Degree & School Help -

[michaelb82]

@michaelb82, could you be more specific in the number of hours you may have per day to invest in your education? I think this is critical as you have a job and kids.  It'll really sway your decision to stay with TESU or UMPI depending on the flexibility you have with commitments.  I am leaning towards TESU, unless you really have a set number of hours dedicated to plow through UMPI courses in two or three sessions.

During the week could put in 1-2 hours weekday nights.  On the weekends we don’t do much so could put in 5-10 hours per day.  20 hours on the weekend might be way too much though - here and there prob okay.

[rachel83az]

If you want to know exactly where your classes fall at TESU and UMPI, the only real way to do that is to apply and send in your transcripts.

With UMPI, you can defer enrollment to a later session, if needed, to allow you to bring in more classes from Sophia. You will, at the very least, need to complete your science at Sophia. You need a biology class and a physical science class - one of which needs to have a lab. So you've got a couple of different options depending on whether you'd rather do the Human Biology lab or the Chemistry lab.

I would suspect that you are probably closer to finishing a TESU degree in Finance, though it might cost you a bit more to do so.

If you can write academic papers quickly, UMPI will likely be the easiest and cheapest. Even if they accept fewer of your current credits, you can fill out the GEC requirements with Sophia and wind up with 30-42 credits remaining. This takes most students 2-4 sessions to complete ($2800-$5600). But you'd have to pick something besides Finance.

If you'd prefer to do exams instead of papers, TESU would be the way to go. You have plenty of RA credits, so you can fill out whatever you need from Sophia, Study.com, or Davar Academy.

[bjcheung77]

During the week could put in 1-2 hours weekday nights.  On the weekends we don’t do much so could put in 5-10 hours per day.  20 hours on the weekend might be way too much though - here and there prob okay.

I would apply to both TESU & UMPI, plus also add Excelsior to the mix for flexibility & max transfer of credits. You can take NCCRS credits for Excelsior/TESU and can transfer in 113/114 credits into their degree offerings. If you need a 'quicker' degree, the BSLA from Excelsior is an option or the UMPI BLS with a minor will do as well.

[rachel83az]

I wouldn't suggest Excelsior at all. Liberal Studies isn't what michaelb82 wants and Excelsior is really weird about their Business degrees. Plus, each transcript evaluation after the first one costs $300 now. Unless you hit all requirements perfectly the first time, which is rare, you're looking at hundreds of dollars down the drain just to evaluation fees. That would quickly make it cost more than TESU and TESU does have a BSBA Finance.

[bjcheung77]

Post#5 says it differently and that's the reason I recommend all three, for the price of transcripts (it's free to apply at Excelsior and UMPI), having a better picture of which institution is 'more suitable' for the student seems like a good deal. An Excelsior BSLA fits fine with the points in that post...

1) Was looking at Bachelor’s Business/Finance as my role won’t ever change
2) requires a Bachelor’s Degree - any discipline
3) I don’t need to get a Bachelor’s but I figure if it’s something that can be done quickly than I’ll take on that challenge

[dfrecore]

I wouldn't suggest Excelsior at all. Liberal Studies isn't what michaelb82 wants and Excelsior is really weird about their Business degrees. Plus, each transcript evaluation after the first one costs $300 now. Unless you hit all requirements perfectly the first time, which is rare, you're looking at hundreds of dollars down the drain just to evaluation fees. That would quickly make it cost more than TESU and TESU does have a BSBA Finance.

I'm going to agree about EU's BSL degree, I wouldn't get that.  BUT, their business degree is fine, there's nothing "weird" about that, and even if you need a second eval for $300, it's still going to be cheaper than TESU.  TESU is $6,846 for a bachelor's (or $4,778 for FT/FR), while EU is $4,031 (so $4,331 for a 2nd eval).  The thing I would do if I were to go to EU would be to plan really well, take all of the courses I knew I needed, and then apply and transfer everything up front - because it's unclear to me how those police academy transfer credits will come in at any of the 3 schools we're discussing.  I also don't know how the FINRA will apply either.

I might call EU and try to see if I can get more info up front about those credits.

[bjcheung77]

@michaelb82, you decide for yourself, get a spreadsheet and compare degrees/schools, find one that suits you most. If it's a Business or Liberal Studies degree, you'll know what you need to complete the degree and costs/courses involved. You should spend some downtime during your weekends to decide, you can continue on your path by getting the 60-90 credits that can transfer to the three schools, Excelsior, TESU, UMPI. Sometimes it's hard to decide, don't rush yourself, go at your pace...