(06-11-2019, 09:06 PM)sanantone Wrote: Since you have all this free time, get the degree you want now instead of wasting time and money on something of little value such as a business administration degree. You're only 19. You ARE a new adult. There's no need to rush. A lot of people don't finish their first bachelor's degree until they're 23-25.

(06-12-2019, 01:58 AM)dfrecore Wrote: I agree that you should first get your HS diploma/GED, and THEN worry about a college degree.  I'm not even sure why you're worrying about the college part yet.

And I also agree that you should not get a degree you don't want just because it's convenient.  If you want a computer science degree, then that's the degree you should get.  Anything else is just a waste of time and money.

(06-12-2019, 05:02 AM)T321 Wrote: I think what led me to thinking about a college degree is age and I was of the mindset of: "It's just a high school diploma...I can get it at anytime and I can't get it right now anyway."

So I wanted to learn other things in the meantime...while ignoring my most glaring sore spots. I really...didn't want to go back to learning u.s history... I could do so much more and thought if I could take clep or dsst tests to earn credit to store it for later

(06-12-2019, 05:46 AM)PrettyFlyforaChiGuy Wrote:

(06-12-2019, 05:02 AM)T321 Wrote: I think what led me to thinking about a college degree is age and I was of the mindset of: "It's just a high school diploma...I can get it at anytime and I can't get it right now anyway."

So I wanted to learn other things in the meantime...while ignoring my most glaring sore spots. I really...didn't want to go back to learning u.s history... I could do so much more and thought if I could take clep or dsst tests to earn credit to store it for later

You are 19; that's a typical time to begin university-level coursework. Many people in this forum began much later. One point of caution: If the mindset toward success is structured around "I can get [that] anytime," eventually, you may wake up years later still without [that]. The race is only against yourself in the end, but don't forget to run. 

More importantly, I think I misunderstood your situation. If you really can't begin this high school diploma program for up to six months from now (Why not?), then I don't seem the harm in studying certain subjects that may overlap between the diploma and degree coursework so that you don't completely waste time. For example, if you dislike U.S. History but will need to study it for both the diploma and in college, you could study an introductory-level course through CLEP/one of the many sites listed in this forum. It would shore up your high school background, while also strongly preparing you for the eventual college exam you'd need to take anyway. Likewise, if trig feels relatively basic for you, and you didn't explore pre-calculus or Calculus AB, you could look into courses covering them--as long as you'd need another math to graduate high school.

This is the only kind of situation where I would recommend avoiding directly finishing up the diploma, since that goal should be both more immediate and more urgent than "stealth procrastinating" by working toward a goal that you can't yet officially begin. Otherwise, I'd really say to deal only with studies leading to the diploma. When the time comes for it, you will easily and quickly be able to knock out about a dozen completely free credits through various providers like Sophia, TEEX, and Theinstitutes.org, giving you a big head start toward your degree anyway.

(06-12-2019, 09:36 AM)allvia Wrote: CLEP is free when you go through Modern States - https://modernstates.org/

(06-11-2019, 08:45 PM)T321 Wrote:

(06-11-2019, 07:44 AM)T321 Wrote: Can I take clep or dsst tests to get credit when I'm not enrolled in a college? I'm about to enroll in an online school in half a year at most to get my adult high school diploma and want to start earning credits early for preparation in a bachelor's of computer science degree. Can the credits just be stored away and what courses are recommended to make this goal possible? I'll have about 3-4 years of free time to study besides other hobbies, but am unsure of what to study. Recommendations would be helpful, thank you. (Note: I've a wide variety of interests, but am not very fond of history, culture, environmental, and etc...)


Edit 2.1: I decided to focus on earning credits and the courses required for a computer science bachelor degree. I originally set 6 months as the max time to persuade, but maybe it'll be in 4- 5 months. It can be a long time when you focus exclusively while I luckily already have the knowledge of some courses and just have to figure out a more detailed plan with alternative credit options. Thank you for all your ideas and I think I'm good now. 

Edit: My birthday passed yesterday and I woke up with a panic as I did a serious self reflection. As nineteen you're not 16-17 or a new adult and a certain responsibility should be expected of you. I didn't have a high school diploma as I didn't even attend for private reasons. I studied miscellaneously and was overwhelmed at my uselessness when seeing what others had already accomplished. There's so much more than coding needed for a bachelor in computer science. I didn't have the financial means to afford going to a college traditionally, but came across an article about jay cross's d.i.y degree which led me to this site. I obviously don't trust his d.i.y anymore and glad I didn't sign up. I've no urgent financial pressure and time sort of passed while I was comfortable, but it's not good to go about like that! I wanted to bring my life back on track and the people here were really helpful in answering my questions. It suddenly feels like getting a degree isn't so hard and I'm truly relieved quite a bit. So...this thread is resolved.