Struggling to find the right school(mid-30s with GED)

[jaytea89]

I dropped out of high school 17 years ago and my transcript was not pretty. I was a "gifted" child, which of course means I was just told "You can do anything" with no direction...while simultaneously dealing with CPTSD thanks to a chaotic childhood. So I chose to do nothing and spent my 20s "enjoying" life(killing brain cells) while trying to recover and get my head on straight. Now I feel I am finally in a place mentally(although not financially, that's college life) to start pursuing a formal education. 

I just got my GED yesterday, scored "college ready" on math and science, and "college ready + credit" on social studies and language arts. I was only 1 question away from "college ready + credit" on math and science so I plan to retake those for a higher score. That's 10 potential credits(LA is only potentially worth 1, the others are 3 each). If money and my transcript weren't an issue, I would go to Indiana University(I'm a state resident) for their B.S. in Animal Behavior, so keep that in mind as my "ideal" major. I'm likely going to have to jerry-rig a degree specialty using electives, which is fine.

My career goal is something related to wildlife rehabilitation, working with captive animals at zoos, or anything along those lines. A degree isn't always required for these jobs, but I want to increase my options and have my applications stand out to give me a better chance at success. I'm also starting an internship at a local wildlife rehab next month where I'll be added to the owner's permit as an assistant. 

I want to take as many online courses as I can to save money. I've already purchased 2 StraighterLine courses, but one is just "Student Success" which I know is unlikely to transfer. I bought it because I think it will give me a lot of valuable information to help me do well in my actual college courses. I have a bunch of courses in mind from SL that are common requirements or relevant to my goals, I will list them near the end.

My plan was to attend Ivy Tech for an A.A. in General Studies and then transfer into a major elsewhere, but I'm not sure how many ACE credits they will take(if any). Indiana Tech offers a similar degree and my SL courses are guaranteed to transfer. Ivy Tech has a partnership with other local schools that "guarantee" the transfer of my A.A. credits, one such school is IUPUI with its B.A. in Biology and Individualized Major programs. Not sure how easily the Indiana Tech degree will transfer to other colleges, but I assume at a similar rate. Indiana Tech has a B.S. in Biology where I might be able to use electives to specialize in wildlife. I've also looked into Unity College for their B.S. in Animal Health and Behavior, which is fully online. Unity has a 100% acceptance rate but they seem to have gone downhill in recent years. I'm also not confident at all that my ACE credits would transfer since they're not even a member. I've looked into the "Big 3" but none of those schools have the specific degree I'm after or a way to piece together the specialty I want.

The primary thing holding me back from my desired degree at IU is the fact that it's 2 hours away, I can overcome the other hurdles. Tuition at IU is one of the lowest for me because I live in Indiana, but I would have to either drive to classes or get a larger loan to cover housing expenses, in addition to either walking/biking everywhere or renting a car. My major needs to be able to be done either fully online or in Indianapolis.

Here's a list of my desired StraighterLine courses:

-American Government
-English Composition I & II
-College Algebra(already purchased)
-Precalculus
-General Calculus I
-Intro Biology
-Intro Psych
-Intro Sociology
-Intro Statistics
-Intro Philosophy
-Intro Religion
-Intro Environmental Science
-Microbiology


Sorry for making my first post a barely coherent wall of text. Higher education is even more of a nightmare to navigate than I originally thought. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 



tl;dr High school dropout wants to go to college in his 30s and work with wildlife, send help.