Help planning Criminal Justice degree

[evanmonast]

Once upon a time a young and dumb version of me decided to not take college seriously because I had dreams of being in the military and didn't find it important. I took a few classes here and there at my local CC but nothing ever came of it. 

I figure my best option is to continue my criminal justice path due to transfer credits but I genuinely have no idea. I really need to get my associates as soon as possible as well as my bachelors down the road. The type of degree really does not matter.

I have heard of Pierpont and their free Board of Governors degree but I'm not too advanced when it comes to this college stuff so I have no clue what classes on Sophia I should be taking. 

I apologize if this thread is formatted badly I am brand new to this site and will learn. Thank you in advance to anybody who is willing to help!

Anyway, here's my rundown

Location: Rhode Island, USA
Age: 22
Degree: Criminal Justice (Unless suggested otherwise)
Current Regional Accreditation: 

Community College of Rhode Island, 37 Credits

Readings in the short story, 3, C
Intro to Law Enforcement, 3 A-
Criminal Law, 3, B
Criminal Procedure, 3, A-
Constitutional Law, 3 B+
Law and Society, 3, B
Criminology, 3, C
Composition I, 3, B+
History of the US from 1877, 3, C+
Into to Theatre, 3, B
Criminalistics I, 3, P (passing, had to leave semester early for military)
General Psychology, 3, A- 

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:

Sophia.org total credits = 3
Intro to Psychology 3 

Any certifications or military experience?

I have military experience and saw that Purdue Global would give me something like 15 credits for it but I have heard many negative things about the School.

[rachel83az]

For Pierpont: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC

I see only one class of Communications credits, so you'll want to take either Communication at Work and Visual Communication. Readings in the short story might work, but the Sophia courses are pretty quick and easy to take just in case. For Science/Math, I would suggest Algebra and either Human Biology or Environmental Science. You have the Social Sciences covered with Psych and US History. Take Intro to IT for the Computer Lit requirement. The remaining 60 credits can be your choice as you fill out requirements for a Bachelor's in CJ. Do NOT take either English Comp! If a CJ emphasis is available, you definitely have sufficient credits for such a degree.

For Criminal Justice, we are currently recommending UMPI: https://online.umpi.edu/programs/ UMPI accepts 90 transfer credits towards a degree. Most of your UL credits have to be taken at UMPI. For UMPI, you will need 3 credits in a foreign language. If you are fluent in a language, take an ACTFL exam. Otherwise, InstantCert's Spanish I is a good way to meet the requirement. You'll also need a science-with-a-lab. We recommend Study.com's Biology 101L for this. Other gen ed (GEC) requirements can be met through Sophia.

[evanmonast]

For Pierpont: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC

I see only one class of Communications credits, so you'll want to take either Communication at Work and Visual Communication. Readings in the short story might work, but the Sophia courses are pretty quick and easy to take just in case. For Science/Math, I would suggest Algebra and either Human Biology or Environmental Science. You have the Social Sciences covered with Psych and US History. Take Intro to IT for the Computer Lit requirement. The remaining 60 credits can be your choice as you fill out requirements for a Bachelor's in CJ. Do NOT take either English Comp! If a CJ emphasis is available, you definitely have sufficient credits for such a degree.

For Criminal Justice, we are currently recommending UMPI: https://online.umpi.edu/programs/ UMPI accepts 90 transfer credits towards a degree. Most of your UL credits have to be taken at UMPI. For UMPI, you will need 3 credits in a foreign language. If you are fluent in a language, take an ACTFL exam. Otherwise, InstantCert's Spanish I is a good way to meet the requirement. You'll also need a science-with-a-lab. We recommend Study.com's Biology 101L for this. Other gen ed (GEC) requirements can be met through Sophia.

I should complete the Sophia courses before applying to Pierpont obviously right? Assuming they accept all 37 RA credits I would need 23 more from Sophia.

Say I take both Communication at Work and Visual Communication to cover the Communications requirement that leaves 17 more credits required.

Taking College Algebra and Intro to Biology checks off the Math/Science requirement and leaves 11 credits left.

Assuming Pierpont accepts my Community College Psychology as well as my Sophia.org Psychology one of them would be taken as an elective leaving 8 credits remaining. 

I would then take the Intro to IT and be left with 5 remaining credits. 

Basically what you're telling me is that I could hop back onto sophia.org and bang out 7 more courses and be done with my associates degree? I'm pretty sure I can do that in a single weekend.. This seems too good to be true haha.

[bjcheung77]

@evanmonast - It's not too good to be true! For the cost of transcripts and a month of Sophia.org courses, in addition to what you currently bring to the table, that's all it is for the Pierpont BOG AAS degree... I also recommend laddering up to a UMPI BA CJ degree, I suggest completing a max of 90 credit transfer into the program if it allows... mainly using Sophia.org at $79/month all you can take courses, two at a time...

[rachel83az]

I would apply to Pierpont now. It can take them a while to get everything sorted and for your college transcript to be properly entered into the system. Especially with the holidays. By the time you get the "welcome letter" with your account information, you'll probably be done with Sophia and can send that in. If you can really do all of these courses in a weekend, you may well be able to finish everything before you even have access to your Pierpont account!

[evanmonast]

@evanmonast - It's not too good to be true!  For the cost of transcripts and a month of Sophia.org courses, in addition to what you currently bring to the table, that's all it is for the Pierpont BOG AAS degree... I also recommend laddering up to a UMPI BA CJ degree, I suggest completing a max of 90 credit transfer into the program if it allows... mainly using Sophia.org at $79/month all you can take courses, two at a time...

Wow. Going to CCRI has been such a painful process over the years because it's hard to commit time to in-person classes while in the military.. It took me like an hour and a half to finish Sophia's psychology course. I think I could bang out 17 more on Sophia in no time. 

