Final Decision - UMPI or Charter Oak

[Ericf]

So i have been reading some great information here and need some advice I used sophia And my transfer of college credits over to UMPI, and was accepted to the BLS with a management minor with 10 classes needed to fulfill residency requirement for a degree.  I already know about the cost associated and that’s not an issue for discussion, and I know it could be completed based on competency based learning, which is the main factor of this institution anywhere from 1 to 3 terms, depending on personal focus and competency. I was about to hit the button for enrollment and acceptance and then I got my call today from my advisor at charter Oak. I enjoyed my conversations with with some information that made me say HMMMM.
Again, taking the financial situation out of the picture and knowing that charter oak is based on an eight week term and regular classes, but not proctoring and not general testing requirements, I was told that I had the opportunity with only having to take seven classes and with creating my own degree with an academic counselor, could be something with the criminal justice and sociology Which is what I did my associates degree in and it’s kind of interesting. I see this would take about 3 sessions and have me graduating at some point over the summer
So this is where I come to the forum and ask people their thoughts between the two colleges and their learning platforms in which they use blackboard and other using the regular classes there’s a competency based learning. Charter oaks - standard classes and structured with interesting classes I enjoy. UMPI - classes I can actually learn things to use in my career and business and probably spend less time in school. (3 more classes than Charter oaks but at competency based learning)
Thanks in advance

[bjcheung77]

It's a hard choice as there aren't many details on what courses are required for both degrees/institutions. For COSC, you need 7 courses, but technically, it's just 2 from COSC as you can transfer in the other 5. UMPI, you're at 10. If you copy/paste your evaluation for both, we'll know if those 5 courses at COSC are upper level or lower level and what requirements are missing, the same goes with the UMPI degree. Evaluations are all that we need, remove any personal details on both and attach a pdf or screenshot... I guess you're doing a COSC BSGS with a concentration, which is similar to the UMPI BLS with a minor...

[Jennr2z]

So i have been reading some great information here and need some advice I used sophia And my transfer of college credits over to UMPI, and was accepted to the BLS with a management minor with 10 classes needed to fulfill residency requirement for a degree.  I already know about the cost associated and that’s not an issue for discussion, and I know it could be completed based on competency based learning, which is the main factor of this institution anywhere from 1 to 3 terms, depending on personal focus and competency. I was about to hit the button for enrollment and acceptance and then I got my call today from my advisor at charter Oak. I enjoyed my conversations with with some information that made me say HMMMM.
Again, taking the financial situation out of the picture and knowing that charter oak is based on an eight week term and regular classes, but not proctoring and not general testing requirements, I was told that I had the opportunity with only having to take seven classes and with creating my own degree with an academic counselor, could be something with the criminal justice and sociology Which is what I did my associates degree in and it’s kind of interesting. I see this would take about 3 sessions and have me graduating at some point over the summer
So this is where I come to the forum and ask people their thoughts between the two colleges and their learning platforms in which they use blackboard and other using the regular classes there’s a competency based learning. Charter oaks - standard classes and structured with interesting classes I enjoy. UMPI - classes I can actually learn things to use in my career and business and probably spend less time in school. (3 more classes than Charter oaks but at competency based learning)
Thanks in advance

I don’t have any info on Charter Oak other than I was under the impression that they were not accepting very much outside credit anymore.
I just completed 10 courses at UMPI in one 8 wk term and applied for graduation. A BLS in management and a second minor in political science. I actually was able to complete all 10 courses in 38 days, for $1400. UMPI YourPace is a great program if you enjoy a competency based program and don’t mind writing papers. I put in approximately 25-30 hours per week to complete courses at the pace that I did. The UMPI platform is currently Strut learning, but they are supposed to be transitioning over to Brightspace in January. Any other questions just post back here. Good luck!

[ReyMysterioso]

Charter Oak grad here. I would advise you to go with you UMPI. It's a brick and mortar school. I don't agree with it, but there is still a stigma out there about online-only schools.
I also don't have a high opinion of the quality of platforms, instructors and curriculum at COSC. In a nutshell, cosc is just not a very good school.

If I had it to do over again I would have gone somewhere else.

[Ericf]

Charter Oak grad here. I would advise you to go with you UMPI. It's a brick and mortar school. I don't agree with it, but there is still a stigma out there about online-only schools.
I also don't have a high opinion of the quality of platforms, instructors and curriculum at COSC. In a nutshell, cosc is just not a very good school.

If I had it to do over again I would have gone somewhere else.

[dfrecore]

COSC takes so little outside credit at this point, I wouldn't even bother (and I was a big fan before). There is simply no way to get 30cr of UL brought in, and no possible way to get 15cr of UL between Sociology & CJ at all.

For Study.com, they only bring in 50 courses or so, and only 3 are UL - all business courses. The only CJ course they bring in at all is Criminal Justice 301: White Collar Crime, and it's LL. The only sociology course they bring it at all is Sociology 101: Intro to Sociology, and again, that's LL. So no UL Juvenile Justice, no UL Sociology of Work, nothing.

So, unless you can figure out in advance where you'd find those UL courses, you're stuck.

