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assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - swillson - 05-10-2016
Hi-
you guys seem to know all the things, and I've been reading a lot. I think I have a pretty ok handle on the process, but the details are not in focus yet. I'm hoping someone will take pity on me and help me out.
I currently have 45 credits from dual enrollment in high school, university, and 2 community colleges, from 1994-2007. I had a rough start, and went into university on academic probation from the high school dual enrollment courses- it didn't really get better from there. My gpa is 1.7. Now I'm married, two kids, and (I think) doing a much better job at adulting than I did when I was a 24 year old bartender.
Just had a birthday. One of the milestone ones with a '0' at the end. Decided I'd like to tie up this loose end of my degree.
So, here's the rundown- I'm a self employed commercial photographer. I shoot real estate, products, the occasional exec head shot. I don't mind finishing up with a lib arts/gen ed/basic degree, doesn't need to be an MFA or anything specific. I'm really checking the box on this one. It would be super easy to get the last 15 credits, I think, for the AA, but I'm curious to know how much more legwork I would need to do for a BA. Seems like if I'm in for a penny, I could be in for a pound.
I'm a confident tester. I don't mind doing online courses, but testing out would be my first choice.
I applied for FAFSA and I'm eligible for around 4K of pell grant. I know that this means I'd have to be enrolled full time to access the full amount, so maybe 12 hours online through NMCC? My local community college has in-state fees of $104 per hour. I'd pay more, but I could enroll there to access the grant. In my case, fast is better than free, I think. Depending on how much more than 'free' we're talking about.
Anyway. My credits are these (skipped all the Ws and Fs and etc):
ENC-1101 A freshman english 1
ENC-1102 B freshman english 2
MAC-1102 B college algebra
MGF-1202 B college mathematics
BSC-1005C A bio foundations
LAH-1021 C latin american history 1
LAH-1022 C l atin american history 2
AMH-1020 C modern american history
THE-1000 C intro to theater
SLS-1301 C career decision making
CLP-1000 C psych personal growth
ARH-1000 B art appreciation
PGY-1401C A photography 1
PSY-2012 B general psych
SYG-2000 B intro to sociology
HUM-2210 B world humanities
To the best of my reading so far, TESU will be the least expensive and quickest, but I am open to other suggestions if that's not correct. I think what I need at this point is a spreadsheet?
I already registered for an ACE registry account. Any advice pointing me in a forward direction would be so appreciated.
Thanks!
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - TrailRunr - 05-10-2016
Others are better at planning degrees and financial aid, so I'll defer to them. Here are my comments.
You should list any D grades as well. You might be able to use them. The Ds will usually transfer through and lower your cumulative GPA, which I'm sure needs to be at least 2.00. Your Fs will not transfer, and won't count against your GPA.
Many of the online courses that we talk about here (eg. SL, ALEKS, Saylor etc) are really just online tests with study material. 100% of your grade is on exams. There might be just one exam. There might be six or more quizzes/exams. Traditional online courses will have other work like papers, projects, homework, etc.
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - rebel100 - 05-10-2016
I think you've been doing your homework reading this site or you wouldn't mention NMJC....good for you! What I did when I was essentially in your shoes was this:
I took my PELL and went back to finish up the AA/AS (AS in my case) at a local CC. I shopped the two or three in my area and found them to be slightly different in their requirements...so might be worth it to check specifics at more than one school (NMJC maybe?). I would max out that PELL Grant with the easiest courses I could find that would be applicable fist to the associates, then to the bachelors. I would also see which CLEP/DSST apply and I would include them as possible. This will speed the process.
Those course numbers and the CC price look familiar, are you in Florida? If so even the "new State Colleges offer upper level courses that can be taken in a variety of subjects.
I would knock out the AA/AS first and figure out an approach for the BS/BA next.
