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How to get my AAS in Accounting to a BA - mriern99 - 02-12-2025

Hello! I would love some advice.


(I’m sorry if any of this isn’t formatted correctly, I’m new to this forum, but I did some research and tried to format it appropriately.)

I'm nearly finished with an AAS  (Associate of Applied Science) degree in Accounting from a local community college, so most of my credits are from low level accounting and business courses. 

In hindsight I should have gone for the Associate of Arts, since the accounting classes I've taken aren't so transfer friendly, which I didn't realize at the time. Regardless, Ideally I would love to have my entire Associates degree transfer, and take advantage of the remaining transfer credits some colleges allow by taking classes from Sophia or study.com or something similar to max out the transfer credit maximum of the college that would take my credits. 
Or not, if someone has a better plan! I really don’t know what the best option is. I'm a little lost and worried that all my hard work might not have gotten me as far as I thought.

I’ve been looking at Excelsior University, because they have a generous transfer policy, but it’s hard to figure out what will apply towards my degree and what exactly I would still need. They require 30 high level courses that I don’t have, and they seem reluctant to give advice until I’ve applied and enrolled. 

Like others, I’m looking for the fastest, cheapest way to get my BA, while being able to use the credits I have from the community college. 
I would also like to leave the option open to eventually get a Masters in Accounting or business, because I need extra credits anyway in order to sit for the CPA exam, and it would be nice to have.




Your Location: Chicago, Illinois
Your Age: 23
What kind of degree do you want?: 
First choice: BA in Accounting
Second choice: BA in business
Third choice: BA of liberal arts 


Current Regional Accredited Credits: (# of credits in parentheses)
  1. ACC 153 Prin Financial ACC (4)
  2. ACC 154 Prin Managerial Acct (4)
  3. ACC 170 Payroll Tax Account (1)
  4. ACC 180 Accounting with Microsoft Excel (3)
  5. ACC 183 QuickBooks online Certi Pre (3)
  6. ACC 188 Cloud Accounting (2)
  7. ACC 241 Intermediate Accounting (4)
  8. ACC 244 Income tax accounting (3)
  9. ACC 255 Careers In Accounting (2)
  10. ANT 102 Intr Soc & Cult Ant (3)
  11. BUS 101 Intro To Business (3)
  12. EGL 101 Composition I (3)
  13. EGL 111 Int Bus and tech Writ (3)
  14. HUM 165 Intro to World Music (3)
  15. MAT 111 Business/Consumer Math (4)
  16. MGT 276 Corporate Social Responsibility and Decision Making (3)
  17. SOC 103 Social Problems (3)
  18. BUS 221 Business Law I (3)
  19. ECO 201 Principles of Macroeconomics (3)
  20. MGT 118 Effective Management Communications (3)

  1. ECO 202 Principles of Microeconomics (3)
OR 
  1. ACC 280       Data Analytics for Accounting (3)



Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: None
Any certifications or military experience?: No
Budget: I'd like to go the cheapest route possible, but will consider spending more for easy and fast.  
Commitments: Spouse and kids- no day job.
Dedicated time to study: I do school work in the evening/ night, and on weekends.
Timeline: I’m hoping for under 6 months to get my BA and under 2 years if I go for a masters. Really as fast as possible, but I also can’t do more than 5 hours a day of school work. I’ve been pretty successful at it so far but it’s hard to commit to a serious schedule with small children.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: None


Notes:
-I’m comfortable with proctored tests but prefer unprotected. I love and do well working at my own pace without live classes like zoom.
-My GPA is currently 4.0 but might be a little lower after this semester.

RE: How to get my AAS in Accounting to a BA - bjcheung77 - 02-13-2025

@mriern99, Welcome to the board, great intro post with the addendum and template, plus additional info. You copy/pasted the pdf document details into this post and attached the pdf? I thought that was a degree plan or something like a transcript...

Excelsior isn't your best choice for any of those 3 degrees, it's not the max transfer you're going to look for, it's the cost, ease, speed to finish along with the ROI/Value, plus your option to customize things around.

Are you the lady of the house, or the man of the house? How many kids at that age? 5 hours a day for 7 days is 35 hours a week. Do you have a supportive family, other than the spouse, that can assist you when you've got to grind out the homework?

Here's a read to decide on the institution of choice, I would review post #2 and the second link twice, just to soak up the info again: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-Which-college-to-attend-Please-help

RE: How to get my AAS in Accounting to a BA - mriern99 - 02-13-2025

(02-13-2025, 01:20 AM)bjcheung77 Wrote: Thank you for the response! This is so helpful. Yes, I wasn't positive if the attachment was how the post went through so I attached a PDF of my post to be on the safe side. My transcript is the same as the credits I listed in my post.

I'm a stay at home mom to little ones, and I do have a lot of support, but I can't really do schoolwork during the day. I'm trying to get this done in the most efficient way so I can have my nights back and have school off my plate.
Do you think I have a fair chance of having UMPI or TESU accept my lower level accounting credits?
Would my next steps be to send my transcripts to both schools, and go from there?


