Advice for Associates and BA in Comms?

[Tedium]

I thought the UMPI English track was supposed to be awful and not as fast as the other degrees? We’ve had several people on the board that said they changed majors because of the pace and professors in the English major.

[vintage_jacket]

@vintage_jacket, if you're in a program that is paid for to get your Associates, complete the one in the local state/public school as it would be more recognized than another state AAS.  Focus on completing the Biology with Lab and the CLEPs for now.  You can always complete the Pierpont BOG AAS first with an emphasis in something completely different than what you can finish at the local school.

If LUO stands for Liberty University Online, I would skip that for now unless you have that paid for too.  Complete the Pierpont/Local CC Associates first, you need the RA credits and the CLEP for transfer into your Bachelors.  These are more transfer credit friendly than the ACE options, unless you have fully determined UMPI is your school.  I would at least add Excelsior if you wanted a BSLA with specific courses or WGU if you decide to change degrees.

Focus is to complete the Associates, then ladder up the UMPI BA English YourPace (Communications/Journalism concentration), but sometimes things happen such as your commitments or scenario/situation, you may be best to have back up options such as Excelsior/WGU or whatever you decide on.

Thanks for your perspective. You make a good point Pierpont could be delayed. Are you referring to the ASL, Option 1 or which option?
Associates of Liberal Studies, "this degree is intended to articulate to universities offering the Board of Governor’s baccalaureate degree."

I'm in a federal/county scholarship program that pays for option 3. the AAS degree. It's been a frustrating experience working with them, so while I'm really glad I qualify, I'm not sure it makes sense to continue. The rest of the classes that make up the AAS degree don't fit into the AA or help me achieve my bachelors. They don't cover CLEP costs (I've asked) so I'm using Modern States, but it takes a while to go through the courses.

Also, if I'm in this program, I can't use FAFSA (I haven't qualified but that might change if I talk to my local cc about my job loss).

Current community college (credits left)
1.    ASL (like AGS): 2 CLEP and 1 BIO lab class
2.    AA: 3 CLEP and 1 BIO lab + 1 Art Class + 1 Relations Class
3.    AAS: Many left

BSLA with specific courses? Is that in Liberal Arts? https://www.excelsior.edu/program/bachel...ts-degree/

Yes, I meant Liberty but I'm open at this point, since it would be a stretch to pay $1400 to pay every couple of months. Maybe I'd qualify for FAFSA at that point, but maybe not. Taking more than one in-person/online class was difficult with job that demanded odd hours. I find modern states much easier to pick up in bursts with no deadlines.

[bjcheung77]

Thanks for your perspective. You make a good point Pierpont could be delayed. Are you referring to the ASL, Option 1 or which option?
Associates of Liberal Studies, "this degree is intended to articulate to universities offering the Board of Governor’s baccalaureate degree."

I'm in a federal/county scholarship program that pays for option 3. the AAS degree. It's been a frustrating experience working with them, so while I'm really glad I qualify, I'm not sure it makes sense to continue. The rest of the classes that make up the AAS degree don't fit into the AA or help me achieve my bachelors. They don't cover CLEP costs (I've asked) so I'm using Modern States, but it takes a while to go through the courses.

Also, if I'm in this program, I can't use FAFSA (I haven't qualified but that might change if I talk to my local cc about my job loss).

Current community college (credits left)
1.    ASL (like AGS): 2 CLEP and 1 BIO lab class
2.    AA: 3 CLEP and 1 BIO lab + 1 Art Class + 1 Relations Class
3.    AAS: Many left

BSLA with specific courses? Is that in Liberal Arts? https://www.excelsior.edu/program/bachel...ts-degree/

Yes, I meant Liberty but I'm open at this point, since it would be a stretch to pay $1400 to pay every couple of months. Maybe I'd qualify for FAFSA at that point, but maybe not. Taking more than one in-person/online class was difficult with job that demanded odd hours. I find modern states much easier to pick up in bursts with no deadlines.

Follow these steps: Apply to Pierpont, complete the requirements, send in your transcripts, and graduate right away with a BOG AAS emphasis in Info Systems. For your program "federal/county scholarship program that pays for option 3. the AAS degree" complete a different emphasis or focus such as Business or what you're nearest to finish.

Essentially, As I mentioned, skip Liberty, I would ladder those credits you have towards UMPI BLS as it will take 62 credits of anything in the free electives. Excelsior would be a very good choice as well, as it practically has the same for the BSLA, those in both AAS should come over as lower level electives. You can use financial aid for the Bachelors.

[vintage_jacket]

If you tell us the name of the closed school, that's helpful - we may already know about it and could give you more info.

