Path suggestions, school and program

[AirborneAgent]

I would recommend you to look at UMPI's BA in Criminal Justice. The only additional thing is this degree has an "internship" class, but maybe... maybe you could cover it with your Law Enforcement Officer certification/experience? Or if you work currently at law enforcement that could be maybe covered too? You'd have to talk to UMPI about this.

You are anyway going to do General Education on Sophia because you do not have the GenEd full curriculum covered by your credit - that is, you are still spending some time to get GenEd credit, whether it is a BLS or BA in CJ, or something else, let's say, at TESU.

I would strongly recommend you to look into that BA in Criminal Justice, or into BA in History & Political Science at UMPI (this one has no internship), because all these are much better than BLS. Like, if in future you will look for some other position, this marginal difference may be actually useful. It's just my view as I work in an environment where there is no way BLS would work. I would say in general, there is no case where BLS is actually better in long run, as you may lose some opportunities in future, so why not spend a few months to collect some extra credit to get a better, even marginally better, degree.

I will definitely ask UMPI about the required internship course for their Criminal Justice degree.  I am no longer employed by a traditional law enforcement agency, I retired after a career in the detective bureau and training division before switching to a more specialized aviation field which would not really fit into the internship type class or allow for public dissemination of experiences as would be required.  Perhaps they would take my retired credentials from the state/local agency as fulfilling that requirement.  Worst the could say is "no", and I would just go with a different program.

The plan is to begin knocking out some of the GenEd courses on Sofia beginning this upcoming Monday.

I am interested in the BA in History and Political Science degree, as well as BABA - Project Management and Information Systems.  The Political Science degree, as the subject matter is of interest to me, as is the subject matter of the MIS degree.  I am planning on finishing the Google Data Analytics certification tomorrow which should also cover some of the credits toward the BABA.

You have a point about the BLS degree, as I plan on obtaining an MBA, MPA, or similar later and have concerns about it being accepted at other schools.  The degree itself is not an issue in my line of work, as it is simply a check box item.  I just need the most quick path to obtaining a bachelor.

[allvia]

@AirborneAgent  -  I'm a TESU alumni, so I'm a fan - but these days for what you're looking to achieve UMPI is the best option (much quicker and cheaper). The BLS would generally be be the easiest, but with your limited existing credits (& their subject matter) I suspect you could just as easily complete the BABA - Project Management and Information Systems. The BABA would provide the greatest ROI for the minimum effort (of time and money); there are few career paths that a business degree doesn't fit into. If you were still in law enforcement then I'd say the BA-Criminal Justice could be just as easy as the BLS for you, but you're not. There are plenty of MBA (and MPA) programs that don't require a business bachelor - however, having a business bachelor will provide you with far more choices (as it is common they have prerequisites that get covered automatically as part of a Business Admin degree).  

I would recommend you apply to UMPI for the BABA, send them your existing transcripts to get the ball rolling (you can always switch to the BLS if you opt for that later). Then go start the Sophia courses to get all the credits done needed, this is so you'll keep your UMPI courses as close to the 10 required. Sophia moves very quickly (after all, they're LL college courses aimed at recent HS grads). If you do this you can probably start in Sept, and you could well be done by end of 2024 (TESU will cost more, and at best you're looking at Spring/Summer 2025). Here is the UMPI wiki page: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:UMPI

If you had more existing technical credits then maybe the Pierpont AAS to UMPI BAS might provide you a better sounding degree over a BLS (but it still won't be quicker or cheaper than going direct for the BABA), so for your situation I don't believe it is the best (or quickest) option. Again a BAS isn't more valuable than a BLS (or most other bachelor options), just some people think it sounds/reads better - and just as many could argue that it does not. They all 'check the box', and at a certain age that is all you need (because your professional experience counts far more).

I know you have some certifications that may be worth credits at some schools (and if they are worth ACE credits get them registered with CREDLY asap), but generally it is about choosing the path that is of least resistance. Often trying to fit what you already have into a degree isn't the most efficient (for time, ease or money). I speak from personal experience on this point, and others here will undoubtedly back me up on this.


Amberton University
- MS Human Relations and Business - 2022
Thomas Edison State University (TESU)
- BSBA General Management - 2018
- ASNSM Computer Science -2018

[Duneranger]

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan

All you need to know honestly

[berlinerd]

I would recommend you to look at UMPI's BA in Criminal Justice. The only additional thing is this degree has an "internship" class, but maybe... maybe you could cover it with your Law Enforcement Officer certification/experience? Or if you work currently at law enforcement that could be maybe covered too? You'd have to talk to UMPI about this.

You are anyway going to do General Education on Sophia because you do not have the GenEd full curriculum covered by your credit - that is, you are still spending some time to get GenEd credit, whether it is a BLS or BA in CJ, or something else, let's say, at TESU.

I would strongly recommend you to look into that BA in Criminal Justice, or into BA in History & Political Science at UMPI (this one has no internship), because all these are much better than BLS. Like, if in future you will look for some other position, this marginal difference may be actually useful. It's just my view as I work in an environment where there is no way BLS would work. I would say in general, there is no case where BLS is actually better in long run, as you may lose some opportunities in future, so why not spend a few months to collect some extra credit to get a better, even marginally better, degree.

