Unsure of Which Institution to Choose and How I Can Use Work Experience to My Benefit

[skite]

Hello,
 
I am not exactly sure where to even start without giving my entire life story. To keep it short, I graduated high school in 2000, making me 40 years old. Education, especially higher education was very frowned upon in my family and my parents refused to fill out FAFSA, take any loans, or provide any money toward higher education. I was kept as a dependent of theirs as long as possible to prevent me from accessing funds myself. “College is where you learn to be a tree-hugging liberal”, after all. (My father) So, I moved out asap, went to community college on my own dime and just went after what I thought would be fun outside of under the thumb of my family. Fashion. Cool. I literally had no higher expectations for myself than working at department store. I have no idea what classes I took but can guarantee you I did whatever the bare minimum was to pass. I probably got mostly C’s, to be honest.
 
My life has changed drastically since then and I embraced my love of travel and history and worked my way up over 10 years at a corporation that provided education travel opportunities to students. By the time I left to relocate with my husband I was senior level and managing 125 field staff around the United States. I always wanted to get my BA, but I travelled so much for work I did not think there was a feasible way to achieve this goal.
 
After relocating to Florida, I got very sick and was unable to work for almost 3 years. After recovering I took a job giving guided tours at a historic house museum in a very busy history centric tourist destination in Florida. After a complete breakdown of the upper management, and the realization of my past experience, I was installed as the Director of Museum Operations which is second in line in the food chain. I love my job so very much and can do everything that is expected of me exceptionally well resulting in growth through the ceiling over the past couple years. But this is a non-profit and I have a red flag – I don’t have a BA. I feel it is a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any minute. The association and board are lovely, but they are very education centric and its all about where you went to school, what clubs you belonged to, etc. I will probably never ever completely fit in, but I need the BA to at least smooth things out.
 
Since we are a non-profit, we do everything with a small staff and I am not only the Director of Operations, but I am also the accountant, human resources, staff manager, gift shop manager and buyer, facilities manager, grants coordinator, museum programming coordinator… literally everything. As such I am very interested in any programs which will allow work and life experience for possible credit or to be able to test out as much as possible.
 
Your Location: Florida, United States

Your Age: 40f

What kind of degree do you want?: I would like to first obtain a Bachelors in Business Administration and am leaning toward a focus in marketing. I would likely take as many history-based electives or general education classes that are allowed. I cannot decide what the best institution would be for me. I would like to take as many courses as possible through free or low cost equivalent courses. I would really like to start from scratch as well if that is even an option. I cannot fathom using my meager credits and GPA from 20 years ago for placement. I am finding this all a bit overwhelming and work best with a detailed step by step plan to follow. 
 
Current Regional Accredited Credits: NONE

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: NONE

Any certifications or military experience? NONE
 
Budget: I'd like to go the cheapest route possible. Speed is not the most imperative as I have not been a proper student in 20 years and have since found out I am dyslexic. I am open to educational grants/financial aid/loans. My employer offers a $500 yearly higher learning allowance that will help.
 
Commitments: I work 40 – 45 hours per week at my day to day job and then about 5 hours total 2 nights a week helping out at a friends business for extra spending money. Just me and my cat and my family lives several hours away.
 
Dedicated time to study: I would like to try to study about 3 hours a night M to TH, none on Friday (second job) and unlimited on Saturday and Sundays.

Timeline: I don’t have a hard timeline, but as long as I am plugging along it would be nice to finish within 2 years or less.

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: Yes, my workplace provides a $500 yearly stipend for continuing education.

Thank you in advance for any advice!

Edited to Add: I was able to find my transcript and have listed my courses below. I added everything but the Fashion centric courses and I am pretty sure there are none that would apply to this degree. I appreciate your responses and help!

EN 101 English Composition 1 A 
EN 102 English Composition 2 B

BA 172 Sales C
BA 170 Principals of Retailing B 
BA 270 Marketing C

PS 110 Survey of American Government  B-

CO 101 Intro to Computer Science B+

[dfrecore]

UMPI will certainly be the cheapest, and probably the fastest. They have a BABA w/Marketing Concentration.

Post your previous credits on here, so we can see what you have. Even C's are fine to transfer to most schools, so let's not pass up the chance to get credit for what you've already done, and cut the cost and time down as much as possible.

