Changed mind about Master's, BLS advice?

[spaindreamer]

Your Location: California, USA
Your Age: 39
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelor's in whatever then ladder to MS in Education Technology, or Instructional Science and Technology from California State University school. I may choose to go for a non-local Master's in Ed Tech or TESOL as I get closer to having to make a choice, but I want to plan for the "harder/longer" path. Applied for UMPI last week thinking BLS minor in Ed, maybe another minor?.

Current Regional Accredited Credits: 20.5

2002-2005 Diablo Valley College: 12.5 credits, 1.65 GPA
COUNS 105 - Orientation to College, .5, CR
ENGL 122 - Freshman English: Comp & Read, 3, D (no credit)
BIOSC 101 - Fundamentals of Bio Science, 3, C
ECON 220 - Principles of Macroeconomics, 3, B
ENGL 122 - Freshman English: Comp & Read, 3, C
COMXC 152G - Adv HTML-Style Sheets & DHTML, 1, F (no credit)
HIST 120 - History of the US before 1877, 3, F (failed twice)
MATH 142 - Elem Statistics/Probability, 4, F (no credit)
PSYCH 210 - General Psychology, 3, F (no credit)
PSYCH 210 - General Psychology, 3 Credits, A

2009/2010 Peralta Community College District: 8 credits, 3.38 GPA
ENGL 5 - Critical Thinking, 3 Credits, A
MATH 2 - Precalculus/Geometry, 5 Credits, B

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 37

Sophia.org Total Credits: 37
All classes 90% or higher
Art History 1, 3
Intro to Statistics, 3
Environmental Science, 3
Intro to Chemistry, 3
Intro to Chemistry Lab, 1
Intro to Ethics, 3
Intro to Info Tech, 3
Intro to Web Dev, 3
Microeconomics, 3
Project Management, 3
U.S.History 1, 3
Spanish 1, 3
Visual Comm, 3
Ancient Greek Philosophers, In progress

Any certifications or military experience?
MCTS Windows Server 2008 Active Directory (old tech cert)

Budget: My work will pay for $1000/year for continuing education, but I would be happy to put another $10k total if necessary for the best path forward.
Commitments: Work fulltime in tech remotely.
Dedicated time to study: I've been able to give about 10-20 hours per week to school stuff. I also do 8 hours per week of Spanish study, and 5 hours per week of music study, that could maybe be reduced during crunch times.
Timeline: I'd like to finish a Bachelor's in 1 year from start at UMPI, faster would be nice but not required. Would like to have 40 graded credits for ease of Master's admission at CSU.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I get free Coursera from the State, Udemy from work, and $1000/year continuing education from my work.

Basically looking for critique of my plan, maybe some advice around how I could strategize my UMPI coursework, leverage coursera to potentially get a second minor related to tech, grab a BOG first or something, etc.

[bjcheung77]

First off, review your previous thread for some info... Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-questions
Secondly, work on your 'technical credits' using Coursera: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid398174
Lastly, it'll be something very similar to what I mentioned here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ABA-or-BAS

Recommendation: Since you have the Coursera freebie and some continuing education stipend, you should capitalize on that with the trifecta of Certs, Degree, Experience.  Start with the Pierpont BOG AAS as you seem to be interested in getting that first, then grab the Coursera/ACE credit freebies for your 'technical credits', apply to UMPI BAS with MIS and Educational Minors... Voila!  This is one of various options, it really depends on how you want to get things done...

[rachel83az]

Check to make sure that the BLS will work for your needs. In some states, a Liberal Studies degree will not work at all. Maybe not even if you get a Master's later. California might be one of these states? If you want to teach a subject like English (you mentioned TESOL), you might need a BA in English.

[spaindreamer]

Thanks again for looking at this and the advice. I started(finished first course already) on an up to 8 ACE credit coursera certificate/pat , "Data Science Fundamentals with Python and SQL" from IBM, and depending on how it goes, I may take the longer course that begins with the same classes. I'll also try to report back ultimately with whatever transfer value it ends up having wherever I end up for the Bachelor's. The coursework is at least 80% stuff I've already done professionally but it will be nice to get "proof" of knowledge via certification.

Per rachel83az, I'm now worried about going the BLS route, I couldn't find any info on California teaching credential requiring a BA or BS, it is usually worded as "Bachelor's" on the credentialing site, but if it is a threat to the degree's acceptance in some states, I might want to look at TESU after all per a potential path on the original thread, I could easily end up anywhere in the PNW of the US or even the East Coast.

