Brand New - Want to finish my degree- not sure how this works- Looking for answers...

[faithlyric]

I am desperate to go back to school but only working part time and an employer that shorts my pay every pay period (9 hours the past 2 weeks) I just can't get my head above water much less add another bill for going to school. I figured even those $59 a month "schools" would be better than the standing still I am doing now. While researching Career Institute, Penn State, and Ashworth College, I came across a blog from about 6 years ago where a guy used CLEP to get a degree. This site was one of the few links that still worked. Anyone that would like to explain how one goes about this...if you still can...where I would start...please let me know. I am so sick of working for someone that thinks that I should be so grateful I have a job so it is ok to short my pay every week. I am talking to the tune of $400 in the past month and a half. I am VERY motivated but i just need some direction. I would be eternally grateful...Thank you...

[sanantone]

If you work for a large company, human resources should be able to resolve the pay issues. If that doesn't work, you should contact your state's labor department or workforce commission.

Since it sounds like you have a relatively low income, you should fill out the FAFSA. You will more than likely qualify for grants. Schools like Penn Foster and Ashworth don't participate in financial aid programs. The payments are a great way to stay out of debt, but they could potentially become a hardship for those with a really low income. They are also only nationally accredited which comes with some limitations regarding transferring credits, graduate school, and employment. Grant money will go a long way at a community college. You can transfer these credits to one of the Big 3: Thomas Edison State College, Charter Oak State College, and Excelsior College. TESC is a great place to transfer CC credits to since they are the only one of the Big 3 that will give upper level credit for CC courses. COSC does consortium agreements. You can use financial aid to pay for the required cornerstone and capstone courses and fees at COSC while also using it to take courses at a cheaper college.

If you don't have any cheap community colleges in your state that offer online courses, then New Mexico Junior College and Clovis Community College are cheap options for out-of-state students. Western Governors University is another great option. A full grant award of $5,550 will almost pay for all of your annual tuition and fees at WGU. Student loans will cover the rest. WGU also does not require the purchase of books or other materials.

[sanantone]

The Degree Forum Wiki will explain a lot. There is one change that I'm about to make in there because it'll confuse newcomers. Excelsior and Uexcel exams have been combined under one program called Uexcel ECEP. Another warning is that a lot of the personal degree plans posted were done years ago, so some of their credit choices are not useful now.

Degree Forum Wiki

[faithlyric]

Thank you for y'alls response. I will have a day off to research and get started tomorrow. It's the little things, do you have to be affiliated with a school to CLEP? How do you find out the classes you need for your degree? What order to CLEP them? I am looking for Liberal Arts or Humanities or Education because I want to go into the Peace Corps. Anyway I will be able to dive in tomorrow since it looks like people are still able to do this. I am so excited. As for my work situation, if you complain too much or don't go along with not getting paid, you get fired. There is a class action suit for them right now but we (who still have a job) have been scared off of it. In my situation some pay is better than none. I was so angry for feeling so trapped and no plan to even get out when I wrote that. I am so glad there is a light now. Thanks for your help

[sanantone]

TESC offers a humanities and liberal studies degree along with social science which I think would be good for the Peace Corps. TESC also offers sociology, psychology, human services, and a few other programs that would be helpful in the Peace Corps. Charter Oak offers child and youth development, child studies, early childhood studies, psychology, sociology, liberal studies, and applied behavioral science. You can design your own programs with TESC's learner designed area of study and COSC's individualized studies. Excelsior offers humanities with various concentrations, liberal arts, sociology, psychology, and social sciences with various concentrations. The easiest degrees to test out of are liberal studies/arts, social science, psychology, and a self-designed program. None of the Big 3 offer education programs.

WGU does not offer a humanities or liberal arts degree, but it does offer degrees in education. WGU's education programs are licensure track where you have to do an internship for a semester. You have to pay the school a fee for this. IIRC, it's over $1,000, and it would probably be difficult to maintain a full-time job. COSC is probably your best option with the consortium agreement for financial aid. If you want to complete most of your credits through courses at the school you're attending, TESC's comprehensive tuition plan is the best deal.

