UMPI BA Accounting Planning - Help to get an H1B

[flamewerks]

Hello! First post here, I didn't see a place for introductions so I'll post away. Short info first

Your Location: France
Your Age: 34
What kind of degree do you want?: BSBA - then 2 years in person MBA OR BCS - For personal and H1B Purposes
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 0

Budget: I'd like to go the cheapest route possible  
Commitments: Married, 1 child and a dog; small side business; Currently enlisted full time 
Dedicated time to study: 1 hour a night most weekdays, I estimate 8 hours most weekends
Timeline: Finishing the courses required for the degree in less than 2 years would be ideal 
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: About 4k from the military but can't access this until next year

Any certifications or military experience? Currently 12 months left of a 4 year infantry contract

I will give you a lengthy paragraph of info so it's clear what I am planning:

I'm a dual citizen, Canadian and German. I speak both languages perfectly and some french though not sure how well I'd do on a foreign language test for french. 

My plan is to move to Los Angeles in the next 36 months. 

My contract is up in February, at which point I am *wanting* to go to Florence, Italy and learn bespoke shoemaking. I still have to see if I get a spot. This would likely go around 2 years. This is something I have been passionate about and am doing it more for myself than anything else.

So 12 months of military left and then likely 24 months learning shoemaking. That gives me 3 years to get a bachelor.

Plan A

I have also contacted an immigration lawyer, my original plan was to get an E2 Visa (you buy or start a business) and come to the States that way. This requires about $100k which I should have saved up next year, barring a major setback. I have a small side business that is profitable and I will try to grow it this year to see if it can be scaled to bring in enough money to live off of. 

I also was self-employed for 1.5 years in 2016. So I have business experience and also an interest in an MBA. Even if the E2 works out I would still like to get started on a bachelor and then I would do an MBA online as well, purely out of interest for myself and it likely coming in useful for my own business.


Plan B
I want to make sure I have a backup plan, which is why I figured a bachelor's would be good if my E2 idea doesn't work out. In that case, I would get my Bachelor's through something like UMPI, starting this year, before then applying for a student visa and doing 2 years in-person at a Los Angeles area college to get my master's. Maybe even a Ph.D. since I hear that you can get 100% scholarships for a Ph.D. Then do the (up to) 29 months OPT and find an employer to sponsor me for an H1B.



So my Questions are:

• what would be the best degree to go for immigration purposes - probably Computer Science / Software Engineering?
  
• cheapest route for non-US citizen probably UMPI, but they only have BA's, probably not good for CS then?
  
• would I even find a job with an MBA and business experience in LA? Or would I compete against thousands of others who are US Citizens so no chance at getting sponsored
  
• from my search it seems quite hard to get scholarships for a master's for foreigners but easy for PhD. How likely is it to get into a college at all at my age, then around 37?
  

I'm sure there are more questions that you have for me too.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[rachel83az]

1. For immigration purposes, a Comp Sci degree will usually win out over a generic Business degree. Even then, though, it's not a sure-fire way to get into the USA. I've heard stories. Everything is a lot harder since 2017 or 2018.
2. UMPI, maybe. It depends on how you feel about writing academic papers. And Anabin likes UMPI, so it's probably the most useful for someone who might ever return to Germany. TESU degrees, for instance, are on a case-by-case basis with Anabin while UMPI is essentially an automatic "yes" as I understand it. At least for the Business degrees; not sure about the Liberal Studies ones. UMPI is supposed to have a Comp Sci degree at some point, but they don't have one yet. Unfortunately.
3. I don't really have firsthand experience with LA, but I have to say that might be one of the worst places to start out. It's extremely expensive to live there and "everyone" wants to live there. Even having a Comp Sci degree from somewhere like MIT wouldn't be a guarantee that you'd be employed.
4. Most schools in the USA don't care how old you are. For scholarship purposes, it might be different.

A generic MBA is pretty much nothing these days - for immigration purposes, anyway. I'm not saying that it's bad or that you shouldn't get one, but enough people have generic MBAs that it won't really put you ahead of citizens. What do you want to do? Why do you want to move to the US?

[flamewerks]

Thanks for your reply. I'm from Canada originally but always enjoyed being in the US more, especially SoCal for its weather, scenery, car culture etc.

I don't intend to go back to Europe but if I can't get to the US in my intended time frame then UMPI with its accreditation might be the way to go just in case.

I will take a deeper look at UMPI's business classes since that's where my interest is.

[flamewerks]

First of all thanks for all the people answering. 
Thanks to this forum I started with Sophia to get my BABA at UMPI according to the $3222 plan posted in the wiki. 

Here is what I am planning:

1. Do a BA in Accounting instead of the BABA
   
2. I might ask the counselor at UMPI if I can also do the courses needed for the BABA while I am enrolled and have the accounting finished, but I'll worry about that when I get there
   

I attached an Excel file. It is based on the BABA (which is in the second sheet). The first sheet is the courses I need from what I can tell for a BA in Accounting at UMPI.


The courses in Orange I have completed already. 
French I and Introduction to Python I am doing right now. 
The Green fields are listed as required on the UMPI website for BA in Accounting.

The way I have it right now I can do most of it on Sophia, 8 courses at Study.com and 11 courses at UMPI.




My question:
Is there a cheaper/faster/easier way that I overlooked? 

Thanks!

Jens

[bjcheung77]

@flamewerks, Welcome to the board, great introduction post and additional details in the follow up. Just curious, have you thought of doing the trifecta of certs, degree, experience? You don't really need to have a specific degree, it's a great to have option, but many use a mix/match of the trifecta to get into their desired field. Here's an example, you may want to do the cheapies/freebies on the WIKI including the Coursera/Edx certs to get you the certs, experience, you can then get the BABA PM&IS (Project Management & Info Systems). With the Business, CS/IT, etc certs/experience you get with Coursera/Edx, you'll have a good understand of those topics instead of just "accounting". If you want to complete the accounting option, you can do a second concentration or a minor in accounting as well...

[flamewerks]

I have known about coursera but I haven't heard of free courses on EdX, I will check that out thanks! I guess I can also do the BABA and the accounting after. The trifecta strategy I have read about on here a few times but thought it apllied just for CS degrees.