Degree Plan advice needed--looking for suggestions

[MamaRose]

Hi, all, and thanks in advance for any advice.
First post here, and up front I want to say I've learned so much that has been helpful in planning for 3 (so far) of my kids. Now my husband is thinking of finally finishing a bachelors. Somehow starting in the middle for him seems harder than starting from scratch for the kids.

THE QUESTION--what would you recommend for a degree plan? Possible interests: something business related (not accounting because he ended up hating it after he got an AS), liberal studies (because he has a variety of coursework), maybe history b/c he has an interest.....also open to brilliant suggestions, especially brilliant suggestions that are a short path to the goal. Goal is to have a degree that gets a foot in the door for a different job than his lifetime of experience (all related to photo processing).

The basics: We are currently overseas with my gov't job so our address counts as stateside but our only option is online. Almost certainly looking at the Big 3 or UMPI (unless there is a good reason to go a different way that we've not thought of). From that, i think it is narrowed down to TESU vs UMPI...best guess at present. Only thing against UMPI at this point would be that sometimes things are really busy here and so it might not end up cheapest if he can't really burn through quickly when life gets hectic here. Open to other online options. The point of the degree is more for career change options and needing a degree for some of those jobs that just require a degree.

Open to taking UL coursework from wherever to round out the degree plan, but prefer lower cost options.

He has an AS degree in Accounting issued in 1997, earned at a community college in California. Also has a lot of credits from his time in the Air Force through Community College of the Air Force (much of that related to photo processing so not sure any of it would be useful toward an online degree at all). Everything he has is LL. All course passed and GPA was 3.85.

RA/LL Community College courses:
Intro to Business, 3CR
Business Law, 3CR
Work Experience, 3CR
General Accounting, 3CR
Reading and Composition 1A, 3CR
Reading and Composition, 1B, 3CR
Principles of Financial Accounting, 4.5 CR
Philosophy - Critical Thinking, 3CR
Earth Science, 3CR
Cultural Geography, 3CR
US History 1A, 3CR
US History 1B, 3CR
Psych - Personal and Social Adjustment, 3CR
Elementary Economics, 3CR
Intermediate Algebra, 4 CR
Real Estate Principles, 3CR
Bioscience, 4 CR
Calculus for Business / Social Science, 3CR
Intro to Spanish, 3CR
Business Computer Applications, 3CR (this is from 1996 so not at all sure if anything is relevant at this point)
Art Appreciation, 3CR
Speech: Argumentation, 3CR
Statistical Methods, 3 CR
Principles of Accounting Management, 5 CR
Elementary Economics, 3CR

ALSO....2 courses from University of the Potomac, taken in 2016 or 2017
COMP 235 Intro to Programming and Logic
CBSC 235 Foundations of Cybersecurity

Finally....from Community College of the Air Force:
Physical Education/Wellness 4 CR
Fundamentals of Photography, 2 CR
Photo Processes Lab, 2 CR
Printing and Duping, 6 CR
Continuous Color Processing Lab, 2 CR
Leadership/Management, 2 CR
Managerial Communication, 1 CR
Military Studies I, 2 CR
Staff Development Trainer, 1 CR
Advanced Principles of Photography, 3 CR
Color Photography, 3 CR
Chemistry of Photography, 2 CR
Color Sensitometry, 2 CR
Advanced Photo Procedures, 2 CR
PHO statistical Sampling, 3 CR
Test and Evaluate New Materials, 2 CR
Internship: Journeyman, 4 CR
Internship: Craftsman, 4 CR

[rachel83az]

For UMPI, he'd need BIO 101L from Study.com. While he already has 3 credits of Spanish, he would need 3 more for a UMPI history degree. BABA Management or Project Management might be a good choice for him. Either option would still be cheaper than TESU unless it took him more than 8-10 months to complete. But I doubt that it will take that long.

BALS is a good choice with all of those credits, but might not be super useful at this point in his life. Better, IMO, to get a specific degree even if he winds up not using a good chunk of his credits.

