Degree/Planning Advice: Retired LEO Seeking BA and MA after life-altering injury

[Han_Shot_First_IYKYK]

Your Location: California, United States.
Your Age: Late 40’s
What kind of degree do you want?: I’m open to suggestions. I want to maximally apply my existing education, certifications, and professional experience towards obtaining any regionally accredited online Bachelor’s degree (so probably Criminal Justice??) and then towards a Master’s Degree (preferably something other than CJ).

I'm very grateful for all the information this forum has to offer as well as the community of knowledgeable and passionate folks here who take the time to read and respond to posts like this. It truly makes a positive impact on people's lives. I book marked the Wiki and see that there are existing roadmaps/degree plans. I’ll continue to review but I will need help from people who know more about this than me. I need help with selecting a school, choosing a degree path, creating a degree plan specific to my education and experience (Hire College Hacked or ??). Any suggestions/advice is highly appreciated.

I’ve identified these 4 schools. I’m leaning towards UMPI based on what I’ve learned so far.

UMPI: Has a BACJ and an MAOL that are CBE, “YourPace”. Self-paced CBE sounds well suited to my situation. I like that it’s a State school. They state that “previous college credit, certifications, and work—as well as life experiences—are considered and help you graduate faster” but I’m not sure what that would mean specifically for my situation. Would they give additional credit beyond my 90 transfer units to apply towards the CJ requirements and electives based on my certifications and work experience?

LUO: Offers a 25% tuition discount for First Responders and “Personalized service throughout your college experience from a team of knowledgeable academic advisors”. LUO has a wide variety of degrees to choose from including Masters and Doctorate Degrees but it doesn’t appear to have an equivalent to the CBE self-paced curriculum.

Excelsior: Accepts Credit for Professional and Workplace Training and accepts up to 113 transfer credits for a BSCJ degree. This doesn’t appear to be Self-paced CBE. I don’t see myself attending this school if I need to take more than 7 classes and I’m unsure if I could handle 7 classes in this format.

Purdue: Offers an Accelerated Masters in Psychology while obtaining BA in Criminal Justice. They offer up to 25 Credits for POST training and credit for work experience.  They have an “ExcelTrack” that purports to give you to “the same degree faster and for less money.” This school has a for-profit feel to it and they require 180 credits for a degree, not 120. A Master’s in Psychology is far more interesting to me than an MAOL but either will work for me.

Current Regional Accredited Credits: A.S. Degree in Administration of Justice from a California Junior College. 90.5 units total. 3.89 GPA

Course Code, Course Name, Grade, Units
AJ 079, Law Enforcement Career Prep, CR, 0.5
AJ 094, Police Academy Orientation, CR, 1
AJ 100, Intro to Law Enforcement, A, 3
AJ 110, Criminal Law, A, 3
AJ 059A, Basic Police Academy, A, 26
AJ 059B, Basic Police Academy, A, 26
AJ 135, Weaponless Defense, A,  1
ESC 130, Intro to Oceanography, A, 3
HIST 127, Survey of American History, B, 3
NUTR 127, Nutrition Today, A, 3
POSC 100, American Government, B, 3
SOC 101, Intro to Sociology, A, 3
SPCH 105, Interpersonal Communication, A, 3
READ 142, College RDG: Logical Anal/Eval, B, 3
BUS 111, Business Communication, A, 3
PHIL 100, Intro to Philosophy, A, 3
ART 110, Intro to Art, A, 3

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: None, but I’m open to suggestions for testing out of classes or for receiving credit for my existing knowledge and experience. If I remember correctly, I was not required to take a math class for my AS Degree because of the score I received on my placement test over 20 years ago when I entered college and there were several pre-requisites that I didn’t need to take as well.

Any certifications or military experience? I have a Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Certificates with 1,257 hours of CA POST Certified Training.

I have 54 hours, 5.4 CEUs of WMD and Incident Management Training with the Department of Homeland Security.

I have 64 hours of various Law Enforcement certifications related to Narcotics investigations, Trademark, Counterfeiting, and Piracy Investigations, Search and Seizure and Interrogation Law & Tactics, and operating Emergency Vehicles.

I have an additional certificate for Advanced Patrol Operations. I’m waiting to hear back on the number of hours associated with that training but I believe it is at least 80 hours.

I have over a decade of Law Enforcement experience documented with performance evaluations. I’ve worked in custody, patrol, as a detective, and in specialized units. I understand some schools provide credit for work experience.


