Degree/Planning Advice: Retired LEO Seeking BA and MA after life-altering injury

[bjcheung77]

Thank you for the response. Everything you're recommending appears to be spot on and in alignment with my situation and needs. I understand the general concept of your recommendation broadly, but not entirely. I want to learn more about this pathway.

Do you think I should first try to determine what GEC classes I still need to satisfy, if any, through Sophia/SDC, and complete those prior to applying?

Apply to UMPI for their BLS minor in anything you're looking at, such as Management, MIS, PM. You need a language, plus science & lab, while waiting for acceptance, take the two classes at Sophia.org and see what else you need that is missing from the GEC that you don't already have. You can always append to your credits that you have already sent in as Sophia.org uses Credly, it's free to send as well, so once your language/lab and extra credits are done, send it then.

[Jonathan Whatley]

What are your thoughts on consulting with services like College Hacked to assist me with this? I'm wondering what the general consensus is on services like these for folks like me.

rachel83az, a Super Moderator and prolific poster here, captured the degreeforum consensus about paid consulting services in her 2021 post:

It is always confusing to get started. The biggest issue is that there is no "one good way" to get a degree. It depends heavily on your personal circumstances. What is right for you will not be right for anyone else. For instance, your post indicates that liberal studies could be a good option for you but it would likely be a wholly inappropriate option for someone who wanted to go into programming or technology. 

There are a handful of us who have been around for a while and who are relatively familiar with the degree-seeking process. Each of us has a different idea of what the best course of action might be for a given student. […]

If you just want someone to tell you what to do: my first post outlined exactly how to get [the degrees she recommended for that OP's situation]. If you don't feel like that's right for you, please feel free to go back to your original thread and ask questions. Why won't that work for you? What are you looking for? Even if you got one of us as your personal degree consultant, you'd still have to answer these questions and you'd have plenty of questions of your own. Don't feel bad about asking questions. It's what we're here for. We've all had to start at the beginning at one time or another.

[bjcheung77]

In regards to College Hacked, board members are more up to date and helpful as a collective than what one person can provide: Here's a post and link, which links you to other posts and links (until you get to the end... BTW, they're all my posts). https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid407904

[rachel83az]

Thank you for this helpful information. The overview you provided of these schools is helping me better understand my options.

I'm looking at the link you provided for UMPI's PLA. It looks like I could receive up to 30 credits for a Bachelor’s degree at $50 per credit for the Portfolio Assessment. I'm speculating that a portfolio based on my work experience, training, and certifications could potentially satisfy a substantial portion of the CJ degree requirements, and I could satisfy the remainder of 10 class, 30 unit residency requirement with other classes, such as the 3 undergraduate classes in Business Administration and apply them towards the MAOL.

FYI, the PLA process at UMPI is significantly more difficult and time-consuming than their YourPace classes or the Sophia.org classes you need for GEC/elective requirements. The PLA process at UMPI is less work (and less expensive) than their non-YourPace classes, but YourPace students shouldn't use PLA. Instead, they should use their experiences to complete YourPace classes and/or Sophia.org classes more quickly and efficiently.

Also, PLA credits do not count toward residency. So you'd be doing a lot more work, and spending more money, for no real benefit.

I should also verify similar options for PLA credits for Excelsior and TESU because that could potentially mean far less classes to meet degree requirements compared to UMPI.

We have a few students who have gone to both UMPI and TESU or Excelsior or to both TESU and Excelsior. These students report that there is about as much writing for Excelsior's capstone/cornerstone as there is at TESU. And that TESU/Excelsior's capstone is more work than the approximately 10 UMPI classes you'd need. If you want to save time and money, you can't just compare 10 classes @ UMPI to 2 classes @ TESU or 3 classes at Excelsior. 10 is bigger than 2 or 3, but it's comparing apples and oranges because the classes are structured differently.

Most UMPI students have been able to easily finish a degree in 2 or 3 sessions (4-6 months). A not insubstantial percentage of TESU students wind up needing an extension for their capstone - even when it's the only class that they're taking that semester. Normally, a TESU capstone is 12 weeks (3 months), but the extension makes it 20 weeks (5 months).