[bjcheung77]

Just wondering, are you or your hubby still active service people? Or has he retired and now a vet? Depending on how cheap, easy, fast you would want and how well your hubby is with competency based education... I suggest deciding on the degree/school before going forward. For example, he has commitments and other things he has to attend/tend to, then going the TESU route maybe better, however, having said that, if he has plenty of "free or me time" and no commitments at all, he can dedicate much of the time to school, then UMPI will be my suggestion, as each term will cost $1400, finishing in 2 terms is cheapest, easiest, fastest...

[dfrecore]

For UMPI, he'd need BIO 101L from Study.com. While he already has 3 credits of Spanish, he would need 3 more for a UMPI history degree. BABA Management or Project Management might be a good choice for him. Either option would still be cheaper than TESU unless it took him more than 8-10 months to complete. But I doubt that it will take that long.

BALS is a good choice with all of those credits, but might not be super useful at this point in his life. Better, IMO, to get a specific degree even if he winds up not using a good chunk of his credits.

He has a 4cr Bioscience course, are you saying that won't count towards the Biological Sciences with a lab (while Earth Science will count towards the physical science area)?

[rachel83az]

You're right, I missed the Bioscience course. That one definitely should count because it's 4 credits.

[ss20ts]

He has a 4cr Bioscience course, are you saying that won't count towards the Biological Sciences with a lab (while Earth Science will count towards the physical science area)?

Only if that 4 credits includes 3 credits of coursework and 1 lab credit. All 4 credit science courses don't include a lab. Some community colleges have REALLY odd credit allotments. I once took an introduction to PhotoShop course at a community which was 5 credits. We met 3 hours a week for the semester which was in the computer lab. I still have no idea why that course was 5 credits. Since then it has been reduced to 4 credits. I don't know why it's not a 3 credit course.

[dfrecore]

For the TESU BSBA/CIS degree, he's at 70.5cr, so he'd need the following 51cr:

Oral Comm (not sure if Argumentation will work here?)
Ethics
Civic Engagement
Business Comm
Prin of Mgmt
Prin of Marketing
Prin of Finance
Int'l Business
Macroecon
Microecon
Quant Business Analysis (go to CSMLearn immediately and take this course for $39)

For the AoS, use Study.com for the following:
COMPSCI 302: Systems Analysis & Design
COMPSCI 303: Database Management
BUS 303: Management Info Systems
BUS 309: Digital Marketing & Advertising

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For TESU's BALS, he's not much better off since many of his courses are non-Liberal Arts - he's better off at EC or COSC where they will take 60cr of non-LA rather than only 30cr.

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For EC's BSL, he just needs 30cr of UL (including the Cornerstone & Capstone), so 8 UL courses. I'd make one of them SDC's BUS 318: Management Ethics to kill 2 birds with 1 stone; then choose 5 A&S courses, and 2 additional electives/A&S courses, and he's done.

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But I'd probably go with UMPI's BLS degree as it's the best of both worlds - a BLS degree, with concentrations in business-related areas. I think everything in the GEC is complete except American Government (ICC or ModernStates/CLEP are the cheapest options); electives are done; so you just need to get 1-2 minors completed at UMPI - I'd choose Management and either Project Management or MIS (or both).

This will be your fastest and cheapest option.

[MamaRose]

Thanks to all. We got sidetracked--kids and work and all the things that have gotten in the way before. I super appreciate all the suggestions and will be diving back in and taking a look.

Leaning toward UMPI based on the above but maybe EC.

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Just wondering, are you or your hubby still active service people? Or has he retired and now a vet?  Depending on how cheap, easy, fast you would want and how well your hubby is with competency based education... I suggest deciding on the degree/school before going forward.  For example, he has commitments and other things he has to attend/tend to, then going the TESU route maybe better, however, having said that, if he has plenty of "free or me time" and no commitments at all, he can dedicate much of the time to school, then UMPI will be my suggestion, as each term will cost $1400, finishing in 2 terms is cheapest, easiest, fastest...

thanks for this. He is a veteran but no longer active duty. Used the GI bill to get the associates and then didn't use all of it and time ran out.