Budget: I have $15K saved up.  I'd like to go the cheapest route possible, but will consider spending more for easy, fast, and a program I can work at my own pace/schedule with a decent UI.

Commitments: I’ve been out of school for over 15 years. I have health issues that require me to work harder, longer, and at a higher cost for error. I’m permanently disabled from a spinal cord injury (and other body parts) I sustained in the line of duty and am honorably retired. I live a very healthy and regimented lifestyle by necessity. Managing my health is a full time commitment and it will decrease my productivity and ability to focus on school work. I’m in constant pain. I do not take any pain medications out of a need to maintain cognitive function and also to maintain my remaining kidney and liver function. My sleep is heavily disrupted from pain, bladder and bowel dysfunction. Disrupted sleep further reduces my cognitive function. I’ve also had several surgeries on my arms and hands which makes typing painful and difficult. I have additional tendonopathies and partially torn tendons in my upper extremities that are made worse from computer work and I expect I’ll need more surgeries for that at some point. I need to be take frequent breaks, be efficient, and not do any unnecessary work like taking unnecessary classes or doing assignments that I don’t need to do. 

I will also be unavailable for periods of up to 2 weeks, 2-3 times per year. I have a good friend who is kind enough to take me with her on international vacations since I am unable to do things like this on my own. I am at the mercy of her spontaneous travel plans but I usually have at least 8 weeks advance notice before departure. As you can imagine, this friendship and these trips are of high importance to me.

Dedicated time to study: I estimate a minimum of 4 hours per day, 28 hours weekly every day of the year (except for doctors’ appointments and when traveling with my friend), with periodic breaks during study sessions. I will need a 100% online program that I can work on at my own pace from home with minimal to no deadlines, etc. I’m not good at math beyond pre-algebra or with foreign languages. I work hard but my ability to do so is significantly reduced due to my injury. It now takes me a lot longer to grasp concepts, learn, and produce work product like reports, papers, spreadsheets, power points. I’ll need some one on one assistance from school staff at first as I acclimate to the program and then periodically when I get stuck or behind. I can provide the school with whatever documentation they require for ADA accommodations.

Timeline: Finishing the courses required for the Bachelor’s degree as fast as possible within a year would be ideal if I can handle that. My timeline is more flexible for the Masters. Working around my health condition and the 2-3 international trips per year are my primary limiting factors of productivity.

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I will be funding out of pocket without loans.

[jg_nuy]

First, thank you for your service.

Among the listed choices, I would recommend UMPI for the following reasons:

• They are CBE and you can work at your own pace on Sophia and Study dot com prior to starting at UMPI to add any credits not already within the AA. 
  
• UMPI allows up to 90 credits to be transferred into the degree (no upper limit overall) and you can transfer in additional courses for a minor, if you should desire one.
  
• You need to complete a minimum of 30 credits at UMPI (10 classes). Even if you space out 10 classes to 4 terms, it is still costing around $6k for the BA, even with 5 terms (2 classes per 8-week term) it comes in at $7.5k.
  

Links

• Here is the mapping for the General Education requirements, which can filled in quite well using Sophia for anything that might be missing from your AA - Sophia likely has the smoothest path towards math requirements: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...ts_Roadmap
  
• Here is a degree plan for the BA in Criminal Justice, for which you likely already have many of the credits from your AA: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan
  
• Within your electives, you can also do 3 classes during your undergrad that can fill in 3 classes of your MAOL, saving you both time and money. Here is a short write-up on those classes: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Un...L)_at_UMPI
  

Next steps recommended:
If you decide that UMPI is best, it would be good to set up a shared spreadsheet with your existing credits and share it as read-only, so other can offer additional advice. If you want to consider additional schools, you can also still set up a spreadsheet with such requirements, to more easily compare and contrast.

[Jonathan Whatley]

UMPI: Has a BACJ and an MAOL that are CBE, “YourPace”. Self-paced CBE sounds well suited to my situation. I like that it’s a State school. They state that “previous college credit, certifications, and work—as well as life experiences—are considered and help you graduate faster” but I’m not sure what that would mean specifically for my situation. Would they give additional credit beyond my 90 transfer units to apply towards the CJ requirements and electives based on my certifications and work experience?

UMPI's Prior Learning Assessment page for YourPace helps explain how certifications and life experience learning could yield credit there.

No matter how many units you bring in from outside sources, you will have to complete 30 semester hours in coursework from UMPI. This "residency" requirement a hard minimum at almost every known accredited school in the US (except the three schools we call the Big Three). You could transfer more than 90 sh, but that would be running up your career total beyond 120, as you'd still need 30 sh from UMPI.

