Union Electrician Apprentice - Advice of CLEPing out of a Accounting Degree?

[redbloodywedding]

Hello to everyone,

So the situation I'm in is that I'm a Union Electrician with IBEW 48, our dual credit program will allow us to have enough credits to ALMOST get an associates degree from Mt Hood Community college. I believe I'd need a PE, Social Studies, Mathmatics, and one other class to get an associates.

I also already have a 3 in AP Physics, 5 in AP Government, 4 in AP Psychology from high school. College US History with Dual Enrollment from High School which is also a Mt Hood Credit. So I have some stuff that may still be applicable.

Now I'd like to CLEP out of a Bachelor's Degree, ideally in accounting. As I'd like to take my college degree to the film industry and try my hand at producing.

But I'm open to the idea of using the Big Three and getting a Bachelor's of Liberal Arts/Studies. I just care about the credentials.

Then I plan on taking on Harvard at their Harvard Extension school. And this is frankly because of the prestige. But I'll cross that bridge when I get into it.

My primary focus is to get a Bachelor's the cheapest way possible through the big Three.

Can I get some advice on next steps?

[rachel83az]

Assuming that you're 20 years of age or older, if you want an Associate's degree, you can get one for FREE with Pierpont: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC

Again, assuming you're at least 20 years of age, if you want the cheapest Bachelor's in Accounting, that would almost certainly be to get a degree from UMPI: https://online.umpi.edu/programs/ba-accounting.aspx

But, if a competency-based degree isn't for you, it is possible to spend a little more and get a BSBA Accounting from TESU. Is your US History class the only actual college credit you have or do you have others? AP & CLEP don't count for this.

[redbloodywedding]

Assuming that you're 20 years of age or older, if you want an Associate's degree, you can get one for FREE with Pierpont: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC

Again, assuming you're at least 20 years of age, if you want the cheapest Bachelor's in Accounting, that would almost certainly be to get a degree from UMPI: https://online.umpi.edu/programs/ba-accounting.aspx

But, if a competency-based degree isn't for you, it is possible to spend a little more and get a BSBA Accounting from TESU. Is your US History class the only actual college credit you have or do you have others? AP & CLEP don't count for this.

Id rather have go for something that will let me use my AP and CLEP credits. This is mostly to show that I can get a Bachelors for cheap. And never have anyone question my lack of education.

I'd like the fastest way to a Bachelor's. I appologize if my original post did not specify this. Accounting is a nice thing to have if I could.

[rachel83az]

Yes, you'll be able to use AP & CLEP with UMPI. I just want to clarify exactly what you have because it's not overly clear from your initial post. You say you're just a couple of classes away from an Associate's at Mt. Hood. But your list of what you have is nowhere near 40-50 credits.

Just FYI, you cannot "CLEP out of a degree" any longer. Once upon a time, you could use CLEP credits to get most of a degree, take a GRE exam, and you've got a degree. Can't do that any longer, though there are still ways to get a degree for cheap. So, for the most relevant advice, we need to know EXACTLY what you already have so that we're not recommending things that are useless in your situation.

[bjcheung77]

Hey, you're in Portland! Oregon! I'm just up north from you... about 3 hours... Anyways, as mentioned, CLEP/MS will only get you at most 2-3 years worth of credits, you still need to do 30 RA credits if you're going to COSC/TESU or if you're going the Competency Based Degree route, they all require 25% of the degree taken at the institution. You need to decide on the degree/school... I was wondering, do you have tuition assistance/reimbursement? If you're part of an union, you should be able to get an unionized discount for tuition at some universities... https://www.unionplus.org/benefits/educa...on-program

[bluebooger]

all CLEP credits are lower level (the kind of courses you usually take during you first two years of college)

if you want a bachelors you will need upper level credits (the kind of courses you usually take during you last two years of college)

[freeloader]

IBEW is part of the UnionPlus free college program described above. You have mentioned wanting both the cheapest and the fastest.

The cheapest (assuming you want the Mt Hood associates), would probably be to take CLEPs (free with Modern States), take the PE class you need (sounds like you might have to pay for it), then do an associates in accounting from Eastern Gateway Community College (free through UnionPlus), then a bachelor’s degree in business administration through Central State University (also free now with UnionPlus). It would take a couple of years, but could likely be done for a few hundred bucks (the cost of the PE class plus some books).

If you want fast, it’s a little bit different story…

[redbloodywedding]

IBEW is part of the UnionPlus free college program described above. You have mentioned wanting both the cheapest and the fastest.

The cheapest (assuming you want the Mt Hood associates), would probably be to take CLEPs (free with Modern States), take the PE class you need (sounds like you might have to pay for it), then do an associates in accounting from Eastern Gateway Community College (free through UnionPlus), then a bachelor’s degree in business administration through Central State University (also free now with UnionPlus). It would take a couple of years, but could likely be done for a few hundred bucks (the cost of the PE class plus some books).

If you want fast, it’s a little bit different story…

What is the fast way?

---

Hey, you're in Portland! Oregon! I'm just up north from you... about 3 hours... Anyways, as mentioned, CLEP/MS will only get you at most 2-3 years worth of credits, you still need to do 30 RA credits if you're going to COSC/TESU or if you're going the Competency Based Degree route, they all require 25% of the degree taken at the institution.  You need to decide on the degree/school...  I was wondering, do you have tuition assistance/reimbursement?  If you're part of an union, you should be able to get an unionized discount for tuition at some universities...  https://www.unionplus.org/benefits/educa...on-program

So at those colleges I can do CLEP for 75% of it, and then 25% of classes would be toward the specific degree classes?

[rachel83az]

I'm not even sure you can CLEP 75% of a degree. The Big 3 and UMPI have specific requirements that need to be met. It's usually easier, faster, and cheaper to meet those requirements with Sophia/Study.com/others instead of CLEP. For an example of what I mean, see:

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan

Requirements for the other schools are different. For instance, COSC requires a science-with-a-lab. This CAN NOT be met with CLEPs but CAN be met with Study.com. UMPI requires a science-with-a-lab like COSC and it also requires a foreign language. While there are foreign language CLEPs, the easiest way to meet the foreign language requirement is through InstantCert's Spanish.

[freeloader]

redbloodywedding, can you list what classes/credits you have now? That would go a long way to figuring out what the fastest/cheapest path would be for you.