Deciding on UMPI or Study.com

[SyedUsman]

Hey Folks,

I hope everyone's doing great! It's my first post here. I have been following this forum back and forth since 2022, and now I'm finally starting to work on my degree at UMPI. Thanks to you all for this amazing community and for helping and motivating me to work on my degree. I am currently working on BABA PM & IS and looking forward to the Fall 2 Term (27th September deadline).

I am following the degree plan from the wiki and have completed a few Sophia credits so far. Here's a quick overview of my degree plan:

For GEC Requirements:
I am transferring all the courses from Sophia except Objective 4A, for which I'll be attending the UMPI Orientation.

For Business Major:
I am completing the following courses from Sophia:

• Introduction to Business for BUS 101
  
• Financial Accounting for BUS 150
  
• Business Ethics for BUS 353
  
• Macro & Micro Economics for ECO 207
  
• Business Communication for PCJ 215
  
• Calculus I for MAT 140/MAT 131
  
  

For Project Management Concentration:
I’ve completed the following course from Sophia:

• Project Management for BUS 141
  
  

For Free Electives:
I will be transferring 20 credits from Sophia.

After Sophia, I will be doing the following Coursera Certificates:

• IBM 0018: Data Analyst Professional Certificate for BUS 440
  
• IBM 0022: IBM Data Analysis and Visualization Foundation Specialization Certificate for BUS 345
  
• GOOG 0003: Google Project Management Professional Certificate for BUS 400
  
• GOOG 0004: Google Data Analytics Certificate for BUS 245
  
  

After completing the above-mentioned Sophia and Coursera courses, to meet the residency requirement, I need to do 10 courses (30 credits) at UMPI. I am aware that there are these 6 courses from my program which I cannot take anywhere else except at UMPI:

• BUS 200: Intermediate Business Computing
  
• BUS 325: Financial Management
  
• BUS 469: Strategic Professional Communication
  
• BUS 343: Project Risk & Cost Management
  
• BUS 359: IT Project Management
  
• BUS 401: Advanced Project Management Applications II
  
  

Along with these courses, I need to take 4 more courses to meet my residency requirement at UMPI. These are the four courses remaining from the business major and PM concentration, and they are available on Study.com and can be transferred as well:

• BUS 220: Managerial Accounting
  
• BUS 244: Management Information Systems
  
• BUS 240: Change Management
  
• BUS 415: Operations Management
  
  

Now here's my main question: Should I take these courses at UMPI along with the other 6 courses to meet the residency requirement, or should I complete these courses on SDC and take some electives or easier courses at UMPI for the remaining 4?

Honestly speaking, I am paranoid about SDC as it has proctored exams, and I am not sure if I’ll be able to manage it. What would be the best strategy for me to finalize my 10 UMPI courses that would be easiest and fastest comparatively?

I really want to complete my degree in one term as I cannot afford a second term, so the main goal here is to complete everything in Fall 2. Given this scenario, what would be better? Also, just FYI, I'll be working on Sophia, Coursera, and also Duolingo and WES evaluation (International student). So given all that, should I work on SDC as well or leave these courses for UMPI?

I would really appreciate it if someone can suggest the easiest and fastest courses to take at UMPI as per my program and give suggestions for the current decision. Thank you!

[bjcheung77]

@SyedUsman, Great intro post with nicely formatted information! Having said that, you're missing the addendum and template! It's best to provide more details as it would show your budget, commitments, study habits and allow us to 'gauge' your previous studies up to this point. Your best option is to get as many transferred credits as possible before starting the session, when you've max the transfer credits (or more), you can take the remaining 30 credits from UMPI and be done with it...

[Kjnova]

I took 220 and 244 at UMPI. I took the equivalents for 240 and 415 at SDC.

None of those four classes (2 at UMPI and 2 at SDC) were particularly troublesome or difficult. I probably picked 240 and 415 to take at SDC because I read a review indicating that they were longer at UMPI, although I do not remember specifics. You can check the UMPI class thread to see if there are any recent reviews of any of those classes.

My general opinion is, in a vacuum, I would rather take a UMPI class than a SDC class. I find the format more engaging and in a sense easier - the material itself is usually harder, if anything, but the SDC format to me feels like chewing glass sometimes. Getting through those quizzes is a chore.

However, there could be good reasons to do them at SDC, mainly, if you have time before your term, and you can do them at SDC now but would have to wait to do them at UMPI. I think it's always best to do as much as you can before the term. That gives you more options, such as adding a minor, or taking the fastest electives you can find, or whatever fits your goals the best.

Good luck!

[SyedUsman]

@SyedUsman, Great intro post with nicely formatted information!  Having said that, you're missing the addendum and template!  It's best to provide more details as it would show your budget, commitments, study habits and allow us to 'gauge' your previous studies up to this point.  Your best option is to get as many transferred credits as possible before starting the session, when you've max the transfer credits (or more), you can take the remaining 30 credits from UMPI and be done with it...

@bjcheung77 How can I do it? Can you please share it here with me? Thanks!

---

I took 220 and 244 at UMPI. I took the equivalents for 240 and 415 at SDC.

None of those four classes (2 at UMPI and 2 at SDC) were particularly troublesome or difficult. I probably picked 240 and 415 to take at SDC because I read a review indicating that they were longer at UMPI, although I do not remember specifics. You can check the UMPI class thread to see if there are any recent reviews of any of those classes.

My general opinion is, in a vacuum, I would rather take a UMPI class than a SDC class. I find the format more engaging and in a sense easier - the material itself is usually harder, if anything, but the SDC format to me feels like chewing glass sometimes. Getting through those quizzes is a chore.

However, there could be good reasons to do them at SDC, mainly, if you have time before your term, and you can do them at SDC now but would have to wait to do them at UMPI. I think it's always best to do as much as you can before the term. That gives you more options, such as adding a minor, or taking the fastest electives you can find, or whatever fits your goals the best.

Good luck!

@Kjnova This is super helpful!! Thank you so much, Brother! I have a quick question for you. Let's say I follow your path and take 240 and 415 at SDC. To fill this gap, what UMPI courses would you suggest I take? Are there any easiest and fastest UMPI courses, something like a one or two-day course, that I could add instead of 240 and 415?

[ss20ts]

@Kjnova This is super helpful!! Thank you so much, Brother! I have a quick question for you. Let's say I follow your path and take 240 and 415 at SDC. To fill this gap, what UMPI courses would you suggest I take? Are there any easiest and fastest UMPI courses, something like a one or two-day course, that I could add instead of 240 and 415?

You won't find 1 or 2 day courses at UMPI. Until all of the Milestones are passed, you cannot submit the FA. In a few courses, you can't even see the FA until the Milestones are passed. Keep in mind that professors have 72 hours to grade assignments. Some take longer. Some take less time.

[Kjnova]

There are different ways to measure time. One, a major one in how I've approached this, is time between when you start and when you can work on your FA draft. For that, probably the fastest classes I have taken have been HTY 439, HTY 489, and BUS 469. Of those, the FA was simpler on the two HTY classes. There are many classes I have not taken, so I can't say these are the very fastest, but they are fast. The two HTY classes have two milestones that are 500-word essays, and then FAs that are 1500-word papers.