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10-24-2021, 08:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-25-2021, 01:02 AM by JannikT.)
(10-24-2021, 07:56 PM)ss20ts Wrote: (10-24-2021, 07:29 PM)JannikT Wrote: Yes I understand that you are capped at 90 transfer credits. But I assume that you are not limited to 120 credits in total in one degree? As long as the excess credits beyond 120 are completed at UMPI. Otherwise it would be near to impossible to complete 3 minors in addition to the major.
If what you are saying is correct, UMPI would not allow double majors. But in their regulations it states that double majors are allowed. Or are double majors not allowed on YourPace? It does not state so on their homepage, which is quite odd. But since you are a student at UMPI, perhaps you have knowledge about the issue that has not been publicised?
You're not capped at 120 credits for a degree with multiple minors and concentrations. You're capped at 90 transfer credits.
You don't have minors with a major. It sounds like you're confusing things. There are concentrations and there are minors. Two different things. It's also rare that someone completes multiple minors.
You don't have a double major in YourPace. You're reading the on campus website and it doesn't apply to YourPace. That is exactly how I understand the rules. There is no cap on the number of total credits, only on transfer credits.
I am aware that there is a difference between concentrations and minors. So it is in theory possible to complete several minors and concentrations within a major, typically in business. And double majors are prohibited on YourPace.
If I sound confused, it is because I am some what confused. Partly contradictory information has been posted by people who have experience with UMPI. It is even more confusing that UMPI has one set of rules for brick & mortar students, and another one for Your Pace, and very limited information is provided on the YourPace homepage.
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(10-24-2021, 08:54 PM)JannikT Wrote: I am aware that there is a difference between concentrations and minors. So it is in theory possible to complete several minors and concentrations within a major, typically in business. And double majors are prohibited on YourPace.
If I sound confused, it is because I am some what confused. Partly contradictory information has been posted by people who have experience with UMPI. It is even more confusing that UMPI has one set of rules for brick & mortar students, and another one for Your Pace, and very limited information is provided on the YourPace homepage.
You're using the incorrect lingo. The majors are Business Administration, Accounting, Criminal Justice, History & Political Science, and English. The Concentrations are Accounting, Project Management, Marketing, Supply Chain Management, and Management & Leadership. The minors are Project Management, Management Information System, Management, Accounting, and Educational Studies. The degrees are BA - Bachelor of Arts or BLS - Bachelor of Liberal Studies. You can't just add concentrations and minors to any degree.
Once you're an actual YourPace student, it all makes sense. The only thing that really applies to YourPace students on the on campus UMPI website is the GEC and even that is a bit modified for YourPace students. We do not have access to all of those courses.
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(10-25-2021, 09:38 AM)ss20ts Wrote: (10-24-2021, 08:54 PM)JannikT Wrote: I am aware that there is a difference between concentrations and minors. So it is in theory possible to complete several minors and concentrations within a major, typically in business. And double majors are prohibited on YourPace.
If I sound confused, it is because I am some what confused. Partly contradictory information has been posted by people who have experience with UMPI. It is even more confusing that UMPI has one set of rules for brick & mortar students, and another one for Your Pace, and very limited information is provided on the YourPace homepage.
You're using the incorrect lingo. The majors are Business Administration, Accounting, Criminal Justice, History & Political Science, and English. The Concentrations are Accounting, Project Management, Marketing, Supply Chain Management, and Management & Leadership. The minors are Project Management, Management Information System, Management, Accounting, and Educational Studies. The degrees are BA - Bachelor of Arts or BLS - Bachelor of Liberal Studies. You can't just add concentrations and minors to any degree.
Once you're an actual YourPace student, it all makes sense. The only thing that really applies to YourPace students on the on campus UMPI website is the GEC and even that is a bit modified for YourPace students. We do not have access to all of those courses. I was offered to do a double concentration in Project Management and Business Administration as well. I opted out of it because I wanted to be done.
ss20ts is right here about the majors. My diploma says Business Administration it doesn't say Leadership for example.
Dr. Ashkir DHA, MBA, MAOL, PMP, GARA
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(10-25-2021, 09:38 AM)ss20ts Wrote: (10-24-2021, 08:54 PM)JannikT Wrote: I am aware that there is a difference between concentrations and minors. So it is in theory possible to complete several minors and concentrations within a major, typically in business. And double majors are prohibited on YourPace.
