Not sure what degree to pick

[foodiegirl76]

Hello. I have posted on here before, but I am having trouble making up my mind and finding the right degree. I am a 26-year-old female from Oklahoma. I do not have any prior college experience except for one ap psychology credit. I cannot decide between majoring in psychology or english, or I've I should major in both. I am wanting to go to law school. Ideally, I would like to complete the degree(s) as quickly as possible 2 years max. I'd also like to keep my cost at no more than $10,000. Any insight and/or advice is appreciated. Thank you.

[rachel83az]

With TESU, you could do both degrees at the same time. Final cost would probably be $8-10k, depending on planning. Psych alone would probably be marginally cheaper, at $6-8k. English alone would probably be $7-9k. These are rough estimates, though, and shouldn't be taken as full truth without verification.

On the other hand, there is UMPI. It would be cheaper, but they only have a BA in English with a Professional Communication & Journalism concentration. But it would probably cost less than $5k in total, provided you are able to write papers quickly.

[LevelUP]

Hello. I have posted on here before, but I am having trouble making up my mind and finding the right degree. I am a 26-year-old female from Oklahoma. I do not have any prior college experience except for one ap psychology credit. I cannot decide between majoring in psychology or english, or I've I should major in both. I am wanting to go to law school. Ideally, I would like to complete the degree(s) as quickly as possible 2 years max. I'd also like to keep my cost at no more than $10,000. Any insight and/or advice is appreciated. Thank you.

"In order to have a GPA included in your application for law schools, the Law School Admissions Council requires you to earn at least 60 graded semester credits before your bachelor's degree is conferred," said mysonx3 in this Law School thread.

For TESU with a flat term rate doing 5 classes per term, that's 4 terms or 12 months. $19,112. One note about TESU is that their exams can be tough, so you must be careful picking classes to keep your GPA high. 

For PUG at 5 courses a term, you're done in 4 terms or 12 months. $11,200

For SNHU, they'll let you only do 2 courses for the first 2 terms, then 3 after that. So that's around 16 months. $19,200.

For UMPI, it is quick and cheap to get 60 graded credits. At 5-10 courses a term, you're done in 2-4 terms or 4-8 months. $2800-$5600

Since you will be doing so many courses at the college, it makes sense to double major. I personally believe there are only 3 types of degrees, Liberal Arts, Business, and Computers Tech. I would pick at least one business or computer tech degree, so you have something to fall back on if things don't work out.

If you did UMPI, for example, you could do BA in business admin in project management, which requires some logic skills similar to law and, then you could do your English degree or pick another degree that interests you. 

You will want to shoot for a GPA of at least 3.9, which can do done easily.  Most people that don't earn high grades are making simple mistakes such as not following directions, turning in assignments late, or not advocating for themselves.

How to get straight A's in college

https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...in-College

After you graduate college, it will likely take 2-3 months to study for the LSAT. A high LSAT score will be key to getting as close to a free ride in college as possible.

[dfrecore]

My thought it always to do ONE degree first, and then if you decide you really want to spend the time/money continuing on, THEN get the 2nd degree. That does not mean that you can't take courses that will count towards each degree, but that you should never be partway through each degree - if life happens, and you run out of money, or you find that you don't want to get that 2nd degree for some reason, you should be 95% done with the first degree so that you can quickly finish it. If you're 50% done towards one and 40% towards another, you've got squat.

I think that with zero credits (or 3 I guess), you're much better off getting your English degree at UMPI, and doing all of your GE through Sophia; then, when you're a term in, you can decide if you want to finish up, or start planning for that 2nd degree.

Let's say you decide on UMPI's English degree. You could easily do 60cr through Sophia and Study.com, taking business classes (if your 2nd degree might be business) or History or PoliSci courses (if your 2nd degree might be PoliSci or History) - those classes will all fit into your GenEd or Free Electives. That way, you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone. You can opt not to get a Psych degree anywhere, but just go ahead and take a bunch of Psych courses for interest - not everything has to be turned into a degree.

[ifomonay]

Hello. I have posted on here before, but I am having trouble making up my mind and finding the right degree. I am a 26-year-old female from Oklahoma. I do not have any prior college experience except for one ap psychology credit. I cannot decide between majoring in psychology or english, or I've I should major in both. I am wanting to go to law school. Ideally, I would like to complete the degree(s) as quickly as possible 2 years max. I'd also like to keep my cost at no more than $10,000. Any insight and/or advice is appreciated. Thank you.

I would go with psychology. Your priorities may change, and you may no longer wish to do law school in the future. I think the psychology degree will open more opportunities. You could do a Master's in Counseling later, or you can even go straight into the industry. If you want to keep it under $10k, probably your only option is an online or distance program.

[dfrecore]

Hello. I have posted on here before, but I am having trouble making up my mind and finding the right degree. I am a 26-year-old female from Oklahoma. I do not have any prior college experience except for one ap psychology credit. I cannot decide between majoring in psychology or english, or I've I should major in both. I am wanting to go to law school. Ideally, I would like to complete the degree(s) as quickly as possible 2 years max. I'd also like to keep my cost at no more than $10,000. Any insight and/or advice is appreciated. Thank you.

I would go with psychology. Your priorities may change, and you may no longer wish to do law school in the future. I think the psychology degree will open more opportunities. You could do a Master's in Counseling later, or you can even go straight into the industry. If you want to keep it under $10k, probably your only option is an online or distance program.

A bachelor's in Psychology does very little for you.  A bachelor's in English will probably do a LOT more.  That's just a more useful degree.  Being able to communicate/write well is an in-demand skill.

[bjcheung77]

@foodiegirl76, Stop, Drop, and Roll.  Stop for a moment, Drop what you're doing, Roll along with the following...  You need to be honest with yourself and what your desire is for learning.  What is it you're looking at in the future, are you wanting to change professions, what careers or subjects interests you most?   It's alright to be temporarily stuck on decisions, but don't stall...

Frankly, you need to throw out all your thoughts and think deeply about now, 5 years later, 10 years, retirement, etc.  Do you have the "life plan" and a "backup"?  Things in life doesn't always go as planned, being prepared is great, but sometimes you need a backup plan and not just "wing it".  You don't really need to "stick to the plans" as changes/life happens... keep updating it...

Here's a new poster who just finished a degree from UMPI and it took them a very short 4-5 months following Ashkir's & ss20ts's degree plans and reading recommendations, without the help of anyone on the board to advise him, he just went for it and did it at his speedy pace... Quick shoutout to DegreeForum and all of the helpful users...

I wouldn't rush it, but would recommend instead of just thinking of what you can/should do, start with a Sophia.org course as they currently have a special going on with their BTS22 (Back to school 2022) and offer of $25 off the first month membership.  So change that "I don't know yet" to I am progressing 1 course at a time...  Keep adding a Sophia.org course until you get 15, 30, 45, 60 credits towards your general education requirements that hit both TESU, UMPI.

Your homework for today actually is to review your previous threads, you have several subject interests from Business, Psychology, now to Law.  You may want to follow through with my current and previous suggestion of multi-tasking with a second monitor and starting with Sophia.org and slowly gain usable credits towards a degree and more momentum forward.

So, click onto your own alias, click threads and review each one of the three, slowly.  Advice on this thread and the previous three are pretty much going to be the same thing - Start, if you haven't decided, accumulate credit towards that goal, decide when you get closer to that degree.  TESU/UMPI are your best options right now, they take the same 90 credits towards their degrees... it boils down to the final 30 credits and how you want to finish it, so why not start?