My Path to a BSBA in Finance in Under Two Years

[codys]

Hello everyone,
I am new to the forum and to InstantCert as well (just signed up about a week ago) and will be using this thread primarily to keep myself on track and help motivate me to continue pushing forward with my degree plan. In the end, I hope that maybe someone else will one day learn something useful from my documenting of my own journey.

Backstory: I am 24 years old and am smarter than average. Along with the IQ I've been blessed with, I was also blessed with some other qualities that are not typically viewed as being so great. In high school I was very rebellious and was more focused on girls and cars than I was on my school work. I would make great grades on my test but would often simply choose not to do my homework which would result in getting zeroes on the assignments. My understanding was that teachers were paid to teach me during school hours and, if they did their job well, they wouldn't have to send me home with a homework assignment. I was young and stubborn. I would make A's on the tests and only complete about half of my homework which resulted in graduating with some A's but mostly B's. During high school, I took a class on computer aided drafting (CAD) for three years and was fairly certain that I would like to continue studying it after high school in hopes of one day getting a job with a company that produces performance car parts as an engineer. It was enjoyable, I love cars, and I was good at it. I decided to go to a junior college first to get my basics out of the way and obtain an associates in CAD before transferring to a university to get my bachelor's in mechanical engineering. Sadly, I was still not mature enough for school. I did one year of junior college and started my 2nd year but just didn't have the self discipline to keep going. I gave up and dropped out and joined the military. I'm 4 years into my 6 year contract and I am more than mature enough to tackle a simple college degree at this point. As I matured, I also became very interested in business and finance in particular. My goal is to be done with undergrad by the time I get out of the military two years from now. My fiance is currently going through medical school at FIU and will be finishing up her MD about 6 months after I get out of the military. When I get out, my plan is to immediately apply for graduate school to get my MBA using the GI bill at a university near where my fiance will be doing her residency.

Steps taken so far:

1. Applied to TESU
2. Submitted FAFSA
3. Sent TESU previous college transcript
4. Sent TESU Joint Services Transcript (JST) to receive ACE approved credits for military training
5. Printed off a degree map for a BSBA Finance that accounts for credits received for my JST
6. Joined InstantCert
7. Found my nearest Clep/DSST testing center.

My JST alone will be worth 23 of the 120 credits towards this degree. If I were going into a degree with electronics I would be a whole lot closer to a degree but I've decided to stick with what I'm truly interested in doing.
My previous college credits should pull me up to at least around 35 credits total towards this degree. Not a bad start. CLEP tests here I come!

[l8989v]

Good luck on your journey!

[codys]

Well I just signed up for two Clep tests. I will be taking Principles of Marketing a week from tomorrow and then Principles of Management the following week. Time to start running through some flashcards!

[tsimmns]

Well I just signed up for two Clep tests. I will be taking Principles of Marketing a week from tomorrow and then Principles of Management the following week. Time to start running through some flashcards!

Just FYI, if I was you I would go ahead and sign up for some DSST test at your education office soon because of the free re-take. If you take one before the end of October you will then have a 30 day wait period instead of the 90 day and will be able to test again before December 31. This way, if you happen to fail one you can re-take for free during this time instead of paying the normal fee for the second try. You could try and knock out Principles of Finance and Principles of Supervision if you need 3 business credits that the Principles of Supervision falls under. Good luck.

[codys]

Thank you! I didn't realize that was a thing. I will be signing up for one soon.

[codys]

I take my first CLEP test on Tuesday! Principles of Marketing. I have gone over all of the flash cards on instantcert and I feel like I know the material pretty well. Any tips or other good study material I should look over?

[codys]

So I took Principles of Marketing 2 weeks ago and got a 70 on it. The only resource I used to study was the set of questions on instantcert. I was planning on taking principles of management this past friday but I was sick all week and decided to push it back a week so I will be taking it this week instead.

[Synicaal]

Hello everyone,
I am new to the forum and to InstantCert as well (just signed up about a week ago) and will be using this thread primarily to keep myself on track and help motivate me to continue pushing forward with my degree plan. In the end, I hope that maybe someone else will one day learn something useful from my documenting of my own journey.

Backstory: I am 24 years old and am smarter than average. Along with the IQ I've been blessed with, I was also blessed with some other qualities that are not typically viewed as being so great. In high school I was very rebellious and was more focused on girls and cars than I was on my school work. I would make great grades on my test but would often simply choose not to do my homework which would result in getting zeroes on the assignments. My understanding was that teachers were paid to teach me during school hours and, if they did their job well, they wouldn't have to send me home with a homework assignment. I was young and stubborn. I would make A's on the tests and only complete about half of my homework which resulted in graduating with some A's but mostly B's. During high school, I took a class on computer aided drafting (CAD) for three years and was fairly certain that I would like to continue studying it after high school in hopes of one day getting a job with a company that produces performance car parts as an engineer. It was enjoyable, I love cars, and I was good at it. I decided to go to a junior college first to get my basics out of the way and obtain an associates in CAD before transferring to a university to get my bachelor's in mechanical engineering. Sadly, I was still not mature enough for school. I did one year of junior college and started my 2nd year but just didn't have the self discipline to keep going. I gave up and dropped out and joined the military. I'm 4 years into my 6 year contract and I am more than mature enough to tackle a simple college degree at this point. As I matured, I also became very interested in business and finance in particular. My goal is to be done with undergrad by the time I get out of the military two years from now. My fiance is currently going through medical school at FIU and will be finishing up her MD about 6 months after I get out of the military. When I get out, my plan is to immediately apply for graduate school to get my MBA using the GI bill at a university near where my fiance will be doing her residency.

Steps taken so far:

1. Applied to TESU
2. Submitted FAFSA
3. Sent TESU previous college transcript
4. Sent TESU Joint Services Transcript (JST) to receive ACE approved credits for military training
5. Printed off a degree map for a BSBA Finance that accounts for credits received for my JST
6. Joined InstantCert
7. Found my nearest Clep/DSST testing center.

My JST alone will be worth 23 of the 120 credits towards this degree. If I were going into a degree with electronics I would be a whole lot closer to a degree but I've decided to stick with what I'm truly interested in doing.
My previous college credits should pull me up to at least around 35 credits total towards this degree. Not a bad start. CLEP tests here I come!

Do you have your 4 math classes done yet??? Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Precalc, and Stats??? If you don't you should hurry up and sign up for ALEKS. Its 20$ a month and they expire on 11/30/2016 and no certainty that they will "re-up" with ACE. It's $20 for 12 credits you can't beat that. They took me a couple days each (except stats, already had it done). I'd like to see you degree plan/spreadsheet. There is a bunch of people on the forum that is really good at figuring out the cheapest/quickest way for you to earn your degree.

Thanks to this site I started in May of this year and target to be completed by June of next year. 13months for a bachelors degree... thank you degreeforum. If I found the site slightly earlier then starting at CC I would have plan a bit better and been done even sooner but hey 13 months still isn't bad compared to the 6.5yr average of a bachelors.

[codys]

My principles of management is done now! I got a 71 on it. Again, all I used was the set of questions on instantcert. I take my introductory psychology exam here in a couple hours. I've heard it's easy but I am taking this one without as much preparation so we will see.. a little nervous.

[codys]

I have trigonometry done which is listed as my college algebra credit. I also have college algebra and intermediate algebra done which are listed under my additional gen. ed. electives. It has my intermediate algebra (MAT-115) listed as only one credit hour though. Is that correct?