Could I possibly finish in 2 years?

[NAYANN1]

Hello everyone - new member here.

I just wanted to share my situation an what I plan to do and if it is doable. Any advice is appreciated!

So basically I’m technically supposed to be just finishing high school but I did dual enrollment courses full time this past year at my state university (Minnesota Twin Cities). I pretty much followed the computer science program as best I could for the first year so I have approximately a year done.

This summer I’m signing up for physics because that is the last class I’m missing to officially have one year and then also statistics to get started on next year. Right now I have 34 credits and after summer I will have 41.

My ultimate goal would be to finish in 2 years and I need 120 to graduate so I would have to take around 19-20 credits for 4 semesters (2 years) in order to do that.

I understand that is supposed to be a lot but I really want to finish to save the money and time.

Is this doable and is my plan for now good?

[rachel83az]

What credits do you have? Are you wanting a Comp Sci degree? Do you know where you want your degree to be from?

[freeloader]

Firstly, congrats to you on what you have already done!  To have basically completed your first year of college while in high school and having a game plan for finishing college quickly is fantastic.

Ultimately, OP, it really is up to you how doable it would be for you to complete your degree in 2 years.  You have chosen, it seems, a fairly challenging degree program (CS).  Briefly reviewing the UMN CS degree plan, it also seems that there are a lot of course sequences/prerequisites.  Part of the answer will depend on how frequently courses are offered and how well you do in them (don't have to retake/make sufficiently high grade to move to the next course). Part of it will depend on your ability to successfully juggle multiple CS and math classes at one time. Only you can really know that.

The strength of this board is really in helping people find non-traditional college credits and non-traditional ways to complete their degrees.  Rachel had asked about where you want your degree to come from.  If you definitely want a UMN-Twin Cities degree, we probably are going to be of little use to you.  If you are willing to/interested in considering other universities, people here could help with locating courses and degree programs.  This could potentially help you finish your degree more quickly and at a lower cost to you (a lot of that, of course, depends on your financial situation and whether you have Pell grant, scholarships, etc.)

I did a quick search for the alternate credits that UMN-Twin Cities accepts and it seems, unfortunately, to be limited.  It appears they accept 3 CLEP courses for credit--College Math and the two Economics courses.  If you aren't familiar, CLEP is sort of like an AP exam, but you don't have to be a high school student/take a high school class to take the exam.  The math likely wouldn't do anything for you, but the Economics courses might at least fill general elective credits (or possible something like a social sciences requirement, if you haven't met that).  If you search for "Modern States Educational Alliance", they have training materials for the different CLEP exams and will pay the fee for you to take the tests.  It would likely be easier/faster and certainly cheaper to do these CLEP tests than to pay tuition for 6 hours of "filler" classes.

https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/college-le...ram-awards

[NAYANN1]

Firstly, congrats to you on what you have already done!  To have basically completed your first year of college while in high school and having a game plan for finishing college quickly is fantastic.

Ultimately, OP, it really is up to you how doable it would be for you to complete your degree in 2 years.  You have chosen, it seems, a fairly challenging degree program (CS).  Briefly reviewing the UMN CS degree plan, it also seems that there are a lot of course sequences/prerequisites.  Part of the answer will depend on how frequently courses are offered and how well you do in them (don't have to retake/make sufficiently high grade to move to the next course).  Part of it will depend on your ability to successfully juggle multiple CS and math classes at one time.  Only you can really know that.

The strength of this board is really in helping people find non-traditional college credits and non-traditional ways to complete their degrees.  Rachel had asked about where you want your degree to come from.  If you definitely want a UMN-Twin Cities degree, we probably are going to be of little use to you.  If you are willing to/interested in considering other universities, people here could help with locating courses and degree programs.  This could potentially help you finish your degree more quickly and at a lower cost to you (a lot of that, of course, depends on your financial situation and whether you have Pell grant, scholarships, etc.)

I did a quick search for the alternate credits that UMN-Twin Cities accepts and it seems, unfortunately, to be limited.  It appears they accept 3 CLEP courses for credit--College Math and the two Economics courses.  If you aren't familiar, CLEP is sort of like an AP exam, but you don't have to be a high school student/take a high school class to take the exam.  The math likely wouldn't do anything for you, but the Economics courses might at least fill general elective credits (or possible something like a social sciences requirement, if you haven't met that).  If you search for "Modern States Educational Alliance", they have training materials for the different CLEP exams and will pay the fee for you to take the tests.  It would likely be easier/faster and certainly cheaper to do these CLEP tests than to pay tuition for 6 hours of "filler" classes.

https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/college-le...ram-awards

Hi - Thanks so much for your response! 

First off yes - there are lots of prerequisites many of which I have done. Also I should note I already took economics this year so I guess that leaves me with minimal reason to do any clep exams.

Also, I am definitely okay with studying a lot in order to finish sooner.


I am curious- what would these other colleges I could go to to finish even faster because I was planning on just finishing all the way through at Minnesota?

---

What credits do you have? Are you wanting a Comp Sci degree? Do you know where you want your degree to be from?

Hi - thanks for your reply!

So here is what I have:

I have AP credits from AP statistics and US history which gave me some core requirements. (7 credits)

Then this year first semester I took:
Calc 1 - 4 credits
Economics class (core requirement but MN calls them lib-eds) - 4 credits
University writing (university wide requirement) - 4 credits

Second semester:
Calc 2 - 4 credits
Intro CS class - 4 credits
Supplements class (very easy course for core requirement) - 3 credits
Media class (same thing) - 3 credits

Then this summer I am planning on taking physics and the next statistics class which would put me at 40 credits and I need 120 to graduate.

