Fastest way to get into graduate school

[megaworp]

Don't do a diploma mill. Even if it works, can you imagine the repercussions it could have not only in your professional life, but your personal life? It could be a huge problem. Or if one day you get notoriety for a good thing, people will look deep onto you and find out about the fake diploma. You could probably get a college diploma in one or two years here, and you will be certain that it won't backfire in the future.

Yeah, diploma mill is out of the question after everything I read. I have been looking into umpi and feeling like I can do it in 1-2 sessions to enroll into my MS of choice quicker. I am still unsure if that this amount of time is plausible. Is there an average hours required to completion section anywhere?

[bjcheung77]

@megaworp, I'm going to cut the cheese and give you a straight answer to a direction you want to follow, yes... To Start, 1, you want to see if your credits from your electrical engineering school can transfer into UMPI. Get the BA Psych and have the classes go towards the electives, this is to shorten your number of credits to graduate and to make sure you get admitted properly as UMPI requires all transcripts to be sent in, even if you haven't finished a degree.

2, Decide which option you want to take by getting more information, UMPI BA Psychology or UMPI BLS Psychology minor, you may want to email AGC again and ask if a minor would work for admissions, the reason is, the classes within the minor, are precursor classes - prerequisites for entry, and also similar to the Graduate Certificate in Psychology they offer at ACG to individuals who did not complete a Psychology undergrad or similar degree with prerequisite classes.

If at all possible and you want to go into a slightly different field, here's an example of a member, Supermind. I recommended that user to do the TESU BALS Psych, ladder that to the Walden MS Psychology, and join the PHI CHI Society. If this works for you, great, if not, focus on the first two steps I mentioned above. Good luck, have fun, and again, skip the non-accredited program diploma mills...

[megaworp]

@megaworp, I'm going to cut the cheese and give you a straight answer to a direction you want to follow, yes... To Start, 1, you want to see if your credits from your electrical engineering school can transfer into UMPI.  Get the BA Psych and have the classes go towards the electives, this is to shorten your number of credits to graduate and to make sure you get admitted properly as UMPI requires all transcripts to be sent in, even if you haven't finished a degree.

2, Decide which option you want to take by getting more information, UMPI BA Psychology or UMPI BLS Psychology minor, you may want to email AGC again and ask if a minor would work for admissions, the reason is, the classes within the minor, are precursor classes - prerequisites for entry, and also similar to the Graduate Certificate in Psychology they offer at ACG to individuals who did not complete a Psychology undergrad or similar degree with prerequisite classes.

If at all possible and you want to go into a slightly different field, here's an example of a member, Supermind.  I recommended that user to do the TESU BALS Psych, ladder that to the Walden MS Psychology, and join the PHI CHI Society.  If this works for you, great, if not, focus on the first two steps I mentioned above.  Good luck, have fun, and again, skip the non-accredited program diploma mills...

Amazing answer, thank you for the clarity. I emailed them again.

Is that because UMPI BLS with a minor would be shorter/easier? Also, sorry to ask again and I know it's probably dependent on the person, but how feasible would it to be to finish the degree in 6 months using Sophia and Study? I assume I would only start UMPI after I'm done with Sophia, etc. Also, when you say I need the transcripts to be sent in you mean I cant's just send them my high school degree and that I also need to send them transcripts from my uni because I went there for a bit? I have around 10 classes passed and I doubt any of them could be considered for UMPI so I'd like to avoid having to ask my uni for transcripts, not sure how that would work either.

Update: Emailed UMPI as well regarding the transferrable credits and their automated reply says that they can't let students know about that until they're evaluated and admitted. Is there any way to know if they would accept any of ECTS since they won't tell me? :/

[davewill]

@megaworp, I'm going to cut the cheese and give you a straight answer ...

I don't normally correct other's language usage, but I'm confident that the idiom you wanted was "cut to the chase". "Cut the cheese" is something else altogether.

[Kalas]

I don't normally correct other's language usage, but I'm confident that the idiom you wanted was "cut to the chase". "Cut the cheese" is something else altogether.

Really? I was under the impression that bjcheung77 farted in his general direction while recognizing that his mother was a hamster and his father smelt of elderberries before graciously answering the question.

[rachel83az]

Amazing answer, thank you for the clarity. I emailed them again.

Is that because UMPI BLS with a minor would be shorter/easier?

A BLS has more electives. It can "usually" be completed faster because there are fewer hard requirements. That said, I suspect that BLS + conversion program would take longer/be more expensive than BA Psych and then straight to Psych Master's degree. We're looking at a difference of 2 or 3 sessions for a BLS vs. maybe 4 or 5 (could be faster, depending on the person) for the BA Psych. Yes, the BA Psych might be more challenging, but that'll help you to prepare for the Master's coursework.

