Quickest way to turn my 30 credits into an AA...and where?

[daelaria]

Hello everyone. A couple years back I posted here looking for advice on how to complete my BA the fastest, but ran into trouble with previous transcripts and fees. It has been a long road, but I have finally managed to pay off my previous balances and can enroll somewhere with peace of mind. However, at this juncture, I'm not quite looking to obtain a BA just yet - I would like to attain just an AA for now as there is a position open in a few months with the local school corp that only requires the AA, and the pay would be enough to allow me to bankroll extra money towards eventually completing the BA. So for now, these are the credits I have already, and I'd like to know the fastest way to roll them into an AA. It seems a lot has changed since I last posted, but if I am understanding, COSC still allows FEMA credits, which seems like the most economical and time sensitive way to fill in a lot of blanks on my 2 year degree. My question is whether this is the case, and if so, what do I need to add in addition to FEMA credits to round out the requirements? Additionally, is it possible to obtain financial aid to cover the cost of the cornerstone course, or is that an out of pocket fee? Lastly, is it possible to have this completed by August?

Here is what I have for credit already:

AP Psych Exam - 3 Cr Intro to Psych
CLEP C04 - English Comp (3 Cr)
First Year Seminar - 1 CR
Intro to Microcomputers - 3CR
Fundamentals Public Speaking - 3CR
Linguistics - 3CR
American His 1877-Present - 3CR
Intro to Ethics - 3 CR
Fitness and Wellness -2CR
World Geography - 3CR
Concepts in Math - 3CR

So I am about halfway there. I'm excellent with self directed study and am quick to learn with online courses, and I've got about 30 hours a week to dedicate to finishing this up as quickly as possible. Any guidance is absolutely appreciated as I've been waiting years to finally be able to take the next step!!

[Ideas]

A BOG AAS would be the quickest and much cheaper than COSC. The AAS is about the same as AS, and they are extremely cheap. Something around $300 not including your cost of getting more credits which I will discuss below. Here is one thread on one school offering the AAS. http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...hread.html

You have a good variety of credits too, which is helpful.

The cheapest credits would be ALEKS math credits. You can get 9+ credits for just $20. Not $20 each, but $20 for all of them. Then there are a few sources where you can get some small amounts of credits for free. Then Shmoop can be a pain, but many people get 12+ credits there for under $90. (Again $90 for all of them.) There are also exams through Saylor for $25 each (worth 3 credits each), if you are a decent test taker.

[rebel100]

The BOG that ideas mentioned might well be the cheapest / fastest to your AA.

COSC requires these general eds: https://www.charteroak.edu/catalog/curre...ements.cfm
you seem to have quite a few of them but still need the following:

6 hours natural science plus a 1 hour lab (7 total) I suggest Straighterline BIology with lab and any other natural science 3 credit course.
English Comp 2: DSST Technical Writing satisfies
Literature/Fine Arts: A&I Literature from CLEP or either of the CLEP literature will work.
Cornerstone form COSC
Your Math may satisfy, I'm not certain...ALEKS if not

That would take you to about 46 credits and FEMA would work for the rest. Something like $450 ish for the CLEP/DSST/SL and the cornerstone is about $1200, misc fees of another $300 or so. Around $2000 and it would have the benefit of everything fitting into a COSC degree plan for your later BS or BA.

Note that I'm not sure all of your current classes will count as "liberal arts" that matters becuase you need 45 liberal arts credits for the AA or 30 minimum for an AS (see bottom of the link). May not matter to you, but wanted to throw it out there.

See the link in my signature for some details on how this has been done before.

Get someone to detail how it all might look/cost at TESC too.

Good luck!

[Ideas]

The COSC cornerstone is about $1131, and I believe the associates degree has a capstone too, for $1131. The capstone and cornerstone can take 2 semesters, and you have a per-semester fee, etc.

Some TESU associates degrees do not have a capstone including their general AA. TESU does not require a cornerstone if you get affiliate pricing through study.com, but TESU still charges $1800 for residency waiver.

[dfrecore]

TESU is going to be more expensive than COSC.

I would look into the BOG AAS, but make sure that your job will take an AAS rather than an AA/AS. If not, then you need to get your AA/AS, not an AAS. There is a difference, so this is important to figure out before you do anything else.

[daelaria]

Thank you! After I posted this, I started reading the threads about the BoG AAS and am VERY interested. I'm trying to figure out where my credits would fall in line with their requirements, and how I could most quickly and cheaply fill in the holes. If anyone is possibly able to help me with that, I'd so appreciate it. I'm a pretty solid test taker, no anxiety or anything, so I don't mind testing out, but I'm seeing that plowing through alternative course options seems cheaper than CLEP/DSST in a lot of cases. I just saw that the WVNCC option doesn't even require fees of any sort, and my CC credits would count for residency, so I'm VERY interested in getting some idea of how I could best go forward with that. It looks like they have graduation dates in both July AND August, which would be PERFECT for the position I am applying for in late August. This is the first time I have felt within reach of the next step...!

[daelaria]

To clarify, the job only requires ANY two year degree. I called the company to verify whether the AA/AS/AAS distinction is relevant and they responded that any completed associate's degree will qualify me, so it seems the AAS option is an EXCELLENT choice. I suppose now I just need to amass the credits as cheaply as possible. I haven't read much about Schmoop but 12 credits for $90 is an incredible bargain...

[Ideas]

WVNCC may have more requirements than Pierpont and the others. There are multiple threads.

Yep, you're almost there. You have a good variety of credits and mostly just need to rack up those cheap and free credits.

[daelaria]

One last question then - how do I determine where my current credits fit into the requirements for Pierpoint? Would I just need to email the advisor there after applying? I have read through several of the threads but haven't seen a resource showing which courses/exams would apply to the required credits for the AAS, but I am assuming for the 39 electives credits, basically anything counts (except FEMA) - is that correct?

[SolarKat]

For accepted Pierpont students, the deadline to submit the graduation application for the summer graduation is June 1st. The next opportunity will be the December conferral; deadline to submit is September 1st (diplomas mailed last week of January).

For accepted WVNCC students, the next deadlines/opportunities are: June 16th for the June 30th conferral, and July 28th for the August 11th conferral. They haven't put up the dates for anything later, but it'll be a mid-December deadline for an end-of-December conferral.

From the WVNCC perspective, you should meet the communications requirements with your 3cr English Comp 1 and 3cr Public Speaking. You should meet the 3cr computing requirement with Intro to Microcomputers. I'm thinking that the humanities/social studies requirement is met by 3cr US History and 3cr World Geography. The only remaining requirements of their 21cr "core" is 6cr in math/sci. What is your "Concepts in Math" class? Without further info, I'd suggest hitting ALEXS for 2 math classes - ask a WVNCC advisor if intermediate algebra is accepted...I think it might be, but I'm not sure. Otherwise, if you like pounding out quizzes, and you regurgitate efficiently, Study.com's classes are convenient - scan the lesson text, take the 5 question quiz (3 tries - try to get them all to 100% because the higher your quiz scores, the less you'll need on the final to pass), and then the proctored finals can be done at home anytime, no appointment needed. Apply for the Guardian Scholarship (search this forum for links) and then work on ALEKS while you wait to hear if you got the scholarship, because that's 18 credits for free, if you use the scholarship membership correctly. And if you can put your head down and bull through it, you could manage all 6 classes in a week or less.

Also, the mascot for Pierpont is Montgomery the Lion...for WVNCC, it's the Thundering Chickens. For me, this made the decision a no-brainer. (I walk with the flock on Friday.)