Degree advice

[cm47]

Hello, here is my info.  Any help would be appreciated! 
Your Location: Alabama, U.S.
Your Age: 36
What kind of degree do you want?: Any Bachelors.  Info Sys would be 1st choice but more concerned with ease and speed
Current Regional Accredited Credits:27  


               2005/2006
CSCI 1000  Survey Computer Apps  3
VISU 1000  Art Appreciation       3
Math 1100  Finite Mathematics  3
PSYC 2110  General Intro. Psyc  3
BUSN 1000  Cornerstone of Busn 3
Comm 1010 Intro to Human Communication 3
Econ 2010   Micro Economics          3
         2011
Info 2070  Intro to MIS       3
Econ 2020  Macro Economics  3

   Sophia learning
  Currently finishing up College Algebra and Intro to Statistics

[b]Budget: 5-10k topsWould like to keep costs minimal.  And test out of what I can 
[/b]
Commitments: Infant child and full time job.
Dedicated time to study: 9-10 hours a week
[b]Timeline: The less the better[/b]
 


 

[dfrecore]

UMPI will be cheapest/easiest/fastest option.

BLS w/Mgmt (could opt for MIS minor) - take the following:

Sophia
US Government
Human Biology w/Lab
Environmental Science
Intro to Sociology
US History I or II
Spanish or French
Intro to Ethics
Composition I and II (optional - easier at UMPI)

If you do all of the above except Composition, you will have your GEC covered, and have 55cr done. Then, you can take whatever you want towards General Electives (free electives, so really whatever you want). Another 36cr at Sophia.

You can also double-minor if you want, Management or Project Management would be the easiest to add.

[cm47]

UMPI will be cheapest/easiest/fastest option.

BLS w/Mgmt (could opt for MIS minor) - take the following:

Sophia
US Government
Human Biology w/Lab
Environmental Science
Intro to Sociology
US History I or II
Spanish or French
Intro to Ethics
Composition I and II (optional - easier at UMPI)

If you do all of the above except Composition, you will have your GEC covered, and have 55cr done.  Then, you can take whatever you want towards General Electives (free electives, so really whatever you want).  Another 36cr at Sophia.

You can also double-minor if you want, Management or Project Management would be the easiest to add.

[bjcheung77]

Thanks! Just what I was looking for

@cm47, Welcome to the board, you've done the addendum and template, but missed the tuition assistance/reimbursement detail. Do you have any of that from work? My guess is a no, but I wanted to make sure. You don't have much in regards to Upper Level credit, you can do a triple minor if you wanted to with the free electives. You should read this thread, and click the link to the updated sample spreadsheet for the BLS: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid400527

[sarahmac]

Honestly, I rarely send people in WGU's direction, but Info Sys is very specific. Are you planning on working in the field? Do you have any credentials in the field?

Knowing why you want that degree and kind of where you are in your career is important.

UMPI BLS with an MIS minor will not teach you how to do Info Sys, it won't prepare you for a job in the IT field if you aren't already in it. It can be an easy way for those with existing experience to get a degree if they don't have one though, especially if they are wanting to move into more management-type roles.

WGU is a little more expensive at 4k per 6 month semester. But, if you could finish in one semester, it would give you industry certs and a degree at the same time. You don't have to separately pay for the industry certifications, it's covered by your tuition. I am personally not a fan of their pass/fail degrees (essentially, everyone has a 3.0), but if you were "breaking in" to Info Sys the certifications are going to be more important anyway.

If you already were working in the field and had the certs, I'd go with UMPI. If this is a career change, I'd lean toward WGU and maybe UMPI for their self-paced online masters in the future.

In the meantime, you could use the American Dream Academy to do the Google IT and Cyber Certs for free and then send off for the Pierpont BOG AAS with a concentration in Info Sys, also for free. You only need a few more classes via Sophia to use as electives, and you'd need to do more Sophia classes for WGU or UMPI anyway to fulfil their Gen Ed reqs. This would let you hit a milestone, but also open up the option of doing a BAS with minor in MIS at UMPI instead of a BLS.

