AS, AA, AAS > BS for a SysAdmin w/certs. Help me get there quickly.

[JB3]

Hi all. This forum has been a very interesting read for me for the past year. I've been busy with an expanding family and career obligations, but now I need to further my education and make myself more marketable so I'm posting for some guidance.

Background:
I was a retail/wholesale business manager for 12 years, and have some 15 year old ASE certifications somewhere as part of this "past life".
I switched careers to IT and for the past 5 years I've been doing tech-school and have achieved MCSE Server 2003 (and by default MCSA/MCP), A+, Network+, CCNA (expired but earned, I think someone accepts these for credit less than 10 years old, mine is at 4 years old) and ITIL v3 certification.

Challenges:
I'm going into my third year at a company is currently laying off /attempting to offshore our department (Lvl2) and below, AND no one out of ~100 people have gotten raises the past two yearly reviews in a row. I have kids and a wife that depend on me and there is no future in standing still so I need to be prepared to get my resume out there again.

I have the background to confidently apply to jobs requiring 4 year degree in spite of no degree at all, but education is huge in this area and I really need to have AT LEAST a 2 year degree to apply to Bachelor's requirement-level positions. I need to do this as quickly as possible.

I have searched, read, currently have 30 tabs open in Chrome, and I just really need someone to help me do a quick-and-dirty plan of attack here.

I originally thought the quickest way to something other than high school + certs on my resume was the AAS in ES&ST from TESC, so I've knocked out 2x FEMA courses in one day pretty easily. I might be able to do 4 per day this week.

Reading around, it looks like I can get a BSBA almost completely testing out with COSC.
http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...post119443

The problem with this is that it looks like the AAS in ES&ST does not count much towards the BSBA, despite Bricabracs amazing success. milelol:

A Business degree is certainly ok with me, because I have all the technical certs I need to work in my field, and I'm basically just a degree away from management or team lead. Short term, I need something beyond High School on my resume.

I think I can continue with the ES&ST to BSBA plan, but Bricabrac didn't completely test-out of his AAS, so I'm not sure it's possible.

Priorities:
#1 - get a degree, any degree, ASAP.
#2 - continue to Bachelor's, business management of some sort.
#3 - get the most amount of overlap between 1&2, with the least amount of cost. I'm not asking for a cost-breakdown, I'm figuring on the 3-4k that I've read.

I thought I had a plan with TESC, then I see cookderosa posted recently that it's best to pursue an AA at the local CC, and I don't have that kind of time.

Help, please. I promise that once this is all done, I will continue to contribute here and pay-it-forward, just as I was an instructor for mentored learning for MCSE track students at my tech school once I finished my track. TIA,

JB

[rebel100]

Your not really loosing anything significant by doing the ESS AS at TESC most of the "extra" credits are free FEMA...so who cares if you have to get 20 of those that aren't gonna count towards the bachelors? If getting "any" degree is paramount go after that. The ESS is arguably pertinent across a wide variety of industries. You could complete it really fast...like by the end of the year I bet.

Burbuja did her Business Degree at COSC her plan should be on the wiki. I opted to do what is technically a liberal studies degree at COSC but my concentration is a dual one in Health Care and Organizational Leadership. Org Leadership uses a lot of business courses and I argue that it's practically a business degree (it's worked in the last couple of interviews and it's on my resume).

TESC will offer may have an easier Business degree to test out of...more CLEP/DSST is counted as UL there and the path is well trodden...plenty of folks on here to help you with it.

[JB3]

Thanks rebel, that's what I needed to hear is that I wouldn't be losing anything. I guess another issue would be paying then not being able to finish my BS within that time frame, paying it twice. It would still be cheaper and quicker than B&M, but still... I think I'll follow your advice (and my original plan).

I'll search tomorrow and see if anyone has tested completely out of the ESS. Thanks again.

Any IT related credit advice is also welcome, as is more input. This is such a great resource.

[rebel100]

Simple really...Thomas Edison State College: Environmental, Safety & Security Technologies option 2 and free electives all FEMA from the approved TESC list.

Pick the Gen Eds here:
DANTES
CLEP - College-Level Exam Program
Online College Courses - Distance Learning Courses - StraighterLine
ALEKS Course Products (double stars (**)) be sure TESC counts it.

Note that free electives could be courses that will count in your business major like Intro to Marketing and Intro to Management CLEP's...you can likely take these with a minimal of study and sort of get double benefit as they are also Upper Level at TESC. Macro and Micro are great here to and I believe are required in the BSBA. You might consider an easy 6 credit course like Analyzing and Interpreting Literature as well.

BTW, the 7 courses that make up the FEMA PDS count for credit (one requires an 8th fema though). The PDS is a nice little resume padder on its own too Emergency Mangagement Institute | Professional Development Series (PDS)

[JB3]

I saw the 8th Fema after I had taken IS-120a, so I just took IS-300 to complete the plus requirement, if that's what you mean.

I'm using this list for FEMA courses accepted for transfer as my guide. It's the most current I could find.

I'll dig around the Gen Eds this weekend. I have never used CLEP, so I'll admit that trying to sort out the requirements to get to where I want to be is a bit daunting at times.