And yes, ordering an official transcript for yourself is helpful - I also have all of ours scanned and ready to send if needed.  Obviously it's not an official transcript if I send it to someone, but many times they'll accept it while waiting for the official copy, and be able to give you info based on it.

Placement tests generally don't give you credit for something, they allow you to take a higher level class than what you'd be required to take.  So in this case, I'd want to see that transcript.

Many things pending for now, but here's an update. I would prefer to not give out too much personal identifying information online, so I apologize for being too vague. However, the school is listed in on this closed school page, https://www.artinstitutes.edu/closed-sch...ation-page. I see that they made arrangements for the classes to transfer to certain schools. I wonder if that's for credit and non-credit classes, because...

The certificate I obtained was possibly a Continuing Education certificate, which I don't think I understood that at the time. I'm not finding much information in my emails, so I will  follow up on the transcript and see. Regardless, I will send the transcript to the local community college just to see if they can accept them even as non-credits towards some kind of certificate in the future.

Which reminds me, I don't recall what type of college credit (if any) I received from an art college in high school. I took high school summer classes on graphic design, so I will look for info to get a transcript request. Thank you to you and everyone for sparking so many ideas and solutions.

[ss20ts]

I thought the UMPI English track was supposed to be awful and not as fast as the other degrees? We’ve had several people on the board that said they changed majors because of the pace and professors in the English major.

It's not awful. It's a lot of writing and no exams. There have been a few people who switched majors after starting the English degree, but there have been people who switch majors in other programs as well. English is not a fast major anywhere because of the amount of writing. There are multiple professors for the English degree. It's not all 1 professor.

[dfrecore]

If you tell us the name of the closed school, that's helpful - we may already know about it and could give you more info.

And yes, ordering an official transcript for yourself is helpful - I also have all of ours scanned and ready to send if needed.  Obviously it's not an official transcript if I send it to someone, but many times they'll accept it while waiting for the official copy, and be able to give you info based on it.

Placement tests generally don't give you credit for something, they allow you to take a higher level class than what you'd be required to take.  So in this case, I'd want to see that transcript.

Many things pending for now, but here's an update. I would prefer to not give out too much personal identifying information online, so I apologize for being too vague. However, the school is listed in on this closed school page, https://www.artinstitutes.edu/closed-sch...ation-page. I see that they made arrangements for the classes to transfer to certain schools. I wonder if that's for credit and non-credit classes, because...

The certificate I obtained was possibly a Continuing Education certificate, which I don't think I understood that at the time. I'm not finding much information in my emails, so I will  follow up on the transcript and see. Regardless, I will send the transcript to the local community college just to see if they can accept them even as non-credits towards some kind of certificate in the future.

Which reminds me, I don't recall what type of college credit (if any) I received from an art college in high school. I took high school summer classes on graphic design, so I will look for info to get a transcript request. Thank you to you and everyone for sparking so many ideas and solutions.

The Art Institute was RA, so you should definitely be able to use those credits if you can find them.  I would request a transcript through Parchment, which is on the link.  Send a copy to yourself - you'll know within 5 minutes if your courses were worth college credit or not.

[vintage_jacket]

Well, I still haven't found out more information about the art and design credits, but in other news...I went through my classes and school catalog at my current community college and it looks like I will end up with a basic certificate in Introductory Entrepreneurship at the end of the year simply based from the classes that I'm taking to get the AAS in Business. Not bad!

I'm not sure how much small certificates are recognized (4 classes), but I'm just grateful to be receiving one.

[davewill]

Again, the 2nd community college said they wouldn't give credit for a closed school.

Wow! Talk about kicking someone when they're down. It's not bad enough your school closed on you, they want you to abandon ALL of the work you did, too? Well, you won't have that problem at most other schools.

[vintage_jacket]

Again, the 2nd community college said they wouldn't give credit for a closed school.

Wow! Talk about kicking someone when they're down. It's not bad enough your school closed on you, they want you to abandon ALL of the work you did, too? Well, you won't have that problem at most other schools.

Thanks, that's encouraging to hear! Even if they end up being non-continuing education credits, they should still help me to maybe get a small certificate through the continuing education department.

[ss20ts]

Again, the 2nd community college said they wouldn't give credit for a closed school.

Wow! Talk about kicking someone when they're down. It's not bad enough your school closed on you, they want you to abandon ALL of the work you did, too? Well, you won't have that problem at most other schools.

It is amazing how so many colleges react to transfer credit. So many are just ridiculous. I'm wondering if the issue is because of what happened with The Art Institutes. They were basically shutdown by the government. They didn't go bankrupt and close like some other colleges.