Degree Advice for a semi-successful dropout

[oraibihm]

Your Location: Fairfax, Virginia, United State

Your Age: 24 

What kind of degree do you want?: I’m currently most interested in a BABA M&L from UMPI, and highly considering a minor in project management. I am a VP of Sales currently without a degree, but in the future I’d like to start my own company and feel like I should build more credibility behind my name while I can. I plan on going to a top MBA program in 4-6 years and obviously need a bachelors degree to do so. All I care about is getting a degree, with a GPA, as fast as possible and I don’t mind the cost.

Budget: I’ve been doing very well for myself and am fortunate enough to be able to afford any program out there.
Commitments: My full time job and my partner are my only commitments, I travel pretty often but if I do the 8 week session with UMPI I plan on staying home and locking in.
Dedicated time to study: I’m free outside of the 9-5, I started Sophia last week and have been doing 2-3 hours per day, longer on weekends.
Timeline: Fast as possible!
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: No

Current Regional Accredited Credits: 

Virginia Commonwealth University Total Credits: 133

Yes I have that many credits and no degree, I’m missing 6 credits to graduate but my final course is an in person unpaid internship that requires 20 hours per week, which I just am not willing to leave my job in order to complete. It was also towards a Health Science degree. I did not include every single class since I just don’t believe every single one is needed.

CHEM 101 General Chemistry I with Lab, 4, A
CHEM 102 General Chemistry II with Lab, 4, A
CHEM 301 Organic Chemistry I with Lab, 4, A
CHEM 302 Organic Chemistry II with Lab, 4, A
CHEM 309 Quantitative Analysis with Lab, 4, C
CHEM 398 Chem capstone, 1, A
CHEM 403 Biochemistry I, 3, A
BIOL 151 Intro to Biological Science I with Lab, 4, A
BIOL 152 Intro to Biological Science II with lab, 4, A
BIOL 205 Human Anatomy, 4, A
BIOL 300 Cellular & Molecular Biology, 3, B
BIOL 492 Independent Study, 3, A
UNIV 111 Focused Inquiry I, 3, A
UNIV 112 Focused Inquire II, 3, A
MATH 200 Calculus, 4, B
MATH 201 Calculus 2, 4, B
PHYS 201 General Physics I with Lab, 4, A
PHYS 202 General Physics II with Lab, 4, A
GLED 301, Planning for Global Leadership, 3, A
GLED 302, Preparing for Global Leadership, 3, A
HPEX 250 Medical Terminology, 1, A
HPEX 300 Healthcare Delivery in the US, 3, A
HPEX 310 Fitness and Health, 3, A
HPEX 345 Nutrition for Health and Disease, 3, A
HPEX 352 Substance Abuse, 3, A
HPEX 353 Disease Trends, Prevention, and Control, 3, A
HPEX 358 Intro to Epidemiology, 3, C
SOCY 101 Intro to Sociology, 3, A
PSYC 101 Intro to Psych, 3, A
PSYC 304 Life Span Developmental Psychology, 3, B
PHIS 206 Human Physiology with Lab, 3, A
INNO 200 Intro to Innovation, 1, A
RELS 108 Human Spirituality, 3, A
STAT 210 Statistics, 3, A
INSC 201 ENERGY!, 3, A
GSWS 201 Gender Studies, 3, A

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 

Sophia Learning Total Credits: 33

Each class was above 90% so I didn’t put exact numbers on every course.

Intro to IT, 3
Intro to Ethics, 3
Intro to Business, 3
Art History I, 3
US History I, 3
Microeconomics, 3
Macroeconomics, 3
Financial Accounting, 3
Intro to Relational Databases, 3
Business Law, 3
Business Communications, 3

Any certifications or military experience? None

Additional info: I’m an incredible test taker, my preference would be exams if possible and self paced but I’m perfectly fine with writing as well. Like I previously mentioned, I just want to do this as fast as possible so if the school only does written assignments, I can do those too, I just won’t be doing them happily haha but I don’t mind. I would love assistance in figuring out what I need to take, from any source, so that I can enroll in UMPI with only 10 courses to take and get the BABA M&L Major with a Project Management minor. Or if you have another idea that would be better for me, I would love to hear it! I appreciate each and every one of you for reading this far.

