Help planning Criminal Justice degree

[dfrecore]

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.

If you just wanted a BALS, then one of the Big 3 would be a good option with your military pricing (COSC is $1750 for 6cr there; TESU is $2700 for 6cr + 6 TECEP's; EC is $4400 for 16cr there).

But unfortunately, none of the Big 3 has a good CJ degree where it's easy to find the UL credits you need.  Even TESU, which is normally the easiest, is not - because there are just no UL CJ alt-credit options.

[rachel83az]

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.

I think you might have to take one or two Sophia courses that have Touchstones for a UMPI degree. What you could do is start working on those. While waiting for grading on any Touchstones, head on over to Study.com and do Biology 101L and/or over to InstantCert to do Spanish I.

[evanmonast]

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.

I think you might have to take one or two Sophia courses that have Touchstones for a UMPI degree. What you could do is start working on those. While waiting for grading on any Touchstones, head on over to Study.com and do Biology 101L and/or over to InstantCert to do Spanish I.

As far as I've seen I won't need to unless I'm way off the rails here. With my 37 credits from CCRI I will be bringing over 47 from Sophia all from courses that don't have touchstones but do apply to the Gen Ed requirements (Minimum of 40 Gen Ed credits required(I'm sure you know this)). 

The only Gen Ed categories I couldn't satisfy with Sophia are the Biology and Spanish courses you mentioned along with English Composition II which I've read is just easier to take at UMPI rather than Sophia. I should then just have 12 other remaining courses (13 if I do English Composition) at UMPI one of them being the University Experience course which I'd guess isn't too challenging. 

Again, maybe I'm way off here I literally have no idea what I'm talking about it took me like an hour of stressing out trying to figure out the difference between General Electives v. General Education

[rachel83az]

While you don't HAVE to take Ancient Greek Philosophers in order to take Ethics at Sophia, it is recommended because Sophia's Ethics is more of a philosophical course than an outright ethics course. If you managed to finish Ethics already, congratulations! It's not easy without Greek Philosophers. Otherwise, it does look like you're right. I thought that there was one more, but apparently not.

But, if you're looking for things to do, you might want to consider "Taking Charge of Your Economic Future"; each of the Touchstones take 15-20 minutes to complete and there is a lot of good info in the course itself. Similar with Communication at Work: you write the equivalent of an email as your Touchstone. Either you already know everything in these courses, and they're easy, or you learn new information. They won't necessarily help with your UMPI degree, but they won't hurt either. Especially if you've still got time on your Sophia subscription!

[bjcheung77]

If you just wanted a BALS, then one of the Big 3 would be a good option with your military pricing (COSC is $1750 for 6cr there; TESU is $2700 for 6cr + 6 TECEP's; EC is $4400 for 16cr there).

But unfortunately, none of the Big 3 has a good CJ degree where it's easy to find the UL credits you need.  Even TESU, which is normally the easiest, is not - because there are just no UL CJ alt-credit options.

This is how I see it too, you may not even need a CJ degree, a BAS or BLS at UMPI with a minor of your choice might work... Another option is for a BALS Social Science concentration at TESU because of military tuition, once you get your Bachelors for such an inexpensive cost, you'll have more energy/time to finish with a Masters in CJ at Walden!  

Basically, Pierpont BOG AAS, TESU or UMPI Bachelors, finish off with a Walden Tempo Learning Masters in CJ.
My advice is similar to what I mentioned in this thread: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid353500
Here's a new post in regards to Reserve Aid/Tuition: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...tance-Info

[evanmonast]

While you don't HAVE to take Ancient Greek Philosophers in order to take Ethics at Sophia, it is recommended because Sophia's Ethics is more of a philosophical course than an outright ethics course. If you managed to finish Ethics already, congratulations! It's not easy without Greek Philosophers. Otherwise, it does look like you're right. I thought that there was one more, but apparently not.

But, if you're looking for things to do, you might want to consider "Taking Charge of Your Economic Future"; each of the Touchstones take 15-20 minutes to complete and there is a lot of good info in the course itself. Similar with Communication at Work: you write the equivalent of an email as your Touchstone. Either you already know everything in these courses, and they're easy, or you learn new information. They won't necessarily help with your UMPI degree, but they won't hurt either. Especially if you've still got time on your Sophia subscription!

You were right, I ran into two touchstones for Intro to Sociology which I definitely need. Can't believe I missed that.

[rachel83az]

You were right, I ran into two touchstones for Intro to Sociology which I definitely need. Can't believe I missed that.

Probably because the Sophia equivalency page on the wiki only had the old Sociology class listed, not this new one. I can't see the new course on my Sophia account, so I hope I got it right now. Does the number of Milestones & Challenges mesh with what you see? https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...al_Science

[evanmonast]

You were right, I ran into two touchstones for Intro to Sociology which I definitely need. Can't believe I missed that.

Probably because the Sophia equivalency page on the wiki only had the old Sociology class listed, not this new one. I can't see the new course on my Sophia account, so I hope I got it right now. Does the number of Milestones & Challenges mesh with what you see? https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...al_Science

Only 4 milestones including the final milestone but other than that you got it