Seek advice on the right degree plan

[SSW]

Good day to all of you guys.
After spending a significant amount of time visiting and exploring this forum, I would want to seek your advice on which degree program to pursue.

Your Location: I am from China, currently residing in Singapore. 
Your Age: 33 
What kind of degree do you want?: I have no a specific aim of the degree. But I reviewed most of the threads in the UMPI discussion board. 
Objective of getting the degree: To obtain a degree as soon as possible in order to boost up my career. It sounds utilitarian, but for someone on a tight budget, this is the genuine thought now.
Current Regional Accredited Credits: I studied a 3-year diploma of mechanical engineering in Singapore, a 3-year of undegraduate study equivalent as per evaluated by WES. I have attached. 
Budget: I have a max of $5K saved up.  I'd like to go the cheapest route possible, but will consider spending more for easy and fast.  
Commitments: I am living alone. I currently work full time and can work on my studies part time or in the evenings/weekends.
Dedicated time to study: I can study as much as is needed during the night or weekends as long as my schedule is free. I estimate at least 3 hours every week night and on the weekends, maybe 6 hours, total would be roughly 15+12=27 hours or slightly more.
Timeline: Finishing the courses required for the degree as fast as possible would be ideal.  
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: No
Course Preference: Personally, I enjoy the final exam the most. However, I am also adaptable when it comes to academic writing.
Any Certification:

ENEB - Master in project management 

Industry
PMI-PMP
IIBA-CBAP
Scrum.org-PSM1

MOOC - Coursera
Google-Google Project Management: Professional Certificate
Google-Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate
IESE-Foundations of Management Specialization
Macquarie University-Excel Skills for Data Analytics and Visualization Specialization
University of Pennsylvania-Business Analytics Specialization
University of Colorado System-Agile Leadership Specialization
Rice University-Engineering Project Management Specialization
LearnQuest-Scrum Master Certification Specialization

MOOC - EDX
Harvard-Leadership and communication professional certificate
Harvard-Leading in a remote environment professional certificate

I also have servral certificates such as summer school, individual course or course completion from institution.
Anyway, I'm not going to list down because I don't think it will help to transfer any credit.

To be honest, I was particularly interested in the UMPI BLS management minor or MIS minor in older to accomplish my initial goal of pursuing the degree that would be the quickest way. 
However, after receiving the WES evaluation result, I am unsure whether my condition is appropriate in matching UMPI BLS minior.

Your suggestion will be highly appreciated. 

[bjcheung77]

@SSW, Did you finish the ENEB PM already or still working on it? You have many credits, not sure why they didn't give you any credits for English I & II, yet indicated a "Pass". Anyways, my suggestion is to apply to both Excelsior University and UMPI, as they provide free application. My suggestion is to draft up a degree plan and spreadsheet for UMPI with a BLS Minor and also one for EU BSLA so you can compare the two and see which one is better for you when they provide you an academic evaluation...

[SSW]

@SSW, Did you finish the ENEB PM already or still working on it?  You have many credits, not sure why they didn't give you any credits for English I & II, yet indicated a "Pass".  Anyways, my suggestion is to apply to both Excelsior University and UMPI, as they provide free application.  My suggestion is to draft up a degree plan and spreadsheet for UMPI with a BLS Minor and also one for EU BSLA so you can compare the two and see which one is better for you when they provide you an academic evaluation...

Thanks for your prompt reply. It seems I got a reply from the superstar as I often saw your replies to others. 
I have done the ENEB PM. English I & II were indicated "pass" in my original transcrit so that WES also evaluated as the same result, the reason is that our academy's English course only applicable pass or fail, there is no grade for it. 
Great to hear that EU BSLA option. Honestly, I haven't consider Excelsior before. Anyways, I will check it out and get more info from the forum.

[rachel83az]

If you're okay with "any degree", a UMPI degree is good. But you have enough UL classes that you could possibly get a degree from TESU about as fast, and almost as cheaply.

