What do you guys think of this degree plan?

[LouisDG89]

So I'm a Criminal Justice major at Broward College and I started in late January. This is my program: https://catalog.broward.edu/programs-stu...oursestext

I CLEP'd out of Sociology(SYG2000) and National Government(POS2041) and I am scheduled to take a DSST Monday for Criminal Law(CJJ1100). Constitutional Law(CJL1062) and Criminal Investigations(CJE2600) I am currently attending classes for and will have passed both within the next 3 weeks. Next semester, I'm scheduled to take Introduction to Criminal Justice(CCJ1020) and Introduction to Criminology(CCJ1010) on campus as well. I'm taking the 6-7 week versions of the classes I take and not the 12 week ones.

Plan from here on:
CLEP out of Composition I(ENC1101) and Composition II(ENC1102)
Satisfy the requirements for Juvenile Justice(CJJ2001) on Study 
Satisfy the requirements for Introduction to Public Speaking(SPC1608) on either Study or Sophia (undecided which, open to suggestions))
Satisfy the requirements for Introduction to Environmental Science(EVR1001) on either Study or Sophia (undecided which, open to suggestions)
CLEP out of Humanities at some point or take a course on Study if I fail the CLEP.

What do you guys think? My goal is to put a massive dent in this associates degree as quickly as possible.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

I can't find Broward's residency requirements to see how many courses you need to take through them. Do you know?

I searched for "ACE" and "Credly" in their catalog and found nothing. Are they accepted? On this page, I don't see ACE as an option: https://catalog.broward.edu/academic-aff...-learning/

So, those are important questions, but I'll spitball from here based on best-case scenarios. If Broward accepts Study.com courses and you would meet their residency requirements by taking enough classes through Broward, you could just take Intro to Criminal Justice and Intro to Criminology on Study.com too. I recently finished Intro to CJ and Criminal Law there and found that Intro to Criminology was ~50% complete. After a placement test, it was at ~90/123 quizzes. Juvenile Justice is at 21/81 quizzes, but I believe much of that overlap came from the Criminal Law course. If you have experience in the field, I'm sure you could zoom through.

If SDC's Presentation Skills in the Workplace is accepted for Public Speaking, I'd strongly suggest you zoom through that one as well. However, the degree plan has "Recommended" next to that course, so I'm unsure if it's even required.

I would say Intro to Environmental Science is probably more straightforward on Sophia, and maybe you could also do Art History there for Humanities. On the other hand, if you like SDC's format and can get through 4-5 courses in a month, you could just stick to SDC. Maybe other users have brighter ideas though.

What other courses have you completed? There are still some other courses listed in the degree plan.

[LouisDG89]

The residency requirements are that I earn 25% of their courses on campus. So far, I've taken the 2 I specified in the OP, and I have 2 more scheduled for next semester, so I'd only need to take 1 more, technically to satisfy that part. In reality though I'll probably end up needing to take 7-8 courses total since some of the courses are quite specific and not offered on SDC or Sophia. That doesn't bother me though.


On both Study and Sophia, I checked to see if they have ever had credits accepted by Broward College and it appears that they have. I checked with BC earlier today on the phone and they confirmed that they do accept credits from both Study and Sophia. Just to be sure though, I submitted an assessment essentially asking them to confirm if they would accept credits for the course equivalents offered by Study and Sophia. I'm currently waiting on their response to that assessment and while I wait I wanted to see what you guys think of my current plan. My goal is to finish my degree by January.

I appreciate your reply by the way.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

The criminal justice courses listed with a "1" superscript on Broward's page are just 24 general elective courses, and can be anything. Broward simply threw in 8 CJ courses in those slots, but they don't have to be those courses; any 24 gen-ed credits would work. That opens up a ton of options to quickly accelerate.

Taking at Broward:
Constitutional Law
Criminal Investigations
Intro to CJ
Intro to Criminology
Course 5

If you wanted, you could even take 3 courses there next semester and be done with your residency requirements. For Course 5, you could choose one from the list below, whichever one you think you'd prefer to take on-campus. This is because if you only need 15 credits earned at Broward and the 24 credits with the "1" superscript are really just electives, you could transfer in anything to fulfill the degree requirements.