LUO: Offers a 25% tuition discount for First Responders and “Personalized service throughout your college experience from a team of knowledgeable academic advisors”. LUO has a wide variety of degrees to choose from including Masters and Doctorate Degrees but it doesn’t appear to have an equivalent to the CBE self-paced curriculum.

Correct, no CBE program at Liberty.

As a general rule, don't give many points to a school as your undergraduate choice because it has a graduate program you're interested in, unless you're going for a specific bachelor's-to-master's provision that save you significant time by counting courses towards both. Most schools don't have such provisions.

Liberty's integration of religious material into maybe every course, and social and political associations attached to its brand and history, are material to some prospective students.

Excelsior: Accepts Credit for Professional and Workplace Training and accepts up to 113 transfer credits for a BSCJ degree. This doesn’t appear to be Self-paced CBE. I don’t see myself attending this school if I need to take more than 7 classes and I’m unsure if I could handle 7 classes in this format.

Correct, no CBE program at Excelsior.

Clarification: Each regular course is 3 credits (semester hours). The 7 credit residency requirement at Excelsior means only 2 regular courses and one 1 sh mini course on information literacy.

TESU's Criminal Justice degree is similar to Excelsior's but completing TESU's requirements might well be a bit more convenient than Excelsior's.

Purdue: Offers an Accelerated Masters in Psychology while obtaining BA in Criminal Justice. They offer up to 25 Credits for POST training and credit for work experience.  They have an “ExcelTrack” that purports to give you to “the same degree faster and for less money.” This school has a for-profit feel to it and they require 180 credits for a degree, not 120. A Master’s in Psychology is far more interesting to me than an MAOL but either will work for me.

Purdue Global's degrees are the same length of academic credit as each school above. The difference is that most schools count credits in semester hours, with most bachelor's 120 sh. Purdue Global is part of the minority of schools that count credits in quarter hours, with most bachelor's 180 sh. If you take a 5 qh course from a quarter-hour school, it will transfer as 3 sh to a semester-hour school, and vice versa.

ExcelTrack is a CBE program. Conventional wisdom is that PG ExcelTrack requires more writing and is less accelerable than UMPI YourPace. The BA in Criminal Justice is offered by ExcelTrack but the MS in Psychology is not. I'm not sure what they mean by this bachelor's to master's plan. If they mean that some of your BACJ ExcelTrack courses would apply to an MSP, that's great. But my guess is they mean you can enroll in the BACJ and though you could do much of it ExcelTrack, you could also take some non-ExcelTrack courses that would apply to both degrees. But those non-ExcelTrack courses would be non-CBE, traditionally scheduled and priced.

Purdue Global used to be the for-profit Kaplan University. As part of the agreement by which it was acquired by the Purdue system, the for-profit company Kaplan Higher Education continues to be involved in operations as a contracted Online Program Manager.

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I will be funding out of pocket without loans.

You might be eligible for a Pell Grant. Might help.

[jg_nuy]

Adding a link for the UMPI website on requesting accommodations:
https://www.umpi.edu/offices/student-sup...modations/

[Dnightowl]

UMPI: Has a BACJ and an MAOL that are CBE, “YourPace”. Self-paced CBE sounds well suited to my situation. I like that it’s a State school. They state that “previous college credit, certifications, and work—as well as life experiences—are considered and help you graduate faster” but I’m not sure what that would mean specifically for my situation. Would they give additional credit beyond my 90 transfer units to apply towards the CJ requirements and electives based on my certifications and work experience?

UMPI's Prior Learning Assessment page for YourPace helps explain how certifications and life experience learning could yield credit there.

No matter how many units you bring in from outside sources, you will have to complete 30 semester hours in coursework from UMPI. This "residency" requirement a hard minimum at almost every known accredited school in the US (except the three schools we call the Big Three). You could transfer more than 90 sh, but that would be running up your career total beyond 120, as you'd still need 30 sh from UMPI.

LUO: Offers a 25% tuition discount for First Responders and “Personalized service throughout your college experience from a team of knowledgeable academic advisors”. LUO has a wide variety of degrees to choose from including Masters and Doctorate Degrees but it doesn’t appear to have an equivalent to the CBE self-paced curriculum.

Correct, no CBE program at Liberty.