A TESU CJ degree is expensive and time-consuming because most of the CJ classes aren't available elsewhere. UMPI, on the other hand, offers all necessary classes and there is no need to search elsewhere for classes. Of course, if you want something like a BSBA/BABA, that's a lot easier to get at both schools.

Excelsior is a bit weird and difficult about transfer credit lately. Essentially, every time you send in additional transcripts after the initial enrollment period, you'll be paying a $300 transcript evaluation fee. (It's a bit more complicated than that, but it's close enough to the truth.) This makes it essential that you make a best-effort to hit all requirements before you even apply. Otherwise, Excelsior will quickly get very expensive, indeed.

It's not particularly clear to me either and I completely agree. Whatever degree makes the best use of all my existing credits, certifications, and work experience is what I'd like to pursue. Especially if it dovetails nicely with a MA, like the MAOL.

For UMPI, you can progress directly from a Bachelor's degree to the MAOL (and have 25% of the MAOL complete) by taking 3 classes - possibly as electives - during your Bachelor's degree: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Un...L)_at_UMPI This isn't something you can easily do elsewhere. This is a way to "cheat" and have your FAFSA cover (some of) your Master's degree. FAFSA eligibility ends once you graduate. Completing a TESU Master's degree or an Excelsior Master's degree is significantly more expensive, even with the help of TESU's Bachelor's-to-Master's program.

What are your thoughts on consulting with services like College Hacked to assist me with this? I'm wondering what the general consensus is on services like these for folks like me.

Aside from what I said in my prior post that was already quoted, I sometimes watch videos from these kinds of services. From what I can tell, they mostly glean information from this forum/wiki and then they're still woefully out of date. There was one video I watched that suggested students take a certain type of discontinued exam for credit - the exam had been discontinued several months prior. The discontinuation was announced a few months ahead of time. As an education "professional", there was no excuse to not know about the upcoming change. There are a lot of more subtle changes that would be even easier to miss, so I wouldn't really trust them. IMO, once you find this forum, the only reason to pay for a service would be if you really hate money and want to get rid of it quickly.

[Jonathan Whatley]

In this post from July, UMPI student Curious_Nothing_8212 reports getting prior learning credit for 18 semester hours of upper level electives based on professional licenses and designations through by carefully filling out a form for each course challenged with supporting evidence. That step itself doesn't sound onerous. However, it took months to hear back from UMPI that the credit was granted.

[Han_Shot_First_IYKYK]

Thank you all for your feedback re: services like College Hacked.

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FYI, the PLA process at UMPI is significantly more difficult and time-consuming than their YourPace classes or the Sophia.org classes you need for GEC/elective requirements. The PLA process at UMPI is less work (and less expensive) than their non-YourPace classes, but YourPace students shouldn't use PLA. Instead, they should use their experiences to complete YourPace classes and/or Sophia.org classes more quickly and efficiently.

Also, PLA credits do not count toward residency. So you'd be doing a lot more work, and spending more money, for no real benefit.

I see. Thank you for mentioning this.

For UMPI, you can progress directly from a Bachelor's degree to the MAOL (and have 25% of the MAOL complete) by taking 3 classes - possibly as electives - during your Bachelor's degree: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Un...L)_at_UMPI This isn't something you can easily do elsewhere. This is a way to "cheat" and have your FAFSA cover (some of) your Master's degree. FAFSA eligibility ends once you graduate. Completing a TESU Master's degree or an Excelsior Master's degree is significantly more expensive, even with the help of TESU's Bachelor's-to-Master's program.

Yes, Thank you. This is what I want to do in conjunction with bjcheung77's suggestions.

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I heard back regarding the additional training I mentioned in my first post. I have 14 additional college units. I have a total of 104.5 units to transfer.