I will definitely ask UMPI about the required internship course for their Criminal Justice degree.  I am no longer employed by a traditional law enforcement agency, I retired after a career in the detective bureau and training division before switching to a more specialized aviation field which would not really fit into the internship type class or allow for public dissemination of experiences as would be required.  Perhaps they would take my retired credentials from the state/local agency as fulfilling that requirement.  Worst the could say is "no", and I would just go with a different program.

The plan is to begin knocking out some of the GenEd courses on Sofia beginning this upcoming Monday.

I am interested in the BA in History and Political Science degree, as well as BABA - Project Management and Information Systems.  The Political Science degree, as the subject matter is of interest to me, as is the subject matter of the MIS degree.  I am planning on finishing the Google Data Analytics certification tomorrow which should also cover some of the credits toward the BABA.

You have a point about the BLS degree, as I plan on obtaining an MBA, MPA, or similar later and have concerns about it being accepted at other schools.  The degree itself is not an issue in my line of work, as it is simply a check box item.  I just need the most quick path to obtaining a bachelor.

Oh, if BABA at UMPI is something of interest for you then definitely go for it, among the UMPI current offering it's probably the most universal and best choice, unless you really need something specific for your career! It's absolutely legitimate degree and people went for different MBAs after that and doctoral degrees too. I just thought (for some reason) that you still work at law enforcement-oriented career which would benefit from CJ degree.

[bjcheung77]

Apply to the institutions for degrees that interest you, once you transfer credits over and see the evaluations, you'll know where you actually stand by reviewing remaining credits. Essentially, you can decide which one fits your needs... One word of advice, don't dwell on deciding, as sometimes the numbers are confusing.

Here's an example, pretend you need just 6 credits to graduate from TESU, the Capstone plus Cornerstone, on the other hand, you need 30 credits left for the UMPI degree of choice for residency, members have mentioned the cornerstone/capstone is longer & more work than those 30 credits combined, thus, decide wisely.

[AirborneAgent]

Oh, if BABA at UMPI is something of interest for you then definitely go for it, among the UMPI current offering it's probably the most universal and best choice, unless you really need something specific for your career! It's absolutely legitimate degree and people went for different MBAs after that and doctoral degrees too. I just thought (for some reason) that you still work at law enforcement-oriented career which would benefit from CJ degree.

I think I have decided on the UMPI BABA path, for now.

I will still ask them about the CJ degree and the "internship" requirement being waived or credited for time in service/certifications.  I am still in law enforcement, just with a very small, obscure, specialized agency nobody has ever heard of.  It just will not work with the internship as what we do is not able to be disclosed without an absolute headache dealing with the USDOS and the governments of other nations.

I look forward to being able to report back here on how everything progressed once I obtain my degree.

Thanks again!

[AirborneAgent]

Two questions.

Another question for which I have found conflicting answers. Does Pierpont and/or UMPI grant credit for TEEX public safety continuing education courses? Courses such as WMD/Terrorism Awareness for Emergency Responders, Cyber Awareness for Municipal Police Fire & EMS, Digital Forensics Basics, Cybersecurity for Everyone, Cybersecurity in The Workplace, similar courses?

Also, I have a question in reference to Sofia courses and them counting toward credit at UMPI for the BLS degree. For the electives, can the be additional general education courses offered by Sofia such as Ancient Greek Philosophers, or do they have to be showing as "elective" on the UMPI Sofia Transfer Credit Wiki?

Thanks.

[bjcheung77]

1) No, basically Pierpont/UMPI, any other institution we recommend need these to have ACE recommendation for credit, having CEU doesn't count...
2) Sophia.org classes doesn't have to be 'electives', it can go towards the major, general education, electives as long as it 'fits' the degree area. Depending on the institution, they will/will not accept all of them, the WIKI is most updated, I would follow that as people regularly update it periodically...

[AirborneAgent]

1) No, basically Pierpont/UMPI, any other institution we recommend need these to have ACE recommendation for credit, having CEU doesn't count...
2) Sophia.org classes doesn't have to be 'electives', it can go towards the major, general education, electives as long as it 'fits' the degree area.  Depending on the institution, they will/will not accept all of them, the WIKI is most updated, I would follow that as people regularly update it periodically...

The ACE recommendation for credit is what has me confused, and I think is what has led me to finding conflicting information on these courses.  I took this screen shot directly from the ACE website today where it shows a 5 credit recommendation.  Most of our agency, FEMA, and DHS sponsored continuing education courses are actually on here as well.  We used a lot of the TEEX for continuing education as they count the full amount of hours toward our annual requirements, even through the courses offer a competency test at the beginning to test out of them.

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And this is what I was asking about in my first few posts when I asked about credits for pilot certificates.  This is also a screenshot of the ACE website today.  How do I get these to show as credit on a transcript?  Provide all my pilot certificates and type ratings directly to the schools, or is there a way to add them to Credly in order to send them to the schools?

[AirborneAgent]

Will UMPI accept the TECEP (ENC-1020-TE Writing for Success II) for English Comp II?