If I sound confused, it is because I am some what confused. Partly contradictory information has been posted by people who have experience with UMPI. It is even more confusing that UMPI has one set of rules for brick & mortar students, and another one for Your Pace, and very limited information is provided on the YourPace homepage.
You're using the incorrect lingo. The majors are Business Administration, Accounting, Criminal Justice, History & Political Science, and English. The Concentrations are Accounting, Project Management, Marketing, Supply Chain Management, and Management & Leadership. The minors are Project Management, Management Information System, Management, Accounting, and Educational Studies. The degrees are BA - Bachelor of Arts or BLS - Bachelor of Liberal Studies. You can't just add concentrations and minors to any degree.
Once you're an actual YourPace student, it all makes sense. The only thing that really applies to YourPace students on the on campus UMPI website is the GEC and even that is a bit modified for YourPace students. We do not have access to all of those courses. I dont see how I am using the lingo incorrectly. Business degrees have a concentration, as you noted, while the accounting degree is another major. History & Political science is one major, with two different concentrations.
According to ashkir it is possible to do more than one concentration within the business major.
You claim that there are restrictions to which specific minors can be added to a particular major. This might be true, but it is not apparent from the YourPace home page what these restrictions are.
I am no wiser as to which combinations are allowed. Can you for instance ad a minor to the accounting major?
UMPI should state these restrictions explicitly on the YourPace page, in order to clear up any potential misunderstandings. All of this might make sense to an enrolled person, but looking at it from the outside, it is not particularly transparent.
As a potential student I want to know beforehand what my options are.
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(10-25-2021, 11:24 AM)JannikT Wrote: I dont see how I am using the lingo incorrectly. Business degrees have a concentration, as you noted, while the accounting degree is another major. History & Political science is one major, with two different concentrations.
According to ashkir it is possible to do more than one concentration within the business major.
You claim that there are restrictions to which specific minors can be added to a particular major. This might be true, but it is not apparent from the YourPace home page what these restrictions are.
I am no wiser as to which combinations are allowed. Can you for instance ad a minor to the accounting major?
UMPI should state these restrictions explicitly on the YourPace page, in order to clear up any potential misunderstandings. All of this might make sense to an enrolled person, but looking at it from the outside, it is not particularly transparent.
As a potential student I want to know beforehand what my options are.
Yes you can do more than one concentration in the BABA. You can't add the Marketing concentration to the BA Criminal Justice. That's what I mean by there are restrictions. If you look at the YourPace website, it shows you all of the degrees available. If you want to add a concentration or a minor, you need to discuss it with your advisor because every combo is not available. Typically you don't add minors the the BA degrees. The minors are really for the BLS degrees. It seems like you're making this more complicated than it is and wanting to just randomly pair up things. You know what your options are as a potential student - they're right on the website!
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(10-25-2021, 12:12 PM)ss20ts Wrote: (10-25-2021, 11:24 AM)JannikT Wrote: I dont see how I am using the lingo incorrectly. Business degrees have a concentration, as you noted, while the accounting degree is another major. History & Political science is one major, with two different concentrations.
According to ashkir it is possible to do more than one concentration within the business major.
You claim that there are restrictions to which specific minors can be added to a particular major. This might be true, but it is not apparent from the YourPace home page what these restrictions are.
I am no wiser as to which combinations are allowed. Can you for instance ad a minor to the accounting major?
UMPI should state these restrictions explicitly on the YourPace page, in order to clear up any potential misunderstandings. All of this might make sense to an enrolled person, but looking at it from the outside, it is not particularly transparent.
As a potential student I want to know beforehand what my options are.
Yes you can do more than one concentration in the BABA. You can't add the Marketing concentration to the BA Criminal Justice. That's what I mean by there are restrictions. If you look at the YourPace website, it shows you all of the degrees available. If you want to add a concentration or a minor, you need to discuss it with your advisor because every combo is not available. Typically you don't add minors the the BA degrees. The minors are really for the BLS degrees. It seems like you're making this more complicated than it is and wanting to just randomly pair up things. You know what your options are as a potential student - they're right on the website!
It makes sense that you can't add a business concentration to another major. Other potential combinations, especially with minors, are not so straight forward. Yes all the degrees are available on the site, but not all restrictions on degrees are mentioned. That is the whole point of my objection, they should state up front what is allowed. And how YourPace specifically differs from normal enrollment. There is absolutely no way as a reader of the site for instance, to infer that double majors are not allowed.