[davewill]

You left out English courses, but I'm going to assume you have all of the normal GenEds. In your shoes, I'd seriously consider a TESU BSBA. You have all of the RA credits you'd need, and only have to do the cornerstone and capstone courses at TESU. You'd be able to take everything else at Sophia or Study.com, and I don't think it would be very much. UMPI would be cheaper, but you'd have to take 10 courses there, each with papers and tests.

Now, the capstone does have some significant writing, but I'd think it would be the kind of thing that a VP would handle pretty easily. You'd also have to pay the residency waiver, but it sounds like an easier path would be more valuable.

EU might be a very similar option, I just don't know the details there as well.

[bjcheung77]

@oraibihm, Welcome to the board... Interesting, very interesting, you're almost done with that previous degree, but it has come to this... I think of two options, either you can stick it out with the UMPI BABA Management & Leadership or you can do the TESU BSBA GM and BALS NSM dual degree combo with your credits! Just pay for the two capstones, cornerstone, two e-packs, and done in one flat rate term instead of a residency waiver, either way (TESU or UMPI), you'll be done in under 5K...

[rachel83az]

With so many credits, I agree that TESU will probably be faster for you than UMPI even if it will also cost more.

If speed is more important than cost, I would apply to TESU asap and send in your current transcripts. That way you can see just how close you are. In theory, you could start the capstone & cornerstone as soon as October and be done to graduate in March.

With UMPI, you'd need to start not this upcoming session, but the next in about two months - starting at the end of October. If it takes you two sessions to complete the 10 courses (and it may be three sessions), you're finishing at the end of February (maybe even the end of April, if it takes 3 sessions). With how slow UMPI can be with issuing degrees, the earliest you'd probably get your degree would be the end of March/April.

[freeloader]

Out of curiosity OP, how close are you to completing a BS with a concentration in chemistry or biology at VCU?  Seems like it might only be a couple of courses?

[oraibihm]

You left out English courses, but I'm going to assume you have all of the normal GenEds. In your shoes, I'd seriously consider a TESU BSBA. You have all of the RA credits you'd need, and only have to do the cornerstone and capstone courses at TESU. You'd be able to take everything else at Sophia or Study.com, and I don't think it would be very much. UMPI would be cheaper, but you'd have to take 10 courses there, each with papers and tests.

Now, the capstone does have some significant writing, but I'd think it would be the kind of thing that a VP would handle pretty easily. You'd also have to pay the residency waiver, but it sounds like an easier path would be more valuable.

EU might be a very similar option, I just don't know the details there as well.

Hey, sorry about that. VCU actually names their english courses pretty weirdly. Their normal english classes are UNIV 111 and UNIV 112 which I listed above, I also have taken a more "normal" named course, ENGL 215 Writing Composition. I haven't done too much research into TESU but will look into it today, thank you!

---

@oraibihm, Welcome to the board... Interesting, very interesting, you're almost done with that previous degree, but it has come to this... I think of two options, either you can stick it out with the UMPI BABA Management & Leadership or you can do the TESU BSBA GM and BALS NSM dual degree combo with your credits!  Just pay for the two capstones, cornerstone, two e-packs, and done in one flat rate term instead of a residency waiver, either way (TESU or UMPI), you'll be done in under 5K...

@bjcheung77, thanks for the welcome! That dual degree from TESU sounds really interesting, TESU seems to be the general recommendation so far, I wish I gave it some thought sooner!

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With so many credits, I agree that TESU will probably be faster for you than UMPI even if it will also cost more.

