Degree Advice for Transferring Associate into Quick Bachelors? Thanks!

[Missled]

Hi All! 

Thanks for stopping and taking the time to read my post. I recently just graduated from my community college with an 'Associate in Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences: Science, Math, and Technology with Highest Honors' and need help with figuring out a plan to move on towards my bachelor's. 

I honestly thought I'd be done with my schooling in life since I got pretty burnt out from switching my majors and just being unsure about my future but at this point in my life after relocating states and starting fresh my passion to finish my education has been revitalized. My goal is to become an elementary grade school teacher through the Texas teaching alternative certification program where I specifically don't need a teaching bachelor's I just need 'A' bachelors. 

I'm leaning more towards Excelsior because you can transfer a lot more credits so fewer classes which in turn can equal less money spent. I do get test anxiety so I honestly probably prefer essays, projects, open book, non proctored but hey I've taken tests all my life if I gotta suck it up not the end of the world as long as the class is simple enough. 

From reading the wiki y'all made I saw EU doesn't accept credits from Sophia which is open book but does accept Coopersmith, Lawshelf, and Study.com whichever of these is best for getting the most credits I need before officially getting my transcript evaluated by EU so I don't have to pay an extra $300 in case I need it done twice. Somewhere in these many forums, I read Coopersmith doesn't proctor anymore do y'all know if that's true?

Your Location: Texas, USA (Have lived here for roughly 5 months now, I say that in regards to the TAMUC since I wouldn't qualify for resident pricing)
Your Age: 21
What kind of degree do you want?: Any. Whichever is easiest and quickest which I would assume would probably be liberal arts since that's what my associates is.
Current Regional Accredited Credits: (As you can see my majors went from engineering, to business, to just finishing up my GE since I just wanted to be done with my associates already at that point)

Chabot College Total Credits: 80
CHEM 31 C Intro to College Chemistry 4.00 B
COMM 1 C Fundamentals of Speech Comm 3.00 A
ENGR 10 C Introduction to Engineering 2.00 A
ENGR 11 C Engineer Design and Analysis 2.00 A
MTH 37 C Trig/Geometric Foundations 5.00 B
ENGL 1 C Critical Reading & Composition 4.00 A
MTH 20 C Pre-Calculus Mathematics 5.00 B
MTH 1 C Calculus I 5.00 A 
PHYS 18 C Preparatory Physics 3.00 P
MTH 2 C Calculus II 5.00 B
MUSL 1 C Introduction to Music 3.00 A 
PHYS 4A C General Physics I 5.00 B
BUS 1A C Financial Accounting 4.00 A
ENGL 4A C Critical Think/Write Lit 4.00 B
BUS 1B C Managerial Accounting 4.00 B
PSY 1 C General Psychology 3.00 A
BUS 10 C Business Law 4.00 A 
ECD 56 C Child Growth and Development 3.00 A
ECN 1 C Principles of Microeconomics 3.00 A
POSC 1 C Intro to American Government 3.00 A
HLTH 1 C Intro to Personal Health 3.00 A
MUSL 8 C Hist Rock & Roll/Popular Music 3.00 A

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: N/A
Any certifications or military experience? Besides my associate no.
Budget: 5k~ish (I can spend more if needed but really not trying to put myself into debt)
Commitments: Full-time job
Dedicated time to study: On average about 3 hours a day possibly more on weekends
Timeline: ASAP!  I want to just get the most basic accredited bachelors as soon and as cheaply as I possibly can so I can put more time, resources, and income into my teaching credential journey.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: N/A (Would be nice if I could get financial aid though)

Thank you! Please let me know if I forgot anything or need to add anything else <3

[bjcheung77]

@Missled, Welcome to the board... Excelsior accepts Sophia.org, Coopersmith is proctored. Which EU degree were you looking at? I would guess you were looking at the BSLA as the check the box degree. You have the option of doing the UMPI BLS Education Minor if you wanted to go into Elementary teaching. TAMUC/UMPI would be my first choice, TESU, Excelsior, WGU would be tied for second.