As a general rule, don't give many points to a school as your undergraduate choice because it has a graduate program you're interested in, unless you're going for a specific bachelor's-to-master's provision that save you significant time by counting courses towards both. Most schools don't have such provisions.

Liberty's integration of religious material into maybe every course, and social and political associations attached to its brand and history, are material to some prospective students.

Excelsior: Accepts Credit for Professional and Workplace Training and accepts up to 113 transfer credits for a BSCJ degree. This doesn’t appear to be Self-paced CBE. I don’t see myself attending this school if I need to take more than 7 classes and I’m unsure if I could handle 7 classes in this format.

Correct, no CBE program at Excelsior.

Clarification: Each regular course is 3 credits (semester hours). The 7 credit residency requirement at Excelsior means only 2 regular courses and one 1 sh mini course on information literacy.

TESU's Criminal Justice degree is similar to Excelsior's but completing TESU's requirements might well be a bit more convenient than Excelsior's.

Purdue: Offers an Accelerated Masters in Psychology while obtaining BA in Criminal Justice. They offer up to 25 Credits for POST training and credit for work experience.  They have an “ExcelTrack” that purports to give you to “the same degree faster and for less money.” This school has a for-profit feel to it and they require 180 credits for a degree, not 120. A Master’s in Psychology is far more interesting to me than an MAOL but either will work for me.

Purdue Global's degrees are the same length of academic credit as each school above. The difference is that most schools count credits in semester hours, with most bachelor's 120 sh. Purdue Global is part of the minority of schools that count credits in quarter hours, with most bachelor's 180 sh. If you take a 5 qh course from a quarter-hour school, it will transfer as 3 sh to a semester-hour school, and vice versa.

ExcelTrack is a CBE program. Conventional wisdom is that PG ExcelTrack requires more writing and is less accelerable than UMPI YourPace. The BA in Criminal Justice is offered by ExcelTrack but the MS in Psychology is not. I'm not sure what they mean by this bachelor's to master's plan. If they mean that some of your BACJ ExcelTrack courses would apply to an MSP, that's great. But my guess is they mean you can enroll in the BACJ and though you could do much of it ExcelTrack, you could also take some non-ExcelTrack courses that would apply to both degrees. But those non-ExcelTrack courses would be non-CBE, traditionally scheduled and priced.

Purdue Global used to be the for-profit Kaplan University. As part of the agreement by which it was acquired by the Purdue system, the for-profit company Kaplan Higher Education continues to be involved in operations as a contracted Online Program Manager.

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I will be funding out of pocket without loans.

You might be eligible for a Pell Grant. Might help.

Also research various scholarship websites to see what their requirements are. This would also help in funding your degree.

[walruspanda]

Purdue: Offers an Accelerated Masters in Psychology while obtaining BA in Criminal Justice. They offer up to 25 Credits for POST training and credit for work experience.  They have an “ExcelTrack” that purports to give you to “the same degree faster and for less money.” This school has a for-profit feel to it and they require 180 credits for a degree, not 120. A Master’s in Psychology is far more interesting to me than an MAOL but either will work for me.

ExcelTrack is a CBE program. Conventional wisdom is that PG ExcelTrack requires more writing and is less accelerable than UMPI YourPace. The BA in Criminal Justice is offered by ExcelTrack but the MS in Psychology is not. I'm not sure what they mean by this bachelor's to master's plan. If they mean that some of your BACJ ExcelTrack courses would apply to an MSP, that's great. But my guess is they mean you can enroll in the BACJ and though you could do much of it ExcelTrack, you could also take some non-ExcelTrack courses that would apply to both degrees. But those non-ExcelTrack courses would be non-CBE, traditionally scheduled and priced.

A couple notes:

• Yes, you seem to be correct about the BA/Criminal Justice and MS/Psychology. There are four courses that can be taken as open electives with the undergrad degree for graduate credit (PS501/502/504/506), but because none of those are available in ExcelTrack, it's less helpful than it would otherwise be. 
  
• PUG is plenty accelerate-able -- I got my BS and MS in 32 weeks total, although with tons of outside credit -- but only if ExcelTrack is available. I'm not sure I can recommend the MS at PUG given that it's not ExcelTrack.
  

[bjcheung77]

@Han_Shot_First_IYKYK, Welcome to the board, that's an amazing post with all the info asked for in the addendum, template, and additional info that provides a better overall picture of your scenario... I think you've leaned on the right path, the UMPI undergrad and graduate combo.