[ss20ts]

I'd look into UMPI if I were you. Many folks have completed their bachelor's degree from 0 credits to graduation in 6 months at UMPI. There have business, English, history, poli sci, and liberal arts degrees. The fastest degree to complete is the BLS with Management Minor. The BA in Bus Admin can be completed in a few more weeks. UMPI accepts financial aid. All you need to do is file a FAFSA and see what you're eligible for. For UMPI I recommend starting on Sophia once you select a degree. On this forum there are templates which list out the courses you can take on Sophia, Study.com, and InstantCert to max out the 90 transfer credits UMPI accepts.

https://online.umpi.edu/

[freeloader]

I too think UMPI would be an excellent option for you, skite. The BA in history and political science or the BA in Business Administration would be natural choices, but I feel like the BLS might be an even better option. Since you wear so many hats and work in the museum world (in which I used to work, BTW), a BLS with management and educational studies minors would make a lot of sense for you. UMPI also offers a history minor for on-campus students. There have been other students who have reported being able to pursue minors not listed on the YourPace webpage. All the courses for a history minor are available through YourPace; I would ask if you could take the courses/add this to a YourPace degree plan. Assuming you plan to stay in the museum world (or in a closely related area), a BLS with minors in management, educational studies, and (potentially) history would seem to a pretty darn good degree to list on your resume. It also would be really easy to link your degree to any type of museum work in a history museum/historic site.

[bjcheung77]

Hmm great answers from everyone, my recommendation is going to be similar to this post here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid368356 with a minor difference, instead of Accounting, I suggest UMPI BABA Marketing Concentration with a History Minor, then ladder up to a Masters of your choice at WGU (MSML or MBA later).  

UMPI YourPace options: BA/BABA has majors, majors with concentrations, minors and BLS (liberal studies) with minors only.  The subjects you're interested in are on the YourPace platform, instead of completing two degrees (BABA Marketing & BA History), it may be better to just get the BABA Marketing with a minor in History - you can use the History as your general education courses.

Please also "use" your previous community college credits in fashion for your free elective credits, you have nothing to lose, you still need to send in all transcripts anyways, having a set of C's will not affect your internal GPA at the new school, they won't even need to calculate anything as their admissions isn't extremely selective.  You can save costs, energy, time with transferring these in.

[skite]

UMPI will certainly be the cheapest, and probably the fastest.  They have a BABA w/Marketing Concentration.

Post your previous credits on here, so we can see what you have.  Even C's are fine to transfer to most schools, so let's not pass up the chance to get credit for what you've already done, and cut the cost and time down as much as possible.

Thanks! I added my transcript to my original post. I was impressed with the offerings of UMPI when I was looking over their courses and it seems the majority of responses are in agreement with you so far.

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I too think UMPI would be an excellent option for you, skite.  The BA in history and political science or the BA in Business Administration would be natural choices, but I feel like the BLS might be an even better option.  Since you wear so many hats and work in the museum world (in which I used to work, BTW), a BLS with management and educational studies minors would make a lot of sense for you.  UMPI also offers a history minor for on-campus students.  There have been other students who have reported being able to pursue minors not listed on the YourPace webpage.  All the courses for a history minor are available through YourPace; I would ask if you could take the courses/add this to a YourPace degree plan.  Assuming you plan to stay in the museum world (or in a closely related area), a BLS with minors in management, educational studies, and (potentially) history would seem to a pretty darn good degree to list on your resume.  It also would be really easy to link your degree to any type of museum work in a history museum/historic site.

Hello Fellow Museum Friend! (and history nerd, I presume?!) Thank you for your advice and for reading through my lifestory, but I think you definitely understand my predicament. I did not think of the educational studies track. Do you think of it as sort of like a psuedo public history public history program with the BLS in management and a minor in history? Most of my staff have BA's in public history from a local private college and it is heavily focused in methods of teaching history and museum management. Thoughts?

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Hmm great answers from everyone, my recommendation is going to be similar to this post here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid368356 with a minor difference, instead of Accounting, I suggest UMPI BABA Marketing Concentration with a History Minor, then ladder up to a Masters of your choice at WGU (MSML or MBA later).  

UMPI YourPace options: BA/BABA has majors, majors with concentrations, minors and BLS (liberal studies) with minors only.  The subjects you're interested in are on the YourPace platform, instead of completing two degrees (BABA Marketing & BA History), it may be better to just get the BABA Marketing with a minor in History - you can use the History as your general education courses.

Please also "use" your previous community college credits in fashion for your free elective credits, you have nothing to lose, you still need to send in all transcripts anyways, having a set of C's will not affect your internal GPA at the new school, they won't even need to calculate anything as their admissions isn't extremely selective.  You can save costs, energy, time with transferring these in.

Interesting points... I am liking the 'killing two birds' idea a lot. I also did not think my fashion classes would count as electives. I actually got good grades in those classes becuase I liked the material and the teachers were fantastic. 

I will look into the BABA programs more closely and weigh the options. I may come back to everyone with it narrowed down more! 

