Son with AAS needs Bachelor's

[Ashlyn]

My son has an AAS IT degree (web dev) but is working a job he enjoys in an unrelated field. He needs a bachelor's degree--really any bachelor's degree--to increase his chances of being able to continue working in that field. He's interested in psychology and history. He's totally uninterested in IT and business, but he's open to any route if it's significantly quicker/easier/cheaper than others. He may use the bachelor's to teach K-12 in NC via a residency teaching license in the future, so regional accreditation is a must. 

I know most of these AAS courses are nontransferable to other programs, but here are all of his. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Your Location: NC, US
Current Regional Accredited Credits: not sure? Both of his past schools were regionally accredited

Richmond Community College Total Credits:10 (I don't have these grades, but all were C and above)
Class Name, Credits, Grade
ACA-122*A College Transfer Success, 1
ENG-111*A Expository Writing, 3
MAT-143*U Quantitative Literacy, 3
PSY-150*U General Psychology, 3

Guilford Technical Community College Total Credits:56
CIS-115*A Intro to Programming & Logic, 3, B
COM-231*U Public Speaking, 3, B
HUM-130*A Myth in Human Culture, 3, B
CIS-110*A Intro to Computers, 3, B
CTS-115*A Info Sys Business Concepts, 3, A
----------------------------
CTI-110 Web, Pgm, & Db Foundation, 3, B
CTI-120 Network & Sec Foundation, 3, A
CTI-130 OS and Device Foundation, 6, B
WEB-115 Web Markup and Scripting, 3, C
WEB-120 Intro to Internet Multimedia, 3, B
WEB-210 Web Design, 3, A
WEB-213 Internet Mkt & Analytics, 3, B
WEB-225 Content Management Sys, 3, A
WEB-250 Database Driven Websites, 3, B
WEB-125 Mobile Web Design, 3, C
WEB-182 PHP Programming, 3, A
WEB-214 Social Media, 3, B
WEB-287 Web E-Portfolio, 2, A

*U are Universal General Education Transfer Component courses
*A are CAA courses

[rachel83az]

History at UMPI: https://umpi.edu/yourpace

He'd need 6 credits of foreign language (he can get these through Study.com with Spanish 101 & Spanish 102) and a science-with-a-lab (Biology 101L also at Study.com). If he speaks another language (relatively) fluently, an ACTFL exam would be a faster/easier/cheaper way to get 6 foreign language credits. He could finish off the rest of his GEC (gen ed) requirements at Sophia.org.

Unless he goes for a business or IT degree, most of those courses he's already taken are going to wind up unused for a Bachelor's degree. But UMPI has a "hidden" BAS program that is only available to students who already hold an AAS: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ers-vs-BLS He could go for that, possibly with an Educational Studies minor, and that would have more elective slots to put his courses. But I'm not 100% sure how that works out.

If he really enjoys history, getting a history degree wouldn't take that much extra time/effort when compared to a BAS (IMO), so it's down to which program he's more interested in.

[dfrecore]

COSC's BS in Individualized Studies is a good option for that: he can get a concentration in History/Psych, he already has 30cr of RA, and there's plenty of space for the credits if he opts for a BS instead of a BA. All the UL can come from Study.com, and there are 3 UL History and 5 UL Psych courses there.

This is a very cheap option, and easy to get.

[Ashlyn]

Unless he goes for a business or IT degree, most of those courses he's already taken are going to wind up unused for a Bachelor's degree. But UMPI has a "hidden" BAS program that is only available to students who already hold an AAS: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ers-vs-BLS  He could go for that, possibly with an Educational Studies minor, and that would have more elective slots to put his courses. But I'm not 100% sure how that works out. 

Thanks for the reply and the info! I think he'd be interested in the BAS with a minor in either Educational Studies or another subject he's interested in.