Here is what I found as it relates to TESOL:
https://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/leafl...(CL-808CA)

I see most of the wiki for TESU is oriented towards saving money via maximum transfer, but is there a good thread with someone who took 40 credits+ there in a shortish timeframe, like a year? I know way more about UMPI because I've been convinced that I wanted to go that route, but now I'm second guessing and thinking TESU BA in LS with Comsci and Humanites concentrations might be better for my case and then the degree will be an actual BA somewhat related to my hopeful Master's path and enough for the preliminary credential in CA without muddying things with the "BLS" designation.

[rachel83az]

UMPI's BA English would still be a good choice. But going with a BALS at TESU would just have the exact same problem as a BLS at UMPI: It's a Liberal Studies degree, not a subject degree.

It's not about Bachelor/Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science. It's the degree's major that could be the problem. If you want to teach English, you may need an English degree, not a Liberal Studies degree - no matter where it comes from. This doesn't always matter, but it does sometimes matter very much whether you have Liberal Studies vs. English. vs. History, etc.

[bjcheung77]

Great idea coming to the PNW as I am here! East coast isn't too bad either I guess...

From the link you have, the last two words of option d, shows this: Complete a degree major from a regionally-accredited college or university in one of the statutory subjects available for a Single Subject Credential or in liberal studies.

You might want to take a look at WGU instead of CSU unless you can get it done cheaper, easier, faster: https://www.wgu.edu/online-teaching-degr...ure.html#_

[spaindreamer]

Okay, I get it now. Thanks rachel83az. I thought it was the BA/BS designation, not the major, so thanks for clearning that up.

I don't want to teach English to English speakers at all, but yes, I understand if I want a single-subject credential to teach English, (which I think means English for English speakers at above an elementary school level in CA at least), I would need an English degree. So I think the BLS might still be good for anything I'm planning to do in CA at least. The next semester at UMPI Yourpace starts in January, so I think I'm going to see if I can contact CA CTC(credential board) to see if I can get confirmation on TESOL in particular. I might also check the other likely/possible states, WA, and OR for similar. I think I can switch to the BA English Journalism or whatever if needed, but it will not be fun taking somewhat irrelevant and more difficult coursework just to have it be English, which is where I started thinking about TESU again instead. If it is going to take longer, I'd rather just get the degree with Lit more of the focus.

Regarding WGU for Master's, I may go that way depending on how the bachelor's works out and how other personal timelines work out (children, living location, etc.) I'm mostly focused on having the most options for the Master's level when I do have to make that decision, but trying to get a bachelor's that will work to ladder up to any relevant Master's program I may choose. I'm irrationally emotionally attached to the idea of getting a degree from a CA B&M school, but that could change for practical reasons. Up to a $10k swing for that emotional appeal is not off the table. I want to have my first child while I'm in tech/current career still, so the timeline for completing Master's coursework and credential stuff will be a bit less rushed, so the slower pacing could be fine, but I want the Bachelor's as soon as possible for both my current career, take advantage of the employer benefit, and to have it "done" before any potential changes to ACE transfer policies or things like that may happen. I'm a big worrier that suddenly the door will close on these options even though they seem to be increasing rather than decreasing in popularity.

In the end, if I understand the Master's requirements I've seen at local schools and online schools I've looked at, 60 graded credits (which means 40, rather than the minimum 30 from UMPI) should be sufficient(or overly cautious) for Cal State programs, and more than sufficient for a WGU path.

Another tangent, but stream of thought:
Is Yourpace entirely separate from the UMPI Online BA offering for just plain English, like incompatible to do Yourpace for credit/residency, and traditional paced online with out-of-state unit costing for the few courses that are only offered that way? If I had to take a few UL Lit/Writing courses slower paced and a bit more expensive, but I could Yourpace everything else and still have my ACE credits accepted, that could be appealing too.

[rachel83az]

IIRC, we have had one student who took one or two on-campus (or at least non-YourPace) classes and then finished their degree with YourPace. Or maybe the other way around? They took everything they could with YourPace and finished with non-YourPace classes? So it is, indeed, theoretically possible to do that.

But, at that point, TESU might be cheaper.

Another possibility: get the BLS now. If it turns out that you do need a BA English for whatever reason, get it at TESU. If you have a prior Bachelor's degree, the gen eds and electives are covered. You need only complete the capstone and the rest of the AOS. This includes at least 24 new credits. https://iq3prod1.smartcatalogiq.com/en/C...ees-Policy

Granted, doing UMPI -> TESU would be more expensive than just doing TESU alone. But if you don't NEED a subject degree right now, it might make sense to not do the TESU degree unless you actually need to.

[spaindreamer]

Good to know someone has tread that path, useful data.

I thought about the UMPI->TESU option too, and came to a similar conclusion. I just emailed the credential org in CA to clarify if a Bachelor's in LS will work for TESOL, so hopefully that will clear things up.

[bjcheung77]

Since you've set your mind on a degree & TESOL, you can follow this recommendation, UMPI > TESOL > ACE.edu for Masters
Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid398689