I do not think I am making it more complicated than it is, and you do not know beforehand if the combination some student is considering is random.
A student is paying several 1000s of dollars for a degree, they should be able to know upfront what their options are when making a substantial investment like this. Despite what you adamantly claim, a potential student does not know what the available options are, just from reading the website.
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(10-25-2021, 01:35 PM)JannikT Wrote: It makes sense that you can't add a business concentration to another major. Other potential combinations, especially with minors, are not so straight forward. Yes all the degrees are available on the site, but not all restrictions on degrees are mentioned. That is the whole point of my objection, they should state up front what is allowed. And how YourPace specifically differs from normal enrollment. There is absolutely no way as a reader of the site for instance, to infer that double majors are not allowed.
I do not think I am making it more complicated than it is, and you do not know beforehand if the combination some student is considering is random.
A student is paying several 1000s of dollars for a degree, they should be able to know upfront what their options are when making a substantial investment like this. Despite what you adamantly claim, a potential student does not know what the available options are, just from reading the website.
When in doubt, go with what is on the YourPace website. Originally, they didn't let students add things such as additional minors or concentrations from what I've been told by folks at UMPI. It's only over time as students have gone through the programs and asked if things could be added on that changes were made. Until this fall semester, you could not complete a second bachelor's degree if you had completed a BLS. That has changed. I pushed really hard for this to change. I don't know why it finally did change, but it did thankfully. The website isn't going to change and show every little thing because they would have to update it constantly. And sometimes exceptions are made for some students such as the BAS. That's not a YourPace degree, but the Director of YourPace has allowed a few students to complete it. Will this be allowed in the future? No one knows.
There's nothing on the YourPace website that says you can do a double major. Double majors are much easier on campus. Being a double major in YourPace would be like completing the BA in Criminal Justice and the BA in English. Two different majors. There's very little overlap. You wouldn't need any general electives because your second major will fill them and then some.
You make it sounds like people are spending a great deal of money on this degree and most of us have not. We spent less than any of the Big 3 or WGU. I mean $1400-$2800 for a degree is so ridiculously cheap.
You do know what degrees are available to you. They are all displayed on the YourPace website. I wouldn't go in with a plan to complete additional concentrations or minors without being an enrolled student. There have been degree programs which were removed and there have been new concentrations added in just the last year. The best thing to do is pick a program and complete it as it is today because it can change or be removed. Add additional things like an extra concentration or minor after you're enrolled and have already completed your degree program. You may find that you don't like the learning platform or the writing of papers. Some classes have lengthy projects which you don't know about until you're enrolled in the class. No one on here has completed the marketing concentration because it started in August. I'm the first again. This program has far more work than 2 of my minors combined. Only Project Management had this amount of work.
What specifically are you looking to accomplish at UMPI? I don't recall you stating what degree program you want to complete.
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(10-25-2021, 02:47 PM)ss20ts Wrote: (10-25-2021, 01:35 PM)JannikT Wrote: It makes sense that you can't add a business concentration to another major. Other potential combinations, especially with minors, are not so straight forward. Yes all the degrees are available on the site, but not all restrictions on degrees are mentioned. That is the whole point of my objection, they should state up front what is allowed. And how YourPace specifically differs from normal enrollment. There is absolutely no way as a reader of the site for instance, to infer that double majors are not allowed.
I do not think I am making it more complicated than it is, and you do not know beforehand if the combination some student is considering is random.
A student is paying several 1000s of dollars for a degree, they should be able to know upfront what their options are when making a substantial investment like this. Despite what you adamantly claim, a potential student does not know what the available options are, just from reading the website.
When in doubt, go with what is on the YourPace website. Originally, they didn't let students add things such as additional minors or concentrations from what I've been told by folks at UMPI. It's only over time as students have gone through the programs and asked if things could be added on that changes were made. Until this fall semester, you could not complete a second bachelor's degree if you had completed a BLS. That has changed. I pushed really hard for this to change. I don't know why it finally did change, but it did thankfully. The website isn't going to change and show every little thing because they would have to update it constantly. And sometimes exceptions are made for some students such as the BAS. That's not a YourPace degree, but the Director of YourPace has allowed a few students to complete it. Will this be allowed in the future? No one knows.