If I were to take 7 more courses using sophia I would technically be done with my associates but how would it work with UMPI? I would have to apply to pierpont and transfer all those credits but then I would have to wait until the summer to graduate. Does that mean I would have to wait until after graduation to transfer those credits to UMPI?

---

I would apply to Pierpont now. It can take them a while to get everything sorted and for your college transcript to be properly entered into the system. Especially with the holidays. By the time you get the "welcome letter" with your account information, you'll probably be done with Sophia and can send that in. If you can really do all of these courses in a weekend, you may well be able to finish everything before you even have access to your Pierpont account!

So if I were to apply to Pierpont right now and finish my remaining 7 courses would I be stuck waiting for the summer graduation at Pierpont before I can transfer anything to UMPI? I'm just wondering if it would be worth it to just forget about Pierpont and go straight to UMPI so I would be able to start my 30 credits at UMPI as soon as I'm done with sophia.

[rachel83az]

Since you'd be going for the BA Criminal Justice, no. You don't have to wait. You'd only have to wait for graduation if you wanted to get a BAS instead of a BLS. I would get Pierpont going, then work on the UMPI requirements. I don't think you'll quite make the deadline for this session's application, but you can apply for the next session in 2 months. Don't apply to UMPI before you have all of your credits done because you need permission to bring in additional credits after you apply and get approved.

Also, bear in mind that some of the recommended Sophia courses have essays something similar to complete, in addition to the regular quizzes/tests. These things can take some time to grade and wind up using up a course slot while you wait for grading to finish. Check out https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List to see which courses have these Touchstones and which do not. It's a good idea to only take one course with Touchstones at a time. Use the time waiting for these things to be returned to do another course that doesn't have Touchstones.

[evanmonast]

Since you'd be going for the BA Criminal Justice, no. You don't have to wait. You'd only have to wait for graduation if you wanted to get a BAS instead of a BLS. I would get Pierpont going, then work on the UMPI requirements. I don't think you'll quite make the deadline for this session's application, but you can apply for the next session in 2 months. Don't apply to UMPI before you have all of your credits done because you need permission to bring in additional credits after you apply and get approved.

Also, bear in mind that some of the recommended Sophia courses have essays something similar to complete, in addition to the regular quizzes/tests. These things can take some time to grade and wind up using up a course slot while you wait for grading to finish. Check out https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List to see which courses have these Touchstones and which do not. It's a good idea to only take one course with Touchstones at a time. Use the time waiting for these things to be returned to do another course that doesn't have Touchstones.

I will absolutely check it out. Finish these 7 courses, apply to Pierpont, finish the rest of the 50 credits and then apply to UMPI. Got it. You guys are the best. Thank you so much.

[bjcheung77]

Depending on your situation, if you're still active in the military, I would also suggest you look into COSC, Excelsior, and especially TESU for degree options as well, you can transfer in up to 113/114 credits to these institutions, and you get tuition discounts!  You need to ask yourself, is Criminal Justice your calling? Have you looked at other industries such as Business, IT, Psychology, etc?  Are you just looking for a check the box Associates and Bachelors?  

Do you have other commitments that may take your time from your studies?  How many hours a day can you dedicate to studies? Do you have a budget, financial aid, tuition assistance? In any case, you should invest in a second monitor for multi-tasking, review this link for courses that transfer from Sophia.org to these respective institutions, take the ones without any "written assignments first". Link: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List

Do you have any interests in other subjects such as business, computers, IT, History, Psychology or something?  When going for the Pierpont BOG AAS, I would advise in a different emphasis other than Criminal Justice if you have time to take other self paced courses.  For example, you can take the Google IT Professional Cert for 12 credits and the Sophia.org Intro to IT for 3, it will give you the Pierpont BOG AAS with an emphasis in IT.   The Cert can be done in a month for $49, 12 credits!

[evanmonast]

Depending on your situation, if you're still active in the military, I would also suggest you look into COSC, Excelsior, and especially TESU for degree options as well, you can transfer in up to 113/114 credits to these institutions, and you get tuition discounts!  You need to ask yourself, is Criminal Justice your calling? Have you looked at other industries such as Business, IT, Psychology, etc?  Are you just looking for a check the box Associates and Bachelors?  

Do you have other commitments that may take your time from your studies?  How many hours a day can you dedicate to studies? Do you have a budget, financial aid, tuition assistance? In any case, you should invest in a second monitor for multi-tasking, review this link for courses that transfer from Sophia.org to these respective institutions, take the ones without any "written assignments first". Link: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List

Do you have any interests in other subjects such as business, computers, IT, History, Psychology or something?  When going for the Pierpont BOG AAS, I would advise in a different emphasis other than Criminal Justice if you have time to take other self paced courses.  For example, you can take the Google IT Professional Cert for 12 credits and the Sophia.org Intro to IT for 3, it will give you the Pierpont BOG AAS with an emphasis in IT.   The Cert can be done in a month for $49, 12 credits!

I'm just a reservist so I have plenty of time now. Since my original post I have completed another 20 credits on Sophia.org to round out my 60 (made sure they met the BOG requirement for Pierpont) and I'm just kind of waiting around for them to accept me and send me the letter in the mail with my student login information. Until then I don't know what my options are except just keep going with Sophia until I get my associates so I have more credits to transfer over. 

Do you recommend COSC, Exelsior and TESU over UMPI for any reason other than they will accept more credits upon transfer? I will have no problem meeting the UMPI 90 credit limit without having to take any Sophia courses that require touchstones. I would only have 10 classes left at UMPI but if I only have to take 5 at another university it's certainly something I would consider.

Also, I do already have a two monitor setup and it's literally the only reason I haven't given up haha.