Transcript Review - Help, which of the big 3?

[mrs.b]

You can absolutely complete 60+ credits in a year, with family and job and the rest. Many here have done it. I completed 63 in 15 months, and that was with 33 of the total 63 in full-course form which, in retrospect, was not a good idea with such an aggressive timeline. If I'd swapped those from course to CBE, it would've breezed by and been done in far less than 12 months.

When starting down this road, it is difficult to see the difference of time investment required between a course which we're all mostly familiar, and a test-out option. Will you cover the same material? Yes. You will not waste time writing lengthy papers simply to drive home a term or concept though, because you already have the business experience to build upon. All you'll be doing for most of the courses is reading through the material, applying the new terminology to the concepts you're already familiar with (and if you've worked in a business environment as your history implies, it'll come fairly easy), drill yourself on the terminology and a few of the specific names that are highlighted, and move on. In courses, so much time is wasted on drilling the minute details because courses are designed for people who are seeing that material for the first time. You haven't - you've lived it - so you just need to refresh your memory on what terms apply to your existing experience. For material you're not familiar with, the same concept applies only you'll spend a bit more time drilling yourself on those new concepts, and rather than move at the pace of a course design, you'll spend as much or as little time as you need to "get it." In some cases, you'll move much faster than a course design would offer, and in some cases you'll need to slow down and take more time than a course would if it's foreign to you. Either way, if you approach it as an overall learning experience minus the fluff to fill out 12-weeks as a course does, you'll walk away with a stronger understanding in less time. That is the difference between courses and CBEs. They can and typically are done in much less time than a course. You can also walk away with more knowledge than you otherwise would from a course, because you'll study and focus on ALL the material, not just the highlighted bits a course mentor and course design finds relevant.

Will it be easy? No, few good things in life come easy. I'd say the bulk of the people on this forum, though, have accomplished the same with families (I have a husband and special needs child, and extended family that needed help) and jobs (I worked 50+ hours a week with a number of business trips during that 15 months). It's been done and continues to be done every day by others, so when the rough times come - and they will - reach out for encouragement and shoulders because there are a lot to lean on; it's what this forum does best. It is the faster and cheaper of the higher education roads, but it is not a shortcut by any means if you approach it as a learning experience and not just a checkbox on a resume or bucket list. And you have one of those four kiddos coming up on college. If you get this learning curve down pat, you can help her - and her siblings later - save time and money by replicating something similar so she can have a competitive advantage over her peers by entering the job market with less debt earlier than 4+ years by trimming down a few of those requirements. A number of the members here who are not juggling families and jobs are young teens still in high school who will enter college with a considerable number of credits under their belts. That's something any parent could wish for their children, and something you could help her accomplish.