Then, let's talk GE requirements: they don't accept any Oral Comm courses, nor ethics, nor non-US History/Culture, no Global Understanding, and no lab science. So you can't meet the GE requirements via Study.com either.

COSC decided they didn't want to be a big ACE college, and so they made it impossible to get a degree there using only ACE. There's literally no reason to even look at them.

---

COSC takes so little outside credit at this point, I wouldn't even bother (and I was a big fan before).  There is simply no way to get 30cr of UL brought in, and no possible way to get 15cr of UL between Sociology & CJ at all.

For Study.com, they only bring in 50 courses or so, and only 3 are UL - all business courses.  The only CJ course they bring in at all is Criminal Justice 301: White Collar Crime, and it's LL.  The only sociology course they bring it at all is Sociology 101: Intro to Sociology, and again, that's LL.  So no UL Juvenile Justice, no UL Sociology of Work, nothing.

So, unless you can figure out in advance where you'd find those UL courses, you're stuck.

Then, let's talk GE requirements: they don't accept any Oral Comm courses, nor ethics, nor non-US History/Culture, no Global Understanding, and no lab science.  So you can't meet the GE requirements via Study.com either.

COSC decided they didn't want to be a big ACE college, and so they made it impossible to get a degree there using only ACE.  There's literally no reason to even look at them.

Oh yeah, and they won't take TEL courses either.

[Ericf]

COSC takes so little outside credit at this point, I wouldn't even bother (and I was a big fan before).  There is simply no way to get 30cr of UL brought in, and no possible way to get 15cr of UL between Sociology & CJ at all.

For Study.com, they only bring in 50 courses or so, and only 3 are UL - all business courses.  The only CJ course they bring in at all is Criminal Justice 301: White Collar Crime, and it's LL.  The only sociology course they bring it at all is Sociology 101: Intro to Sociology, and again, that's LL.  So no UL Juvenile Justice, no UL Sociology of Work, nothing.

So, unless you can figure out in advance where you'd find those UL courses, you're stuck.

Then, let's talk GE requirements: they don't accept any Oral Comm courses, nor ethics, nor non-US History/Culture, no Global Understanding, and no lab science.  So you can't meet the GE requirements via Study.com either.

COSC decided they didn't want to be a big ACE college, and so they made it impossible to get a degree there using only ACE.  There's literally no reason to even look at them.

---

COSC takes so little outside credit at this point, I wouldn't even bother (and I was a big fan before).  There is simply no way to get 30cr of UL brought in, and no possible way to get 15cr of UL between Sociology & CJ at all.

For Study.com, they only bring in 50 courses or so, and only 3 are UL - all business courses.  The only CJ course they bring in at all is Criminal Justice 301: White Collar Crime, and it's LL.  The only sociology course they bring it at all is Sociology 101: Intro to Sociology, and again, that's LL.  So no UL Juvenile Justice, no UL Sociology of Work, nothing.

So, unless you can figure out in advance where you'd find those UL courses, you're stuck.

Then, let's talk GE requirements: they don't accept any Oral Comm courses, nor ethics, nor non-US History/Culture, no Global Understanding, and no lab science.  So you can't meet the GE requirements via Study.com either.

COSC decided they didn't want to be a big ACE college, and so they made it impossible to get a degree there using only ACE.  There's literally no reason to even look at them.

Oh yeah, and they won't take TEL courses either.

well they have me in at needing 7 classes and accepting my outside learning from Sophia and two colleges. But just heard that after the next session they are no longer taking statistics from Ssophia. They are really nice there but from all I read here it seems UMPI is the way to go. 

[bjcheung77]

If it was me, unless you have all the courses needed and transferrable to COSC completed, then the only two you need to do is the Cornerstone/Capstone. I wouldn't mind getting a quick degree from them, they were alright when the Associate Director for advising was still working, once he retired, it seemed everything went downhill as so many changes were made...

Having said that, UMPI is a better school overall, they do have their own "quirks", but once you get to the right people who handle the Your Pace platform instead of the Enrollment Specialists, you're in good hands. You just need to know your pace, if you did really well with alternative credit providers previously, then UMPI would suit you more I believe.

[ss20ts]

One thing that may make a difference - and it may not - UMPI is a university whereas COSC is a college. Some people care about this. UMPI has a physical campus and isn't an online school. Some people care about this as well.

[ReyMysterioso]

One thing that may make a difference - and it may not - UMPI is a university whereas COSC is a college. Some people care about this. UMPI has a physical campus and isn't an online school. Some people care about this as well.

I have had people tell me I didn't "go to college." 

What do you mean? I have an associates and a bachelor's.

One person: "I thought that was just a correspondence course or something."

Other person: "Well yeah but
 you can't really say you WENT to [school]." 

Some people I met on a business trip who work within the same field as my wife were giving me career advice to pass onto her and recommend a certain university "because nobody can tell it was an online program." Apparently the perceived need to "hide" that is widespread. It is what it is. 

Another problem is there's an unaccredited for-profit school called Charter College that has a bad reputation. COSC just changed all their branding and colors and by coincidence it now looks similar to Charter College. So there's risk of confusion there. They also started putting emphasis on "Online" in all their marketing. Ugh.