Fastest Way to Bachelor (it's really just a bucket list item)

[chris.erhardt14]

Quick update on this one in case it helps anyone in the future. I talked to East Texas A&M and that's where I'll enrol. They're transferring in all of my credits from past colleges in Texas, even the D's and I took a bunch of Sophia courses over the past 8 weeks to satisfy the electives. When I get started at East Texas A&M (probably May or July), I will only have to take the 10 classes (30 credits) for the major and 2 classes (6 credits) for electives to satisfy their 36 credits residency requirement. At $1,000 per term as a Texas resident I don't think any other school can beat that.

[bjcheung77]

Good choice! Great stuff, they took the 84 credits I mentioned earlier in post #2...
Awesome update, hope everything goes well, good luck, have fun, you've got this!

[chris.erhardt14]

Hmm, so while I'm waiting for the admission into the East Texas A&M, I also came across TESU and their Edison Accelerate program. Wouldn't I get my Bachelor faster if I just continue with Sophia and/or Study.com, literally get all my courses done (it's super easy and fast to do on those platforms), then pay the Edison Accelerate fee (expensive but keep in mind, I want to go for fast, not cheap) and just knock out the two required courses at TESU? Just a thought. To be honest, I think the East Texas A&M degree would be more "valuable" (at least for me in Texas) regardless so I may go for that one anyways... But, when it comes to just getting a degree fast, wouldn't TESU via Study.com and Sophia + Edison Accelerate be faster?

[jg_nuy]

Hmm, so while I'm waiting for the admission into the East Texas A&M, I also came across TESU and their Edison Accelerate program. Wouldn't I get my Bachelor faster if I just continue with Sophia and/or Study.com, literally get all my courses done (it's super easy and fast to do on those platforms), then pay the Edison Accelerate fee (expensive but keep in mind, I want to go for fast, not cheap) and just knock out the two required courses at TESU? Just a thought. To be honest, I think the East Texas A&M degree would be more "valuable" (at least for me in Texas) regardless so I may go for that one anyways... But, when it comes to just getting a degree fast, wouldn't TESU via Study.com and Sophia + Edison Accelerate be faster?

TESU includes at least one semester at a minimum of 12 weeks, so your timeframe at East Texas A&M would likely be close to that. Either option works, but in your case, it seems like East Texas may work best.

[bjcheung77]

Basically, the TESU cornerstone is a very easy class to complete, the thing is, the capstone is not easy or fast to complete. With the energy, time, you're placing into the capstone alone, you can do 10+ classes at ETAMU. Various members mentioned at UMPI (including me), the amount of time completing the Capstone at TESU is much more than it would to complete 10+ UMPI classes. Thus, my recommendation remains, stay with ETAMU until you're done with X classes, for those 36 credits...

[chris.erhardt14]

Basically, the TESU cornerstone is a very easy class to complete, the thing is, the capstone is not easy or fast to complete.  With the energy, time, you're placing into the capstone alone, you can do 10+ classes at ETAMU.  Various members mentioned at UMPI (including me), the amount of time completing the Capstone at TESU is much more than it would to complete 10+ UMPI classes.  Thus, my recommendation remains, stay with ETAMU until you're done with X classes, for those 36 credits...

Good insight. However, when looking at the degree plan at ETAMU, it also has Capstone I and Capstone II. What's the difference between the TESU and ETAMU Capstones? Wouldn't Capstones be equally hard regardless of institution?

[bjcheung77]

Yes, someone who did both capstones compared that to just the capstone at TESU and also mentioned the same thing... Doing two capstones seems like double the work when you read that, but it's all subjective. It's like, people can finish 10 classes at UMPI in 1 session of 8 weeks... on the opposite end, TESU students (some) may need to extend the capstone to actually finish that by itself.

[ReyMysterioso]

The ETAMU capstones (for Org Leadership) are a little more involved than a regular class, but they're not a significantly huge and time-intensive project. They're pretty manageable classes. Capstone at Charter Oak State was a full semester with weekly assignemnts, a big case study solo midterm project and a big group project. Was not fast or easy or any way to make it faster or easier. I suspect TESU is similarly big labor and time sink. ETAMU capstones are much less labor and time intensive and totally at your own pace.

To plan ahead for the ETAMU capstone, you'll probably want to indentify someone in a leadership position of an organization and get their okay to interview them and use their examples of leadership actions for your project.

[chris.erhardt14]

Thought I'd share an update on my progress. I completed 6 courses in the last term and already registered for the next term. It was kind of rough powering through those courses in such a short amount of time. Some were easier than others due to experience and knowledge I had while others were really hard. I'm happy to have finished 6 classes though. Now, I need four more classes and the two Capstones. I hope I can knock out the 4 classes in the first 3 weeks, then two weeks for Capstone 1 and two weeks for Capstone 2 to finally be done with my Bachelor's degree. Only took 19 years to get here lol.

[chris.erhardt14]

Last update: I'm done. It took me two terms to finish the minimum required resident classes (12 in total). Today, they issued me my bachelor's degree, a degree that was 19 years in the making. This forum helped a lot getting there so thanks for all the advice given on here!