEMA Courses get me anything?
G-191 Incident Command System (ICS)/Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Interface
G-606 The Standardized Emergency Management System Introduction
G-626E Essential EOC Action Planning
G-775 EOC Management and Operations
IS-100 An Introduction to the Incident Command System
IS-200 Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response
IS-230.d Fundamentals of Emergency Management
IS-247.a Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)
IS-248 Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) for the American Public
IS-251 Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS for Alerting Authorities
IS-320 Wildfire Mitigation Basics for Mitigation Staff
IS-325 Earthquake Basics Science Risk and Mitigation
IS-368 Including People with Disabilities and Others with Access and Functional Needs in Disaster Operations
IS-453 Introduction to Homeland Security Planning
IS-700 An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
IS-706 NIMS Intrastate Mutual Aid an Introduction
IS-800 National Response Framework, An Introduction
IS-2905 Coordinating Health and Social Services Recovery

Any certifications or military experience?
Certified Forensic Video Technician (was 80 hours of training at University of Indianapolis in 2016, unsure if I have any credit from those hours with UI)
FAA Single Engine Land Licensed Pilot (2015) I read this can be used towards a BS in Technical Studies at TESU?

Budget: Not a significant factor

Commitments: I work full time and don’t have much free time, but I can take random days off here and there without an issue to go to a testing center.  I should be able to make time for self paced online study.

Dedicated time to study: I can study while multitasking and am a great test taker if I have a good study outline of the material.  Generally if I read it once and test soon after I score over 90%.

Timeline: I would like to finish as quick as I can, not because I need to but because I don’t want to lose focus when life gets busy.

[rachel83az]

When you say "any" degree, that doesn't mean a lot. Do you hate certain subjects? Would you prefer a degree in CJ or something new?

The degrees we recommend here don't generally require travel to a testing center. Exams, if any, are usually taken on your home computer. Why do you prefer DSST to ACE?

How do you feel about essays vs. exams?

Do you have a laptop or PC at home? Some students only have phones, tablets, or Chromebooks and that won't work.

[AnalysisParalysis]

When you say "any" degree, that doesn't mean a lot. Do you hate certain subjects? Would you prefer a degree in CJ or something new?

The degrees we recommend here don't generally require travel to a testing center. Exams, if any, are usually taken on your home computer. Why do you prefer DSST to ACE?

How do you feel about essays vs. exams?

Do you have a laptop or PC at home? Some students only have phones, tablets, or Chromebooks and that won't work.

Thanks for the reply!

I am open to "any" subject that can maximize my experience and current credits, which I assume would probably be a CJ degree, which is fine.  Other subjects I would be strong in would be Public Administration, Project Management, Computer Science, or Information Technology. However, I suspect I wouldn't have as much of a head start in those subjects.  I was looking at a BA in CJ from UMPI or TESU, but I am very open to other subjects.

I prefer DSST to ACE as I am under the impression that I can complete them quicker.  I would rather take a 2-3 hour test than an online course that takes me much longer.

I strongly prefer exams over essays.

I have a PC at home.

[ss20ts]

If you want UMPI, then you need to go with ACE credits. You'll only be able to transfer in 90 credits that apply to your degree. You can transfer in 150 credits, but only 90 will apply to the degree so you need to figure out what you need to complete the degree. UMPI is mostly papers/projects. FEMA credits unfortunately aren't worth much anywhere today.

Having a head start isn't as important as being able to complete courses quickly. What you've already taken may transfer or it may not. Too late to really worry about it. It's all about seeing what you have already done that applies to what you have left to do and moving forward. You're not stuck in CJ. You could go for a BABA with PM Concentration or the BLS with PM Minor. Just going by the title of many of your CJ courses they will be electives and not fulfill specific course requirements. This is true for many schools not just UMPI. You didn't name the college you attended so we can't check UMPI's transfer database.

[rachel83az]

I prefer DSST to ACE as I am under the impression that I can complete them quicker.  I would rather take a 2-3 hour test than an online course that takes me much longer.

This really depends on the courses in question. Unless you are already quite knowledgeable in the subject(s) in question, it often takes longer to study for a DSST exam than it would take to complete a Sophia or Study.com course.

I strongly prefer exams over essays.

This mostly prohibits any degrees from UMPI. UMPI is mostly essays and very few exams.

I am open to "any" subject that can maximize my experience and current credits, which I assume would probably be a CJ degree, which is fine.  Other subjects I would be strong in would be Public Administration, Project Management, Computer Science, or Information Technology. However, I suspect I wouldn't have as much of a head start in those subjects.  I was looking at a BA in CJ from UMPI or TESU, but I am very open to other subjects.

A CJ degree from TESU is essentially impossible at this time unless you happen to have just the right courses to fit the AOS. You can apply to TESU for an evaluation, to see where your current classes go and what you'd still have to take. But it'd probably be faster for you to do something else. Based on the above, possible TESU degrees for you would include BA Computer Science, BS Org Leadership, BS Professional Studies, BSBA General Management, BSBA HR/Org Management, and BSBA Operations Management.

Unfortunately, DSSTs are almost entirely LL exams right now. Even if you're dead set on utilizing as many DSST exams as possible, there are very few that would even be worthwhile for you to take at this point.

