UMPI - MINORS

[DavidGood]

Your Location: US, Oregon 
Your Age: 54
What kind of degree?: Bachelors
Credits / Other: None.
Sophia Learning Credits: 49.
Any certifications or military experience?
Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt 
Budget: No budget constraints, but wasting money isn't fun, so there's that.
Commitments: I run a special needs foster home. 
Dedicated time to study:  I can spent 5 hours per day / 6 days week on schooling. 
Timeline: asap
Goal?: UMPI. BABA Leadership with MIS and Project Mgt Minor.

Not so quick question. Im not sure if this is the right area or if I should post this under UMPI area.

High level:

I have 30 years of MGT experience, including owning four businesses and managing executive teams. I am overqualified for many positions but severely under-credentialed because I never needed a degree in the past. 

I need a degree for my immediate goal, but now that I'm in it, I am thinking about maximizing my flexibility for the remainder of my productive years. 

SOPHIA: After I complete Spanish I and Biology/Biology lab, my GEC will be covered. I also took some electives while waiting for grades to fill time and maximize the value of Sophia. I will take Sophia's 200 and 300 division classes that are accepted @ UMPI before going to STD or just starting at UMPI (Oct start date). 

I plan to get a BABA in management and leadership, but now I am thinking about minors, Specifically PM and MIS. A third area of interest is psychology.

Is there any way to know what classes will be required to get those minors? Do I take those instead of free electives, or ?

I appreciate any advice, and I appreciate this forum. There is lots of good information here that has helped me plan this out.

- David

[bjcheung77]

@DavidGood, Welcome to the board, great intro post with the addendum and template, plus, you've got Sophia.org classes under your belt already! I would do the double concentration or actually, the PM & IS concentration with 4 classes that can transfer into the MAOL, then ladder to the MAOL instead of having minors, unless you really wanted the Psych minor.

UMPI WIKI has all the info for required classes... https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:UMPI
Here's the UMPI Multiple Minor inquiry thread: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...or-Inquiry

[LevelUP]

I plan to get a BABA in management and leadership, but now I am thinking about minors, Specifically PM and MIS. A third area of interest is psychology.

Is there any way to know what classes will be required to get those minors? Do I take those instead of free electives, or ?

I appreciate any advice, and I appreciate this forum. There is lots of good information here that has helped me plan this out.

- David

Check out the UMPI Minors Wiki
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_!Minors

[DavidGood]

@DavidGood, Welcome to the board, great intro post with the addendum and template, plus, you've got Sophia.org classes under your belt already!  I would do the double concentration or actually, the PM & IS concentration with 4 classes that can transfer into the MAOL, then ladder to the MAOL instead of having minors, unless you really wanted the Psych minor.  

UMPI WIKI has all the info for required classes... https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:UMPI
Here's the UMPI Multiple Minor inquiry thread: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...or-Inquiry

Good advice. This gets me off the fence re: getting my masters. I might as well go from under-credentialed to having the max.

---

I plan to get a BABA in management and leadership, but now I am thinking about minors, Specifically PM and MIS. A third area of interest is psychology.

Is there any way to know what classes will be required to get those minors? Do I take those instead of free electives, or ?

I appreciate any advice, and I appreciate this forum. There is lots of good information here that has helped me plan this out.

- David

Check out the UMPI Minors Wiki
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_!Minors

Will do. Thank you!

[allvia]

Keep in mind that if you start adding on too many minors you'll end up spending more time and money than is required for the degree your working towards. You need a minimum of 10 courses at UMPI. If you're going to for a BABA M&L it already contains a minor (well a concentration, which is basically a management minor plus a few 'extras' in leadership), and then BABA PM&IS is pretty much two minors at the start, etc.  Always work on getting the courses you need done before anything extra. If you're going for the BABA - pick your concentration, and focus on it. 

If you run short on meeting the UMPI 10 course requirement, then take courses in a minor area you enjoy (if you have time left on the term then maybe complete that minor, as a free bonus - don't pay for extra terms just to add on a minor). If you're working towards a BABA, adding on minors won't improve its impact on your resume - you still end up with a Bachelor in Business Administration.  In some cases it could make you look like a student that switched majors many times - meaning you're not decisive (which is not a positive trait to project in business). The exception to this for a BABA is might be adding accounting - and even then, you probably should have just went with the accounting concentration to start with.

