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[teejayb]

Hello everyone!

I've got analysis paralysis on choosing how to go forward with my education. I'm 35, live in Texas and I've been a Firefighter/Paramedic for about 14 years now. I was going the more formal route until I got hired and really didn't see a need to further my education at that point unless it was specifically job related. Fast forward until now and I see guys I work with getting injured or staying on a fire truck too long because they do not have a fall back career. I do not want that to happen to me or my family, so here I am.

No degrees and here is my "some college" resume from over a decade ago:
English 1A
American History
Sign Language 1

Post Firefighter
Fire Academy
Paramedic School
24 units on building construction, disaster response and recovery, hazardous materials, aircraft fire rescue, ect
Every ICS class that FEMA has to offer.
Fire Officer 1
Fire Instructor 1
__________________________________________________________________________________________________


As you can see, I'm starting from scratch for the most part. Best I can probably do is life experience credits and just start fresh on the general education classes. I'm seeing Emergency Management and Homeland Security degrees which look interesting to me. I'd also be interested in something like organizational leadership, but really open to most things. Can anyone help me figure out the best way to get a bachelors in a area generally related to the emergency service field?

[rachel83az]

Assuming your college stuff is RA graded credits, you could start off with a FREE Pierpont Associate degree: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC

Unfortunately, I don't think that there's a specifically emergency service degree that you could get cheaply/easily. However, since you're in Texas, you have access to the cheap TAMUC degrees in Organizational Leadership or Criminal Justice (Law Enforcement Leadership emphasis). https://inside.tamuc.edu/aboutus/IER/icbe/default.aspx TAMUC is $750 per 7-week term or just over $100 per week. If you can complete the courses necessary for the Pierpont degree in 1-2 months, you should be able to tackle a competency-based degree from TAMUC.

[bjcheung77]

My suggestion is to get as many CLEP/MS courses under your belt, like 90 credits or so since they are FREE, that's 3 years of education for you! That is because many colleges/universities do not take alternative credits through ACE/NCCRS. One thing to note, you don't have many credits that will transfer, you can try PLA with any of the universities mentioned in the thread I am linking you. Here are a few more options: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid342491

[dfrecore]

I would choose a degree/school before taking courses, so you don't waste any time or money.

Also, I would look at UMPI's BLS degree, allowing the most Free Electives which you have a lot of; or EC's BLS degree, allowing even more Free Electives.