[rachel83az]

First, Excelsior does accept Sophia credits. But they're picky about which ones they accept and Sophia credits are only LL. Not super useful for someone who already has an an Associate.

That said, fastest/easiest will be whatever most interests you. For instance, the BABA Management & Leadership degree at UMPI is generally one of the fastest degrees, taking some students only 1-2 sessions (2 or 4 months) to complete. But if this subject matter bores you or is otherwise difficult for whatever reason, it could wind up taking 3 or 4 sessions.

If you can finish a UMPI degree in just a couple of sessions, it will be substantially cheaper than an Excelsior degree. 3 UMPI sessions + Sophia would come in under $5k. I'm not sure that SDC + Coopersmith (and maybe LawShelf) plus the required 7 Excelsior credits would also do that.

[dfrecore]

Excelsior accepts Sophia credits and they aren't picky at all about them from what I know. They also have the easiest GE requirements to meet by far, and don't require any RA credit (although you already have plenty so not an issue for you).

Here's what you need for the EU BLS:

Sophia
Ethics
Intro to Management (UL)
2 LL courses in anything

SDC or Coopersmith:
6 UL courses in SocSci or Humanities
1 UL course in Anything

Excelsior
Info Lit (1cr)
Cornerstone (UL)
Capstone (UL)

Tuition and fees for 7cr - ~ $4100
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TESU is also good, here's what you need for the BALS:

Sophia
Sociology
Ethics
3 LL AOS courses with a 200-level or higher equivalency (Visual Comm, Business Comm, Ancient Greek Philosophers, Conflict Resolution, Public Speaking, Stats)
4cr of Free Electives (any 3cr course plus a 1cr course)
I'd probably do a couple of extra courses, maybe College Algebra and College Math would be easy, because I can't remember if Trig and Precalc are the same at TESU.

SDC or Coopersmith (plus 1 particular LawShelf course)
5 UL courses in the AoS (so Social Sciences, Humanities, or CompSci)

Tuition and fees for 6cr - ~ $6700
OR
Tuition & fees for a FT/FR 15cr term there - $4300
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's what you need for the UMPI BLS:

Sophia
Biological science (Human Bio or Nutrition)
Sociology
US History I or II
Spanish I
Intro to Ethics
a 1cr course

UMPI
Hands-on Art
9 additional courses (6-7 will be in the minor; be aware that the EDU minor will take longer than the Mgmt minor, it's more work)

$1500/term, and you can prob finish in 2 terms, or even 1 (not common)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would choose UMPI, because it will be the cheapest if you can finish quickly. I would also NOT choose the Education minor, because you will probably have to do those courses via an alt-cert program anyway, they won't take your college coursework in place of that (I was doing Teacher's of Tomorrow and you had to go through the entire program, no waivers).

[bjcheung77]

@Missled, even though you only have 5-6 months residency in Texas, you should plan your remaining credits and see how long it would take you to get those credits. If you're into education, it really doesn't matter which degree as long as you get the degree and any requirements they need for that degree completed. If it takes you say another 5-6 months to get all the prerequisites before you start TAMUC, then delay that, you can take some courses on the WIKI for cheapies/freebies...

[Missled]

First, Excelsior does accept Sophia credits. But they're picky about which ones they accept and Sophia credits are only LL. Not super useful for someone who already has an an Associate.

That said, fastest/easiest will be whatever most interests you. For instance, the BABA Management & Leadership degree at UMPI is generally one of the fastest degrees, taking some students only 1-2 sessions (2 or 4 months) to complete. But if this subject matter bores you or is otherwise difficult for whatever reason, it could wind up taking 3 or 4 sessions.

If you can finish a UMPI degree in just a couple of sessions, it will be substantially cheaper than an Excelsior degree. 3 UMPI sessions + Sophia would come in under $5k. I'm not sure that SDC + Coopersmith (and maybe LawShelf) plus the required 7 Excelsior credits would also do that.