You don't need to be affiliated with a school to take CLEP, DSST, ECEPs, or any other test. The easiest thing you can do right now is to complete the free elective requirements by using FEMA courses. They're free and COSC and TESC don't charge a fee for their transcription. COSC uses Frederick Community College's equivalency list.
Printable Course List

TESC has its own list.
http://www.tesc.edu/degree-completion/do...review.pdf

You can start taking courses here.
Emergency Management Institute | Independent Study (IS) - Course List

TEEX offers free, ACE approved courses in cybersecurity that can be used as free electives or computer information systems credit. Saylor offers 3 free courses that are NCCRS approved, but you'll more than likely have to pay for a proctor for the final exam.

You can start completing your math requirements by taking ALEKS courses. ALEKS charges $20 a month. You can probably learn more about it in the wiki. Once you decide on a school, someone on the forum can help you with the general education requirements. Once you choose a degree program, then someone can help you choose tests and/or courses. When people are uncomfortable with testing, they like taking ACE approved courses from Penn Foster and Straighterline.

[faithlyric]

Geeshh... been on here for 5 hours and looking around....I feel like I have a bunch of puzzle pieces that look great if I could just get something to fit together. sanantone you wrote '...You can design your own programs with TESC's learner designed area of study and COSC's individualized studies" And I looked on the wiki link sent by you and COSC looked great to me. Then I was thinking Excelsior because that is the one that I saw on someone pages that they got a Bachelor in Liberal Arts all online but that may have been old. I am so lost on how you tell what to study so you get credit for it. I want to do Liberal Arts as it gives me the opportunity to learn a little bit of everything and go from there. with the options to study this way, I can get a degree in EVERYTHING! LOL (it's the fever talking) I thought I would start with English Comp but apparently that is no more and it has to be one of two new ones and I cant find how to translate what the classes are vs what the school will take. I think I am making it more complicated that it is. I know it has been a long while since St. Petersburg College and the AS in Medical Technology I was taking. I have decided that I am going to start all over. My main goal is to do a degree that has a little of everything and then build from there. Any advice is welcome and thanks for the previous advice and the links as I have been on them all day (having the flu isn't helping with comprehension either i guess but I just don't want to wait LOL) anyway I know it will be Liberal Arts/Science degree and I was leaning towards COSC (if I can figure out how to do the individual studies and make it work) but Excelsior is a close second.

[sanantone]

To be honest, I don't see how Excelsior has any kind of advantage. You can complete a liberal arts or liberal studies degree completely by testing or online courses at all of the Big 3. Of course, Excelsior and TESC require a capstone that has to be taken through them. COSC requires a cornerstone and capstone. Those courses are offered online. Just because a degree plan with 100% testing is not on the wiki, it doesn't mean that it's not possible. A lot of people transfer to the Big 3 after having attended other colleges, so their degree plans will include transfer credits instead of 100% testing.

Just so you know, a degree in liberal arts/studies is very limiting. The Peace Corps is not a lifelong career. You're going to have to eventually leave and find a job. Finding a good paying job with a liberal arts degree is going to be a struggle. COSC's individualized studies program is for those who want to mix applied professional subjects (business, technology, health,etc) with liberal arts subjects (natural science, social science, humanities, etc). The same is true for TESC's Bachelor of Science learner designed area of study program. COSC and TESC's liberal studies programs are for those who only want to mix liberal arts subjects. You can learn more at these links.

Charter Oak State College - Individualized Studies
Charter Oak State College - Liberal Studies
BA in Liberal Studies Degree at Thomas Edison State College
Thomas Edison State College: Learner Designed Area of Study (LDAS)
Bachelors Degrees | BS Liberal Studies | Online Classes - excelsior.edu

Honestly, I don't think you need the individualized studies or learner designed area of study programs.

