Pierpont or UMPI

[evanmonast]

In my last post I mentioned that I absolutely needed an associates degree for work but recently learned that I could show 60 or more credits while currently enrolled in a 4 year school and it would do the trick. 

Now my question is would it even be worth it to wait for Pierpont to get back to me or should I go straight to UMPI? I have 37 RA credits from my local community college and have completed an additional 29 on Sophia since my last post a couple days ago. 
I made sure all courses I took applied to both Pierpont and UMPI just in case. 

As far as I know I meet all the requirements for a BOG degree from Pierpont but is it worth waiting for them to accept me, evaluate my credits and then waiting for the term to end to graduate and then turning around and applying to UMPI and waiting for them to do the same?

Should I just go straight to UMPI since by the time I would graduate from Pierpont I could already be done with a UMPI term?

If my calculations are correct I would be transferring all 37 of my community college credits as well as 41 credits from Sophia,  and 6 from instantcert/study for a total of 84 credits that I found I could transfer over that applied to my Criminal Justice Bachelors. 

Courses I did not take at my CC or could find replacements for that I would need to take at UMPI include


Intro to Criminal Justice (I took an intro to law enforcement but pretty sure it won't cover it) 
Research Methods
Criminal Justice Ethics 
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Police and Policing 
Punishment and Corrections
Crime Control Policies
Theoretical Criminology
Social Psychology
Field Experience in criminology
Creative Decision Making
English Composition II  
University Experience (2 credits)

For a total of 122 credits meeting all CJ Requirements/CJ Electives/ General Electives/Gen Ed Requirements. 

Some final questions while I have you..

How long does it normally take to finish 13 courses at UMPI? 

Are those 13 courses even available through YourPace? Online it says all the courses are self-paced but I've seen conflicting comments regarding that

Am I an idiot thinking I would only be 13 courses away from my bachelors?

[ashkir]

you can transfer UMPI transcripts at any given time as long as you have at least 1 posted grade.

Pierpont is awesome, however, slow. By the time you wait for Pierpont to confirm your Associates you can be done with the one term at UMPI and just need 1 or 2 more terms to get a full 4 year degree.

The question is really up to you. After Sophia do you want to settle for just an Associates, or do you want to go all the way and do a 4 year degree?

[bjcheung77]

@evanmonast, you have energy/time on your hands, you blasted through so many credits in a few days, I am amazed.  There are so many different ways to play your current credits, it all depends on personal preference on what you want to do.  Since it's a waiting game, it's best to use that energy/time to get more things done while waiting for evaluations.  This is how I would play it out...

1) Complete your remaining Sophia.org, InstantCertCredit and Study.com courses, I would take an extra InstantCertCredit and Study.com course to bump your credits up to 90 from the 84, as you have an extra exam to use for Study.com membership, don't waste it.  The extra InstantCertCredit would be just an extra nominal fee...

2) There is no correlation between the Pierpont and UMPI degrees, you can apply to both and do the required courses at the same time, in fact, get your Pierpont application/transcripts in -  finish what you need as per step #1, then apply to UMPI with all 90 or so credits, you can see what is missing/required and remaining for the BACJ.

3) Pierpont will take months to get you the degree ready for graduation, you may even finish your UMPI BACJ beforehand.  You will need to take at least 2 terms at UMPI as not all courses are offered in the same term.  I suggest getting as many as you can completed for the terms.  Finish off Pierpont ASAP, at UMPI apply for March term wait for acceptance...

4) When you're done with the first 3 steps above, it'll be a waiting game - While you're waiting, you can maximize your learning, you might want to complete some free or cheap credits, certs, etc that is found on the forums or wiki in my signature.  I even suggest doing some Google or TEEX certificates, whatever to keep the brain working.

