UMPI Degree — transfer + planning advice!

[jammy]

Hi everyone,
I’m planning to enrol with UMPI with the Your Pace program. I’m a Canadian (with Canadian + UK citizenship), who is living in the Netherlands. I’m 43 years old, I have a great career working for the UN in communications, and have managed to get this far in my career on years of experience and no degree. This is now starting to hold me back from progressing further, and I just want to get a BA so I can set my sights higher. My goal here is to get the degree with as little pain and fuss as possible.

I’m considering two pathways with UMPI — either the BABA Marketing degree, or BLS Management. 

I have extensive communications/marketing professional experience, so this subject area will likely be relatively easy for me. On the other hand, I’ve read experiences of others saying that the BLS Management degree is simpler to achieve generally. I’d be curious if anyone wants to weigh in on which approach might be best here given my professional experience in this area..

In terms of transferring credits in, back 22 years ago I attended a community college in Canada, studying graphic design. I’m unsure if this will be of any value or in terms of transfer credits, or if they are even worthwhile sending for assessment. Is it worthwhile seeking international transfer credits for 22-year old community college courses? Note that this will require me obtaining a transcript evaluation through a service like WES, so if my credits are of little or no value for transfer, I'd rather not spend the money to have the transcript assessed.

I suppose once my transfer credit situation is clearer, I would then start a Sophia/study.com course plan to transfer into UMPI with as much cheap credit as possible. 

Grateful for others to share any similar experiences relevant to my situation! Cheers!


Location: Living in the Netherlands; hold Canadian + UK nationality

Age: 43
What kind of degree do you want?: BA

Potential Credits:
I attended a 2-year community college at Humber College in Ontario, Canada from 2000-2002. Unsure if these will be of any value or are even worthwhile pursuing for a transfer credit given the time and expense of getting my old Canadian transcript assessed by a and how long ago these were obtained. 

In all of the below courses I achieved 70%+.

3 CR - GRAF 112 PS Typography 1
2 CR - GRAF 115 PS Colour for Communications 
3 CR - GRAF 117 PS Digital Design 1 
3 CR - GRAF 118 PS Conceptual Process 1 
2 CR - GRAF 119 PS History of Graphic Des & Adv 
2 CR - GRAF 120 PS Thesis 1 
3 CR - COMM 300 PS Business Writing Skills 73 
3 CR - GRAF 212 PS Typography 2 
3 CR - GRAF 213 PS Design 2 
3 CR - GRAF 217 PS Digital Design 2 
3 CR - GRAF 310 PS Advertising Graphics 1
3 CR - GRAF 312 PS Typography 3
3 CR - GRAF 319 PS Corporate Design 1
3 CR - GRAF 321 PS Design 3
3 CR - GRAF 322 PS Interactive Media Design
3 CR - GRAF 317 PS Entrepreneurship
3 CR - GRAF 410 PS Advertising Graphic 2
3 CR - GRAF 413 PS Packaging 2 
3 CR - GRAF 416 PS Portfolio Development 
2 CR - GRAF 418 PS Internship
3 CR - GRAF 419 PS Corporate Design 2
2 CR - GRAF 420 PS Thesis 4

I also have completed an online continuing education course offered by San Diego State University, which I also am not clear on if it holds any transfer value in this context:
10 PDUs / 1.0 CEUs - LS0007: Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt

[ss20ts]

At the bare minimum, you will receive general elective credit for this courses. Looks like you'll complete a few areas of the GEC with them also. You're required to submit all transcripts as part of the application process.

[bjcheung77]

@jammy, Welcome to the board, you've got a good intro post there, but it's missing the addendum! Please update us with more details as to your budget, commitments, study habits, etc that is asked for in the addendum in order to provide a bigger overview of your scenario. Apply, send all transcripts, complete the bulk of remaining credits at Sophia.org, if you need Study.com, then here's a discount code for you: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid418884

[Jonathan Whatley]

Note that many of UMPI’s published procedures for “international” students don’t apply to Canadians. UMPI works with Canadian students routinely being close to the border. UMPI will likely evaluate your Canadian transcript in-house.

