IT degree with A levels & 7 years of work experience

[Sherwood]

So according to UMPI, the program includes:
(source: https://online.umpi.edu/degrees/undergra...anagement/)
- 40 credit hours of general education courses
- 59-62 credit hours of business core/Project Management Concentration courses
- 18-21 credit hours of electives

As a referance, I took a look at these sources:
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-for-3-222
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan

My degree plan for the BABA – Project Management program:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...edit#gid=0

Any suggestions or feedback?
I will start doing Sophia courses while waiting for those translations & accreditation.

[rachel83az]

For the GECs, you need to fill in all GEC requirements, not just meet credit requirements. Check https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...quivalents for details.

I don't see enough science and no foreign language. If you're (even partly) fluent in Russian, you can take an ACTFL exam. If you're fluent in another language, you could take that instead. No Lithuanian, unfortunately, but there are many others.

If you're hoping that the science and foreign language requirements are being covered by the diploma that you're transferring in, you should put that in your spreadsheet.

I would not do Sophia's PM course, nor the Coursera PM certificate. Doing them outside of UMPI will make BUS401 more difficult. BUS141, BUS400, and BUS401 are a sequence of extremely related courses. Better to do them all at UMPI.

If you're doing the Google Data Analytics Certificate and IBM Data Analysis and Visualization Foundation Specialization Certificate, that's 12 of your 21 electives right there. Instead of doing random courses at Sophia that don't interest you, you could complete any one of the following certificates: Google IT Support Professional, IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional, or IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional. If you take an ACTFL and score well, you can get up to 12 language credits - 3 would go into the GECs and 9 would go into electives. That would also fill out the elective requirement.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

Does anyone know which test would be cheaper, faster, and easier?
The prices I found from doing some research were: 
IELTS - 200$
TOEFL - 220$
SAT - 110$
ACT - 68$

I haven't heard much about the SAT or ACT; are they really common in the US?

I saw you already discovered it later in the thread, but the Duolingo English Test is definitely the best option. IELTS and TOEFL are both more onerous and expensive, while the DET can be done in 45-60 minutes at home for $49. I often advise international students to take it whenever it's accepted by their target unis. Conversations with some admissions officers have suggested it may be phased out at some unis now that COVID has let up. No idea about UMPI's plans, but they've been pretty great about increasing access for everyone.

Taking the SAT is not worth the trouble to demonstrate language proficiency, especially for an adult. Even the new slimmed-down digital version of the exam is still 2.5 hours, 70 minutes of which will be high school math problems. There's no age limit to take the exam but I know that here, most school testing centers wouldn't let you in anyway.

[bjcheung77]

Ah yes, so I see you're leaning towards the UMPI PM & IS as I thought earlier as well... I would pace yourself with the Sophia.org/Study.com credits to try and max the 90 alternative credit transfer to UMPI. In addition to that, you may want to continue with Coursera/TADA offerings as they may have certs/courses you are interested in and also grant ACE credit, it may not go into your degree but it will add to your certs/experience.

[Sherwood]

For the GECs, you need to fill in all GEC requirements, not just meet credit requirements. Check https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...quivalents for details.

This part seems confusing, but I will look into it.

[quote pid='401804' dateline='1693568104']
I don't see enough science and no foreign language. If you're (even partly) fluent in Russian, you can take an ACTFL exam.
If you're hoping that the science and foreign language requirements are being covered by the diploma that you're transferring in, you should put that in your spreadsheet.
[/quote]
Language requirements - Will try the transfer. But I'm bilingual, so yeah, will do the ACTFL exam. Speaking/listening OCIc exam right?
Science - Will also try the transfer, but if not, then I'm not quite sure what exactly needs to be done or added to the spreadsheet.

I would not do Sophia's PM course, nor the Coursera PM certificate. Doing them outside of UMPI will make BUS401 more difficult. BUS141, BUS400, and BUS401 are a sequence of extremely related courses. Better to do them all at UMPI.

But why?

If you're doing the Google Data Analytics Certificate and IBM Data Analysis and Visualization Foundation Specialization Certificate, that's 12 of your 21 electives right there. Instead of doing random courses at Sophia that don't interest you, you could complete any one of the following certificates: Google IT Support Professional, IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional, or IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional. If you take an ACTFL and score well, you can get up to 12 language credits - 3 would go into the GECs and 9 would go into electives. That would also fill out the elective requirement.

These are really interesting! I started in IT back in 2012, and back then we didn't really have any courses, certificates, or even YouTube videos. People were learning by themselves by reading blogs. So it's nice to see something so structured and also provided by companies like Google or IBM.

I've checked each certificate; it has a link to the ACE website, and from what I understood, this is how much credit they would give:
Google Data Analytics Certificate - 12 credits
IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional - 18 credits
IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional - 10 credits
IBM Data Analysis and Visualization Foundation Specialization Certificate - 9 credits
Google IT Support Professional - 12 credits

[bjcheung77]

These are really interesting! I started in IT back in 2012, and back then we didn't really have any courses, certificates, or even YouTube videos. People were learning by themselves by reading blogs. So it's nice to see something so structured and also provided by companies like Google or IBM.

I've checked each certificate; it has a link to the ACE website, and from what I understood, this is how much credit they would give:
Google Data Analytics Certificate - 12 credits
IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional - 18 credits
IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional - 10 credits
IBM Data Analysis and Visualization Foundation Specialization Certificate - 9 credits
Google IT Support Professional - 12 credits

*ding ding*, exactly, as I mentioned in the post right before yours, it's great to use these to 'add' to your degree, it'll provide you more learning/knowledge just in case there are gaps you want to fill, you also get the trifecta of certs, degree, experience fulfilled...

