Degree planning advice

[rachel83az]

A BLS, or Bachelor of Liberal Studies, is a "whatever you want" degree, to a certain extent. Depending on the universities involved, two students with Liberal Studies degrees may have taken entirely different classes. One may have focused on History and Philosophy, another on Computer Science and Psychology. Because of this, people who don't have Liberal Studies degrees tend to think of them as "fake" and "not real" or "too easy". The courses are just as rigorous as the courses used for other degrees, but because you get to pick whatever you want (within reason), some people get suspicious. Especially in countries where the concept doesn't really exist.

A BABA is a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration. It focuses on Business classes. Although more usually styled as a BSBA (Bachelor of Science in Business Administration), if you say you got a degree in Business Administration, people will have a good idea of what you've studied. The details may vary (Leadership vs. Project Management vs. Accounting), but it's still a business degree.

After bringing in 90 credits to UMPI - how about the rest? Are those acquired by completing some online courses which require some kind of written paper like Sophia's Touchstones?

Yes, the rest come from online classes at UMPI.

At UMPI, most course grades are based on a single final paper or project that you write or create. There are very few exams, and there may be none at all in Business by the time you enroll. The exams that exist are not proctored, but neither are they open book. Other students have reported them to sometimes be more difficult than the papers or projects.

UMPI classes are self-paced. They're not unlike Sophia classes. A few students are able to complete the minimum 10 classes (30 credits) in a single 8 week session. Most students need 2 or sometimes 3 sessions. A handful, mainly students pursuing more challenging degrees, have needed 4 sessions.