TESU BA Communications Plan

[gister46]

Hi, folks.  First time poster.  I'm a high school dropout that got a GED and now I'm trying to get a degree by 40 so I can get at least 20 years of work down with a decent salary that doesn't force me to work hundred hour weeks.  Maybe I can retire with some dignity -- because 35 with a toddler and a mortgage and a recent major job transition where my salary was cut in half is scary.  So far, I have 27 hours at a community college from a few years back and a couple IT certifications (CompTIA A+, Network+, Salesforce Admin, Scrum, and some Google ads/analytics certs).  

Anyway, my plan for a Bachelor of Arts from TESU in Communications is attached.  It has some gaps.  Are there some experts here that can look at it and give some pointers?  I can't seem to access any of the wikia links that have the templates or getting started guides in the sticky posts -- they all say "not a valid community".  I just did the best I could off the top of my head in the attachment.  Let me know if it doesn't make any sense.

Thanks!

[Ideas]

Half?!

You may want to consider going for a cheaper, quicker degree. How much do you need or want it to be in Communications?

The wiki can be accessed here https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Degree_Forum_Wiki

[jsh1138]

You can get most everything you need for a Communications degree from Study.com, but TESU requires 2 courses that I think you have to take from them. Both are 100 level but I can't find them anywhere else

[gister46]

Half?!

You may want to consider going for a cheaper, quicker degree. How much do you need or want it to be in Communications?

The wiki can be accessed here https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Degree_Forum_Wiki

Yes, half - or pretty close.  The last two years, I've been right at 100k, but with high stress, last minute travel six to eight months a year.  

A Vice President did some shady financing (for which he was later "asked to resign") that took money out of our group and most of my team of 12 were laid off.  It was a complete surprise for all of us project working types.  All the work fell on me -- dozens of open projects -- far more than any one person could reasonably handle.  After several days in the ER/hospital for a life or death medical situation the doctors said was probably stress induced, I quit and was out of work for nearly six months getting rejection after rejection saying "You can't teach for us / our software without at least a bachelor's degree".

Luckily, I found a nonprofit that needed help setting up and running a learning management system, but I went from 100k to 50k.   I'm not sure if it's fortunate or not, but we were doing the "get out of debt" thing for the couple of years I had that nice salary.  We didn't quite make it completely out of debt, but we don't have any credit cards or family loans anymore.  All in all, we can float and we can cashflow a 5-10k education for me over the course of a year, but that will leave us pretty well flat broke.  

I have ZERO desire to get back into software development projects or any type of contract / project style work.  I'm confident that if I can list a bachelor's in pretty much anything other than "liberal studies" or "general studies", I can get in the 80s and teach software / IT stuff for the rest of my working life -- which I'd be very happy with.

*whew* looks like I needed to vent.  Sorry.

I'd be interested in a teaching/education degree, psychology, business administration, management, maybe even history, I just thought communications would have very little math and pretty heavily English/reading focused.  I'm much stronger in English/reading/retention than math.  I'm not against a computer science degree, but those seemed to require more math courses and lots of development courses in C++/Java which are languages I loathe as a PHP/Python dev.  I'd rather have a bachelor's in something else where I have strong skills and get IT certifications for the specific technology I want to teach -- like salesforce or compTIA stuff.

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You can get most everything you need for a Communications degree from Study.com, but TESU requires 2 courses that I think you have to take from them. Both are 100 level but I can't find them anywhere else

Thank you.  I had some gaps in my plan that I wasn't sure how to fill on Study.com, but it was more than 2 courses.  Is there a better way to match up the courses that I'm somehow missing?  How do I know which courses qualify as "Communications Electives" rather than "Free Electives"?

[Merlin]

[...]
I'd be interested in a teaching/education degree, psychology, business administration, management, maybe even history, I just thought communications would have very little math and pretty heavily English/reading focused.  I'm much stronger in English/reading/retention than math.  I'm not against a computer science degree, but those seemed to require more math courses and lots of development courses in C++/Java which are languages I loathe as a PHP/Python dev.  I'd rather have a bachelor's in something else where I have strong skills and get IT certifications for the specific technology I want to teach -- like salesforce or compTIA stuff.

You might consider looking at one of the WGU IT degrees, or their degree in Software Development. Those aren't as math heavy as a CS degree but would carry more weight for someone working in software and IT related industries. Plus if you have any certifications, they can be used for credit; if you don't, you'll pick up some new certifications along the way.

[gister46]

[...]
I'd be interested in a teaching/education degree, psychology, business administration, management, maybe even history, I just thought communications would have very little math and pretty heavily English/reading focused.  I'm much stronger in English/reading/retention than math.  I'm not against a computer science degree, but those seemed to require more math courses and lots of development courses in C++/Java which are languages I loathe as a PHP/Python dev.  I'd rather have a bachelor's in something else where I have strong skills and get IT certifications for the specific technology I want to teach -- like salesforce or compTIA stuff.

You might consider looking at one of the WGU IT degrees, or their degree in Software Development. Those aren't as math heavy as a CS degree but would carry more weight for someone working in software and IT related industries. Plus if you have any certifications, they can be used for credit; if you don't, you'll pick up some new certifications along the way.

Thanks for the feedback.  I did months of research where WGU was a candidate and settled on TESU for a few reasons.  However, my main goal is to teach, not necessarily to teach IT (that just happens to be the area where I have experience and certifications).  I'm still considering going for graduate school later and have since childhood wanted to be a lawyer, writer, journalist -- I love to argue and I think everyone is entitled to my opinion.  I thought something English focused might help me pursue those goals down the road.

[mysonx3]

Since you mentioned Psychology, that is one of the degrees that is completely test-out friendly (save the capstone and cornerstone that you'll have to do with any degree) at TESU. History is one class short of it.

[allvia]

If teaching tech at a corp level, or technical project planning is where you think you could fall then I could recommend the TESU BSBA-CIS, https://www.tesu.edu/business/bsba/compu...on-systems and then once you finish you may be interested in earning your PMP https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types...gement-pmp

You sound like you have quite of experience working with projects, and you mentioned IT training - that degree covers the both the Business and the CS/IT areas based on what you have shared here.

You should list your CC credits (just note if they are below a C grade), list course name and # then we can give you better guidance on what you have and what you're missing.

[jsh1138]

gister, I have heard, although I don't know, that any course with "communications" in the title at Study.com can be counted towards a communications degree. Study.com's transfer page lists 6 courses that count as Communications: https://study.com/directory/school/Thoma...ransferTab

adding the 2 that you have to take from TESU, that is the bulk of the degree, but I'm about to transfer in 3 Business courses with "communications" in their titles, so I'll do that and (probably in a month) let you know what they counted them as.

[gister46]

If teaching tech at a corp level, or technical project planning is where you think you could fall then I could recommend the TESU BSBA-CIS, https://www.tesu.edu/business/bsba/compu...on-systems and then once you finish you may be interested in earning your PMP https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types...gement-pmp

You sound like you have quite of experience working with projects, and you mentioned IT training - that degree covers the both the Business and the CS/IT areas based on what you have shared here.

You should list your CC credits (just note if they are below a C grade), list course name and # then we can give you better guidance on what you have and what you're missing.

Thank you for this!  I did not know about this option.  I looked up their CS/MIS/Data Analytics degrees and they were very different that this BSBA-CIS which looks pretty much like a listing of CLEP exam titles.  Before I go back and make a plan to link the courses with the degree requirements - does that already exist somewhere?  Have you or maybe someone else willing to share linked specific course requirements to transferable courses and figured out the pricing?  If this doesn't exist, I can attempt the leg work and post it in a separate thread.