Degree Planning from scratch for late career software engineer

[christinadq]

BUT -- lately he's gotten into management too, which he never thought he'd like until the last couple of years.  A business degree that actually teaches him new things and lets him put that knowledge to good use would also be useful and maybe actually better when looking towards the future.  So UMPI's BABA looked like a decent option or even their BLS with a Management or an MIS minor might really work OR perhaps even TAMUC's BAAS in Org Leadership (we are based in Texas and a local university would have more name recognition near us).

With an established career in software engineering, he probably doesn't really need to take a CS-heavy degree, unless he wants to go into research. I'm in a similar kind of position as he is- and to be honest, even for many research positions I'm a strong enough candidate as-is.

Given that he likes management, I would definitely encourage you to to look at a business / management / org leadership degree, since he'll probably learn more new & useful material that way and it will be a better career accelerator.

He can test out of languages with ACTFL and/or NYU SPS, depending on whether or not he wants/needs RA credit. Again, I'm in a very similar position there with a couple of European languages under my belt, and since I'll probably have more than enough RA credit, I'm really just rounding out my transcript with ACTFL for the shits and giggles.

If I were him, I'd probably gas up on Sophia and ACTFL and then go for the UMPI BLS w/MIS and MGT concentrations.

That is exactly how he feels about the CS degree.  It does not add anything - not new knowledge, nor evidence of skill - to his career.  He wants a bit of a stretch, even if it means more time to accomplish it.  

I think the NYU SPS is how I earned either 29 or 30 hours across two languages myself for my Bachelors that came in quite handy back when I was working on my undergrad.  I have lived in several countries as a child and then later young adult, so that was an easy way to get many of my electives handled. The NYU foreign language program is far more expensive I believe.

Right now he tends to be leaning towards the TAMUC degree for several reasons.  He researched the org leadership field and compared the degrees and the functions behind the degrees and he likes it better than more of a pure business degree.  Finance will bore him to tears, but leading people through challenging times towards a strategic vision is more what he's looking to do with his next steps. The speed potential of getting through the core courses required in residence are another plus and finally, that they are local to our area in North Texas.  Being close to us and in the TAMU system (recognized in TX) is something he likes.

He has a phone call into the city agency in his home town that stores transcripts long term (both high school and college) to learn how to get copies sent.  That's #1 priority as the schools close next week for summer but we aren't sure if the city office does as well (many city agencies close or significantly reduce hours for a lot of the summer there). We will have everything evaluated and he will apparently even need his high school transcripts evaluated by US standards for admission to these places.  I think that will take at least 6 weeks, so he will spend the time he has doing sophia classes.  

My intention today is to work up a potential degree plan for the BAAS at TAMUC and as a backup probably a BLS at UMPI and possibly a TESU degree plan as well, to present to him with different options.  

Downside to TAMUC is that it requires Texas Government, which I think he can get through our community college as an add on test if he CLEPs American Government.  One of our kids did that a couple of years ago.  They also, as a Tx public institution, may require him (as a student with nearly 0 credits) to take the Texas Success Initiative which is a state placement exam proving he can do college level work.  It's not hard but it is something he will have to do.  That's the downside to TAMUC.  They don't require any lab based science, which makes that a bit easier to source.  They also seem to be very liberal with their elective acceptance for their rather large bucket of electives needed for the degree.