Need help!

[HOSSNPEPPER]

Your Location: New York, United States
Your Age: 32
What kind of degree do you want?: Any Bachelors, open to suggestions. 

Current Regional Accredited Credits:

Morrisville State College Total Credits: 3

MA 1XX1 Intermediate Algebra w Trig  3  A

Mohawk Valley Community College Total Credits: 122

BI101General Biology 1 T  (AP Bio)
MT240 Auto CAD  3  A
EN110 Oral&Writn Communctn  3  A
MT107 Basic Machine Shop 1  3  A
MT170 Oxy-Acetyl Wld Pr  5  A
MT174 Elec Arc Weld Pro  5  B
MT277 Weld Bluprnt&Metl  5  A
EN147 Report Writing  3  B
MT114 Manufacturing Processes  3.5  A
MT270 Weld Pro-Mig&Tig  5  A
MT272 Adv Elec Arc Weld  5  A
MT276 Weld/Or Irn&Blksm  4  A
MT 278 Weldng Insp&QC Test  4  A
ED100 College Seminar  1  A
MA121 Fund Coll Math 1  4  A
MA150 Precalculus  4  B
MT171 Cmptr Appl - Trades  2  B
MT271 Metallurgy-Welder  4  A
MT273 Welding Certification  5  A
PE154 Fitness Center 1  1  B
MT226 Industrial Materials  3.5  A
PE170 First Aid  1  A
PS101 American Natl Govt  3  A
EN 101 English 1:Composition  3  A
IS102 Computer Apps & Concepts 2  3  A
BM101 Survey Economics  3  A
CJ202 Constitutional Law  3  AHI112 Am History 1850-pres  3  A
PS203 State & Local Govt  3  A
PS 300 Ind Std-Pub Poli/Tech Writing  3  ASO 101 Intro Sociology 3 A
EN 102 English 2:Idea&Values Li t 3  A
PY101 Intro General Psychology  3 B
SS218 Methods of Research  3  A
AC 115 Financial Accounting  3  A
PS102 Intro to Public Policy  3  B
CJ106 Ethics in Criminal Justice  3  B
SP101 Elemen Spanish 1  3  A

University at Albany Total Credits: 37

RPAD      140       Intro to Pub Policy               3.00     3.00 A    
RPAD      302       Understand Public Organizatns     3.00     3.00 B+   
RPOS      103       Political Theory                  3.00     3.00 B+      
RPOS      204Y      Selected Problems in Pol Sci      3.00     3.00 A-   
    Course Topic(s): Political Reform
RPOS      331       American Legislatures             3.00     3.00 A-  
UUNI      350       Selected Interdiscip Topics       1.00     1.00 A     
    Course Topic(s): Globalization & Social Thought
AECO      110       Prin Eco I: Microeconomics        3.00     3.00 C    
RPAD      316       Method. Tools for Pub Policy      3.00     3.00 B+       
RPOS      102       Comparative and Intl. Politics    3.00     3.00 B+     
RPOS      332       The Presidency                    3.00     3.00 B+
EAPS      487       Institute in Education            3.00     3.00 A      
RPAD      366       Intl Environmental Policy         3.00     3.00 A      
RPOS      334       Amer Polit Parties & Groups       3.00     3.00 A-      
 

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:

Sophia Total Credits: 4

ECON1001 Macroeconimics 3
CONRES1000 THE ESSENTIALS OF MANAGING CONFLICT 1

Any certifications or military experience? None.

Budget: No budget, I'd like to go the cheapest route possible, but will consider spending more for easy and fast.  

Commitments: Wife and two kids. Self employed business owner, work 60+ hours week.

Dedicated time to study: I have time in the evenings and on the weekends, as long as there are no work emergencies. 

Timeline: Finishing the courses required for a degree as fast as possible would be ideal.  I would like to finish within 6 months. 

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: None.


