WGU Teaching, English Education M.A. <- Need a plan to meet eligibility requirements

[menikmati]

Hello all, 

In the next few weeks, I'll be done with my AA from a local community college. I'm slated to start with my English teaching degree in January at the nearby state university. However, when I saw that the program would take a minimum of 2.5 additional years (likely 3), I got very discouraged. Thankfully, that disappointment led me here, where I've discovered all these options that I never knew existed.

Problem 1: I haven't found a self-paced, competency-based program for a bachelor's in teaching secondary English.  
But WGU offers it as a master's and so that's the goal; to maneuver myself into a position where I can begin with this program and do it as quickly as possible. 


To be eligible, the master's program requires a "content-related" graduate/undergraduate degree or any graduate/undergraduate degree with 24+ hours of "content-specific" coursework. 

Problem 2: I've spoken to an enrollment counselor at WGU and they said they don't publish the specific prerequisites but that when I send in my transcripts they would tell me what additional courses, if any, were still needed. That makes this a bit of a shot in the dark but I could either:

1.) > Complete a bachelor's wherever and in whatever major - one that I could zoom through the quickest (mostly just testing through courses?). >Then send my transcripts to WGU, > they would tell me what I still needed, > then I would take those classes. 

Or

2.) Go for the Bachelor of Liberal Studies - Educational Studies Minor at UMPI. This degree has a lot of electives and I could fill those up with English/Lit courses. The thing about this route is that I don't want to take more Eng/Lit courses than I have to. Those classes take longer to complete than others that could just be tested through (am I wrong about this?).

Here are the credits I will have going forward:
(Associate of Arts degree)

ENG-105 Composition I                       3
ENG-106 Composition II                      3
LIT-101 Intro to Literature                   3
EDU-246 Including Diverse Learners         3
EDU-920 Field Experience                        1
EDU-240 Educational Psychology              3
PSY-121 Developmental Psychology          3
PEH-111 Personal Wellness                      3
SOC-205 Diversity in America                   3
SPC-101 Fundamentals of Oral Comm       3
SDV-108 The College Experience              1
POL-111 American National Government    3
HIS-117 Western Civ I-Ancient & Med       3
ENV-116 Environmental Science Lab         1
PHI-101 Introduction to Philosophy          3
ENV-115 Environmental Science               3
GEO-121 World Regional Geography         3
MAT-110 Math for Liberal Arts                  3
BIO-154 Human Biology                          3
CLS-164 Japanese History and Culture      3
SOC-110 Intro to Sociology                      3
ECN-120 Principles of Macroeconomics      3
AGH-221 Principles of Horticulture            4



 If anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them. Thank you for reading, this is an amazing community!

[bluebooger]

"at the nearby state university."

what would be the cost for 3 years full time there ?

[natshar]

Ok I think your best would be go to UMPI and do their "Online Bachelor of Arts in English - Professional Communication & Journalism Concentration" program. I think doing an English degree would get you closer to your goal and less ambiguity or whether it is relevant enough to get accepted to the masters. You could do an educational studies minor if you think that would help.

I think you are on your way with a lot of gen eds done.

I bet even doing UMPI and then WGU the whole thing could be done in under 3 years easy. Also some states you only need a Bachelors (or less! where I live its associates) to be a substitute teacher so you could do that while working on your degree to gain experience and skills.

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, it's great you're asking questions and trying to look for answers. However, you're not providing enough information... such as your budget, commitments, study habits, etc. Question for you, have you compared the WIKI already and the catalog on WGU/UMPI website to make sure of the requirements? You can easily create a spreadsheet and copy/paste the requirements for both and compare, voila! You've got the answer that way as we don't know what courses you have taken will transfer successfully and remaining classes you will have after everything has transferred. It may have been a good idea for you to fill us in with the addendum/template so it shows an overall picture of your situation instead of a brief introduction that's missing important details.

[rachel83az]

2.) Go for the Bachelor of Liberal Studies - Educational Studies Minor at UMPI. This degree has a lot of electives and I could fill those up with English/Lit courses. The thing about this route is that I don't want to take more Eng/Lit courses than I have to. Those classes take longer to complete than others that could just be tested through (am I wrong about this?).

At UMPI, the difference is pretty slight. On average, students from this forum are able to complete a BLS degree in 2-3 sessions (4-6 months). The English classes are a tad bit longer, but I don't think a BA English would take more than 4 sessions for a motivated student. Maybe 5 if life got in the way? Still way faster than a traditional English degree.

[allvia]

2.) Go for the Bachelor of Liberal Studies - Educational Studies Minor at UMPI. This degree has a lot of electives and I could fill those up with English/Lit courses. The thing about this route is that I don't want to take more Eng/Lit courses than I have to. Those classes take longer to complete than others that could just be tested through (am I wrong about this?).

At UMPI, the difference is pretty slight. On average, students from this forum are able to complete a BLS degree in 2-3 sessions (4-6 months). The English classes are a tad bit longer, but I don't think a BA English would take more than 4 sessions for a motivated student. Maybe 5 if life got in the way? Still way faster than a traditional English degree.

@menikmati I also believe having a resume that shows an English degree would be better suited for someone who wants to teach English (even in the case of ESL). The possible extra (minimal) time investment now would be much better than settling for the BLS.