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I'd look into UMPI if I were you. Many folks have completed their bachelor's degree from 0 credits to graduation in 6 months at UMPI. There have business, English, history, poli sci, and liberal arts degrees. The fastest degree to complete is the BLS with Management Minor. The BA in Bus Admin can be completed in a few more weeks. UMPI accepts financial aid. All you need to do is file a FAFSA and see what you're eligible for. For UMPI I recommend starting on Sophia once you select a degree. On this forum there are templates which list out the courses you can take on Sophia, Study.com, and InstantCert to max out the 90 transfer credits UMPI accepts.

https://online.umpi.edu/

Thank you for your suggestions. I am thinking UMPI will defintley be the best choice. I was going through the Sophia courses this morning when my staff came bounding in the door so I will look at this more closely and start to create a plan. Thanks!

[skite]

I'd look into UMPI if I were you. Many folks have completed their bachelor's degree from 0 credits to graduation in 6 months at UMPI. There have business, English, history, poli sci, and liberal arts degrees. The fastest degree to complete is the BLS with Management Minor. The BA in Bus Admin can be completed in a few more weeks. UMPI accepts financial aid. All you need to do is file a FAFSA and see what you're eligible for. For UMPI I recommend starting on Sophia once you select a degree. On this forum there are templates which list out the courses you can take on Sophia, Study.com, and InstantCert to max out the 90 transfer credits UMPI accepts.

https://online.umpi.edu/

Hi again, I was just reviewing the replies to my post again and see that you have achieved both of the degrees I sort of (at least tonight) have it narrowed down to. What I am struggling with figuring out now is how do I know what all of the course requirements are without being enrolled in the program? I see the requirements for the specific Business Admin classes on the UMPI website, but not the GEC requirements. How do I determine exactly what is required per degree so I can decide which is the best option and then continue on to take the classes and get the credits? Am I missing something thats right in front me?! lol

Thanks!

[freeloader]

If you look at this page https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Un...esque_Isle on the forum’s wiki, under Degree Plans is a degree plan for the BLS with management minor. You will have met a few of the requirements with the courses you posted in your revision to your original post. The general education curriculum is the same for the BLS and the different BA degrees (Bus Adm, history/poli sci), so that should give you a place to start working from. UMPI has been popular and well discussed on the forum, particularly for the business-related degrees. Lots of good information, but it might require some wading through the muck to find.

I have this sinking suspicion that the specific degree you select—let’s imagine it is a UMPI degree—will not matter all that much. It will allay some concerns (clearly yours and potentially your boards), but it will never be their preferred credential. It sounds like you have made peace with that, at least I hope you have. Assuming you continue to be effective in your role, I don’t think you will be terminated or demoted because you selected the “wrong” major/minors for your degree. Seems to me you should pick a degree you will enjoy, that is justifiable in its relevancy, and that would help you with any future career/educational goals.

Do you think you want to pursue a master’s degree? I ask this, because that may help to guide your thinking about a bachelor’s degree. With a master’s you can build on your strengths or use it to add a skill set. For amounts of money that hopefully wouldn’t be prohibitive (under $15,000, say, and depending on the program as little as perhaps $5,000), you could earn a master’s degree in history, public history, nonprofit administration, management, leadership, education, public administration, or even a field like hospitality and tourism management. If you are drawn to a particular field, make sure you take sufficient courses at the undergraduate level to meet admissions requirements.

In regards to me—I would perhaps describe myself as a recovering history nerd. I actually spent 10 years in graduate school working toward a PhD in history and came very close to finishing (my dissertation draft with notes and statistical annex was 500 pages long when I left my program). For me, studying history in that way sapped the joy out of it. Between undergrad and grad school, I probably read 1,000 history books (monographs). Other than books that I had to read for museums that I worked at (to help write tours and so forth), I don’t think I have read a history monograph in its entirety since I left grad school. It still seems too much like work. Sorry, don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer.

[ss20ts]

I see some folks have mentioned the Marketing Concentration. I completed it and I advise those who want to complete their degree quickly to choose the Management & Leadership Concentration instead. The Marketing Concentration has several loooong papers that take quite awhile to be graded. The grading can be pretty harsh as well. The management courses have shorter papers and more exams. The grading isn't nearly as harsh. I've spoken with several others who were in the Marketing Concentration earlier this year and we all struggled with the professors in this concentration. They want things in the papers that aren't mentioned in the instructions or rubrics. I completed the courses before the people I spoke with and nothing had changed.

[bjcheung77]

Most programs with "newer" concentrations will come out with road bumps, since ss20ts was able to complete it in 3 sessions, I would estimate the same for you. Don't let it stop you from getting all the other courses completed before you complete the concentration, I know the BABA Marketing with History minor is the degree for you! I mean, for the cost of about $4200 from a public/state university, OMG!