I think you're pretty close to a Bachelor of Science in Technical Studies. It'd be worth applying and sending your evaluation over to see what they say. From what I can see, I think you've got most of the AOS down. I think the Project Management requirement is covered by the Google PM certificate.

Complete most of the general education requirements through Sophia - $200-$300
Take Chemistry I & II or Physics I & II with online labs (not at TESU) - ???
Take Statistics & Calculus I w/ Sophia
Comparative Politics @ Study.com - $200 OR try Comparative Politics from Saylor.org - $5
16-credit term at TESU w/ Cornerstone, Capstone, and any remaining gaps - $4778

If you don't want to mess around with trying to find Chem/Physics, you're probably still really close to finishing off other TESU degrees. But I'm not sure. You'd have to apply and see what the degree planner says.

The biggest problem, IMO, with any BLS at this point is that I'm not sure that most of your credits would even count towards a BLS. They don't look like Liberal Arts classes. They're business or technical. If you do go with UMPI, I would suggest that a BABA would be a faster route for you. I would go with the BABA Management & Leadership, personally.

[SSW]

If you're okay with "any degree", a UMPI degree is good. But you have enough UL classes that you could possibly get a degree from TESU about as fast, and almost as cheaply.

I think you're pretty close to a Bachelor of Science in Technical Studies. It'd be worth applying and sending your evaluation over to see what they say. From what I can see, I think you've got most of the AOS down. I think the Project Management requirement is covered by the Google PM certificate.

Complete most of the general education requirements through Sophia - $200-$300
Take Chemistry I & II or Physics I & II with online labs (not at TESU) - ???
Take Statistics & Calculus I w/ Sophia
Comparative Politics @ Study.com - $200 OR try Comparative Politics from Saylor.org - $5
16-credit term at TESU w/ Cornerstone, Capstone, and any remaining gaps - $4778

If you don't want to mess around with trying to find Chem/Physics, you're probably still really close to finishing off other TESU degrees. But I'm not sure. You'd have to apply and see what the degree planner says.

The biggest problem, IMO, with any BLS at this point is that I'm not sure that most of your credits would even count towards a BLS. They don't look like Liberal Arts classes. They're business or technical. If you do go with UMPI, I would suggest that a BABA would be a faster route for you. I would go with the BABA Management & Leadership, personally.

Thanks for you reply. This forum is really azaming because you guys really brought out a bigger picture to me. I have never considered about the TESU, neither. 
“Any degree” is fine for my situation, I would say it's like a checkbox degree. 
But one thing you alert me that my past courses may have trouble when converting them into a BLS degree.
So, would you please enlighten me why UMPI BABA can be faster than BLS? Perhaps, due to my existing courses evaluation contribute more into BABA rather than BLS electives?

[rachel83az]

You've got multiple courses like Business Law, Management, Project Management, etc. These are definitely business courses and may not work for a Liberal Studies/Liberal Arts degree.

Excelsior's BSLA has a limited number of "professional" credits where they'd fit. It's a very small number, compared to how many credits are required for a degree.

TESU doesn't count most Business courses as working for a Liberal Studies degree either. Almost everything you have would go into free electives and not into the AOS. You might be (relatively) close to some sort of BSBA at TESU, but I'm not positive about that.

UMPI, I'm a little more unsure about. Again, I think most of your courses would go into the electives with a BLS and there just aren't that many electives to go around. With a BABA, at least some of them would probably go towards degree requirements. That would result in fewer "wasted" credits.

[carrythenothing]

If you go with TESU, I'd get evaluations for the BS in Technical Studies and BSBA in Operations Management.

[bjcheung77]

@SSW, your best bet right now is to apply to the schools mentioned, Excelsior, TESU, UMPI and see which evaluations are closest to finishing. The BSLA, BALS, BLS will have the most flexible courses, up to 60-62 are free electives depending on the school you decide on. They also have a BSPr, that is very easy to transfer into as well, you want to create multiple evaluations from each school and see which degree is most appealing to you. The TESU BS Tech is a good choice as well, I would do more "What ifs" to see where you stand on each degree that interests you. Again, apply to all 3, send your WES evaluations to each...