[cm47]

I do have some reimbursement from my job that would go into effect in 5 months.  So by the time I get all of the other credits it should be ready.

I don't really have an immediate plan/use for the Info Sys degree but do like the Certs/AAS idea.

[bjcheung77]

In the meantime, you could use the American Dream Academy to do the Google IT and Cyber Certs for free and then send off for the Pierpont BOG AAS with a concentration in Info Sys, also for free. You only need a few more classes via Sophia to use as electives, and you'd need to do more Sophia classes for WGU or UMPI anyway to fulfil their Gen Ed reqs. This would let you hit a milestone, but also open up the option of doing a BAS with minor in MIS at UMPI instead of a BLS.

OMG, wow, I was going to say the same thing, work on the trifecta of certs, degree, experience! That's exactly what I would recommend as well, pretty much the exact same steps... Review post #2 here, if you want, review the entire thread for more details: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...hool-at-53

[dfrecore]

Honestly, I rarely send people in WGU's direction, but Info Sys is very specific. Are you planning on working in the field? Do you have any credentials in the field?

Knowing why you want that degree and kind of where you are in your career is important.

UMPI BLS with an MIS minor will not teach you how to do Info Sys, it won't prepare you for a job in the IT field if you aren't already in it. It can be an easy way for those with existing experience to get a degree if they don't have one though, especially if they are wanting to move into more management-type roles.

WGU is a little more expensive at 4k per 6 month semester. But, if you could finish in one semester, it would give you industry certs and a degree at the same time. You don't have to separately pay for the industry certifications, it's covered by your tuition. I am personally not a fan of their pass/fail degrees (essentially, everyone has a 3.0), but if you were "breaking in" to Info Sys the certifications are going to be more important anyway.

If you already were working in the field and had the certs, I'd go with UMPI. If this is a career change, I'd lean toward WGU and maybe UMPI for their self-paced online masters in the future.

In the meantime, you could use the American Dream Academy to do the Google IT and Cyber Certs for free and then send off for the Pierpont BOG AAS with a concentration in Info Sys, also for free. You only need a few more classes via Sophia to use as electives, and you'd need to do more Sophia classes for WGU or UMPI anyway to fulfil their Gen Ed reqs. This would let you hit a milestone, but also open up the option of doing a BAS with minor in MIS at UMPI instead of a BLS.

I didn't really think about it, just looked at "ease and speed" being top concerns and automatically went with UMPI - but sarahmac is correct in that if you really want an IT/CS degree, WGU might be an option.  Of course, since you're shooting for speed, and at WGU you pay for speed, if you don't have experience in IT/CS already, you're probably going to have a rough go of it.  WGU wasn't really built to teach you as much as to help you get through things you already know fairly quickly.

So, if you have a few or more years of IT/CS experience, then WGU may be a great option.  But if you don't, you'd probably want to think about the UMPI degree for now, and consider going back to WGU in a few years after a little experience.

[rachel83az]

I would suggest the BABA PM/MIS degree over the BAS/BLS MIS degree. Especially if you don't have much actual experience. A Business degree generally looks better on a resume than a BAS/BLS degree.

If you do have experience, a WGU degree may be better. But I would still budget time/money for 2 terms and not 1. Even with maximum transfer and prior experience, 1 term isn't going to be possible for everyone. 2 is more realistic. But it does depend on the actual WGU degree and how much prior experience the student has. Plus how much self-control/drive.

[bjcheung77]

I do have some reimbursement from my job that would go into effect in 5 months.  So by the time I get all of the other credits it should be ready.

I don't really have an immediate plan/use for the Info Sys degree but do like the Certs/AAS idea.

That's awesome, you can use the time to get the Pierpont BOG AAS, ladder that up to the UMPI BAS as that'll allow you to get the Coursera/TADA certificates to use for the electives area, thus giving you the certs/experience in Info Systems and related subjects. Once you have the BOG AAS and the Coursera/TADA offerings completed, apply for the UMPI BAS with a minor or two of your choice... review post #7.