I was planning on finishing at the UMN but I am open to hearing if there are other alternatives that would be faster and legitimately land me a job?

Thanks for your help!

[bjcheung77]

@NAYANN1, you may want to provide more details, the more the better... I would follow the template and answer the relevant information as best you can, this can help us determine a possible course of action and recommendation suitable for your educational goals.  Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

To answer you question, the other colleges we can recommend you for this particular Bachelors in Computer Science are located in the other subforum here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Forum-S...Discussion - You may want to review the wiki also... I suggest SNHU, TESU, WGU as possible options you may want to finish with instead of UMN-Twin Cities.

[dfrecore]

Please list your actual courses in the following way:

course #, full course name, grade if less than a C

If you do this for all of your courses, then we will be able to help more.

I'm not sure if you qualify for free tuition or scholarships at UMN; if you don't, then I'd probably look elsewhere for schools.

If you want a CS degree, I'm going to suggest TESU. It sounds like you could finish in a year or so, depending on how quickly you went through the harder courses in your major. There's also WGU. Franklin University. SNHU. UMGC. Wilmington Univ. APU. Lots of choices from schools that will accept lots of ACE credit.

Last, I know that FHSU has a decent price, much lower than UMN, and they will take up to 60cr of alt-credit including AP, CLEP, DSST and UExcel exams. Those are all great, inexpensive (or even free) options to keep your costs low.

So, if you list your prior courses, and then your AP exams including scores, I can tell you what it would look like at a few schools to give you some options.

[dragonwolf]

Hello everyone - new member here.

I just wanted to share my situation an what I plan to do and if it is doable. Any advice is appreciated!

So basically I’m technically supposed to be just finishing high school but I did dual enrollment courses full time this past year at my state university (Minnesota Twin Cities). I pretty much followed the computer science program as best I could for the first year so I have approximately a year done.

This summer I’m signing up for physics because that is the last class I’m missing to officially have one year and then also statistics to get started on next year. Right now I have 34 credits and after summer I will have 41.

My ultimate goal would be to finish in 2 years and I need 120 to graduate so I would have to take around 19-20 credits for 4 semesters (2 years) in order to do that.

I understand that is supposed to be a lot but I really want to finish to save the money and time.

Is this doable and is my plan for now good?

TESU has a Computer Science Degree. Here is a degree plan for it: https://bit.ly/37MdGLW I think you could easily do the rest in 2 years. You could do the rest on Study.com with the exception of one class which you can take the TECEP exam: Network Technology (UL). Study has the class to prepare for it but the exam is through TESU. Study has placement tests and adaptive learning that allows you to complete classes at a quicker rate and the majority of the classes don't have assignments. 

[rachel83az]

TESU is a tiny bit iffy for Comp Sci at the moment. Possibly nothing will change, but we'll see what happens in July.

[NAYANN1]

Please list your actual courses in the following way:

course #, full course name, grade if less than a C

If you do this for all of your courses, then we will be able to help more.

I'm not sure if you qualify for free tuition or scholarships at UMN; if you don't, then I'd probably look elsewhere for schools.

If you want a CS degree, I'm going to suggest TESU.  It sounds like you could finish in a year or so, depending on how quickly you went through the harder courses in your major.  There's also WGU.  Franklin University.  SNHU. UMGC. Wilmington Univ.  APU.  Lots of choices from schools that will accept lots of ACE credit.

Last, I know that FHSU has a decent price, much lower than UMN, and they will take up to 60cr of alt-credit including AP, CLEP, DSST and UExcel exams.  Those are all great, inexpensive (or even free) options to keep your costs low.

So, if you list your prior courses, and then your AP exams including scores, I can tell you what it would look like at a few schools to give you some options.

Hi - thanks for your response! First of all for next year I have plenty of aid and scholarships from UMN and I should hopefully for the following year as well. 

Here are the actual courses properly listed:


AP Statistics, AP US History

Math 1271 - Calculus 1
Apec 1101 - Principles of Microeconomics
Writ 1301 - University Writing

Math 1272 - Calculus 2
Jour 3751 - Digital Media and Culture
FSCN 1013 - Dietary Supplements: scientific, regulatory, and cultural aspects
CSCI 1133 - Introduction to Computing and Programming concepts

Then this summer I will have STAT 3021 - Introduction to Probability and Statistics and Phys 1301 - [b]Introductory Physics for Science and Engineering I [/b]

I was wondering a few things about TESU then if I were to take that step:

1) would these credits transfer there and also because I am already enrolled in UMN how would I potentially go about transferring there?
2) Can the pell grant be applied there?
3) Is it all online?

Thanks again for your help!

[rachel83az]

1.) Yes, you should be able to transfer everything to TESU. Some of them, like Calculus 1, will go to the major/AOS. The others, like Microecon & Dietary Supplements, will go to electives.
2.) Yes. You may want to take 2 or 3 flat-rate terms of 9-12 credits each to spread out the money and avoid the $3192 residency waiver fee. If you do that, you might want to consider adding the Math degree, a couple of Associate degrees, or a certificate of some kind to give you more bang for your buck, so to speak.
3.) Yes.