For Charter Oak you need the following Gen Ed:
Oral
Ethics
Natural Science one 3 credit plus a 1 credit science lab
Cornerstone
Capstone
27 UL credits that make sense, plus some 20-30 odd electives, at least some of these could be free FEMA courses.
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - alzee - 05-10-2016
TrailRunr Wrote:Many of the online courses that we talk about here (eg. SL, ALEKS, Saylor etc) are really just online tests with study material. 100% of your grade is on exams.
I'll point out that while this is usually the case with SL, there are exceptions. The SL Oral Communications course has non-exam components -- you are required to record a few short youtube videos that you share with the instructor and can then delete after it's graded. The SL Sociology course (taking my final in an hour!) has half a dozen 150-250 word essays in addition to the graded quizzes.
So far those are the only two SL courses I've taken out of about a dozen that were NOT 100% quiz though, just wanted to point out it's not quite all of them. Other courses they offer may have more homework/project type things as well, I've been mostly doing business courses. I just started the IT101 course yesterday and so far it's all quizzes too (and a !&#&@!*ing terrible course -- I've complained to SL already).
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - dfrecore - 05-13-2016
I can't help at all with the Pell, nor can I really direct you to which courses to take at a CC, but there are others on this forum that are really knowledgeable about that.
I can make a spreadsheet, but unfortunately it needs to be populated, and you can't do that until you know how you're going to take courses. For instance, if you want to take everything via Saylor/ALEKS/FREE to cut costs, you can put those in first, then fill in with the next type of courses/exams you want to use.
At TESU, the requirements are much easier for the BALS than at the other schools, because they only require 18UL credits. Since 3cr is the Capstone, that only leaves 5 courses you need to take to fulfill the UL requirement in your Area of Study. This can easily be done using online courses/exams like the TECEP, DSST, UExcel, etc.
Also with the BALS at TESU, they accept 27cr of Free Electives, so that's really helpful. Almost any course you take will fit in there if it won't fit elsewhere in your plan.
I would sign up for ALEKS and do your math courses (Intermediate Algebra for sure, precalculus if you want, Stats if you want). I would also take the free Ethics course and the free Kaplan PLA course. If you want to do the free TEEX courses you can, as well as the free NFA courses.
Do your research to find out if you would like to take your other courses through Study.com, SL, UExcel, etc.
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - Nixi - 05-13-2016
dfrecore Wrote:I would also take the free Ethics course and the free Kaplan PLA course
Just a heads up, the Kaplan PLA course expired 4/30 and was not renewed with ACE, so it's not eligible for credits.
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - swillson - 06-04-2016
I wanted to pop back in here and say thank you for the help! I was tied up with a work project and then on vacation with the family- sorry for just disappearing!
I am in Florida- a lot of those first credits were in Gainesville.
It sounds to me that finishing the AA/AS would be the best first step, so that's where I'm headed.
Thanks again!
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - KayV - 06-04-2016
Have you got any D grades to add to the list, OP? If you do, you might be even closer to an associate degree than you think.
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - bjcheung77 - 06-04-2016
swillson Wrote:I wanted to pop back in here and say thank you for the help! I was tied up with a work project and then on vacation with the family- sorry for just disappearing!
I am in Florida- a lot of those first credits were in Gainesville.
It sounds to me that finishing the AA/AS would be the best first step, so that's where I'm headed.
Thanks again!
Where are you finishing up your AA/AS? If it's at TESU, you may want to wait for until you reach the BSBA level.
That is if you're going to finish within the same year, it's one residency waiver fee and grad fee.
If you finish any time after that 1 year, you need to pay a secondary residency waiver fee and a second grad fee.
Otherwise, if you're going to complete the AA/AS at the local community college, disregard this message.
assistance with plan- continuing student with old credits and terrible gpa - rebel100 - 06-04-2016
I would consider using that PELL at a state college (Florida CC). They will accept CLEP and DSST for a huge portion. They also offer Upper Level course work that can be applied to a BS/ BA.....you need to plan carefully. But your in a very good spot. Forget the out of state schools like NMJC.....use your Florida school.....which one is near you now? Still Santa Fe?