There's nothing on the YourPace website that says you can do a double major. Double majors are much easier on campus. Being a double major in YourPace would be like completing the BA in Criminal Justice and the BA in English. Two different majors. There's very little overlap. You wouldn't need any general electives because your second major will fill them and then some.
You make it sounds like people are spending a great deal of money on this degree and most of us have not. We spent less than any of the Big 3 or WGU. I mean $1400-$2800 for a degree is so ridiculously cheap.
You do know what degrees are available to you. They are all displayed on the YourPace website. I wouldn't go in with a plan to complete additional concentrations or minors without being an enrolled student. There have been degree programs which were removed and there have been new concentrations added in just the last year. The best thing to do is pick a program and complete it as it is today because it can change or be removed. Add additional things like an extra concentration or minor after you're enrolled and have already completed your degree program. You may find that you don't like the learning platform or the writing of papers. Some classes have lengthy projects which you don't know about until you're enrolled in the class. No one on here has completed the marketing concentration because it started in August. I'm the first again. This program has far more work than 2 of my minors combined. Only Project Management had this amount of work.
What specifically are you looking to accomplish at UMPI? I don't recall you stating what degree program you want to complete.
First of alll, I appreciate the fact that you took the time to write a detailed and nuanced post that describes the development of YourPace at UMPI.
It sounds like the YourPace programme for some time has functioned on an ad hoc basis, and that many degree combinations have been considered on a case by case evaluation. As I see it, the problem is that UMPI does not state upfront what degree possibilities are available on YourPace. If you go read the standard regulations and policies that guide the brick & mortar college, everything is much more transparent, and there exists many different degree options and combinations. I started initially reading up on these regulations, naively thinking that the same rules apply to YourPace. It then turns out that degree options are quite limited on YourPace. It was evident that only a subset of majors and courses are offered online, but not so evident that degree combinations are quite restricted as well. I dont think it is unreasonable to conclude, that it would be possible to complete a double major. It is possible to do it on campus, and several other online colleges, like TESU, offer the double major option. It is also highly misleading that they state that you can transfer in an unlimited amount of credits. They should instead just state it like it is. Only 90 ACE credits are allowed on any individual degree.
I already knew about the BLS restriction, because it states so in their standard regulations, which is publicly available knowledge. This restriction has now been lifted, which is great news. As the marketing degree is quite new, and no one at this forum has completed it so far, it will be interesting to hear about your evaluation of the courses on going. Good luck with that going forward.
My problem with the case by case consideration policy is that it makes it less transparent what is possible, and makes planning much more difficult. If I eventually decide to enroll in the YourPace programme, I will not plan on doing any minors now. The reason is that it would introduce to much uncertainty when planning and completing ACE credits for transfer. For instance, what is the point of doing extra 100 dollar courses for the minor at study.com, if you do not know beforehand if they will except you completing a minor? I will probably just skip the courses all together. Obviously my critique does not imply that I think UMPI is a lousy college. Only that they should improve their online communication.
I think your $1400-$2800 budgetting for a degree at YourPace is highly optimistic. As I recall from an earlier post, you even stated that it would be more or less impossible to complete practically any degree in less than two sessions. And that the average student spends more like 4 sessions completing a degree. I plan on spending at least 3 sessions completing up to 15 courses at UMPI, which I assume is quite normal. That would take me above $4000, additionally I have to figure in other costs like completing ACE courses and documentation of high school completion from a foreign country. This will easily land me close to $6000, based on honest and realistic budgetting. This is still very cheap for a US college degree. However I am not evaluating the price based on a relative comparison of other US college degrees, but on my personal finances. $6000 is a moderate commitment for me, especially considering that I am a non-US resident that has to finance everything personally. I have prior college experience, but translating courses and content from a non -US college to US terms is a lot of hassle. For this reason I have decided to start totally from scratch doing ACE courses.
I come from a small country in the north of europe, and have for some years worked as an economist in public institutions doing statistics and managerial accounting. I already have a brick and mortar master degree from a non-US college. I was initially attracted to the accounting degree, as the courses are very relevant for the work I have been doing. IT courses are also highly relevant.
I am however also potentially interested in the History & PS degree, as political science is also quite useful when working in government institutions for instance public law and EU policy.