[mrs.b]

The best starting point is always you. If money, time, and little logistical details were not a factor, what would be the career that would make you happy to get up and go to work every day? You can get a degree in 'a little of everything' but it isn't going to mean much once you get into more stringent job requirements. What we can do is help you identify an end-goal degree based upon your ultimate "I want to be that!" career, then find an intermediate Associates degree, to help you in the immediate future in getting out of a job with an irresponsible employer, from a school that is regionally-accredited so you will not box yourself out from employers that have those restrictions.

That said, because I feel obligated to, I really encourage you to reach out to the WHD of Department of Labor as well as your state's DOL office...and think about that class action suit (only if you file a claim with WHD or state DOL first, for protection). Filing a complaint with DOL protects you from retaliation under Whistleblower regulations. If you are certain you are being shorted, and can obtain some sort of proof of that, you can not only recover your wages, but potentially also those of your coworkers who are just as scared. Does that mean you cannot get fired? No...a truly irresponsible employer can choose to do the wrong thing, but if they do it during or any time after an investigation without overwhelming evidence that you deserved it, they will be in serious trouble and will be required to compensate you in return. You wouldn't let someone repeatedly break into your house and steal food, and that is essentially what your employer is doing. ...And all that said, before I found my career path, I worked some jobs with a similar employer. Have you looked at temporary agencies to request temp-to-hire options? That's actually how I got in with my current employer and eventual position. More and more, employers are putting entry-level positions that lead into good career paths out there to try out candidates. It could be a solution to solve your short-term junky job problem, maybe get you a better wage, and also either lead you into something you can see yourself doing that you had not thought of, or let you get a good picture of different career paths to test the waters and find a direction.

P.S. If you do consider reaching out to DOL, one of other tidbit to help them sweat your employer is check their mandatory postings, and snap a quick photo on your phone of any that are out of date to provide. Not only must they have all the mandatory postings, but they must be in the correct year. Check here for the correct postings and update points. It is one of the more common violations, and if your employer is being irresponsible in wages, they're likely missing the easy-to-overlook compliance spots. Likewise, do you work with chemicals? Your employer must have MSDS sheets on every potentially dangerous chemical you may come in contact with; if they do not, or they do not have updated MSDS on every chemical, it is a violation OSHA can and will nail them on...and you can make that complaint anonymously to further sweat them. A few anonymous complaints, if you're scared to bring direct attention, will bring unwanted government attention that should be enough to make them snap to, or incur obscene fines. Responsible employers sweat OSHA, WHD, or OFCCP (all branches of DOL) visits...and when one group finds too many faults, they often alert their counterparts to take a look. Irresponsible employers are in for inspections and record reviews that would make them wish for the fiery inferno to claim them. Most think employers are the only ones that hold cards to make others' life miserable, but employees have so many tools at their disposal that most do not use. DOL hired a bunch of inspectors last year that are looking for things to do...

[faithlyric]

See that was what I was wondering about... So many plans I look at seem to be people in the military and going to all types of schools and that is not my case. I will join Instantcert as soon as I get paid on Friday. I did go on and add all of the study sources you have on your signature in a folder and plan to look at them tonight and I will look at the links you put tonight as well. Thank you for your input. It is invaluable to me. This is important to me. BTW, I did take my first FEMA course tonight and finished it, so thanks!! I love different cultures and they had one about helping people on the reservations after a disaster. I was kinda browsing earlier at the Bachelor’s Degree in Humanities (Cultural Studies) If I could take that online, that would be my choice right there. You said that I would need a job if I came back....What would your opinion be on what to pare with my interest in volunteering and wanting to help people. Teaching isn't an option thru this avenue and apparently neither is Nursing ( I was a CNA/HHA before running off volunteering for around 4 years and now becoming Technical Support for a phone company).

[mrs.b]

What would your opinion be on what to pare with my interest in volunteering and wanting to help people. Teaching isn't an option thru this avenue and apparently neither is Nursing ( I was a CNA/HHA before running off volunteering for around 4 years and now becoming Technical Support for a phone company).

Work at a non-profit?