Hello!
It's been a busy 3 months. I expect the next 5 to be even busier.
Here's the link to my current degree plan. I really hope I can make it for the December graduation before 2023 wraps up, but my gut tells me that I'm gonna have to make some cuts somewhere. Refer to the different tabs to see my plans for my other degree(s) as well as past iterations of my degree plan.
I'd say things have changed significantly since March. In addition to a BACS, I'm now pursuing an ASNSM in Math and (it's sort of on thin ice at the moment, but perhaps) an AAS in CJ. I feel solid about the majority of my classes. I'll elaborate on some of the more interesting/tricky developments though in a loosely-organized order. Thoughts or tips on any of them would be much appreciated.
Some general things
I've amassed 79cr in total, and I have 31cr left for CS, 6cr left for Math, and 21cr left for CJ.
My family and I are going on vacation for 3 weeks during July, so I won't be focusing as much on earning credits during then. At most, I was thinking of just watching a few SDC videos and doing some quizzes whenever I have time to relax. Just things that don't take up too much mental RAM.
Study.com is going pretty okay. I've finished 2 classes and am on my 3rd one now. Intro to Operating Systems was a good way to acclimate into what I'm in for when it comes to SDC's CS courses I think. I'm doing Discrete Math now. I've seen someone here rank Discrete Math as second only to Computer Architecture in difficulty. With flashcards, I feel pretty confident that I can do the rest of them now.
I was planning on doing Software Engineering at TESU, but the course isn't available during the August 2023 term which is when I plan on doing my 16cr term. Instead, I'll be going for the course through Saylor. I've heard it's a little tough. Perhaps I'll save Saylor SWE for when I've finished all my SDC CS courses + SDC's own SWE course too.
AAS in CJ dilemma
Troubles with courses
Intro to Corrections has me in a real tough bind. There are no easily accessible sources of ACE/NCCRS credit for this class. TESU isn't offering this class during the August 2023 term either. I'd finish the recommended Waubonsee class too late since the only offering will finish in December. According to
California Virtual Campus, my local/in-state community colleges, too, are only offering classes that finish in December. There are a handful of classes I could do over the summer at other colleges, but a lot I've seen are too pricey for me (e.g.,
Seminole State College). For those that aren't as expensive (e.g.,
College of Dupage), I fear I may not make it since the class has already started.
Sterling College Online looks like the best option for Corrections since,
based on the past few years, it's ~7 weeks + concurrent with/in the middle of TESU's August 2023 term. However, considering Sterling's fees for at least the application, the tuition, and a transcript, it'll cost me about ~$501 in total. I don't know if that's all of the fees that are applicable. This class is the main thing making me question whether or not an AAS in CJ is worth it for me.
I was thinking I could perhaps reason with an academic adviser that one of my past AOJ classes could fulfill the requirement for a corrections class. However, those classes really boil down to an introductory class, a constitutional law class, and an evidence class.
Juvenile Delinquency is also troubling. TESU isn't offering it during the August 2023 term either. I was thinking of just doing SDC's American Juvenile Justice System class instead. I know this class fulfills the requirement for BACJ, but for an AAS in CJ, would this fulfill the requirement too?
Some backstory (perhaps skippable)
Activate Doofenshmirtz mode.
My initial thought process for considering these associate's degrees at all was because I have the time and personal discipline to handle the extra classes, and I might as well too since I thought it was just an extra few hundred dollars. The math degree will actually cost me no money at all to go for. It's just a CLEP and adding in a TESU math class (as opposed to one that's recommended by the TESU GE guide) in place of the unavailable SWE class. For this CJ degree though, it'll cost me a little under $1 thousand + a month of time that I perhaps don't have.