Looking more into it after reading your comments it seems a general consensus that UMPI may be better suited for me given the information I've given you which I really appreciate! Reading some of the forms it seems that UMPI requires a lab and foreign language I've read it best to take Spanish 1 at Sophia for that but since my chemistry and physics classes were both labs would that technically count as a lab or does UT require a lab to be taken in one of UMPI's courses? So what I would be doing at UMPI would be pursuing the at your own pace program correct? Is there specific dates that the sessions start and end or is it I start whenever registered basically? Thank you

---

Excelsior accepts Sophia credits and they aren't picky at all about them from what I know.  They also have the easiest GE requirements to meet by far, and don't require any RA credit (although you already have plenty so not an issue for you).

Here's what you need for the EU BLS:

Sophia
Ethics
Intro to Management (UL)
2 LL courses in anything

SDC or Coopersmith:
6 UL courses in SocSci or Humanities
1 UL course in Anything

Excelsior
Info Lit (1cr)
Cornerstone (UL)
Capstone (UL)

Tuition and fees for 7cr - ~ $4100
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TESU is also good, here's what you need for the BALS:

Sophia
Sociology
Ethics
3 LL AOS courses with a 200-level or higher equivalency (Visual Comm, Business Comm, Ancient Greek Philosophers, Conflict Resolution, Public Speaking, Stats)
4cr of Free Electives (any 3cr course plus a 1cr course)
I'd probably do a couple of extra courses, maybe College Algebra and College Math would be easy, because I can't remember if Trig and Precalc are the same at TESU.

SDC or Coopersmith (plus 1 particular LawShelf course)
5 UL courses in the AoS (so Social Sciences, Humanities, or CompSci)

Tuition and fees for 6cr - ~ $6700
OR
Tuition & fees for a FT/FR 15cr term there - $4300
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's what you need for the UMPI BLS:

Sophia
Biological science (Human Bio or Nutrition)
Sociology
US History I or II
Spanish I
Intro to Ethics
a 1cr course

UMPI
Hands-on Art
9 additional courses (6-7 will be in the minor; be aware that the EDU minor will take longer than the Mgmt minor, it's more work)

$1500/term, and you can prob finish in 2 terms, or even 1 (not common)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would choose UMPI, because it will be the cheapest if you can finish quickly.  I would also NOT choose the Education minor, because you will probably have to do those courses via an alt-cert program anyway, they won't take your college coursework in place of that (I was doing Teacher's of Tomorrow and you had to go through the entire program, no waivers).

Thank You for the detailed description! Looking at it now UMPI may be best choice for me in what I'm looking for in regards to time and cost. From Rachel above stated I'm probably going to go with the Management & Leadership degree as she said it's one of the more faster degrees. Definitely going to take your advice of not taking the education minor as teachers of tomorrow is exactly what I plan on using to obtain my alt-certificationI really appreciate you listing the coursework I need! As soon as I knock out those remaining credits I need to hit 90 with Sophia I plan on starting moving straight on to UMPI. Since I don't know much about UMPI would you say 5 classes per session is manageable given their type of coursework, I've taken 5 classes before together but never at a "At your own pace" layout haha. Anything else I should know about UMPI or pretty is it pretty self explanatory?

---

@Missled, even though you only have 5-6 months residency in Texas, you should plan your remaining credits and see how long it would take you to get those credits.  If you're into education, it really doesn't matter which degree as long as you get the degree and any requirements they need for that degree completed.  If it takes you say another 5-6 months to get all the prerequisites before you start TAMUC, then delay that, you can take some courses on the WIKI for cheapies/freebies...

Thank you! I will definitely see how long it take to get my remaining 10 credits at Sophia and see whether TAMUC is a viable option. Really wish I had moved here sooner haha because the pricing and program is really great with TAMUC but at the moment it seems EU is out and from what the comments have read UMPI is most closest to what I'm looking for )

[rachel83az]

Because your physics and chemistry classes have labs, you don't need another lab science. In some instances, they do sometimes overlook the lab component of an integrated class. Thankfully, they're pretty good about adjusting your completed classes once this is pointed out. It probably won't be needed, but having a syllabus ready for them just in case might be a good idea. Even just a catalog description.

All you need for the science portion of the GEC right now is Human Biology or Nutrition from Sophia.

