Need Help! BA/BS CJ degree etc

[Mike Williams]

Your Location: Missouri
 
Your Age: 40
 
What kind of degree do you want?: I am looking for a BA/BS degree in Criminal Justice or Emergency Management online. It needs to be from a regionally accredited school. The faster and cheaper the better.  
 
I have evenings to study and some weekends. I didn’t realized how difficult things would be navigating the academia world…lol
 
I more or less need the degree to check the box. I would maybe consider a Masters down the road.

Budget 10k tops

Thank you all for the help!!!
 
Current Regional Accredited Credits:  from in person classes
 
Salesmanship                                                                 3CR
 
Principles of Selling                                                        3CR
 
Composition I                                                                 3CR
 
Fundamentals of Speech                                               3CR
 
Algebra Principles    (Beg & Intermediate Algebra)        5CR
 
Intro to Criminal Justice                                                  3CR
 
Law Enforcement Report Writing                                    3CR
 
Physical Training & Well Being                                       2CR
 
Law Enforcement Skills                                                   5CR
 
Traffic Control & Invest                                                    3CR
 
Procedural Law                                                               3CR
 
Self-Defense                                                                   1CR
 
Police Operational Procedures                                       3CR
 
Criminal Investigation I                                                   3CR
 
Criminal Investigations II                                                3CR
 
Responder First AID                                                        3CR

GPA 3.2
 
 NO MILITARY OR OTHER CREDITS

[rachel83az]

How do you feel about writing academic papers? Do you speak any non-English foreign language(s)? Are any of those classes UL or are they all LL?

The fastest/easiest/cheapest CJ degree would come from UMPI. Each class is graded based on a single paper or project. Classes are at your own pace, but you must finish at least 2 classes per 8 week session. There is no limit to how many you're allowed to finish, except your own speed at writing papers. Most students from this forum who go to UMPI are able to go from 0 credits to graduation in 6-8 months, with an average time actually spent at UMPI of 2 or 3 sessions (4-6 months). Each session costs $1400.

But if you're not comfortable with papers, you could get a different (non-CJ) Bachelor's degree from somewhere like TESU or Excelsior. It would cost a bit more, but you could also do more exams and fewer papers. It wouldn't be a CJ degree, though.

[Vle045]

Are you already in Law Enforcement and looking to move up the ranks? I think the TAMUC competency based program could be a great fit. It has an emphasis geared toward law enforcement.

https://www.tamuc.edu/programs/criminal-...eadership/

[Mike Williams]

Are you already in Law Enforcement and looking to move up the ranks?  I think the TAMUC competency based program could be a great fit.  It has an emphasis geared toward law enforcement.

https://www.tamuc.edu/programs/criminal-...eadership/

I will def check that program out. Thanks

[Mike Williams]

How do you feel about writing academic papers? Do you speak any non-English foreign language(s)? Are any of those classes UL or are they all LL?

The fastest/easiest/cheapest CJ degree would come from UMPI. Each class is graded based on a single paper or project. Classes are at your own pace, but you must finish at least 2 classes per 8 week session. There is no limit to how many you're allowed to finish, except your own speed at writing papers. Most students from this forum who go to UMPI are able to go from 0 credits to graduation in 6-8 months, with an average time actually spent at UMPI of 2 or 3 sessions (4-6 months). Each session costs $1400.

But if you're not comfortable with papers, you could get a different (non-CJ) Bachelor's degree from somewhere like TESU or Excelsior. It would cost a bit more, but you could also do more exams and fewer papers. It wouldn't be a CJ degree, though.

Rachel, thanks for the reply! What are the papers like? I don't mind too much about the papers...that is all I mainly do! Although it is nice just to switch up gears for an exam. 

My last class, I had to write on a few diffrent topics. All of the students pulled info from the net etc, I did that along with conducting several personal interviews. I think my teacher was a bit shocked due to the fact it was just a 3 page paper in a gen ed class at a CC..haha

[dfrecore]

I'm also going to vote UMPI for the CJ degree - you're already partway there, and just need to follow the wiki for the GEC courses, and then go to Study.com's website to see which courses you can use there for the major, and with what you already have, you can get to 90cr of transfer quickly.

I think the only downside to this particular degree is the fact that you'll lose some credits because you have a lot of free electives, and this degree doesn't allow for much; so, you could also consider just getting a BLS w/Management Minor, and then get to keep all of your credits. I THINK (but am not 100% certain) that you could also do the BLS and get a minor in CJ along with Management, if that worked.

[rachel83az]

I'm not sure that I would "settle" for a BLS degree when getting a pure CJ degree isn't going to be that much more difficult.

I don't know what the classes for the CJ program at UMPI are like (and they're switching to a new platform in January, so the classes might be different then anyway), but it sounds like you're pretty well set for UMPI papers.

For UMPI, you'll definitely need either Spanish I from Sophia.org or any ACTFL exam for any language. Plus biological science & physical science (one of which must have a lab), which you can also get from Sophia.

[Vle045]

Are you already in Law Enforcement and looking to move up the ranks?  I think the TAMUC competency based program could be a great fit.  It has an emphasis geared toward law enforcement.

https://www.tamuc.edu/programs/criminal-...eadership/

I will def check that program out. Thanks

You're welcome.  My husband is a police lieutenant and I was looking up options for him.  The TAMUC courses seemed more in line with his police training and day to day work than most other programs.  He decided not to pursue a degree at this point because he didn't feel it would help him be promoted any more than his 25+ years of experience.

[dfrecore]

I'm not sure that I would "settle" for a BLS degree when getting a pure CJ degree isn't going to be that much more difficult.

Generally speaking, you don't need a CJ degree if you're already working in law enforcement.  Most of the people I know in law enforcement get a business degree or something along those lines because when they retire, they want to do something completely different than law enforcement, and so a business degree is more useful for those reasons.

[indigoshuffle]

From what I know about promotions and moving up in law enforcement no specific degree will benefit you at the bachelors level. They want experience and almost any bachelors will do. I say UMPI is your best bet. The fastest degree at UMPI will be the one that excites you the most. You'll want to start with Sophia from the looks of the classes you've taken.

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...quivalents