RE: How to get my AAS in Accounting to a BA - mriern99 - 02-15-2025

(02-13-2025, 01:20 AM)bjcheung77 Wrote: @mriern99, Welcome to the board, great intro post with the addendum and template, plus additional info.  You copy/pasted the pdf document details into this post and attached the pdf? I thought that was a degree plan or something like a transcript...  

Excelsior isn't your best choice for any of those 3 degrees, it's not the max transfer you're going to look for, it's the cost, ease, speed to finish along with the ROI/Value, plus your option to customize things around.  

Are you the lady of the house, or the man of the house?  How many kids at that age? 5 hours a day for 7 days is 35 hours a week.  Do you have a supportive family, other than the spouse, that can assist you when you've got to grind out the homework?

Here's a read to decide on the institution of choice, I would review post #2 and the second link twice, just to soak up the info again: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-Which-college-to-attend-Please-help


How do I figure out which study.com or sophia courses I should take? Every college I've spoken too, including TESU and UMPI need me to be applied and enrolled before they will even speak to me at all about my credits. I don't know which credits they will accept and which one of their degrees to go for with my credits, so its hard to figure out which ones to fill in. How do other's navigate this?

RE: How to get my AAS in Accounting to a BA - Hotdogman1 - 02-16-2025

I find it concerning that someone with a 4.0 GPA and nearly finished with an Accounting AAS to be uninformed about their progress towards the CPA requirements. You should definitely reach out to your department chair or advisor because this is a failing that needs to be rectified by the school. As a result, this post is going to be extremely long. If you don't want to read the entire thing, you can skip Parts 1 and 2 but please read Parts 3, 4, and 5.

To do:
1. Reach out to State Board and verify if they accept ACE credits that are accepted at a University.
2. If they do, show them what courses your planning on taking at UMPI/TESU and verify that the board will accept them.
3. Create a spreadsheet with a degree plan and post it here if you need more advice.

Part 1: Illinois CPA Education requirements (Just looking at the education requirements here. There are other requirements for licensure.)
To sit for the Illinois CPA exam Option 4:
  • A baccalaureate degree in any concentration conferred by a Board-recognized institution of higher education.
  • Total hours: 120 Semester hours
  • Accounting Hours: Completion of 24 semester credit hours in accounting that include at least one class in Tax and one in Audit. 
  • Business Hours: Completion of 12 semester credit hours in business.
To get the Certificate Option 4:
  • A baccalaureate degree in any concentration conferred by a Board-recognized institution of higher education.
  • Total hours: 150 Semester hours
  • Accounting Hours: Completion of 30 semester credit hours in accounting that include at least one course each in Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Tax and Audit.
  • Business Hours: Completion of 24 semester credit hours in business that include 2 semester credit hours in Business Communication and 3 semester credit hours in Business Ethics.
https://www.ilboe.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/CPA-Exam-Education-Requirements-2023.pdf

Part 2: Does Illinois accept ACE credits?
Under Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.ilboe.org/checklist-faq/
Q: Do you accept the transfer credits shown on my university transcript?
A: No, we do not accept transfer credits for coursework. We ask to see the credits as they were earned at the originating institution. If the credits earned are CLEP or AP, we accept them as they appear on the originating school’s transcript

Under General Information for all Coursework:https://www.ilboe.org/education-requirements/
ACT/SAT, AP, CLEP, DANTE or IIC: Candidates may submit ACT/SAT, AP, CLEP, DANTE or Individual Institutional Credit (IIC) credits. These must appear as hours earned (e.g. MATH102 3 SCH) on the official transcript(s) for consideration towards required semester credit hours (SCH).

I think this means the board should accept ACE credits (Sophia, Coursera, Straighterline, etc.). You should verify this by emailing your state board.

Part 3: Where do you currently stand?
Go to your 24-25 school catalog and search "Information for CPA (Certified Public Accountant) Exam Candidates." You can see that your school is accredited with the Illinois board of Examiners and shows which courses the board accepts: "30 semester hours in accounting. All accounting courses, with the exception of ACC255, can be counted toward the 30 accounting hours required by the Illinois Board of Examiners."

This means you currently have 27 Accounting credits and 9 business credits (ECO 201, BUS 221, BUS 101). (Verify if ACC 244 satisfies the Tax course requirement)
Sitting for the Exam: You need 3 more business credits to meet the business credit requirement.
Getting licensed: You are missing Audit (ACC 260), Business Communication (MGT 118), Business Ethics (BUS 107) courses and 9 more business credits.
This means a Master's in Accounting is pointless for you since you already have most of the accounting credits.

Part 4: Recommendations
Once you verify that Illinois accepts ACE credits, I recommend going to UMPI:
1. UMPI accepts a lot of transfer credits. While only 90 can apply towards a degree, you can transfer in as many credits as you want. Some Coursera certs transfer in as 12-15 credit blocks. This makes it very easy to get to the CPA 150 total credit requirement.
2. You can take a lot of courses in one 8 week session. I did ~36 credit hours in 8 weeks but the norm seems to be somewhere around 15 credits a session. Plan for at least 2 sessions.
3. While ethics and business communication could be done via Sophia, I would recommend taking in directly from a school. At UMPI: BUS 353 - Business Ethics, BUS 376 - Independent Auditing. For Business communication, BUS 210 - Organizational Communication or [/url][url=http://catalog.umpi.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=7&poid=757&hl=minor&returnto=search#]PCJ 215 - Business Communication. Reach out to the board and verify that these work. 