Current Degrees 

Welding Technology AOS-T
Lib Arts & Sci: Public PolicyAS

[bjcheung77]

@HOSSNPEPPER, Welcome to the board! Wow, congrats on getting so many credits under your belt, with pretty much A & B grades... did you get two Associates? Was one of them an AAS? If so, apply to UMPI and get the BAS with a minor of your choice. If not, then your upper level credits may be more useful for an Excelsior or TESU degree, assuming those are upper level credits that can be used in the area of study. I'd still suggest UMPI for now, you can go for their BLS if your AS isn't eligible for entry into the BAS... UMPI still seems the better route to go as you have a language and science completed, even if you decide to get a BLS, you can always focus on a Masters after that.

[allvia]

@HOSSNPEPPER - With all those RA credits and so many UL you may one of those rarely seen here folks that COSC may actually be your best, cheapest and quickest. Possibly the GS with Political Studies option - https://www.charteroak.edu/prospective/p...cience.php

Hopefully someone like dfrecore sees this thread; she would be able to see the full picture of your options. She is the best degree planner there is when it comes to how to maximize the use of so many existing credits.

[HOSSNPEPPER]

@HOSSNPEPPER, Welcome to the board!  Wow, congrats on getting so many credits under your belt, with pretty much A & B grades... did you get two Associates?  Was one of them an AAS?  If so, apply to UMPI and get the BAS with a minor of your choice.  If not, then your upper level credits may be more useful for an Excelsior or TESU degree, assuming those are upper level credits that can be used in the area of study.  I'd still suggest UMPI for now, you can go for their BLS if your AS isn't eligible for entry into the BAS... UMPI still seems the better route to go as you have a language and science completed, even if you decide to get a BLS, you can always focus on a Masters after that.

I have two Associates degrees:

• Associates of Occupational Studies in Welding Technology
  
• Associates in Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences: Public Policy
  

[bjcheung77]

Great, that's what I thought... It really depends, I would do searches to see if COSC and see what changes has occurred for them, from a quick search, you'll also see how a capstone course would be compared to a session or two at UMPI. Capstones are slightly more work, along with the cornerstone, it may be a bit harder than completing an entire session at UMPI (it was reported by several people that a capstone course was 3/4ths the entire degree).

It's really up to the student to decide, completing the minimum 6/7 credits at COSC, Excelsior, TESU, or completing the minimum 30 at UMPI/WGU for those who are into competency based degrees... In regards to the two associates, none of them are AAS, you can apply for the UMPI BLS and have the max 90 credits to go into the degree, 60 of them being electives. For the cost, ease, speed, it would be very similar for Excelsior if you do 7 credits through them, UMPI.

[rachel83az]

@HOSSNPEPPER - With all those RA credits and so many UL you may one of those rarely seen here folks that COSC may actually be your best, cheapest and quickest. Possibly the GS with Political Studies option - https://www.charteroak.edu/prospective/p...cience.php

Hopefully someone like dfrecore sees this thread; she would be able to see the full picture of your options. She is the best degree planner there is when it comes to how to maximize the use of so many existing credits.

COSC might work; it'd depend on how they bring in those credits. I count 8 classes that should be UL. 24 UL credits is a good amount. If they're all accepted, and accepted as UL credits, I believe that leaves just one more UL class from Study.com + the capstone to bring the total to 30 UL credits. That'd make a Liberal Studies/Liberal Arts degree from COSC pretty inexpensive.

Excelsior, same/similar thing. They're a bit more transfer-friendly than COSC these days, though. Definitely worth applying there. Quick note, however, is that their capstone course requires a group project. This can be problematic for some students. It's not an insurmountable challenge, but not everyone wants to make the attempt.

TESU only requires 18 UL credits. They'll cost more than either COSC or Excelsior, but you may essentially be done there as well, at least for a BALS degree. Depending on your exact time/energy/etc. limits, you might or might not want to do their 15 credit flat-rate term. You'd save about $2000 doing it that way, by taking 15 credits instead of 6, but not everyone wants to do that.