I'm open to dropping the AAS in CJ. To be honest, after my initial reasoning broke down after realizing how much it's gonna cost to go after, I still endeavored to make a plan for it as a sort of subconscious attempt to salvage the 10 months I spent planning for it prior to finding out about degree hacking. Sunk cost fallacy, yes, I'm aware ahah. I spent a lot of my time from April 2022 all the way to February 2023 researching a ton about it and even spent a semester of my time doing 3 classroom-based courses when I could've been degree hacking. It wasn't all in vain though. Among other things, I really did learn a lot about the process and things in general that inform a lot of the decisions around this current degree plan. So that was good.
Perhaps dropping CJ could also open up opportunities for future me if I ever want or need to get another bachelor's + associate's combo. As of now, I can't really guess what I'd get though after taking a glance at TESU's other offerings. I could get a business degree that looks good, but practically all hackable schools offer that too. Since TESU especially has more variety in their offerings than others, perhaps I'll save it for if I ever need a relatively more niche degree among hackable schools like math or biology or something. It'll just be another graduation fee and ~24 new credits somehow. I think I'd be able to manage that.
Other questions and whatnot
I was wondering about the possibility of student loans too. (I'm fully ready to use my ~$6,000 budget + Pell Grant funds too.) Can I get student loans for the TESU flat-rate tuition fee? Could Sterling's also offer me some student loans? Other than Pell Grant funds, student loans and perhaps a little bit of EFC (expected family contribution), are there any other sources of financial aid that I haven't considered?
Right now, I have about 13 RA credits, and I'm gonna be doing a 16cr term. That leaves 1cr left for the RA requirement. I was thinking of doing the Medical Terminology TECEP, but then I started considering more seriously doing the AAS in CJ. This is because I could fulfill the RA requirement with the Corrections class at Sterling instead. However, as I've mentioned, I'm still trying to figure out whether or not I should do this.
Also, it's not that personally related, but before I decided on just doing CLEP College Mathematics instead of Sophia/SDC for my missing ASNSM requirements, I found out Sophia Precalculus can indeed transfer into TESU as MAT-1290: Precalculus! Time to do away with all of those anxiety-inducing "unconfirmed" and "unverified" warnings on the Wiki regarding this class; I've finally made a contribution to Degree Forum lol. Jokes aside, I should also say that I didn't actually do the class. I just emailed Academic Advising about whether or not it'd transfer in as a math elective. I didn't ask if it transferred in as MAT-1290 since I don't need precalc specifically. (I think it's biology majors who do need precalc.) The person who got back to me said that it would indeed transfer in as a math elective and even planned it on my Academic Evaluation which I didn't ask for. Pretty neat to know that it'd transfer in as MAT-1290 now though.
How often should I be turning in my transcripts? By when should I be done w/ all my ACE/NCCRS classes so that TESU will process them all in time for me to make it for December 2023 graduation?
In total, I'll be graduating with 32 RA credits (or 30 if I drop the AAS in CJ) and 16 residency credits. However, I was trying to clarify whether or not an extra degree or two would increase the RA/residency requirements in any way. From my understanding after my most recent thread, it sounds like it will not, and I will indeed be able to carry out all my plans successfully if I graduate all at once.
Wrapping up
After I graduate, I hope to continue to a master's program as well. I'm still thinking about it, but perhaps I'll study theology and/or pastoral studies with a focus in apologetics. I was thinking perhaps an extra degree (i.e. my AAS in CJ) would help enhance my chances in getting accepted into such a program even though it looks like I'm mainly specialized in hard sciences. Theology and suchlike are more in the category of humanities though, not social sciences like CJ. I have a very minimal understanding of graduate schools and graduate studies too though. Perhaps I'm thinking about graduate school all wrong.
That's about everything. If I think of anything else, I'll make another post in this thread. Thank you to everyone who's helped me so far. I'll hope to bring glad tidings of my graduation and express even more thanks when 2023 comes to a close.
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- Good luck! I'm sure you can find some flashcards online
so I'm fine now with doing my classes during September 2023 or later). I was also considering doing a 1cr class with TEL Learning, but I'm not sure.