[bjcheung77]

@AnalysisParalysis, Instead of being stuck deciding which degree/school to complete your requirements, you can do the following:
1) Apply to Excelsior BSLA, TESU BALS, UMPI BLS - you have from 30-60 free electives credits and it checks the box

2) Create a spreadsheet to compare the program requirements, courses you currently have, costs, etc to finalize your plan
3) Decide if you want to use CLEP/DSST, or Sophia.org, other ACE/NCCRS for lower level and where you want to get your upper level requirements.  Excelsior/TESU will accept both ACE/NCCRS, UMPI you need 30 residency credits and the bulk of that should be upper level.

Note: You can get by with mainly all test-out options with Coopersmith, LawShelf, TECEPS and CLEP/DSST if you wanted to get an Excelsior BSLA or TESU BALS, but they still require the cornerstone/capstone which are not exams, they're courses where you have written assignments to complete.  You're close to maximizing your transfer credits at UMPI, you can transfer up to 113/114 to EU/TESU.

[althedude]

When you say "any" degree, that doesn't mean a lot. Do you hate certain subjects? Would you prefer a degree in CJ or something new?

The degrees we recommend here don't generally require travel to a testing center. Exams, if any, are usually taken on your home computer. Why do you prefer DSST to ACE?

How do you feel about essays vs. exams?

Do you have a laptop or PC at home? Some students only have phones, tablets, or Chromebooks and that won't work.

Thanks for the reply!

I am open to "any" subject that can maximize my experience and current credits, which I assume would probably be a CJ degree, which is fine.  Other subjects I would be strong in would be Public Administration, Project Management, Computer Science, or Information Technology. However, I suspect I wouldn't have as much of a head start in those subjects.  I was looking at a BA in CJ from UMPI or TESU, but I am very open to other subjects.

I prefer DSST to ACE as I am under the impression that I can complete them quicker.  I would rather take a 2-3 hour test than an online course that takes me much longer.

I strongly prefer exams over essays.

I have a PC at home.

Hello!

I'm a senior at my university. I'm studying Cyber Security and I'll be graduating this August, if all goes well. 

With your background in law enforcement, I'd say that could be something for you. Just imagine this: you graduate with your degree and you enter the tech job market. Your local police dept needs someone who can manage their IT department, or better yet, they need someone for their Digital Forensics team, and that's a class that may be offered at a university that offers Cyber Security! The DF class I'm taking is the best class I've taken during the entire time I've been at my university. 

My point is that with your experience in law enforcement, that's probably already your ticket in. This could apply for NSA or FBI or any government job, I'd assume. Just my two cents! Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to help out!

[dfrecore]

First, I want to point out that DSST exams ARE ACE credit - ACE is the reason these are worth college credit. But I understand wanting exams rather than courses.

Second, you did not put your course info, and that's going to better help us figure this out. You need this info:
- Course #, Full course name, # of credits, grade if less than a C - this way we can know what will transfer and what won't

Last, you have 2 options that I can see:
1) a liberal studies degree which utilizes your credits as much as possible (meaning fills out your GE and then allows for a lot of free electives) - EU or UMPI are your best bets here
2) a CJ degree - TESU is not an option, since you can't get the UL credits you need to get this degree, UMPI is your only option

So you'd need to decide between the 2, and then we can give you more info.

One thing to consider - You have a lot of UMPI's GEC done already, and the rest can be done via CLEP/DSST/Sophia/other ACE providers. Even though each course you take their will require a written paper (or at least most of them), it probably adds up to the amount of writing you need to do for the TESU/EU Capstone (my TESU final paper was 25 pages minimum, in addition to to the other writing required in the course). EU's GE is easier to fill, and you can do a lot of the UL requirements via Coopersmith (exam-based) so you might like that better - right up until you have to do the capstone. You are going to be writing a lot, whether you like it or not.

[althedude]

When you say "any" degree, that doesn't mean a lot. Do you hate certain subjects? Would you prefer a degree in CJ or something new?

The degrees we recommend here don't generally require travel to a testing center. Exams, if any, are usually taken on your home computer. Why do you prefer DSST to ACE?

How do you feel about essays vs. exams?

Do you have a laptop or PC at home? Some students only have phones, tablets, or Chromebooks and that won't work.

Thanks for the reply!

I am open to "any" subject that can maximize my experience and current credits, which I assume would probably be a CJ degree, which is fine.  Other subjects I would be strong in would be Public Administration, Project Management, Computer Science, or Information Technology. However, I suspect I wouldn't have as much of a head start in those subjects.  I was looking at a BA in CJ from UMPI or TESU, but I am very open to other subjects.

I prefer DSST to ACE as I am under the impression that I can complete them quicker.  I would rather take a 2-3 hour test than an online course that takes me much longer.

I strongly prefer exams over essays.

I have a PC at home.

Hello!

I'm a senior at my university. I'm studying Cyber Security and I'll be graduating this August, if all goes well. 

With your background in law enforcement, I'd say that could be something for you. Just imagine this: you graduate with your degree and you enter the tech job market. Your local police dept needs someone who can manage their IT department, or better yet, they need someone for their Digital Forensics team, and that's a class that may be offered at a university that offers Cyber Security! The DF class I'm taking is the best class I've taken during the entire time I've been at my university. 

My point is that with your experience in law enforcement, that's probably already your ticket in. This could apply for NSA or FBI or any government job, I'd assume. Just my two cents! Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to help out!

[lisarox]

I am very interested In learning more about that Certified Forensic Video Technician training though.