[rachel83az]

For the GECs, you need to fill in all GEC requirements, not just meet credit requirements. Check https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...quivalents for details.

This part seems confusing, but I will look into it.

Every class can meet multiple requirements, but each requirement only needs one class. For instance, English Comp I will meet requirements 1a and 1d, but it will only count for 3 credits total. Meanwhile, Art History I & Art History II can both be used to meet requirement 2e, but only one of them will get used when a student takes both. The other will go into electives.

I don't see enough science and no foreign language. If you're (even partly) fluent in Russian, you can take an ACTFL exam.
If you're hoping that the science and foreign language requirements are being covered by the diploma that you're transferring in, you should put that in your spreadsheet.

Language requirements - Will try the transfer. But I'm bilingual, so yeah, will do the ACTFL exam. Speaking/listening OCIc exam right?
Science - Will also try the transfer, but if not, then I'm not quite sure what exactly needs to be done or added to the spreadsheet.

For the ACTFL, go with the cheapest option available. If you're fully bilingual with Russian, either listening (LPT) or reading (RPT) will be cheaper than the OPIc or the WPT. If you're hoping to completely fill your electives with language credits, that'd be the OPI or the OPIc.

For science, I only see Environmental Science on your list. From Sophia, you would also need Human Biology + Lab. The lab is fully online and is not an additional fee. Or you could do Intro to Nutrition + Intro to Chemistry & Intro to Chemistry Lab. Because of your previous chemistry experience, this might be the easier option for you.

I would not do Sophia's PM course, nor the Coursera PM certificate. Doing them outside of UMPI will make BUS401 more difficult. BUS141, BUS400, and BUS401 are a sequence of extremely related courses. Better to do them all at UMPI.

But why?

In BUS141, the final assessment is creating some sort of project management template.
BUS400 uses this template for an imaginary theoretical project.
BUS401 builds on BUS400 and expects you to have completed both BUS141 and BUS400 at UMPI. If you transfer in the courses from elsewhere, you essentially have to do the work of BUS141 and BUS400 anyway, with less guidance than if you did those courses "properly". So you might as well not transfer them in at all.

If you're doing the Google Data Analytics Certificate and IBM Data Analysis and Visualization Foundation Specialization Certificate, that's 12 of your 21 electives right there. Instead of doing random courses at Sophia that don't interest you, you could complete any one of the following certificates: Google IT Support Professional, IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional, or IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional. If you take an ACTFL and score well, you can get up to 12 language credits - 3 would go into the GECs and 9 would go into electives. That would also fill out the elective requirement.

These are really interesting! I started in IT back in 2012, and back then we didn't really have any courses, certificates, or even YouTube videos. People were learning by themselves by reading blogs. So it's nice to see something so structured and also provided by companies like Google or IBM.

I've checked each certificate; it has a link to the ACE website, and from what I understood, this is how much credit they would give:
Google Data Analytics Certificate - 12 credits
IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional - 18 credits
IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional - 10 credits
IBM Data Analysis and Visualization Foundation Specialization Certificate - 9 credits
Google IT Support Professional - 12 credits

You can see exactly how UMPI counts Coursera certificates here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Coursera (Blank spaces don't mean it's not accepted - it only means that a transfer has not yet been reported.)

For Google Data Analytics, 3 credits would go to the main part of the degree, 6 into electives. IBM Data Analysis would be the same. From there, it's simply a matter of picking out which certificate(s) you want for your electives.

As a note, if you decide for some reason that you want to complete all of the above certificates, you can transfer them in and they'll show up on your final transcript, but most of those credits won't actually go toward your degree. That is, you can transfer in an unlimited number of credits but a maximum of 90 transferred credits may count toward degree requirements at UMPI. I think ss20ts transferred in almost 200 credits by the time she enrolled at UMPI. It's not really recommended that students gather quite that many credits on purpose. However, between your previous transcript(s), Sophia, ACTFL, and Coursera, it's possible that you might wind up with significantly more than 90 transfer credits. This is fine. Don't worry about possible overage.

[Sherwood]

Sorry for the long delay. It took a while to find the diploma, receive another document from the institution, and then translate them, all while being abroad.
I'm planning on sending them for approval to AICE next week.

In the meantime, I've attached my translated diplomas and transcriptions.

The vocational school is somewhere between a high school and an associate degree.
And the university transcript is more of a supporting document to get the vocational school recognized, since I couldn't have applied there without finishing high school.
The university is actually the top 12th-ranked university in the country, so I'm feeling optimistic about at least getting enough education to enroll.


Any feedback on the transcripts or just a heads-up would be appreciated.

Until then, have a good weekend!

[bjcheung77]

Cool, update us when you have the evaluation, from the looks of things, you should have at least 30 credits to bring towards your degree, if you couple that with the $1/month Coursera Plus membership I mentioned earlier, you can get some ACE recommended credits for cheap... Couple that with the Sophia.org option to make sure you have all the gen ed/electives... And then add that to your UMPI PM&IS or BLS with a couple or triple minor...

[Sherwood]

I've sent my credentials for evaluation, should take about 2-3 weeks.

I got a reply from Metropolia after about 3 weeks. Guess they were having a really long fika.

1. Is it possible to apply in January 2024 and, until August 2024, finish the NonStop Virtual Studies for the 180 credits? So that by August 2024 I could start the final year of the degree?
- Yes, it is possible. 

2. What would be the process for getting my previous credentials recognized?
 - So, when you get your study right, you will be recognized your previous learning. I think your Full Stack Developer background over 7 years will cover work placement 30 credits. Then you will be left 15 credits + thesis. You can complete your degree fully online. 

That would make it the cheapest possible option for a EU citizen to get an IT degree if you already have work experience.
But it's gonna take almost two years so my intention is to do UMPI & Metropolia at this point.