Help with finding a home for my college credits~

[RacherBunny]

Hello everyone! ^_^

I'm kinda new here and need some guidance. I'm looking to get a degree (associates first and then bachelors) from one of the Big 3. I don't really know enough about any of them to figure out which would be best. Although, I think I'm leaning towards Excelsior a bit.

My goal is to just get the degrees so I can go overseas to teach. A degree is required to teach, but there isn't any specific degree needed. Just any degree will do. My one little thing, is I want to try to go towards science in case I want to go for nursing or some other health care field later.

Here are the credits I have so far:
UMUC~
German 101- 3cr
Japanese 101- 3cr

CCBC~
Russian 101- 3cr
ASL 101- 3cr
Psych 101- 3cr
Psych 126 (learning as a journey)- 2cr
Soci 101- 3cr
Bio 110 (bio 101) - 4cr
Bio 220 (a&p I w/ lab) -4cr
Csit 101 (computer 101) -3cr
Peft 101 (lifetime fitness & health) -3cr
ALHL 115 (medical term)- 3cr
MLTC 101 (into to medical lab tech)- 3cr
Comm 101 (intro to communications)- 3cr
Eng 101- 3cr
Eng 102- 3cr

Total: 49cr


ALEKS~
Beginning Algebra

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I want to avoid testing out if thats at all possible.

And I'm a sucker for multiple options so, throw as many options at me as you can! lol

[sanantone]

Since you have a bunch of introductory courses, they will transfer about the same to all of the Big 3 (Charter Oak, Excelsior, and Thomas Edison). Since you want to avoid testing out, are you looking to take all of the credits at the school or to take more transfer credits at other schools? If you want to take a bunch of credits at the school, then TESC's Comprehensive Tuition Plan is the cheapest of the Big 3. If you want to take independent study courses at other schools and transfer them in, then COSC does consortium agreements where you can use financial aid for COSC courses and another school's courses.

Also since you don't want to test out, there is WGU. They are self-paced and charge just under $3,000 per 6-month term. Other cheap colleges for out-of-state students are Peru State College, Chadron State College, Fort Hays State University, and Columbia College. You might be able to find something even cheaper in your home state.

You don't need a science degree to go into healthcare. What you need are the prerequisites. It is possible to finish a science degree and not have all of the prerequisite courses and/or labs. You can finish the prerequisites as free electives within any degree.

[RacherBunny]

After doing some more research, it seems I may have to deal with testing out if I want to get done fast. :/

Any suggestions as to a route or a decent degree that would work well with what I have already?

Sorry, if my questions seem simple. I don't have any idea what I'm doing lol.


I noticed their are plenty of ECE upper level available and some are pretty cheap ($95/each).

[sanantone]

You mostly have general education credits, so you really wouldn't be much further along in any degree program. The easiest degrees to test out of are psychology, social science, business, and liberal arts/studies. At TESC, it might be possible to test out of a natural science/mathematics or humanities degree. You can come close to testing out of history.

I made some degree plans for TESC, but I did not include general education requirements because there are so many choices.
Sanantone's BSBA General Management - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BA in Psychology - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BA in Social Science - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BA in Natural Sciences and Mathematics - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BA in Humanities - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BA in History - Degree Forum Wiki

I do need to make some minor changes. ECE and Uexcel have been combined under one name: Uexcel ECEP. If you want to complete a liberal studies degree, all you have to do is pick and choose tests/courses from the natural science, social science, and humanities degree plans.

[RacherBunny]

Thank you so much! This was very helpful! Thank you! ^_^

[Leherself]

One thing about the healthcare field is that most healthcare degree programs have specific pre-requisites that include a lot of hard sciences, and they want you to have a real live lab class with every single one of them. So regardless of the degree plan you go with, make sure that any science courses you take are live lab science courses, rather than exams. You may want to just finish a general liberal arts bachelors degree now by testing out of most of your remaining requirements, and go off and teach. If when you get back, you want to pursue healthcare, you can sign up for a post-bacc series of hard science courses aligned to the specific pre-requisites of your desired program.

Best of luck to you!

[cookderosa]

After doing some more research, it seems I may have to deal with testing out if I want to get done fast. :/

Any suggestions as to a route or a decent degree that would work well with what I have already?

Sorry, if my questions seem simple. I don't have any idea what I'm doing lol.


I noticed their are plenty of ECE upper level available and some are pretty cheap ($95/each).

This forum specifically specializes in giving advice on how to test out.....granted there is other great info here too, but understand that by NOT using testing, you're missing the best of what we have to offer advice-wise.

My question for you is with your foreign languages. I see you took many. Can you tell me what is your first language and are you fluent (or partially fluent) in anything besides English? If so, I have some great suggestions.

Pre-reqs for nursing programs can be filled using online options, but generally not testing, and not ALWAYS online options. Adding nursing to your list of requirements makes your question very difficult for me to make suggestions. Here's what I will say- if you're going overseas and that's for sure, then earn a simple bachelor's degree now. If you later decide to go into nursing, there are tons of accelerated short programs for nursing that are open only to people who hold a non-nursing bachelor's degree which would likely be the best route. At that point, you can look at specific courses and specific requirements and fill them as needed.

[rebel100]

If your looking for a more traditional path that can be completed via distance I might suggest CSU-Pueblo. They should take most if not all of your acquired credit and they have an interesting Sociology degree that can be done completely via distance. The price point is excellent and they have provisions for accepting financial aid. Undergraduate Degree Program > Division of Continuing Education > Colorado State University-Pueblo Much of this coursework is self paced.

Of course there are many ways to skin this, I think testing out from oversees will be tricky at best. (though it can certainly be done)

[Lindagerr]

Just my 2 cents but can you tell us why you don't want to test out?

Nursing programs usually have lab requirements and want 2 semesters of A & P at least one semester of chemistry and 1 semester of Bio also at least one college Algabra.

You probably have a lot of what you need for the lower credits toward a Natural Science degree at TESC but you will need upper level credits.

If you are going to teach even if it is just a language I suggest you take some beginning teacher courses or test. TESC has a children's literature class which I enjoyed, I also took the Intro to Educational Psychology and Foundations of Education exams. Excelsior also offers an exam on literacy instruction that was very informative.

[clep3705]

Accelerated nursing programs for people with previous degrees have horrible attrition rates. The 12 month programs were seeing 50% attrition rates, which is why so many schools have done away with them. The 15 month programs are better, but still flunk out 5-10% and have 20% graduate a semester or two late. Nursing school attrition rates are a dirty little secret.