If your argument is that you want to add the minor(s) because it is a personal area of interest, then there are plenty of free sources you available for you to gain personal knowledge on a subject. A college degree is about improving your professional interests, not your personal 'hobby' areas of knowledge. It is so easy to add some of these interesting minors that you can loose sight on what the true goal is - a college degree (and generally as quickly, cheaply &/or easily as it can be completed).

[DavidGood]

Keep in mind that if you start adding on too many minors you'll end up spending more time and money than is required for the degree your working towards. You need a minimum of 10 courses at UMPI. If you're going to for a BABA M&L it already contains a minor (well a concentration, which is basically a management minor plus a few 'extras' in leadership), and then BABA PM&IS is pretty much two minors at the start, etc.  Always work on getting the courses you need done before anything extra. If you're going for the BABA - pick your concentration, and focus on it. 

If you run short on meeting the UMPI 10 course requirement, then take courses in a minor area you enjoy (if you have time left on the term then maybe complete that minor, as a free bonus - don't pay for extra terms just to add on a minor). If you're working towards a BABA, adding on minors won't improve its impact on your resume - you still end up with a Bachelor in Business Administration.  In some cases it could make you look like a student that switched majors many times - meaning you're not decisive (which is not a positive trait to project in business). The exception to this for a BABA is might be adding accounting - and even then, you probably should have just went with the accounting concentration to start with.

If your argument is that you want to add the minor(s) because it is a personal area of interest, then there are plenty of free sources you available for you to gain personal knowledge on a subject. A college degree is about improving your professional interests, not your personal 'hobby' areas of knowledge. It is so easy to add some of these interesting minors that you can loose sight on what the true goal is - a college degree (and generally as quickly, cheaply &/or easily as it can be completed).

Hard to argue with that logic.

[LevelUP]

Keep in mind that if you start adding on too many minors you'll end up spending more time and money than is required for the degree your working towards. You need a minimum of 10 courses at UMPI. If you're going to for a BABA M&L it already contains a minor (well a concentration, which is basically a management minor plus a few 'extras' in leadership), and then BABA PM&IS is pretty much two minors at the start, etc.  Always work on getting the courses you need done before anything extra. If you're going for the BABA - pick your concentration, and focus on it. 

If you run short on meeting the UMPI 10 course requirement, then take courses in a minor area you enjoy (if you have time left on the term then maybe complete that minor, as a free bonus - don't pay for extra terms just to add on a minor). If you're working towards a BABA, adding on minors won't improve its impact on your resume - you still end up with a Bachelor in Business Administration.  In some cases it could make you look like a student that switched majors many times - meaning you're not decisive (which is not a positive trait to project in business). The exception to this for a BABA is might be adding accounting - and even then, you probably should have just went with the accounting concentration to start with.

If your argument is that you want to add the minor(s) because it is a personal area of interest, then there are plenty of free sources you available for you to gain personal knowledge on a subject. A college degree is about improving your professional interests, not your personal 'hobby' areas of knowledge. It is so easy to add some of these interesting minors that you can loose sight on what the true goal is - a college degree (and generally as quickly, cheaply &/or easily as it can be completed).

Hard to argue with that logic.

It may not add any extra courses or just a few if you plan things right.

If you did History, Political Science, and Philosophy minors, all you would need is 6 ACE courses and 4 UMPI courses in total. Just 10 courses or 30 credits would cover all 57 credits in the 3 minors! (Some UMPI courses for minors could count towards the 10 residency requirement.)

You have 21 credits or 7 courses worth of electives, so that is a good spot to put those minor credits you need.

[DavidGood]

I had a chance to review the minors wiki a bit closer. This all makes a lot more sense. Thank you very much for the guidance.

My interest in psychology, MIS , and project management all relate to my experience running a company. Psych to relate to the people, MIS to have the right data, and PM to understand how to move projects from beginning to end.

Not that you actually do all these things in the top job, but you’d better understand how they work.

Now I just need to decide what direction to take. Luckily, I start Spanish tomorrow on sophia. No matter what I choose, that’s not going to change :-)

[ss20ts]

Your timeline says asap. Then you want the BABA with either the Management and Leadership Concentration OR the PM & IS Concentration. Forget minors. Forget psych. Psych will take longer than a BABA especially given your management experience. Just do it and get the degree you need.

[mohelena02]

Instead of so many minors I would focus on getting the MAOL... like you said, you have the experience but are under-credentialed. I relate to that, once I got my Bachelors I kept going all the way to a Phd.