These are the two degrees I am primarily interested in. I have so far not decided which one I will complete, as double majoring is of the table. Or if I should consider doing a dual degree, this option is likely less realistic.
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(10-25-2021, 06:24 PM)JannikT Wrote: (10-25-2021, 02:47 PM)ss20ts Wrote: (10-25-2021, 01:35 PM)JannikT Wrote: It makes sense that you can't add a business concentration to another major. Other potential combinations, especially with minors, are not so straight forward. Yes all the degrees are available on the site, but not all restrictions on degrees are mentioned. That is the whole point of my objection, they should state up front what is allowed. And how YourPace specifically differs from normal enrollment. There is absolutely no way as a reader of the site for instance, to infer that double majors are not allowed.
I do not think I am making it more complicated than it is, and you do not know beforehand if the combination some student is considering is random.
A student is paying several 1000s of dollars for a degree, they should be able to know upfront what their options are when making a substantial investment like this. Despite what you adamantly claim, a potential student does not know what the available options are, just from reading the website.
When in doubt, go with what is on the YourPace website. Originally, they didn't let students add things such as additional minors or concentrations from what I've been told by folks at UMPI. It's only over time as students have gone through the programs and asked if things could be added on that changes were made. Until this fall semester, you could not complete a second bachelor's degree if you had completed a BLS. That has changed. I pushed really hard for this to change. I don't know why it finally did change, but it did thankfully. The website isn't going to change and show every little thing because they would have to update it constantly. And sometimes exceptions are made for some students such as the BAS. That's not a YourPace degree, but the Director of YourPace has allowed a few students to complete it. Will this be allowed in the future? No one knows.
There's nothing on the YourPace website that says you can do a double major. Double majors are much easier on campus. Being a double major in YourPace would be like completing the BA in Criminal Justice and the BA in English. Two different majors. There's very little overlap. You wouldn't need any general electives because your second major will fill them and then some.
You make it sounds like people are spending a great deal of money on this degree and most of us have not. We spent less than any of the Big 3 or WGU. I mean $1400-$2800 for a degree is so ridiculously cheap.
You do know what degrees are available to you. They are all displayed on the YourPace website. I wouldn't go in with a plan to complete additional concentrations or minors without being an enrolled student. There have been degree programs which were removed and there have been new concentrations added in just the last year. The best thing to do is pick a program and complete it as it is today because it can change or be removed. Add additional things like an extra concentration or minor after you're enrolled and have already completed your degree program. You may find that you don't like the learning platform or the writing of papers. Some classes have lengthy projects which you don't know about until you're enrolled in the class. No one on here has completed the marketing concentration because it started in August. I'm the first again. This program has far more work than 2 of my minors combined. Only Project Management had this amount of work.
What specifically are you looking to accomplish at UMPI? I don't recall you stating what degree program you want to complete.
First of alll, I appreciate the fact that you took the time to write a detailed and nuanced post that describes the development of YourPace at UMPI.
It sounds like the YourPace programme for some time has functioned on an ad hoc basis, and that many degree combinations have been considered on a case by case evaluation. As I see it, the problem is that UMPI does not state upfront what degree possibilities are available on YourPace. If you go read the standard regulations and policies that guide the brick & mortar college, everything is much more transparent, and there exists many different degree options and combinations. I started initially reading up on these regulations, naively thinking that the same rules apply to YourPace. It then turns out that degree options are quite limited on YourPace. It was evident that only a subset of majors and courses are offered online, but not so evident that degree combinations are quite restricted as well. I dont think it is unreasonable to conclude, that it would be possible to complete a double major. It is possible to do it on campus, and several other online colleges, like TESU, offer the double major option. It is also highly misleading that they state that you can transfer in an unlimited amount of credits. They should instead just state it like it is. Only 90 ACE credits are allowed on any individual degree.
I already knew about the BLS restriction, because it states so in their standard regulations, which is publicly available knowledge. This restriction has now been lifted, which is great news. As the marketing degree is quite new, and no one at this forum has completed it so far, it will be interesting to hear about your evaluation of the courses on going. Good luck with that going forward.
My problem with the case by case consideration policy is that it makes it less transparent what is possible, and makes planning much more difficult. If I eventually decide to enroll in the YourPace programme, I will not plan on doing any minors now. The reason is that it would introduce to much uncertainty when planning and completing ACE credits for transfer. For instance, what is the point of doing extra 100 dollar courses for the minor at study.com, if you do not know beforehand if they will except you completing a minor? I will probably just skip the courses all together. Obviously my critique does not imply that I think UMPI is a lousy college. Only that they should improve their online communication.
