TESU BA After Prison...

[AboNad]

Hey all!

I've been on here for years planning and plugging away with all of your great advice, and I thank you tremendously for everything you do!

I had previously planned on getting my COSC degree because at that time, they had the closest graduation date. I changed directions due to my own procrastination/surprise additions to our home/life/homeschool and went with TESU for their BACS / ASNSM because it seemed possible with all the freebies out at the time.

I was in the middle of taking advantage of Sophia's courses, the free semester at Strayer, 6 Strayer Challenge Exams scheduled and my Cornerstone + Java self-paced course with TESU when I went to Federal Prison. Spent a little less than 9 months there and now am out trying to repair the damage that I created and finish my degree.

Because it took my Power of Attorneys several weeks after I went away to make contact with someone at TESU who graciously walked them through the process of withdrawing from courses after turning in documentation, I understandably had a $3k balance. I paid $1k and have been chipping away at that, but I thought my chances with TESU were on hold because of that, then I received an email from TESU the other day with regard to the American Rescue Plan about possibly helping with past due balance if I've been affected by COVID (Lost my business/clients due to COVID then went to prison because I messed up trying to make things work).

Now I am  just going for the easiest/cheapest degree. I have been looking ahead at the Masters I am interested in, and I'm not particularly concerned about what my undergrad degree is in. I know I will find what works with what degree I end up with. We ultimately planned to move overseas, and I was going for a CS/Engineering/AI/Big Data Master Programme in Europe, but now that I am on Supervised Release for a year, those plans are put on hold. We still plan on going, but I may finish my studies online and fork over the extra cost before moving.

I was in the very last week of my courses with Strayer when I was sentenced and had kept A's before that. Obviously didn't get to do the finals and have honestly been too embarrassed to reach out to check my grades or even see if I could take the exams or re-do that portion of the class for credit. Wouldn't even know where to begin.


Where I stand:

Sophia courses completed:
US History I & II
Essentials of Managing Conflict
Environmental Science
College Algebra
English Comp I
Intro to IT
Visual Communications
Intro to Business
Approaches to Studying Religions
Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
Conflict Resolution
Ancient Greek Philosophers
Intro to Ethics
Developing Effective Teams
Public Speaking
Art History I & II

Study.com courses completed
Computer Science 105: Intro to OS
Computer Science 103: Computer Concepts & Applications



Just finished the Google Data Analytics Certificate on Coursera a couple of weeks ago.



What I've paid for/in progress/finishing currently:
CSMLearn

DSST: Principals of Advanced English Comp (Can't handle those touchstones on Sophia)


Oakton Community College (RA): Web Development (3cr), Advanced Web Development (4cr), Technical Writing (3cr)

Microsoft: DP-900, AI-900, PL-900

ENEB: MBA & Master in Big Data and Business Intelligence  (Not sure if I'll finish this yet. Way more papers than I anticipated. Once I've finished this BA, I'll have more time to devote, so we'll see.)

Strayer: CIS 110 Computer Programming Design, CIS 111 Intro to Relat Dbase Mgt Syst, CIS 312 Computer Architecture (Classes I was unable to finish last week of)



What I had in mind about completing:
Sophia.org- Sociology, Another course to satisfy the 2 courses per month.
 
TEEX - Cybersecurity & Death Investigations - Waiting for updated accreditation before jumping back in

W3Schools - PHP Cert


TESU: PHI-130 TECEP, Cornerstone, Capstone

Saylor Academy (UL): Software Engineering, Principles of Finance, Project Management and Operations Management


Study.com: Discrete Math, Systems Analysis & Design (UL), Database Management (UL),  and possibly Management Information Systems (UL)


Davar: MIS (UL)

OnlineDegree.com: Intro to Computer Programming - Not sure if this would overlap

AWS Cloud Practitioner


Conclusion: I had a decent degree plan in place originally, thanks to you all, but now I'm just all over the place and need direction.


Thank you in advance!

[ss20ts]

One thing to keep in mind is that having a record is going to prevent you from having many IT/CS/DA jobs. Everyone I know in IT/CS/DA has to go through background checks annually and with every new government contract it's an extended background check. No I'm not saying to forget this degree. I'm saying to keep this in mind.

Go look at your Strayer account and see what happened. Did you withdraw from Strayer as well? Did you take any of the exams you mentioned?

[rachel83az]

I'm so sorry to hear about this! First off, I would definitely reach out to Strayer (or at least log in to see what's what). There might be nothing you can do, but depending on your prior grades you might at least have Cs in those courses. Personally, I didn't want to deal with the final assignment for the math course I was taking, so I just... didn't do it. I still got a B. If you had As before, mathematically I think you should have Bs or maybe Cs if you skipped the last week.

If you just want the fastest/cheapest degree right now, UMPI would likely be the way to go. They have a BLS with a Management Information Systems minor that would sort of fit what you wanted. I'm not sure that it would unlock the grad degree you want, though.

On the other hand, if you want to continue with TESU, the wiki's been kept up to date with degrees: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap Depending on TESU's updated feeling regarding SDC's Discrete Math and others, a CS degree may still be cheap & easy from them.

