UMPI BAS or PUG BSPr or other way to doctoral degree

[mdn]

Hi,

Your Location: Finland
Your Age: 40+
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelor or Master - Doctoral (nothing yet).
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 1 (ASU) - should be availble in a week.

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:

Sophia Credits: 60
Briefly enough for Pierpont BOG AAS. Without touchstones.
Additionally to 60 - Foundations of English Composition, 2

In plans (for PUG):
English Composition I
Public Speaking

Other credits - Finnish University: 49 ECTS
IT/Programming - 28 ECTS
Mathematics - 20 ECTS

Any certifications or military experience?
CISSP, CCSP, (CISSP-)ISSAP.

Budget: Cheap and fast. By current estimation - 3k-4k per year should be more less ok.
Commitments: I work more less full-time (briefly Software Engineer). Family, kids.
Dedicated time to study: On average 20 hours per week. About 2 months per year - much more.
Timeline: ...
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: No.

I went to college at 3rd country for 5 years and got my diploma long time ago, but recently I has figured out that it will be almost impossible to validate it (due to multiple reasons).
I also have no High School Diploma as seems I left it in that University. It should be possible to restore it but it will take really a lot of time.

Briefly I need some diploma which should be ok for different immigration purposes for different countries, like for example UAE. So at least Bachelor.

Later, as a long term plane, already just for me (as I always wanted to be like my parents) - it would be nice to get a doctoral degree.

What I have considered (mostly due to this forum):

1. Pierpont BOG AAS
   As it will be some basic degree - it would be nice to get it, I plan to finish my application as soon as my 1 ASU credit will be ready for transfer.
   I am not sure, do I need AoE or not.

2. Finland, Metropolia "Degree Programme of Information Technology, online studies 180 ECTS" + next Bachelor
   I can do it fast enough, but I think the real Bachelor degree will take an additional year, and at the best case it will be 2025/26 year.

3. ENEB, MBA & Master
   I am enrolled as it was quite cheap, but I am not sure how such Master will work for me. But briefly I plan to have those Masters in 2025.

4. UMPI BAS
   I am not sure. If I will get BOG AAS at September 2024 at latest. General Education Curriculum Requirements - by this forum I can fulfill them by Sophia.

5. PUG BSPr (Bachelor of Science in Professional Studies)
   By my certificates - I already have 73 credits, + Sophia's credits - it should be fine. As I understand, "Foundations of English Composition" should be enough to confirm English Proficiency.

   I think BSPr is better than BAS, but I am not sure.

But what's next, what might be my other options? Might be I have to do something totally different, please advice.

Any feedback is highly appreciated.

Thank you.

[bjcheung77]

Nice addendum and template... Good action plan, my advice is a balanced mix/match trifecta of certs, degree, experience... I've been telling people to do Pierpont BOG AAS, UMPI BAS, UMPI MAOL... That's the route I've been recommending people for the last few months, it really depends on your needs or wants, you can do the Metropolia option along with the ENEB too, but I would skip the PUG BSPr in favor of UMPI BAS so you can ladder into the MAOL with 3 less classes...

[mdn]

you can do the Metropolia option

I remembered why I thought this method was “bad” - full-time students in Finland do not have unemployment benefits.

I would skip the PUG BSPr in favor of UMPI BAS so you can ladder into the MAOL with 3 less classes...

Thank you for your message! I have re-checked and found that my understanding of that BSPr was wrong. Very limited set of courses is available for ASK, almost nothing interesting for me there, so seems UMPI would be better.

[mdn]

Update:

Pierpont BoG AAS - in progress, today Credly credits appeared, so it is so now:
Total Transfer: 68.000 (1 - ASU, 67 - Sophia)
Interesting that Foundations of Statistics = FREL 1999 with 2 creds.
DegreeWorks shows that COMPONENT I - General Education needs 9 more credits, might be it will be fixed a little bit later. Also there is still no any payment shown and impossible to apply for the graduation, so I think some actions will be done there soon.

I have more Sophia credits now, so I consider UMPI Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration – Project Management & Information Systems now, with a session in July-August (as it should be just $1500 instead of $1700). I am on vacation in July, so hopefully I will be able to progress a lot.
1) I cover GEC already except English Composition II.
2) English test - Duolingo (will be done later)
3) High School transcript - as I understood by this forum, no need - as I transfer more than 60 credits.
4) I will do the next certificates later: Google Project Management Certificate, Google Data Analytics Certificate, IBM Data Analyst Certificate, IBM Data Analysis & Visualization Spec
5) Needed courses:
- ENG 121
- BUS 200: Intermediate Business Computing
- BUS 220: Managerial Accounting
- BUS 244: Management Information Systems
- BUS 325: Financial Management
- BUS 469: Strategic Professional Communication
- BUS 240: Change Management
- BUS 343: Project Risk and Cost Management
- BUS 415: Operations Management
- BUS 401: Advanced Project Management Applications II

10 courses, 30 credits.
Just BUS 469: Strategic Professional Communication is ok for MAOL.
Also if I will have a time - might be I will try to take BUS 335 Organizational Behavior (replaces OLS 550 Team Leadership and Collaboration).

How do you think is it a realistic plan? And comments? Thank you in advance.

[ss20ts]

A caveat. Some people have to submit a high school transcript even with 60 credits as you do not already have a conferred associate degree and these aren't 60 college credits. They are ACE credits which isn't considered the same thing for whatever reason.

[mdn]

Some people have to submit a high school transcript even with 60 credits as you do not already have a conferred associate degree and these aren't 60 college credits. They are ACE credits which isn't considered the same thing for whatever reason.

I had a hope that my 1 credit from ASU would help there.
But anyway as I finally understood, seems those are 2 separate requirements now - a high school diploma and a high school transcript (which can be waived).
So I got GED, it was really straightforward and interesting. I have already sent it to UMPI. Do you think it would also be beneficial to send it to Pierpont? (something like - it will be easier later by 3rd party to audit it if needed)

1 potential GED bonus for International Students: "English proficiency test scores are waived: High school transcript clearly states that English is the language of instruction for all" - GED transcript clearly states English as a language for each course. I already got English proficiency test, so that should be checked by someone else.