If speed is more important than cost, I would apply to TESU asap and send in your current transcripts. That way you can see just how close you are. In theory, you could start the capstone & cornerstone as soon as October and be done to graduate in March.

With UMPI, you'd need to start not this upcoming session, but the next in about two months - starting at the end of October. If it takes you two sessions to complete the 10 courses (and it may be three sessions), you're finishing at the end of February (maybe even the end of April, if it takes 3 sessions).  With how slow UMPI can be with issuing degrees, the earliest you'd probably get your degree would be the end of March/April.

I actually intended on doing the 10 courses in one session at UMPI, I really am a workaholic so I thought I could pull it off, then I would be done by the end of the year. I don't mind how long the school takes to send out the actual degree, I just want to finish the actual course work ASAP. I'm about to do my own research on TESU, does anyone know if I'd finish it before December? I see your message says I'd graduate in March.

---

Out of curiosity OP, how close are you to completing a BS with a concentration in chemistry or biology at VCU?  Seems like it might only be a couple of courses?

It's such a few amount of courses, but they're not self paced and they're in person in Richmond, VA. Which I live 2 hours from and I don't want to commute or move just for those courses. I also believe a business degree is better for me long term and for my future goals.

[dfrecore]

If it were me, I'd be going back to VCU to try to work out some sort of plan to complete the degree by NOT doing an in-person internship - there may be something you can work out with the dean of the school to complete this in another way. You simply cannot be the only person who has to work FT in college (I did all the way through as well - 2 jobs at times).

If that is a hard no, then I'm taking all those credits and going to get THE fastest degree possible. You've obviously spent a ton of time going to school already, and have a high GPA - so there's no need to get more graded credits. Instead, I'm getting a TESU BALS and getting the heck done. Since you're going for an MBA later, and most do not require a BSBA to get in, you don't really NEED one.

If later, you find that they have a bunch of pre-reqs to get in (many don't), then I guess you could go back and do the UMPI BABA, but honestly, I wouldn't waste the time now.

[davewill]

Whatever you finally decide, I'd go ahead and apply and send in your transcripts to TESU right away. That'll let you know where all those credits land for sure. The BALS would probably take nothing but the cornerstone and capstone, which you could start in Sep, finishing in Nov. You could do the same with the BSBA, but you'd probably have a few more business courses to pound out as alt credit. If you are that much of a workaholic, you could probably do it all at the same time, or use Sep to finish the missing business courses, then start the corner/capstone in Oct, finishing in Dec.

I'd personally do the BSBA, but I can see the logic in a BALS. I would not take time for a dual degree. It just slows you down.

[allvia]

I'd have to agree the the TESU BALS (NSM - since it looks like you already meet the concentration) is like the best use of your credits, it will be quite quick as well.  Without knowing all your courses (Gen Eds) it is hard to say how much you're missing for a UMPI degree (BLS or BABA). UMPI may be cheaper, but I doubt it is faster (TESU terms start every month).  As far as moving towards an MBA you already have the most common courses that are prerequisites like economics and statistics, and there are plenty of MBA options that don't even require any. If you're still leaning towards UMPI make sure you have that foreign language covered (Sophia Spanish works if you don't already have it met) before applying. If I were you, I'd probably apply to both TESU (BLS-NSM) and UMPI (BLS-Management). It will take both a bit of time to evaluate your transcripts for transfer in, then you could make a decision on who would be quickest within your budget (which you have not mentioned).

[bjcheung77]

@oraibihm, And to add, you have missed the addendum, armed with the details in the addendum, you may be better off with one or the other (TESU or UMPI) due to cost, commitments, energy, time management, whatever else there may be for your particular scenario. You can also go back to VCU if another program takes all your current credits.

You also want to find out what degree options are available at VCU, if you can swap another degree in place and it uses your current credits, here's a recent example of someone who is enrolled at UMGC and my replies to their inquiry, notice they also missed the addendum. See link here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Resistance