[jammy]

Thanks for everyone's views so far. I have received a transfer assessment from UMPI and have developed an initial degree plan based on BLS w Management minor. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...sp=sharing

The Google Sheet here has my plan so far, and a tab with info on my transfer credits. UMPI has given me 73 credits from my past education that can be used to fulfil the general elective credit requirements, and credits me for one UL course in the BLS program. 

A couple of questions for others' advice:

• If I changed the minor to Political Science Minor, does that mean that some of my 3xx and 4xx credits would work for this minor? I ask because frankly I'd rather do easier courses to fulfil the UMPI 30 credit residency requirement and just get this thing pounded out as cheaply and quickly as possible, and try to do the UMPI courses in one semester if possible.

• I currently only have 27 credits mapped out to do at UMPI. I've read from others that the UMPI GEC English courses are quite easy, so is it a good idea to do those credits with UMPI instead of Sophia to contrivute to the 30 credit residency requirement? Or does anyone have other advice on shifting the Sophia/UMPI courses around to make things a lighter lift and contribute to the 30 credit requirement?

Grateful for any comments or feedback!

[bjcheung77]

1) As I mentioned in my post above... Please fill in the addendum as that's missing. Changing the minor will not change the possibility of having these 3XX and 4XX go into the minor, the reason is because, they have nothing to do with the subject matter. You can't force an ART class into a POLI SCI, or an ART class into a MANAGEMENT requirement... Unless your major is in ART, it can't go into the requirements... I have a plan for you, but after I get more details from you...

2) Whatever you want to do to get the max classes at UMPI. I usually recommend a mix/match approach to make sure it's easier/faster for you. An example, To answer your question, it's a Yes and No. If you're using the Sophia.org/Study.com class and taking something else for residency, Yes. And No, if you're going to be using an UMPI class as one of the 30 credits you need for residency credits. You should take 10 classes at UMPI, if your major already has 10 classes remaining, then take this at Sophia.org/Study.com

[Hotdogman1]

I dont think you can do a Political Science minor with Yourpace. From what I know, you had to work something out with Jessica. It looks like bjcheung77 somehow has a plan for you so please fill in the addendum for the sake of my curiosity.

I recommend doing English 1 and 2 at UMPI rather than Sophia due to Sophia's delayed grading time. Additionally, you shouldn't have to take Business Ethics and Business Law from Sophia since you are already transferring in 40 UL credits.

[jammy]

1) As I mentioned in my post above... Please fill in the addendum as that's missing.  

I'm not really clear on what addendum you're referring to — I looked at the stickied posts in this forum but it wasn't immediately obvious to me. Could you share a link to what is required? I'm deeply grateful for the knowledge sharing and advice, and am happy to complete what will help guide this!

[bjcheung77]

It's the "New To DegreeForum? How This Area Works" within my signature, it's also a sticky thread in the "Degree Planning Advice" subforum... Here's the Link, the more info the better, but having something compact and concise will work as well: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

[jammy]

Thanks for sharing the link to the addendum instructions, and apologies for not including it in the first place. Additional detail below:

Budget: I'd like to do this under €/$5k if possible.

Commitments + [b]Dedicated time to study: [/b]I work full time. While I work I can spend on average about 3 hours a day on studies. My employer will also give me 15 working days off for training every year.

I had thought that the UMPI+Sophia path would be ideal because I should be able to do the self-paced Sophia portion during my work day (approx 3-4 hours a day) and when I'm ready to start a semester with the more expensive UMPI portion, I will use my 15 days to focus on studies full-time to minimize costs.

Timeline: I would like to finish by Q2 2025. 

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: My work has agreed to pay for some of this with a training budget. I am able to get Sophia paid for completely if I finish before the end of 2024. I should be able to get about €1500 paid towards UMPI as well, but that is a bit unclear as other colleagues have to submit training plans before decisions are finalized.

Thanks again for everyone's time and insights. Deeply grateful for the experiences and knowledge shared so far!