How long would the conversion program take? If it'll take longer than 4-6 months, doing the BA Psych from UMPI is (IMO) a no-brainer.

Also, sorry to ask again and I know it's probably dependent on the person, but how feasible would it to be to finish the degree in 6 months using Sophia and Study? I assume I would only start UMPI after I'm done with Sophia, etc.

Yes, only start UMPI after you're done with Sophia, etc. Many previous students have been able to get a BLS within 6 months, starting from scratch. The BA Psych is a new program, so we don't have numbers for that one yet. I would guess 8-10 months will be the average, but that's based more on gut feelings than on any hard data.

Also, when you say I need the transcripts to be sent in you mean I cant's just send them my high school degree and that I also need to send them transcripts from my uni because I went there for a bit? I have around 10 classes passed and I doubt any of them could be considered for UMPI so I'd like to avoid having to ask my uni for transcripts, not sure how that would work either.

Unless you went to an American school, you have to have your transcripts evaluated before sending them to UMPI. For your HS transcript, you just need an evaluation that says "this is equivalent to a HS diploma". For university transcripts, you need a course-by-course evaluation. This usually costs a little more than just the "yup, this is a legit HS diploma" evaluation, but the difference is only $50-$100, IIRC.

Update: Emailed UMPI as well regarding the transferrable credits and their automated reply says that they can't let students know about that until they're evaluated and admitted. Is there any way to know if they would accept any of ECTS since they won't tell me? :/

Without an evaluation that says that these ECTS are undergraduate level (and not HS or non-credit classes), it's hard to say. But if you list the class names here, we can make a good guess regarding what they might be accepted as at UMPI.

[megaworp]

I see. The BA psych is looking more appealing by the minute. The conversion program at ACG says it's 4 courses, 6-12 months. So the fastest would be 6 months.

I don't know if you can make sense of the class names but here they are (grades 5+/10):

ECE Γ7052
ECE Υ410
ECE Ε202
ECE Υ103
ECE Α7072
ECE Υ207
ECE Υ111
ECE Γ006
ECE Γ9012
ECE Υ411
ECE ΞΓ102
ECE ΞΓ100

Should I ask ACG whether UMPI BA Psych fulfills their requirements to enroll in their MS Psych or is it a no-brainer?

[TINASAM]

I see. The BA psych is looking more appealing by the minute. The conversion program at ACG says it's 4 courses, 6-12 months. So the fastest would be 6 months.

I don't know if you can make sense of the class names but here they are (grades 5+/10):

ECE Γ7052
ECE Υ410
ECE Ε202
ECE Υ103
ECE Α7072
ECE Υ207
ECE Υ111
ECE Γ006
ECE Γ9012
ECE Υ411
ECE ΞΓ102
ECE ΞΓ100

Should I ask ACG whether UMPI BA Psych fulfills their requirements to enroll in their MS Psych or is it a no-brainer?

You need to list these by name of the course and credit hour like this:

MATH101 - Introduction to Algebra - 3 credit hours
PSYCH101 - Introduction to Psychology - 3 credit hours
etc.

Just the call number of the course doesn't tell us anything.

[bjcheung77]

Oops, typing too slow, mind was thinking of something and fingers were typing something else... I blame it on dyslexia (or maybe it was the auto correct/auto insert), sometimes something simple as I or IT would get the switch and for some reason that gets transposed involuntarily, or when I type a few words, a word gets repeated instead of typing in the 'correct' word within the sentence. Anyways, as long as my main message came through properly, that's all that matters, <insert smile>.

---

"Should I ask ACG whether UMPI BA Psych fulfills their requirements to enroll in their MS Psych or is it a no-brainer?" - It should be just fine, you may want to see if the BLS Psych would do that or not instead. If it does, that means you can use 60 credits towards something you're interested in or wanting to further study, such as CJ, MIS, PM, whatever they have within the YourPace learning system.

[rachel83az]

If the conversion program will take a minimum of 6 months, I'd definitely do the BA Psych vs. the BLS Psych or anything else + conversion. Even if the BA Psych winds up taking 12 months (which I highly doubt, but life happens), you're at least no worse off than if you finished the BLS in 6 months and then spent 6 months on the conversion program. And you'll have a "better looking" degree for your CV.

Just in case, I would double-check with ACG to make sure UMPI's Psych degree will count for their purposes. But I wouldn't point them to the YourPace program specifically; it might confuse them. You can point them to https://www.umpi.edu/academics/psychology/ if they need it. Your degree won't specify whether you took it online or in person. I don't foresee them having any problem with the degree, but universities can be weird.