I would slice things differently though, my recommendation usually is to get the balanced mix/match trifecta of certs, degree, experience, you have the certs/experience, you can go for the UMPI BLS with a minor in CJ with 3-4 classes that transfer into the UMPI MAOL, then complete the MAOL.

The main reason for UMPI is the ADA accommodations, one of moderators Ashkir ultimately went that route to get a BABA & MAOL combo, after getting the ENEB MBA, Ashkir then got a VUL DHA... You don't need a BABA to get into the MAOL, you can do the BLS to max transfer your current credits!

In total, this is all within your budget and time frame, plus you can 'pause a session' when you're on vacation! I would apply, send all transcripts to UMPI, and see where this leads you. You may be able to finish the BLS in 2 sessions, and the MAOL in another 2 sessions, that'll be $3K and $4.3K respectively.

[Han_Shot_First_IYKYK]

First, thank you for your service.

Among the listed choices, I would recommend UMPI for the following reasons:

• They are CBE and you can work at your own pace on Sophia and Study dot com prior to starting at UMPI to add any credits not already within the AA. 
  
• UMPI allows up to 90 credits to be transferred into the degree (no upper limit overall) and you can transfer in additional courses for a minor, if you should desire one.
  
• You need to complete a minimum of 30 credits at UMPI (10 classes). Even if you space out 10 classes to 4 terms, it is still costing around $6k for the BA, even with 5 terms (2 classes per 8-week term) it comes in at $7.5k.
  

Links

• Here is the mapping for the General Education requirements, which can filled in quite well using Sophia for anything that might be missing from your AA - Sophia likely has the smoothest path towards math requirements: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...ts_Roadmap
  
• Here is a degree plan for the BA in Criminal Justice, for which you likely already have many of the credits from your AA: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan
  
• Within your electives, you can also do 3 classes during your undergrad that can fill in 3 classes of your MAOL, saving you both time and money. Here is a short write-up on those classes: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Un...L)_at_UMPI
  

Next steps recommended:
If you decide that UMPI is best, it would be good to set up a shared spreadsheet with your existing credits and share it as read-only, so other can offer additional advice. If you want to consider additional schools, you can also still set up a spreadsheet with such requirements, to more easily compare and contrast.

Thank you for your detailed responses. I bookmarked all the links including the ADA accommodation link from your second response. I will review and get started on the spreadsheet.

---

UMPI: Has a BACJ and an MAOL that are CBE, “YourPace”. Self-paced CBE sounds well suited to my situation. I like that it’s a State school. They state that “previous college credit, certifications, and work—as well as life experiences—are considered and help you graduate faster” but I’m not sure what that would mean specifically for my situation. Would they give additional credit beyond my 90 transfer units to apply towards the CJ requirements and electives based on my certifications and work experience?

UMPI's Prior Learning Assessment page for YourPace helps explain how certifications and life experience learning could yield credit there.

No matter how many units you bring in from outside sources, you will have to complete 30 semester hours in coursework from UMPI. This "residency" requirement a hard minimum at almost every known accredited school in the US (except the three schools we call the Big Three). You could transfer more than 90 sh, but that would be running up your career total beyond 120, as you'd still need 30 sh from UMPI.

LUO: Offers a 25% tuition discount for First Responders and “Personalized service throughout your college experience from a team of knowledgeable academic advisors”. LUO has a wide variety of degrees to choose from including Masters and Doctorate Degrees but it doesn’t appear to have an equivalent to the CBE self-paced curriculum.

Correct, no CBE program at Liberty.

As a general rule, don't give many points to a school as your undergraduate choice because it has a graduate program you're interested in, unless you're going for a specific bachelor's-to-master's provision that save you significant time by counting courses towards both. Most schools don't have such provisions.

Liberty's integration of religious material into maybe every course, and social and political associations attached to its brand and history, are material to some prospective students.

Excelsior: Accepts Credit for Professional and Workplace Training and accepts up to 113 transfer credits for a BSCJ degree. This doesn’t appear to be Self-paced CBE. I don’t see myself attending this school if I need to take more than 7 classes and I’m unsure if I could handle 7 classes in this format.

Correct, no CBE program at Excelsior.

Clarification: Each regular course is 3 credits (semester hours). The 7 credit residency requirement at Excelsior means only 2 regular courses and one 1 sh mini course on information literacy.

TESU's Criminal Justice degree is similar to Excelsior's but completing TESU's requirements might well be a bit more convenient than Excelsior's.

