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+--- Thread: Adult starting from scratch (/Thread-Adult-starting-from-scratch)
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RE: Adult starting from scratch - Vle045 - 06-06-2024
(06-05-2024, 10:21 PM)Mom2my2 Wrote:(06-05-2024, 07:27 PM)LevelUP Wrote: I would recommend you do UMPI since this would be quickest, cheapest, and fit what you are trying to accomplish.
Do the Business with a marketing concentration
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_BABA_Marketing_Degree_Plan
Business and Liberal Arts are similar in terms of difficulty and considering your strong business background, I would assume business would probably be easier.
If you want Psychology, then you are better off doing a minor in Psychology along with your business degree, which only requires 2 UMPI courses if you max transfer from Sophia and Study.com
http://catalog.umpi.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=6&poid=655&returnto=225
Sophia PSY 100 - General Psychology
Sophia PSY 205 - Lifespan Development
UMPI YourPace PSY 311 - Research Methods
Sophia MAT 101 - Basic Statistics (In GE so don't have to take)
Study.com PSY 200 - Social Psychology
Study.com PSY 235 - Abnormal Psychology
UMPI YourPace (Pick course from available options)
Note: if you use Psychology courses as electives, it shouldn't add extra courses to take.
Pierpont BOG is recommended because it is basically free and gives students an easier first goal to achieve before completing their bachelor's degree. All you need is one single RA credit from ASU, which costs only $25.
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_to_UMPI_Degree_Plan
You should have some fun and be excited about the process. Once you pay the subscription, the courses are free to explore, so you can try out different things. Take courses that interest you.
Sophia is free for the 1st lesson for every course, and you can download the entire PDF course without paying.
https://www.sophia.org/
Thank you for the recommendation and mapping the psy courses! Question about BOG - You mentioned it was basically free - is that because most of the courses are available through Sophia.org and that's $600/yr? (with other lower cost options)
I'm interested in taking CLEP exams since those are a fixed price and not time based. Taking these will give me a true sense of the amount of time I can study and allow time to ramp up the hours into my schedule. From what I assessed these are part of the recommended courses and have a CLEP accepted at both Pierpont BOG and UMPI.
College Alegbra - BOG 3 credits; UMPI 3 credits
US History I - BOG 3 credits; UMPI 3 credits
Psych - BOG 3 credits; UMPI 3 credits
Sociology - BOG 3 credits; UMPI 3 credits
Intro to Chemistry - BOG 4 credits; UMPI 6 credits
Macro Econ - BOG 3 credits; UMPI 3 credits
Micro Econ - BOG 3 credits; UMPI 3 credits
US History II - BOG 3 credits; UMPI 3 credits
College Comp - BOG 3 credits; UMPI 6 credits
Is there any reason to be cautious in taking these CLEP exams for these Gen Ed Courses instead of using sophia.org? Will taking these as CLEP hinder me in other ways?
Sophia.org and CLEPs are not RA courses - correct? Would Gen Ed courses be consdiered RA through ONU? If so, should I consider taking some of them through ONU (or similar) to boost my RA numbers in case I want to use TESU for the batchelors? Is there a decent path from Pierpont to TESU?
(06-05-2024, 08:43 PM)Vle045 Wrote: Everyone always suggests UMPI right off the bat. That may or may not be a good fit for only 15 hours a week. The less time you have, the more money you will spend in a CBE program. Luckily, you have time to work on Alt credits before you decide. By then you may have a good idea how long things will take you. Once you get enough credits, then you can get that Pierpont degree. UMPI is a great option, but not if you have limited time to work on it. I fall in that limited time bracket. When I tried CBE, I didn’t get enough done to warrant the cost.
Yes, that's exactly my concern! I like the idea of the Pierpont as a smaller milestone and by then, you're right, I'll know how much study time I can faithfully invest. What path did you take for your degrees after you tried CBE?
My path has been quite different than most here. I got my bachelor’s degree in the traditional manner in the 90’s. Finally paid that off 24 years later! During the pandemic, I was stuck at home with my job in jeopardy. I found the offer to take Sophia courses for free at that time! So I earned some of those credits although I didn’t really need them. To make sure I could be more marketable, I started looking at MBA options.
First, I tried University of the People. But for me, the material was too boring and outdated. Not to mention the issues with peer grading. Yuck. So I dropped out of that. Then I tried Walden’s CBE. I did one term. The interface was nice and the materials were ok. But I completed zero credits. My pace was too slow. So I watched a lot of threads here and kept my eyes peeled for low cost options.
Thanks to a nice tuition discount worked out with Avon, I ended up going with the Jack Welch MBA program through Strayer. The thing that works for me is actually the LONG term length of 10 weeks. (And I take long breaks in between). My workload is about 10-15 hours a week per course. There are bigger assignments every few weeks, but on the weeks without an assignment, my weekends are totally free - if I want. Each week has a discussion board post and two replies. Occasionally there’s some sort of learning journal or other quick learning activity. As a Strayer student, I get access to Sophia for free. Even though it doesn’t count for graduate credit, I can choose to take some of the business courses for my own knowledge since my undergrad isn’t in business. I also have free access to LinkedIn Learning (it’s used in some of the courses) and several other resources. In addition to the much lower cost, I have a small tuition reimbursement from my employer. Spreading it out means less out of pocket for me. The course materials have been great. I have learned things that I can use at work. My instructors have been involved in the courses, posting weekly videos and sometimes offering optional live sessions. They walk us through all of the big assignments so I never feel lost. I have picked up a course or two elsewhere that can be transferred in, but I really haven’t always been as happy with the structure at the other schools. (I recently dropped a class at ACE because after a week I still felt lost)
I am 50% done with my program now. By going the VERY slow route, my out of pocket so far has been less than $1,000. Granted, I had to get a little creative to get there. I know there are some people who look down on Strayer, but for me, it has been a great fit. So far, I have a 4.0 GPA and have been learning a lot along the way.
Hopefully you will be able to find the right combination of time and cost that fits your needs.