Need an AA in less than 12 months

[ajcolmer]

Hello, 

I stumbled across this forum whilst researching whether or not the "9 month college grad" degree hacking program on YouTube was worth the money. I did watch his introductory video where he states that the key is to find a college that you pay for by term, not by credit and to test out of courses. 
A little background on me:
I am a HS grad and have worked my way up the ladder to HR at a non-profit Hospice (10 plus years experience). My sister in law (MS degree RN) owns and runs a local health care facility. We have been approached with the opportunity to purchase a similar facility in a neighboring state that I would be the administrator of. The catch is this state requires the administrator to have an AA degree or at least an LPN license. I have neither. An LPN would require not only the course work, but the hands on clinical work, so it cannot be fast tracked. So AA degree it is. I need the shortest, cheapest way possible. I am not afraid of hard work and will but the time in as required. I need to get this done as quickly as possible because either my sister in law or my husband will be the "administrator" on paper (which requires they be in the facility at least 20 hours a week) and I will be the designee, actually doing the work. The sooner we can get that administrator role transferred to me, the sooner they will get those 20 hours of their life back!

From the "9 month degree hack", I found UMass may be my best option to enroll in an AA and test out of courses. Has anyone had any experience with them? Thank you so much!

[ss20ts]

Why not just go for the BABA with Management Concentration from UMPI? There aren't many AA programs that will be cheaper or faster than many of the bachelor's degrees we discuss on here.

Define test out of courses. UMass is a 4 year college in Amherst, MA. They offer bachelor's and master's degrees. Are you possibly thinking of UMass Global? That's not UMass. It was Brandman University which was purchased and turned into UMass Global. It's in California not Massachusetts. It's a CBE program. There aren't a ton of exams in the program as the course are mostly written assignments.

[ajcolmer]

Why not just go for the BABA with Management Concentration from UMPI? There aren't many AA programs that will be cheaper or faster than many of the bachelor's degrees we discuss on here.

Define test out of courses. UMass is a 4 year college in Amherst, MA. They offer bachelor's and master's degrees. Are you possibly thinking of UMass Global? That's not UMass. It was Brandman University which was purchased and turned into UMass Global. It's in California not Massachusetts. It's a CBE program. There aren't a ton of exams in the program as the course are mostly written assignments.

This is why I came here! I did mean UMass Global, sorry for the confusion! The 9 month BA guy said that the fastest way to complete courses is to not listen to any lectures, do not buy books or attend study groups, but to learn the material via other sources on the internet, then write your essays or takes your tests to prove your knowledge and move on to the next course. It seemed too good to be true. Can you tell me more about UMPI and why you recommend it?

[newdegree]

You can try to degree hack an associate degree from Thomas Edition State University or Excelsior University by taking Sophia and Coursera courses. I am not sure of the maximum number of credits they will accept. I think it's 45, but it could be more for associates. You would have to finish 15 credits with them. You can bang them out quickly as they run 8-week courses.

[ss20ts]

Why not just go for the BABA with Management Concentration from UMPI? There aren't many AA programs that will be cheaper or faster than many of the bachelor's degrees we discuss on here.

Define test out of courses. UMass is a 4 year college in Amherst, MA. They offer bachelor's and master's degrees. Are you possibly thinking of UMass Global? That's not UMass. It was Brandman University which was purchased and turned into UMass Global. It's in California not Massachusetts. It's a CBE program. There aren't a ton of exams in the program as the course are mostly written assignments.

This is why I came here! I did mean UMass Global, sorry for the confusion! The 9 month BA guy said that the fastest way to complete courses is to not listen to any lectures, do not buy books or attend study groups, but to learn the material via other sources on the internet, then write your essays or takes your tests to prove your knowledge and move on to the next course. It seemed too good to be true. Can you tell me more about UMPI and why you recommend it?

What he is saying to do isn't as easy as it sounds. You need to score high enough to pass the courses. Also you don't learn anything. So what good is the degree? If you complete a degree in horseback riding and are seeking a career as a horse trainer, companies interviewing you are going to assume you have knowledge about horses, but if you do what he says then you won't learn anything about horses and won't be easily employable. 

Many people have completed their bachelor's degree at UMPI in a year and some have completed it in less time. There are degree plans on here for UMPI. You'd take as many credits from Sophia as you can transfer to UMPI - just about maxing out the 90 transfer credits and you'd complete at least 30 credits at UMPI. There's an entire channel on here dedicated to UMPI. You can read all about it on there. 

Here's the website for YourPace which is the program many of us have completed at UMPI. Myself included.

https://www.umpi.edu/yourpace/

[Hotdogman1]

You can transfer in 90+ credits to UMPI and they accept a lot of alternative credits. You should take a look at the degreeforum wiki as there are many degree maps/plans utilizing Alt credits. If you transfer in 90 credits (you can transfer in more but you still have to complete 30 credits at UMPI), you should be able to complete it in 2-3 sessions (4-6 months). You can complete as many courses as you can during a session but only 2 can be active at the same time. Only the final is graded but you have to complete several ungraded milestones to unlock it. The final is either an essay or project and a detailed rubric and instructions will be included as well.

I completed 12 courses at UMPI in one session (8 weeks) by skipping all the content and focusing on just completing the finals with knowledge of my previous work experience. I got a 3.9 gpa due to the detailed instructions. However, ss20ts is correct: I didn't really learn anything. I actually regretted rushing so much that I'm now doing an in-person masters degree. A generous timeline for getting the alt credits and completing UMPI would be 9 months: Sophia+Coursera (alt credit) ~3 months + at least 10 courses at UMPI ~6 months.

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, you'll get info from all points of view and be pulled in many directions... You've not filled the addendum and template, as your brief overview doesn't indicate your age, budget, commitments, state, study habits, time dedicated to study, etc. With more info, we can help you further... Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

There are various Youtubers who have come to this site to 'borrow' hacking and other credit accumulation strategies and make it their own. The main difference is, they're 'one person' shows, vs this community of volunteers, not only that, but the info they provide sometimes is out dated already and incorrect.

Clifford (College Hacked) is a TESU grad, Ryan (9 month grad) is a WGU grad, they'll have different opinions on getting credit and max transfers, but they'll also agree with the board - you get your alternative credits first, then complete the residency requirements from the institution you intend to graduate from. That's the short of it!

[ArshveerCheema]

Nationally accredited for-profit school: https://www.calcoast.edu/why-ccu.html
Self-paced, the minimum time you have to spend before you can graduate is 9 months for an undergraduate degree.
I personally have not taken a program from this school but other forum users have.

$170 per credit hour and you can enroll in a payment plan.

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board... For the cost of $1700, you can try to complete a session at UMPI and probably be able to finish an undergraduate degree in that session, as long as you have the energy, time to get the job done. I highly recommend you to complete the addendum and template as you're just providing a brief overview of your scenario. Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

[allvia]

I'd suggest one of the UMPI BLS options (probably Management, as it is known to be 'easier' than some of the others). It would both cheaper and  quicker than any Associate level degree option currently available starting from zero (two months ago would have been a different story). This is an OP who has clearly stated they are in need of a 'check box' degree quickly - getting one that is a bachelor is just a bonus.