5 classes per session is totally doable. I would say that's probably the "average" for most students. A handful of students have been able to do 10-13 courses in a single session, but that's a bit excessive for most people. Some only do one or two classes for some sessions due to having life come at them fast and needing to focus on other things. 4-8 classes per session, depending on exact degree/classes, seems to be about where most students fall.

TAMUC is still a good option if you're willing/able to wait another ~6 months to gain residency. They're a bit slower than UMPI, but not by that much. A 1-session TAMUC degree doesn't seem to be possible and a 2-session degree might be possible. However, based on prior degree feedback, most students are probably going to be finishing in 3 or 4 sessions. This works great for some students, less so for others. If it does take you 3 or 4 sessions to finish, the cost savings compared to UMPI won't be huge but there also won't be a massive rush for you to finish quickly while still being able to go faster than a more traditional degree. Some people like this. Plus, the name recognition within Texas is pretty good. If you're going to be staying in Texas indefinitely, it might be worth it to wait until you get residency to get this degree.

[dfrecore]

TAMUC is still a good option if you're willing/able to wait another ~6 months to gain residency. They're a bit slower than UMPI, but not by that much. A 1-session TAMUC degree doesn't seem to be possible and a 2-session degree might be possible. However, based on prior degree feedback, most students are probably going to be finishing in 3 or 4 sessions. This works great for some students, less so for others. If it does take you 3 or 4 sessions to finish, the cost savings compared to UMPI won't be huge but there also won't be a massive rush for you to finish quickly while still being able to go faster than a more traditional degree. Some people like this. Plus, the name recognition within Texas is pretty good. If you're going to be staying in Texas indefinitely, it might be worth it to wait until you get residency to get this degree.

While I agree that TAMUC is a good option for TX residents, I think that the 7-mo wait for residency plus what we're seeing with how long it's taking people to finish (4 terms seems fairly consistent), you're looking at ~ 14 months from today to complete the degree (October 2024), vs. being able to enroll at UMPI for Fall II and finishing in 1-2 terms, meaning finishing in about 6 months (mid-March 2024).  Then, the OP has to take the teaching course.  If they could finish in a month (doable, although 2-3 is more doable), they could get a FT teaching gig in Fall 2024.

In this particular instance, getting the degree as soon as possible has a definite benefit to the OP - even a couple of months later means no FT teaching gig for the next school year.  So it's more important to finish quickly than cheaply for this person.

Also, remember that 4 terms at TAMUC (in-state) will cost $1500 - the same as 1 term at UMPI.  So if you can finish the UMPI degree twice as quickly, the cost is the same (and we know people are doing it faster at UMPI than TAMUC).

[Tswede]

[quote pid='399148' dateline='1691085496']

Also, remember that 4 terms at TAMUC (in-state) will cost $1500 - the same as 1 term at UMPI.  So if you can finish the UMPI degree twice as quickly, the cost is the same (and we know people are doing it faster at UMPI than TAMUC).
[/quote]

I think it's actually 4 terms at TAMUC would be $3000 and 2 terms at UMPI would be $3000?  Your point is correct about twice as quick and cost the same, though. 

Each in-state term at TAMUC is $750 unless there's an additional discount for certain public service professions that the student can qualify for (I think law enforcement and firefighters?).

[bvndz]

First, Excelsior does accept Sophia credits. But they're picky about which ones they accept and Sophia credits are only LL. Not super useful for someone who already has an an Associate.

That said, fastest/easiest will be whatever most interests you. For instance, the BABA Management & Leadership degree at UMPI is generally one of the fastest degrees, taking some students only 1-2 sessions (2 or 4 months) to complete. But if this subject matter bores you or is otherwise difficult for whatever reason, it could wind up taking 3 or 4 sessions.

If you can finish a UMPI degree in just a couple of sessions, it will be substantially cheaper than an Excelsior degree. 3 UMPI sessions + Sophia would come in under $5k. I'm not sure that SDC + Coopersmith (and maybe LawShelf) plus the required 7 Excelsior credits would also do that.

would you say baba management and leadership is easier than BLS management minor?