While most programs should work, I personally think the BAS with a Business Administration Minor would be the best fit. For admission into the BAS, you need an AAS and 40 technical credits. You have to apply for the BLS program and request your advisor to change your degree into the BAS. Once you are accepted, you can take any course you want as long as you select a minor and complete 12 lower level and 18 upper level credits at UMPI (also for the 30 credit hour residency requirement for graduation). http://catalog.umpi.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=7&poid=709&hl=bas&returnto=search

For the technical credits, view this link: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_Bachelor_of_Applied_Science,_BAS_Degree_Plan. I recommend doing the Coursera Google and IBM certs. They were very easy to complete and results in 43 transfer credits. You could also replace some of the certs with several of the recommended Sophia courses as well.

UMPI has a General Education that is quite annoying. In short, you need to have 40 unique credits while satisfying every requirement. You can find what courses to take at: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_!General_Education_Requirements_Roadmap. It is recommended to take them at Sophia since it's $99 a month, you could satisfy the entire GenEds there (+other electives), and you could take as many courses as you could during that period. Two courses can be open at the same time. Eng 2 is a very short course at UMPI so I recommend doing it there even though it would add to the course load. Your AAS credits should transfer over even if there isn't a direct match; it usually pops up as BUS 1XX or something like that so you shouldn't have to do that many electives.

Courses to take at UMPI: (Avoid satisfying these courses with ACE credits)
  • Minimum 18 Upper level credits: BUS 353 Business Ethics, BUS 376 Independent Auditing, 2 UL Business courses, 2 random UL courses you want to take.
  • Lower level credits: PCJ 215 Business Communication, BUS 200 Intermediate Business Computing, MAT 140 Mathematics for Business, ECO 207 Macro and Micro Economics (I think Macroeconomics comes in as a generic lower level business course if you dont transfer in micro as well) + (English 2)
Link to other programs and just look at the wiki:
BBA Accounting: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UMPI_BABA_Accounting_Degree_Plan

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:UMPI

Part 5: End Result
Reasonable timeline wise: 3 months for Sophia + Coursera, 4-6 months UMPI.
  • Graduation with Bachelor's from accredited university: Bachelor's of Applied Sciences with a minor in Business aAdministration. Residency satisfied with 33 credit hours (18UL/15LL), Business Administration Minor satisfied with transfer credit + ECO 207, BUS 200, MAT 140, and PCJ 215.
  • 30 Accounting Credits and more than 24 Business credits
  • 166 total credits: 43 Technical credits (Coursera) +30 General education (Sophia) + 60 credits (Associate's degree) + 33 UMPI credits. This is extremely inaccurate since I'm guessing on how many unique GenEds you need to complete. Even if you magically had all the GenEds (you don't), then: 33 UMPI + 40 (minimum technical credits) + 60 AAS = 136 credits.


RE: How to get my AAS in Accounting to a BA - mriern99 - 02-16-2025

Thank you very much for your advice and taking the time to explain all that to me!

RE: How to get my AAS in Accounting to a BA - bjcheung77 - 02-18-2025

+1, awesome advice, I agree with the UMPI options as a first choice and using the Coursera plus Sophia.org to get the 40+ technical credits and general education requirements completed for max transfer, up to 90+ credits. You'll just complete the 30 residency credits at UMPI and will have a balanced mix/match recommended trifecta of certs, degree, experience. To top it off though, I'd still do things a little differently, as UMPI regulations may have changed. AAS Accounting, UMPI AALS, UMPI BAS or BA Accounting & BBA double major.

In brief, you want to finish off the AAS Accounting as it's a requirement for the BAS, you then complete the Coursera & Sophia.org classes to maximize the transfer of credits, such as the lab and language classes needed. I would add the AALS as a second program and forget it, as all the classes required for the AALS would be completed on route to the BAS. You also want to get an evaluation for a double BA to see which one you would like more, the BAS vs the BA Accounting & BBA double major, you can select a BBA concentration of your choice.

RE: How to get my AAS in Accounting to a BA - turbotortuga - 02-19-2025

(02-16-2025, 11:06 PM)mriern99 Wrote: Thank you very much for your advice and taking the time to explain all that to me!

Yea, I have a BA in Accounting from UMPI. If you want to keep your options open for both CPA and the Masters in Accounting (MAcc), you want that degree specifically. Forget the BAS completely. It will just inhibit your progress. You can do the BA Accounting and BBA Management/Leadership like I did, but it's a LOT of extra coursework, and to be honest, you don't need it. Just get the BA in Accounting and use the extra timesaved to hit the MAcc from WGU like I did. Currently about halfway done in my first term. That;s the best and probably least expensive/fastest path. Good luck!