UMPI would require 30 credits taken at UMPI, some of which will be UL. But if you're quick about writing short(er) papers, they'll probably be the fastest/cheapest option, even if they may be slightly more work than the other universities. You could also get something besides a BALS pretty quick/easy, if you wanted. I don't think any other university aside from UMPI would allow you to finish in 6 months.

[HOSSNPEPPER]

@HOSSNPEPPER - With all those RA credits and so many UL you may one of those rarely seen here folks that COSC may actually be your best, cheapest and quickest. Possibly the GS with Political Studies option - https://www.charteroak.edu/prospective/p...cience.php

Hopefully someone like dfrecore sees this thread; she would be able to see the full picture of your options. She is the best degree planner there is when it comes to how to maximize the use of so many existing credits.

COSC might work; it'd depend on how they bring in those credits. I count 8 classes that should be UL. 24 UL credits is a good amount. If they're all accepted, and accepted as UL credits, I believe that leaves just one more UL class from Study.com + the capstone to bring the total to 30 UL credits. That'd make a Liberal Studies/Liberal Arts degree from COSC pretty inexpensive.

Excelsior, same/similar thing. They're a bit more transfer-friendly than COSC these days, though. Definitely worth applying there. Quick note, however, is that their capstone course requires a group project. This can be problematic for some students. It's not an insurmountable challenge, but not everyone wants to make the attempt.

TESU only requires 18 UL credits. They'll cost more than either COSC or Excelsior, but you may essentially be done there as well, at least for a BALS degree. Depending on your exact time/energy/etc. limits, you might or might not want to do their 15 credit flat-rate term. You'd save about $2000 doing it that way, by taking 15 credits instead of 6, but not everyone wants to do that.

UMPI would require 30 credits taken at UMPI, some of which will be UL. But if you're quick about writing short(er) papers, they'll probably be the fastest/cheapest option, even if they may be slightly more work than the other universities. You could also get something besides a BALS pretty quick/easy, if you wanted. I don't think any other university aside from UMPI would allow you to finish in 6 months.

What upper-level class would you recommend from study.com for COSC?

I have applied to UMPI, Empire State and COSC but have not received the transfer evaluation back from them yet. I started to apply for Excelsior but having to do a group project to complete my degree would not work well for me.


TESU has been the easiest for me to communicate with so far and I can start this month. I am concerned with the amount of writing required for the capstone, while having to take 15 credits to avoid the residency waiver. I need 14 credits to complete the degree based on my transfer evaluation. I am waiting on Advising to approve other credits and for AP to send my scores. If all credits are all approved, I would just need the capstone and cornerstone classes and would be done in January.

Currently my main concerns for finishing my degree are the amount of writing for TESU and the slow communions of the other schools. October 20 is the deadline to register for classes for a majority of the schools, and if I don’t make a decision by then, I will have to wait to January to start.

[rachel83az]

For COSC, it depends on what your evaluation says exactly. We haven't had anyone go through COSC in a while because they're not as friendly as they used to be. That said, the Study.com transfer page for COSC is here: https://study.com/college/school/charter...llege.html They have exactly 4 UL classes available for COSC students now. 2 in Finance, one in Health Care Administration, and one in Marketing. The HCA course is Human Resource Management in Healthcare. The Marketing one is Consumer Behavior. Either HCA or Marketing should go well with what you've already completed. Probably.

[bjcheung77]

Be a bit open on what you require for your degree, you may want to review this thread here, I don't think COSC is the way to go, the two courses you complete is already enough time for completing UMPI two sessions: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Accounting

[HOSSNPEPPER]

Be a bit open on what you require for your degree, you may want to review this thread here, I don't think COSC is the way to go, the two courses you complete is already enough time for completing UMPI two sessions: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Accounting

 UMPI is my top choice, the self-paced program works best for my busy life, but I have not received my transfer evaluation yet. I originally had a double major in Political Science and Public Policy, which why I applied to UMPI’s History and Political Science BA.

 The cost of TESU for the one semester and residency waiver is more than 4 sessions at UMPI, but I do not want to keep putting off my degree for another 6 or 7 years again, or possibly never if we decide to have another child.