I think your $1400-$2800 budgetting for a degree at YourPace is highly optimistic. As I recall from an earlier post, you even stated that it would be more or less impossible to complete practically any degree in less than two sessions. And that the average student spends more like 4 sessions completing a degree. I plan on spending at least 3 sessions completing up to 15 courses at UMPI, which I assume is quite normal. That would take me above $4000, additionally I have to figure in other costs like completing ACE courses and documentation of high school completion from a foreign country. This will easily land me close to $6000, based on honest and realistic budgetting. This is still very cheap for a US college degree. However I am not evaluating the price based on a relative comparison of other US college degrees, but on my personal finances. $6000 is a moderate commitment for me, especially considering that I am a non-US resident that has to finance everything personally. I have prior college experience, but translating courses and content from a non -US college to US terms is a lot of hassle. For this reason I have decided to start totally from scratch doing ACE courses.
I come from a small country in the north of europe, and have for some years worked as an economist in public institutions doing statistics and managerial accounting. I already have a brick and mortar master degree from a non-US college. I was initially attracted to the accounting degree, as the courses are very relevant for the work I have been doing. IT courses are also highly relevant.
I am however also potentially interested in the History & PS degree, as political science is also quite useful when working in government institutions for instance public law and EU policy.
These are the two degrees I am primarily interested in. I have so far not decided which one I will complete, as double majoring is of the table. Or if I should consider doing a dual degree, this option is likely less realistic.
I am also a European economist with a B&M masters degree (although Germany is not a 'small' country) working in a public research institution. I do statistical analyses of program implementations. I am pursuing the US thing because I want to be able to work for the US government without always worrying about degree equivalency of my foreign qualifications. I thought your post was an interesting coincidence aha.
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(10-25-2021, 09:30 PM)sarahmac Wrote: (10-25-2021, 06:24 PM)JannikT Wrote: (10-25-2021, 02:47 PM)ss20ts Wrote: (10-25-2021, 01:35 PM)JannikT Wrote: It makes sense that you can't add a business concentration to another major. Other potential combinations, especially with minors, are not so straight forward. Yes all the degrees are available on the site, but not all restrictions on degrees are mentioned. That is the whole point of my objection, they should state up front what is allowed. And how YourPace specifically differs from normal enrollment. There is absolutely no way as a reader of the site for instance, to infer that double majors are not allowed.
I do not think I am making it more complicated than it is, and you do not know beforehand if the combination some student is considering is random.
A student is paying several 1000s of dollars for a degree, they should be able to know upfront what their options are when making a substantial investment like this. Despite what you adamantly claim, a potential student does not know what the available options are, just from reading the website.
When in doubt, go with what is on the YourPace website. Originally, they didn't let students add things such as additional minors or concentrations from what I've been told by folks at UMPI. It's only over time as students have gone through the programs and asked if things could be added on that changes were made. Until this fall semester, you could not complete a second bachelor's degree if you had completed a BLS. That has changed. I pushed really hard for this to change. I don't know why it finally did change, but it did thankfully. The website isn't going to change and show every little thing because they would have to update it constantly. And sometimes exceptions are made for some students such as the BAS. That's not a YourPace degree, but the Director of YourPace has allowed a few students to complete it. Will this be allowed in the future? No one knows.
There's nothing on the YourPace website that says you can do a double major. Double majors are much easier on campus. Being a double major in YourPace would be like completing the BA in Criminal Justice and the BA in English. Two different majors. There's very little overlap. You wouldn't need any general electives because your second major will fill them and then some.
You make it sounds like people are spending a great deal of money on this degree and most of us have not. We spent less than any of the Big 3 or WGU. I mean $1400-$2800 for a degree is so ridiculously cheap.
You do know what degrees are available to you. They are all displayed on the YourPace website. I wouldn't go in with a plan to complete additional concentrations or minors without being an enrolled student. There have been degree programs which were removed and there have been new concentrations added in just the last year. The best thing to do is pick a program and complete it as it is today because it can change or be removed. Add additional things like an extra concentration or minor after you're enrolled and have already completed your degree program. You may find that you don't like the learning platform or the writing of papers. Some classes have lengthy projects which you don't know about until you're enrolled in the class. No one on here has completed the marketing concentration because it started in August. I'm the first again. This program has far more work than 2 of my minors combined. Only Project Management had this amount of work.
