Crippling self doubt! (aka starting college at 40!)

[Merlin]

First of all, you can lose the self-doubt. I've got more than 10 years on you, and when I started this process to go back to get my degree, I only had 13 quarter-hour credits from a community college that I earned when I was 17. That is basically the same as starting from scratch. My first disappointment was discovering that quarter-hour credits convert to semester-hour credits at a big discount (2/3). So at 8.67 credits, I didn't have enough credits to officially enroll at my first choice of college (this was COSC). But that was easily remedied after passing a handful of CLEP and DSST exams.

Shortly thereafter I ended up having to take a break for a few years due to a cross-country move and having our first kid, but when I came back I decided I wanted to pursue a different degree and determined that TESU was a better choice than COSC. At that point, I immersed myself in research, built myself a new plan, and started to execute on it. I earned more than 90 credits in about 10 months, and I could have gone quicker had I needed to (I goofed off a bit and took a lot of breaks; I earned half those credits in the last 3 months). I'm now finishing up the final project for my capstone and am set to graduate in March. Like you, I also intend to move into a masters degree, though I'm also considering a Ph.D. since I think I'd enjoy the research and teaching opportunities.

While I'm not in the military and we may have different time constraints, I'm pretty busy during the work week and I have a 3-year old that requires constant attention when she's awake. I do most of my studying in the evening after my daughter and wife go to bed, and also try to squeeze time in now and then when time permits during the day. I generally aim to put in 4-6 hours a day, though some days it is more or less. I usually live on 4-5 hours of sleep except when I'm sick or traveling.

In any case, since you're starting from scratch, the sky's the limit. You really just need to figure out what kind of degree you're interested in and then make a decision of where to get it. I'm sure most folks here will suggest the TESU BA in Liberal Studies (BALS) as the fastest and easiest degree, followed by the TESU BS in Business Administration (BSBA).

I don't know how test-out friendly those Homeland Security/Emergency Management/Public Safety Administration degrees are, or if there are better alternatives, but I'm sure someone here will know.

If you have any skill or interest in cybersecurity or IT, you might also want to consider WGU, which can be as fast, or even faster, as well as cheaper than alt. education options through TESU, depending on how dedicated you are and how quickly you push through the material. Had I realized that when I came back, I might have gone down that path. If so I'd probably be done with a BSSD or BSCS degree by now.

Since you have a specific masters degree program in mind, you might want to look at the requirements for that program and use that to help inform your decisions on courses to plan into your bachelor's degree, particularly if you go with a BALS. It may require that you take certain prerequisite courses at the bachelor's level, for example.

Good luck! If I can do it, you should be able to too.