[LevelUP]

I'm looking at what you have done for far, and I see that:

• You are an overachiever
  
• You have experience in business already
  
• You have lots of technical experience with your engineering background
  

This means that the Business Administration with a concentration in Project Management and Information Systems degree is the best fit for you.

As far as quicker, doing the BA in business administration doesn't take much longer. Thirty extra days is nothing, considering the grand scheme of things.

[dfrecore]

I'm going to guess that your English I & II courses/exams won't count, since they are not English Comp courses that we would take here, but English as a foreign language courses - it would be like me taking Spanish or French, which are foreign languages for me.

I'm hoping you speak a foreign (to us) language that you can get credit for with ACTFL, because that's a good cheap way to get a lot of Gen Ed credits, whichever degree you end up getting.  So please let us know if you speak something other than English and we can give you more info on that.

Then, unfortunately, your credits aren't a great fit with any of the schools we discuss on here, because you have no Gen Eds.  Luckily they're the easiest to get, but even then, you will lose a ton of credits.  You really need a degree where all of those courses you took will work in the major, thus ensuring that you do the least amount of work.  If your budget was larger, I'd suggest a few alternatives, but since it's $5k, you really are at best with TESU (with the FT/FR term of $4778), EU (which will cost $4000 for 7cr), or UMPI which is $1400-$4200 depending on the number of terms you take to finish.

I would advise applying at TESU for the BS in Technical Studies, since I think that will use your current credits in best way - you may be awarded all of the UL and get the entire major taken care of.  You would take Physics II lab as one of your 16cr term courses, so that's an easy get.  You could also take English Comp I & II TECEPs that term, above and beyond the 16cr you'll need to take for residency - which from your writing on this forum, you should be able to pass.

EU might be a good option - the BLS may work, but you'll lose all of those UL credits - or at least, you'll have to take more, because you need 21cr in Arts & Sciences (Gen Eds) which you don't have.  So, I'm going to suggest you apply for the BPS in Technology Management, with a concentration in Renewable Energy Technology.  Who knew that was a thing?!?  But it is - and may be a good fit for your credits.  If not, you've lost nothing, but it's certainly worth trying.  Worst case, you do the BLS instead.

UMPI, I think is a good option - but probably not the best for what credits you already have.  It just won't make the most of them.  The best option there is a BLS, because it will allow you to use the most number of Free Electives.  A BABA only allows for a small number of Free Electives, of which you will have a ton.

Once you have applied and gotten your evals back, it's time to come and report back here and tell us what shakes out.

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In the meantime, let's gather up credits that will be required at all 3 schools for Gen Eds:

Sophia courses:
College Algebra
Statistics
Public Speaking (I'd prob wait to see where you go before taking this)
Sociology (I'd prob take this at SDC)
Ethics
Psychology (I'd prob take this at SDC)
US History I or II (or both)
Art History I or II (or both)
Intro to IT

Study.com
Physics I
Physics II
Precalculus (if you want-will be needed by TESU for BSTS)
Sociology is prob easier here than Sophia
Psychology is prob easier here than Sophia
American Government (will work at EU, required at UMPI)
Comparative Politics (needed at TESU)

TECEP maybe
English Comp I & II (let's wait to see where you end up)

This should get you going, and I imagine TESU will take a couple of weeks at least to get your eval to you, so you'll be able to get a bunch done at Sophia before that happens.  EU will get back to you within a couple of days, and if you come and post your 2nd eval (not the first one they give you, it's not the right one that tells where your courses go, you'll need a MAP), I can help you determine if you can finish the BPS-TM alternatively or not.

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EDIT to add: if you start at SDC, you might want to take Physics I & II but not take the final exams just yet (which means they won't count toward the 2-exams per month you're paying for) - if you end up at EU, you don't need those courses; and if you end up at UMPI, you might want to switch to SL and take Physics I w/Lab there, since it will be easy at that point, and you will need a lab science, and UMPI won't take a course from one place and a lab from another.