Course Code, Course Name, Grade, Units
AJ 079, Law Enforcement Career Prep, CR, 0.5
AJ 094, Police Academy Orientation, CR, 1
AJ 100, Intro to Law Enforcement, A, 3
AJ 110, Criminal Law, A, 3
AJ 059A, Basic Police Academy, A, 26
AJ 059B, Basic Police Academy, A, 26
AJ 135, Weaponless Defense, A,  1
ESC 130, Intro to Oceanography, A, 3
HIST 127, Survey of American History, B, 3
NUTR 127, Nutrition Today, A, 3
POSC 100, American Government, B, 3
SOC 101, Intro to Sociology, A, 3
SPCH 105, Interpersonal Communication, A, 3
READ 142, College RDG: Logical Anal/Eval, B, 3
BUS 111, Business Communication, A, 3
PHIL 100, Intro to Philosophy, A, 3
ART 110, Intro to Art, A, 3
A.S. Degree in Administration of Justice from a California Junior College. 90.5 units total. 3.89 GPA

Course Code, Course Name, Grade, Units
AJ 187, Correctional Personnel, A, 4
AJ 335, Jail Cell Extraction, CR, 0.5
AJ 088, Laser Sight Firearms, CR, 0.5
AJ 342, Custodial Report Writing III, CR, 0.5
AJ 120, Patrol School, A, 3.5
AJ 258, Narcotics for Patrol, A, 1
AJ 121, Search and Seizure Update, P, 1
AJ 371, Investigator Case Management, P, 0.5
AJ 122, Street Gangs and Subcultures, A, 2.5
AJ Units from a different California Junior College. 14 units total. 4.0 GPA

[Han_Shot_First_IYKYK]

Thank you all for your help. I went through all my education and made a first draft of a degree plan (link below) based on the collective recommendations I've received here so far.
This is for the UMPI BLS Management Minor, taking the 3 classes for the MAOL as undergrad electives. This appears to be the fastest and easiest pathway to a Bachelors and then a Masters for me but please let me know if you see a faster or better way.

It looks like I need to take Intro to Stats, Human Bio+Lab (or Human Anatomy+Lab), and Spanish 1 through Sophia. Everything remaining through UMPI. 10 classes + UNV 101 or FYS 100 if needed.

I probably misunderstood something or made one or more mistakes with this first draft. Feedback and suggestions are highly appreciated.


Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...edit#gid=0

[Jonathan Whatley]

1A/1D is typically met by English Composition I or something very close. Don't be surprised if College Reading: Logical Anal/Eval isn't accepted here.

1B/2C/4B is typically met by English Composition II or something very close. Don't be surprised if Business Communications isn't accepted here.

If you take Sophia Human Biology with Lab, that can bump Nutrition Today out of 3C, so Nutrition Today can go into gen ed electives.

You're transferring in Business Communications and you've placed it in gen eds, but you also plan to take PCJ 215 Business Communication at UMPI as part of your Management minor. There's a good chance they'll consider the courses duplicative, like a repeat of the same course.

Mostly, you seem to be on the right track!

[Han_Shot_First_IYKYK]

1A/1D is typically met by English Composition I or something very close. Don't be surprised if College Reading: Logical Anal/Eval isn't accepted here.

1B/2C/4B is typically met by English Composition II or something very close. Don't be surprised if Business Communications isn't accepted here.

If you take Sophia Human Biology with Lab, that can bump Nutrition Today out of 3C, so Nutrition Today can go into gen ed electives.

You're transferring in Business Communications and you've placed it in gen eds, but you also plan to take PCJ 215 Business Communication at UMPI as part of your Management minor. There's a good chance they'll consider the courses duplicative, like a repeat of the same course.

Mostly, you seem to be on the right track!

Thank you for reviewing my degree plan. I updated it based on your feedback.

[Jonathan Whatley]

It's looking good!

2D might not be met by Intro to Art. In the current UMPI catalog, learning objective 2D is defined as

Students will be able to produce a tangible expression of creativity.

and courses that meet it are centrally about the student themselves creating work or making creative decisions. If you could show from your original institution's course description or syllabus – the institution's registrar's office should have something archived – that you did so as part of the course it might meet 2D.

Good news: Sophia Visual Communication is likely to meet 2D. Sophia Critical Thinking just might.