Purdue: Offers an Accelerated Masters in Psychology while obtaining BA in Criminal Justice. They offer up to 25 Credits for POST training and credit for work experience.  They have an “ExcelTrack” that purports to give you to “the same degree faster and for less money.” This school has a for-profit feel to it and they require 180 credits for a degree, not 120. A Master’s in Psychology is far more interesting to me than an MAOL but either will work for me.

Purdue Global's degrees are the same length of academic credit as each school above. The difference is that most schools count credits in semester hours, with most bachelor's 120 sh. Purdue Global is part of the minority of schools that count credits in quarter hours, with most bachelor's 180 sh. If you take a 5 qh course from a quarter-hour school, it will transfer as 3 sh to a semester-hour school, and vice versa.

ExcelTrack is a CBE program. Conventional wisdom is that PG ExcelTrack requires more writing and is less accelerable than UMPI YourPace. The BA in Criminal Justice is offered by ExcelTrack but the MS in Psychology is not. I'm not sure what they mean by this bachelor's to master's plan. If they mean that some of your BACJ ExcelTrack courses would apply to an MSP, that's great. But my guess is they mean you can enroll in the BACJ and though you could do much of it ExcelTrack, you could also take some non-ExcelTrack courses that would apply to both degrees. But those non-ExcelTrack courses would be non-CBE, traditionally scheduled and priced.

Purdue Global used to be the for-profit Kaplan University. As part of the agreement by which it was acquired by the Purdue system, the for-profit company Kaplan Higher Education continues to be involved in operations as a contracted Online Program Manager.

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I will be funding out of pocket without loans.

You might be eligible for a Pell Grant. Might help.

Thank you for this helpful information. The overview you provided of these schools is helping me better understand my options.

I'm looking at the link you provided for UMPI's PLA. It looks like I could receive up to 30 credits for a Bachelor’s degree at $50 per credit for the Portfolio Assessment. I'm speculating that a portfolio based on my work experience, training, and certifications could potentially satisfy a substantial portion of the CJ degree requirements, and I could satisfy the remainder of 10 class, 30 unit residency requirement with other classes, such as the 3 undergraduate classes in Business Administration and apply them towards the MAOL.

I should also verify similar options for PLA credits for Excelsior and TESU because that could potentially mean far less classes to meet degree requirements compared to UMPI.

I will verify eligibility for FAFSA and grants.

---

Also research various scholarship websites to see what their requirements are. This would also help in funding your degree.

Will do. Thank you.

---

@Han_Shot_First_IYKYK, Welcome to the board, that's an amazing post with all the info asked for in the addendum, template, and additional info that provides a better overall picture of your scenario... I think you've leaned on the right path, the UMPI undergrad and graduate combo.  

I would slice things differently though, my recommendation usually is to get the balanced mix/match trifecta of certs, degree, experience, you have the certs/experience, you can go for the UMPI BLS with a minor in CJ with 3-4 classes that transfer into the UMPI MAOL, then complete the MAOL.

The main reason for UMPI is the ADA accommodations, one of moderators Ashkir ultimately went that route to get a BABA & MAOL combo, after getting the ENEB MBA, Ashkir then got a VUL DHA... You don't need a BABA to get into the MAOL, you can do the BLS to max transfer your current credits!

In total, this is all within your budget and time frame, plus you can 'pause a session' when you're on vacation!  I would apply, send all transcripts to UMPI, and see where this leads you.  You may be able to finish the BLS in 2 sessions, and the MAOL in another 2 sessions, that'll be $3K and $4.3K respectively.

Thank you for the response. Everything you're recommending appears to be spot on and in alignment with my situation and needs. I understand the general concept of your recommendation broadly, but not entirely. I want to learn more about this pathway.

Do you think I should first try to determine what GEC classes I still need to satisfy, if any, through Sophia/SDC, and complete those prior to applying?

[davewill]

BTW, It's not particularly clear to me that choosing CJ will result in a significantly better use of your incoming credits, so if there's another degree that you would rather get, you should probably consider it.

[Han_Shot_First_IYKYK]

BTW, It's not particularly clear to me that choosing CJ will result in a significantly better use of your incoming credits, so if there's another degree that you would rather get, you should probably consider it.

It's not particularly clear to me either and I completely agree. Whatever degree makes the best use of all my existing credits, certifications, and work experience is what I'd like to pursue. Especially if it dovetails nicely with a MA, like the MAOL.

What are your thoughts on consulting with services like College Hacked to assist me with this? I'm wondering what the general consensus is on services like these for folks like me.