[AboNad]

One thing to keep in mind is that having a record is going to prevent you from having many IT/CS/DA jobs. Everyone I know in IT/CS/DA has to go through background checks annually and with every new government contract it's an extended background check. No I'm not saying to forget this degree. I'm saying to keep this in mind.

Go look at your Strayer account and see what happened. Did you withdraw from Strayer as well? Did you take any of the exams you mentioned?

Thanks for your response, ss202ts!

Right... I completely understand about having a record now. I went from working with Feds to being a federal prisoner/felon so that's understandable wanting regular background checks. I was originally desiring the degree for work in the industry, but now I am wanting it for personal fulfillment, so the discipline isn't of concern. I plan to continue freelancing  and am blunt/upfront about my charges and criminal hx.

Just went and checked Strayer: D, B, C are my final grades. I didn't take any Challenge exams. They were all scheduled for last March, thinking things would go differently- - then I left.

[rachel83az]

You might still be able to take challenge exams at Strayer, if you really want to do so, but it's a huge hassle to get them transferred to TESU. But you don't need the RA credit, if you don't want to deal with that. 10 credits at Oakton + 6 or 9 at Strayer + a 16 credit term at TESU = more than enough RA credit. Check out the Strayer thread regarding that.

[AboNad]

I'm so sorry to hear about this! First off, I would definitely reach out to Strayer (or at least log in to see what's what). There might be nothing you can do, but depending on your prior grades you might at least have Cs in those courses. Personally, I didn't want to deal with the final assignment for the math course I was taking, so I just... didn't do it. I still got a B. If you had As before, mathematically I think you should have Bs or maybe Cs if you skipped the last week.

If you just want the fastest/cheapest degree right now, UMPI would likely be the way to go. They have a BLS with a Management Information Systems minor that would sort of fit what you wanted. I'm not sure that it would unlock the grad degree you want, though.

On the other hand, if you want to continue with TESU, the wiki's been kept up to date with degrees: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap Depending on TESU's updated feeling regarding SDC's Discrete Math and others, a CS degree may still be cheap & easy from them.

Thank you @Rachel for your response! Apparently I didn't do as well as I thought with Strayer? Or maybe the Final held more weight than I thought in one of the courses because when I just finally logged in, I have a D, C and B. Uggh. I will go ahead and reach out. I think the fear of being told 'no' and 'goodbye' are what's holding me back.

I'll head over to UMPI and check them out. I had recently saved a thread about them giving credit for the W3Schools cert and that's what made me pay for it lol. I'm wondering if they'll make me submit my Strayer transcript? That 'D' is hard to look at and with such a small amount of graded courses, I'm worried that will hold too much weight.

Heading over to the TESU wiki now. If I were to get a general BALS with TESU, would you recommend Saylor, Davar, or SDC for UL credits in terms of ease? I liked Sophia's courses because I could move through as quickly as needed and SDC's courses for the same reason, but obviously I can only take a limited amount with each of those at a time so I'm conflicted.

[rachel83az]

UMPI requires you to take 30 credits with them. Most students here have been able to complete one of their degrees in 2 or 3 sessions for a total of under $5k for the whole degree. All of their credits are graded, so a single D wouldn't look as bad there as it might at TESU. But I wouldn't really worry about the Strayer grades, unless that's going to be an issue for your grad degree of choice.

Pick the degree YOU want and can afford. If you're not enthusiastic about a lib studies degree, don't do lib studies.

For UL credits, I'd mainly go with Davar and SDC. Saylor is only $5 per exam now, so you might want to try a course or two just to form your own opinion, but they're kind of iffy as far as how well the exam aligns with the course.

[ss20ts]

 back.

I'll head over to UMPI and check them out. I had recently saved a thread about them giving credit for the W3Schools cert and that's what made me pay for it lol. I'm wondering if they'll make me submit my Strayer transcript? That 'D' is hard to look at and with such a small amount of graded courses, I'm worried that will hold too much weight.

Yes you will be required to submit the Strayer transcript to UMPI. You need to submit all transcripts from where you've taken classes in the past. Don't sweat the D. In the grand scheme of life it's not a big deal. UMPI doesn't base their acceptance solely on grades. You'll have a whole new GPA at UMPI. It will be a distant memory in no time.

[LevelUP]

You can have a great life in America making near min wage at $15 an hour however I usually advise people to get a college degree because bad things can happen such as recessions and you don't want to play a game of musical chairs where you find out there is no chair left for you. (job)

Find a degree you want, make a spreadsheet plan, then some people on the forum will review the plan.

Depending on your state law, you can get your criminal record expunged so that it won't be with you for life.

[bjcheung77]

I agree, see if you can get a pardon for your criminal records... I wouldn't dwell too much on what has happened and focus on what needs to be done. You have multiple options, depending on how you work and what your interests are, plus the need/want of a degree, you can decide if a competency based degree is right for you, or an alternative test out option from the Big 3. You may want to investigate Excelsior as they take 113 credits, plus they can be NA/NCCRS credits... I suggest for now, stick with getting your general education course work done with Sophia.org courses and when you have decided on a degree/school, then take the remaining courses that will transfer to that.