Alt Credit Needed:
English Comp I (CLEP)
English Comp II (CLEP)
Juvenile Justice (SDC)
Intro to Environmental Science (Sophia)
Public Speaking (SDC?)
Math Course 
Humanities Course
Elective 1
Elective 2 
Elective 3
Elective 4
Elective 5

Alt Credit Earned:
Sociology 
Government 
Criminal Law (on Monday)

This is 20 courses, adding up to the same 60 credits and distribution requirements listed on their degree plan. You'll want to take their degree requirements and make a spreadsheet to see if all of this lines up. The electives can be anything, but I noted that they say that if you hope to go to FAU's CJ Bachelor's program, you'll want 2 foreign language courses--although it also notes you can just take them in addition to the Bachelor's requirements. You're likely to need a foreign language course or two for many Bachelor's program anyway, so that could be an option for you to choose. Of course, keep your advisor in the loop and confirm all of this.

[LouisDG89]

Also, can credits be transferred and applied to more than one college/university at a time? Like if I wanted to get a Pierpont BOG AAS, would the Sociology CLEP I submitted for credit at BC be accepted? Can Sophia credits for the same course be transferred to both BC and Pierpont?

[origamishuttle]

Also, can credits be transferred and applied to more than one college/university at a time? Like if I wanted to get a Pierpont BOG AAS, would the Sociology CLEP I submitted for credit at BC be accepted? Can Sophia credits for the same course be transferred to both BC and Pierpont?

Yes, you can send transcripts to as many schools as you want. In fact, every school to which you apply will want a copy of all previous transcripts.

The only restriction I've seen is that some schools may require you to complete specific courses, a certain number of courses, or both, after your most recent degree was conferred. Generally, this isn't an issue with an associate's degree and a bachelor's degree. It typically comes into play with a second bachelor's degree at schools like COSC and TESU that allow you to transfer most of your credits toward a degree. Most other schools require a minimum number of credits to be earned at the school. Either way, many of the same credits can be reused for multiple degrees.

[dfrecore]

So a couple of things: 1) not sure why you'd want a Pierpont AAS and a CJ AS? Seems like a waste of time; 2) I'm assuming that you're paying in-state on-campus tuition of $117.90/cr x 15cr = $1768.50. In my opinion, you'd be MUCH better off switching to UMPI after this semester, and getting the BA in CJ instead. It's $1400/term, so you could conceivably get your bachelor's for less than your AA; and if you took 2 terms instead of 1 (the most common thing on here is 2 terms I think), you're still paying $2800 for a bachelor's degree instead of spending any time at all on an associates degree, and in about the same amount of time.

So, my advice is to stop at Broward after this term, hammer out everything you can through Sophia that you still need, and then go to UMPI for Summer II or Fall I and complete your BA there.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

I also considered recommending the YourPace BA in CJ, but it requires a 100-hour field experience capstone completed in-person at some local organization. Depending on the OP's situation, that might be something to push the needle toward completing the Associate's first, then get a different Bachelor's.

[bjcheung77]

@LouisDG89, what's your plan? You have 2 courses down, taking 2 courses in the next month or so, and will have just 1 more course to reach residency requirements.  You can take the time to complete both Sophia.org credits along with your current course load if it's not too much to handle.  If my guess is correct, you want a quick double whammy of two associates in different emphasis, an Associates in CJ, what are you going for the emphasis at Pierpont, Business or Info Systems?

Depending on your budget, commitments, energy, study habits, time, etc, it should be possible to complete both at the same time or one after the other.  If you're really in a need/want of those two AA/AAS and have the energy/time for it, consider doing so, if not, look forward to laddering up to a Bachelors... You should fill us in with more details by filling in the template/last post addendum here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

[LouisDG89]

Hello!

I have progressed through my associates! I can graduate as early as December on my current course. That's why I want to submit my Pierpont BOG application asap.