Note: Another alternative or option you may want to look into, instead of the Pierpont BOG AAS, you may just want to skip it in favor of the UMPI AALS with no emphasis, you get that FREE without the need to send transcripts to Pierpont, as all your transcripts go to UMPI already.  Apply to UMPI BACJ as the main degree, email them after acceptance to add the NON Yourpace AALS as a secondary program.

[evanmonast]

you can transfer UMPI transcripts at any given time as long as you have at least 1 posted grade.

Pierpont is awesome, however, slow. By the time you wait for Pierpont to confirm your Associates you can be done with the one term at UMPI and just need 1 or 2 more terms to get a full 4 year degree.

The question is really up to you. After Sophia do you want to settle for just an Associates, or do you want to go all the way and do a 4 year degree?

That's my fear. As long as UMPI offers those courses I need through YourPace I will eventually get my BACJ. If they don't offer those courses I might stall out after my associates due to financial concerns as I wouldn't be able to afford UMPI's actual tuition like I would YourPace's tuition. 

I just figured I would get my associates now while I wait so I can update my resume and get a better job but it's looking like UMPI would get me there faster.

---

@evanmonast, you have energy/time on your hands, you blasted through so many credits in a few days, I am amazed.  There are so many different ways to play your current credits, it all depends on personal preference on what you want to do.  Since it's a waiting game, it's best to use that energy/time to get more things done while waiting for evaluations.  This is how I would play it out...

1) Complete your remaining Sophia.org, InstantCertCredit and Study.com courses, I would take an extra InstantCertCredit and Study.com course to bump your credits up to 90 from the 84, as you have an extra exam to use for Study.com membership, don't waste it.  The extra InstantCertCredit would be just an extra nominal fee...

2) There is no correlation between the Pierpont and UMPI degrees, you can apply to both and do the required courses at the same time, in fact, get your Pierpont application/transcripts in -  finish what you need as per step #1, then apply to UMPI with all 90 or so credits, you can see what is missing/required and remaining for the BACJ.

3) Pierpont will take months to get you the degree ready for graduation, you may even finish your UMPI BACJ beforehand.  You will need to take at least 2 terms at UMPI as not all courses are offered in the same term.  I suggest getting as many as you can completed for the terms.  Finish off Pierpont ASAP, at UMPI apply for March term wait for acceptance...

4) When you're done with the first 3 steps above, it'll be a waiting game - While you're waiting, you can maximize your learning, you might want to complete some free or cheap credits, certs, etc that is found on the forums or wiki in my signature.  I even suggest doing some Google or TEEX certificates, whatever to keep the brain working.

Note: Another alternative or option you may want to look into, instead of the Pierpont BOG AAS, you may just want to skip it in favor of the UMPI AALS with no emphasis, you get that FREE without the need to send transcripts to Pierpont, as all your transcripts go to UMPI already.  Apply to UMPI BACJ as the main degree, email them after acceptance to add the NON Yourpace AALS as a secondary program.

I had no idea that AALS was an option, I might end up doing that. I'm pretty sure I will be done with Sophia by new years and then hopefully done with Study/Instantcert by the latest February in the worst case scenario. Then hopefully UMPI offers all 13 of those courses in the March term so I can be done haha. 

But yeah I've applied to Pierpont already I'm just impatient waiting for acceptance so I guess we'll see who gets me in faster Pierpont or UMPI

[rachel83az]

Definitely not an either/or situation. Pierpont is slow, but you can definitely do both! I would guess that you'll get your paper letter in the second week of January. You should be able to almost immediately apply for graduation. This puts your graduation date in May.

Meanwhile, you'll be working on UMPI. All of the courses necessary for your CJ degree will be offered via YourPace. Don't worry about needing to pay non-YourPace tuition. But you'll probably have to do two sessions there. It's just the way of YourPace. (With how fast you're able to go through classes, you might even want to consider adding a second minor to your degree, but that's a separate matter entirely.) If you start in March, that potentially puts you as graduating from UMPI in July. So you'll get your Pierpont degree conferred before UMPI.