What specifically are you looking to accomplish at UMPI? I don't recall you stating what degree program you want to complete.
First of alll, I appreciate the fact that you took the time to write a detailed and nuanced post that describes the development of YourPace at UMPI.
It sounds like the YourPace programme for some time has functioned on an ad hoc basis, and that many degree combinations have been considered on a case by case evaluation. As I see it, the problem is that UMPI does not state upfront what degree possibilities are available on YourPace. If you go read the standard regulations and policies that guide the brick & mortar college, everything is much more transparent, and there exists many different degree options and combinations. I started initially reading up on these regulations, naively thinking that the same rules apply to YourPace. It then turns out that degree options are quite limited on YourPace. It was evident that only a subset of majors and courses are offered online, but not so evident that degree combinations are quite restricted as well. I dont think it is unreasonable to conclude, that it would be possible to complete a double major. It is possible to do it on campus, and several other online colleges, like TESU, offer the double major option. It is also highly misleading that they state that you can transfer in an unlimited amount of credits. They should instead just state it like it is. Only 90 ACE credits are allowed on any individual degree.
I already knew about the BLS restriction, because it states so in their standard regulations, which is publicly available knowledge. This restriction has now been lifted, which is great news. As the marketing degree is quite new, and no one at this forum has completed it so far, it will be interesting to hear about your evaluation of the courses on going. Good luck with that going forward.
My problem with the case by case consideration policy is that it makes it less transparent what is possible, and makes planning much more difficult. If I eventually decide to enroll in the YourPace programme, I will not plan on doing any minors now. The reason is that it would introduce to much uncertainty when planning and completing ACE credits for transfer. For instance, what is the point of doing extra 100 dollar courses for the minor at study.com, if you do not know beforehand if they will except you completing a minor? I will probably just skip the courses all together. Obviously my critique does not imply that I think UMPI is a lousy college. Only that they should improve their online communication.
I think your $1400-$2800 budgetting for a degree at YourPace is highly optimistic. As I recall from an earlier post, you even stated that it would be more or less impossible to complete practically any degree in less than two sessions. And that the average student spends more like 4 sessions completing a degree. I plan on spending at least 3 sessions completing up to 15 courses at UMPI, which I assume is quite normal. That would take me above $4000, additionally I have to figure in other costs like completing ACE courses and documentation of high school completion from a foreign country. This will easily land me close to $6000, based on honest and realistic budgetting. This is still very cheap for a US college degree. However I am not evaluating the price based on a relative comparison of other US college degrees, but on my personal finances. $6000 is a moderate commitment for me, especially considering that I am a non-US resident that has to finance everything personally. I have prior college experience, but translating courses and content from a non -US college to US terms is a lot of hassle. For this reason I have decided to start totally from scratch doing ACE courses.
I come from a small country in the north of europe, and have for some years worked as an economist in public institutions doing statistics and managerial accounting. I already have a brick and mortar master degree from a non-US college. I was initially attracted to the accounting degree, as the courses are very relevant for the work I have been doing. IT courses are also highly relevant.
I am however also potentially interested in the History & PS degree, as political science is also quite useful when working in government institutions for instance public law and EU policy.
These are the two degrees I am primarily interested in. I have so far not decided which one I will complete, as double majoring is of the table. Or if I should consider doing a dual degree, this option is likely less realistic.
I am also a European economist with a B&M masters degree (although Germany is not a 'small' country) working in a public research institution. I do statistical analyses of program implementations. I am pursuing the US thing because I want to be able to work for the US government without always worrying about degree equivalency of my foreign qualifications. I thought your post was an interesting coincidence aha. That is interesting. What programmering/statistical software do you use in your work? And what degree would you be interested in pursuing at UMPI?
As a european it has been quite interesting contrasting the American university system with the European. The 4 year degree has a much larger general education component, compared to a typical 3 year european bachelor degree. There is also far more multiple choice testing. If you haven't started any ACE courses, or you aren't enrolled at a US college, be prepared for this kind of testing. It took some getting used to on my part. But overall I find this type of examination less difficult.
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