Questions:

• The BAS degree isn't listed as an option for YourPace. The linked thread says it's not an automatic approval to do the BAS degree via YourPace. Would my son still be able to finish the BAS online if he wasn't approved to do it via YourPace, and how much extra time and $ would that cost? I don't quite understand if YourPace is the only way to get an online UMPI degree, and I don't want my son to waste time earning transfer credits if he might not be approved to do the BAS, after all, since transfer credits have to be done before even applying, right?
  
• Is there a go-to guide for course equivalencies between UMPI and Study.com and Sophia.org? I see different threads about this, but some are from 2020, and I just want to make sure I'm looking at the most updated resource
  

[rachel83az]

It's not automatic, but that's because most students aren't transferring in with an AAS. I don't have any direct experience, but it seems like the YourPace people are pretty chill about the whole thing. So long as you're transferring in a legit AAS (and not one from, say, an unaccredited school), approval should be almost automatic. If, for some reason, he's not approved for the BAS, he can just do a BLS and that won't take that much more time/money than the BAS. Time spent on a degree is always highly subjective anyway. One person may be able to complete a BAS in 6 months or a BLS in 4 months, vs. a second person who would be able to complete a BAS in 4 months or a BLS in 6 months.

YourPace is the only way to get a UMPI degree quickly and cheaply. Traditional students can still get a regular UMPI degree on campus, but that costs significantly more (in the tens of thousands) and takes a lot longer to do (years vs. months). At that point, mature students might as well get a degree from a different school instead.

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List As far as I'm aware, UMPI hasn't made any changes to how different Sophia courses meet the different GEC requirements. I think it's only the electives and/or core courses that have had an update, if any. The biggest things to remember is to not take Project Management or English Comp at Sophia if you're going to UMPI. UMPI's English Comp is easier and the Project Management course that Sophia's course replaces has a final project that is needed to complete a couple UL Project Management courses.

[bjcheung77]

UMPI BAS (with a minor you select from YourPace offerings). If you take two terms at UMPI, that's $2800 at $1400/term, plus let's say $79/month x 3 for Sophia.org and $200/month for Study.com...  You need 30 residency credits, the rest can all be ACE courses or CLEP pass/fail exams and the bulk would be the ACE credits available from Sophia.org!   For the UMPI BAS (this is a non CBE program but you can use courses in the YourPace CBE to complete the program).  Link: https://www.umpi.edu/files/academics/pro...ce_BAS.pdf 

UMPI 2 Terms: $2800
Sophia.org 3 months: $237
Study.com 1 month: $200
2 Term Subtotal: $3237

UMPI 3 Terms: $4200
Sophia.org 3 months: $237
Study.com 1 month: $200
3 Term Subtotal: $4637

An option is going for Excelsior as they just require 7 credits (Info lit, cornerstone & capstone), you can use alternative credit for the remainder of 113.  Excelsior is $410/credit X 7 = $2870.  There are extra fees such as grad, etc.  Should come up to roughly $4K, plus extra courses fees from Sophia.org, Davar, Study.com, Onlinedegree.com, Saylor.org, CLEP/MS, whatever else you want to use to save on cash, energy, time.  Total can be roughly $5K all in... depending on which providers you use to get the 90+ alternative credits.

Finally, another option, TESU... if you take 16 credits residency, it'll be $4639.  You can take the corner/capstone, PLA 100, plus 3 easy epacks.  Then take any cheap RA credits to hit 30-31 total.  The rest can come from ACE/NCCRS credits with the same examples listed above for Excelsior.  Total can add up to roughly $5K... depending on which providers you use to get the 90+ alternative credits.

Note: UMPI does not take NCCRS, Excelsior and TESU does.  UMPI is Competency based and you pay by term, the faster the cheaper, as mentioned, if you do 3 terms at UMPI, you're golden, anything longer, you're better off at Excelsior/TESU.  You can "pace yourself" with Excelsior/TESU, they have a set schedule for the term.  TESU only requires 18 UL for BA, 15 for BSBA.