I'm not sure what residency requirements, if any, there are for a UMPI AALS. I would assume that there are some. I also presume you'd need to finish at least one session at UMPI first. Start in March, get your UMPI AALS degree conferred in May. I think Pierpont might still be faster by a couple of days.

[dfrecore]

Not sure why you're asking this when it was already answered in another post - you don't have to wait for your Pierpont degree to enroll in UMPI. You should do all that you can to get your Pierpont degree, apply, send your credits, and then they will send you a transcript and diploma. In the meantime, if you're ready to enroll in UMPI, you should do that as well. Apply, send your credits, and then decide if you want to continue on. Once they accept you, you are enrolled, so you might want to make sure you have the full 90cr that you want to transfer before applying.

But if your company just wants 60cr and enrollment, then by all means, enroll at UMPI early (before 90cr is completed).

[evanmonast]

Not sure why you're asking this when it was already answered in another post - you don't have to wait for your Pierpont degree to enroll in UMPI.  You should do all that you can to get your Pierpont degree, apply, send your credits, and then they will send you a transcript and diploma.  In the meantime, if you're ready to enroll in UMPI, you should do that as well.  Apply, send your credits, and then decide if you want to continue on.  Once they accept you, you are enrolled, so you might want to make sure you have the full 90cr that you want to transfer before applying.

But if your company just wants 60cr and enrollment, then by all means, enroll at UMPI early (before 90cr is completed).

Different question and I had a couple of other unrelated questions to the original post. Just figured it would be easier to start a new thread as opposed to having people digging through a few pages on the other one. My bad I'm new to this forum and wasn't sure how to go about it. Won't do it again..

[evanmonast]

Definitely not an either/or situation. Pierpont is slow, but you can definitely do both! I would guess that you'll get your paper letter in the second week of January. You should be able to almost immediately apply for graduation. This puts your graduation date in May.

Meanwhile, you'll be working on UMPI. All of the courses necessary for your CJ degree will be offered via YourPace. Don't worry about needing to pay non-YourPace tuition. But you'll probably have to do two sessions there. It's just the way of YourPace. (With how fast you're able to go through classes, you might even want to consider adding a second minor to your degree, but that's a separate matter entirely.) If you start in March, that potentially puts you as graduating from UMPI in July. So you'll get your Pierpont degree conferred before UMPI.

I'm not sure what residency requirements, if any, there are for a UMPI AALS. I would assume that there are some. I also presume you'd need to finish at least one session at UMPI first. Start in March, get your UMPI AALS degree conferred in May. I think Pierpont might still be faster by a couple of days.

Okay thank god, I've been stressing about that because I saw someone post a list of the available courses and none of them were my core requirements. 

I was also so confused about if I could use my credits more than once but that clears it up. This is all so new to me as you can probably tell

[rachel83az]

I think you're the first one here to actually want to go through a CJ degree. Everyone else has wanted liberal studies or business. A couple accounting. Nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that there will be some irrelevant info on which courses may or may not be available.

[evanmonast]

I think you're the first one here to actually want to go through a CJ degree. Everyone else has wanted liberal studies or business. A couple accounting. Nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that there will be some irrelevant info on which courses may or may not be available.

I'm perfectly fine with breaking that ground. I would love to map out a plan to help my other military guys since we're all pretty much law enforcement hopefuls on the civilian side.

 I actually just found out that study.com offers a creative decision making course as well as social psychology and Juvenile Justice & Delinquency that transfer to UMPI as direct equivalents and that my intro to law enforcement covers intro to criminal justice as UMPI leaving me with only 9 unmet requirements at UMPI or 26 credits (one of the courses is 2 credits).

Of course I do know I need to take 30 credits there, would you suggest taking those at study.com and finding a couple easy classes at UMPI to meet the 30 credit requirement or do you think I should take two of those at UMPI. I just don't know if study.com is generally quicker/easier or if they would be easier at UMPI.