Degree help please

[sharsharky]

I am in a desperate need to get a college degree asap. I have been reading all the threads on here nonstop and have thoroughly overwhelmed myself and am unsure which college/degree makes the most sense for me. I had created a plan last year, but don't believe my info is up to date anymore. Some choices I'm considering are TESC, UMGC (since I'm in Maryland) and WGU (but I think I might not have much towards their core requirements). Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am open to any suggestion and plan on acting on this immediately. I couldn't be more motivated, but I struggle with mental health issues related to my PTSD and truly need a hand with making this decision. I've been trying to get started for YEARS. Now is the time though. 

Here's the main factors:
* I qualify for a full federal Pell grant. I'd love to take advantage of that if at all possible! However, time is a very important factor for me also.
* I don't care what the degree is in. I'm looking for the fastest and least expensive path.
* I live in Maryland and have a total of 87 credits
     - Total credits from prior colleges- 75 (33 from community college, 42 from 4 year college- BUT only 38 credits if D grades don't transfer in)
      -  Clep Credits- 9
      -  Ethical Guidelines for Insurance Professionals- The Academies (2 credits)
      - The Essentials of Managing Conflict- Sophia (1 credit)

* I switched majors a couple times, so I don't know which direction makes the most sense to go now. The courses I completed are below: 
(If it's easier, here's the link to my spreadsheet with this information!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LU-pGaPLq2HeMfY7QYGU5j_tSp79JZV2U7S9oRc-zf0/edit?usp=sharing  )

• SS151 Principals of Macroeconomics 3 Ocean County College
  
• SS152 Principals of Microeconomics 3 Ocean County College
  
• BU134 Principals of Marketing 3 Ocean County College
  
• SS271 Abnormal Psychology 3 Ocean County College
  
• ENG152 English II 3 Ocean County College
  
• SC161 Biology I 4 Ocean County College
  
• H172 Western Civilization II 3 Ocean County College
  
• SC181 General Chemistry I 4 Ocean County College
  
• HPE110 Applied Modern Health I 2 Ocean County College
  
• SC232 Microbiology 4 Ocean County College
  
• NU169 Success In Nursing 1 Ocean County College
  
• COM104 Speech Communication 3 Rider University
  
• GER200 German III 3 Rider University
  
• PSY100 Intro to Psychology 3 Rider University
  
• BIO100 Life Science: Human Emphasis 3 Rider University
  
• SOC101 Sociological Imagination 3 Rider University
  
• PHL101 Logic and Language 3 Rider University
  
• THE199 The Arts in Contemporary Civilization 3 Rider University
  
• BIO116L Principles of Biology Lab II 3 Rider University
  
• MUS127 Instrumental Ensemble- Band 3 Rider University
  
• BIO116 Principles of Biology- Evolution to Ecology D GRADE 3 Rider University
  
• HIS150 World History to 1500 3 Rider University
  
• COM100 Mass Media Communications 3 Rider University
  
• MCOM214 Principles of Advertising 3 Towson University
  
• MCOM411 Comm Process 3 Towson University
  

• CLEP- 9 Total Credits (College Mathematics and English I)
  
•  Ethical Guidelines for Insurance Professionals- The Academies (2 credits)
  
• The Essentials of Managing Conflict- Sophia (1 credit)
  

[rachel83az]

It appears that you have enough credits to get the FREE Pierpont BOG AAS. I would do that first! It's a bit bureaucratically complicated but you would have a college degree and that can help motivate you to finish your bachelor's degree!

Since you qualify for a full Pell Grant, I think your best choice is going to be TESU (despite COSC seeming cheaper). bjcheung77 did a write-up on how/why TESU works for this: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ng-Courses

There is a sample BALS plan here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ge...egree_Plan

Whether or not you want to follow the full advice of bjcheung77 and also get a BSBA at the same time, Sophia @ $79/mo is a great way to fill out your electives slots with things not covered by your current credits. Personally, I'm currently working on BSBA CIS and BA Computer Science. It's not really going to be that much more work to get the two degrees vs. the one, especially after Sophia.

Your best bet would be to apply to TESU, enroll by paying for (but you do NOT have to actually take) the Medical Terminology TECEP, and send in all of your credits. Once the evaluation(s) has/have been completed, we'll know better how to help you.

History is another possibility with the credits you currently have. See the wiki for a sample degree plan there (instead of the BYU course, you'd take a TESU non-Western history course). Also, with your Pell Grant and needing to take courses from TESU, you could possibly also do International Studies (I haven't fully mapped this out, so it might not be possible). You'd need another German course, but you could possibly use ModernStates to take the German CLEP for FREE.

[natshar]

I would definitely look into UMGC. It isn't that popular on this fourm. But could be a good choice for you. Most of the classes are only 7 weeks long (with some 4 week, 12 week and 15 week options) so you can fit more into a semester. And you only need to do 30 credits at UMGC. UMGC is cheaper than TESU as well and they have a lot of diverse majors. Plus with it being in state you might even get scholarships on top of the pell grant.

At least apply to multiple schools and send your transcripts and see which works best for you.

[bjcheung77]

Amazing, interesting, I find it really strange though - how the heck did I miss your previous 5 threads within a span of a year.  Usually I would have skimmed it but don't recall reading any of those 5 previous threads, doh!  Anyways, from looking at your past history, you seem to be stalling at one thing - choice of program and school.  We're back to square one it seems....  Question, have you applied to COSC, TESU, or WGU yet?  If not, apply to COSC, TESU/WGU!  I also agree with Rachel83Az, the Pierpont BOG AAS is perfect for you, it will only cost you the price of sending those transcripts!  Get something while you're completing courses to finish off the Bachelors.

At first glance, you're just missing the required capstone/cornerstone and 4 UL to finish a BALS (with or without a concentration) and a few easy LL free electives at TESU.  That would be my first choice, get it done easier & faster, but at a cost of more money.  If cost is a major factor, you can go COSC, but you'll need to get 10 UL courses completed - it'll be cheapest but not as easy, maybe not as fast either.  FYI, I've helped many people finish their degrees, the fastest two on this board finished in 5 months flat - both starting with just 6 credits. One did a BSBA at TESU and the other did a BSLS at Excelsior. 

This is what you need to do: 1) Decide on a program/school - apply to all 3 if you need to  2) If you decide on applying to COSC, private message me for a waiver fee, WGU's free currently  3)  Sign up for Sophia.org and complete "ALL" the courses that do not duplicate your current set of courses (except college readiness & the foundation courses), it's just $79/month and allows you unlimited courses - 2 courses at a time, self-paced. 4) Invest in a second monitor for multi-tasking

[dfrecore]

Pros & Cons of UMGC:
Cons
- only allows C grades or higher to transfer (so that's probably not a great option in terms of speed)

Pros
- $300/cr in-state rate, which I think can go down with the OnlineDegree.com scholarship (25% discount for taking a single OD course), that puts you at $225/cr which is an unbeatable rate. So, it certainly can't hurt to send in your transcripts and see what they'll take, and make a plan to see what you can do
- accepts up to 70cr of transfer from CC & alternative credit combined
- accepts up to 90cr from a 4yr school
- more options for different degrees than the Big 3, including General Studies

I'd definitely look into it.

If you change your initial post to sort by school (so only put the school on there once, list all courses underneath, add grades), I will look at a couple of different degrees for you and tell you what the pricing might be for TESU, COSC and UMGC. Tell me what degrees you're looking at for each school.

[natshar]

Pros & Cons of UMGC:
Cons
- only allows C grades or higher to transfer (so that's probably not a great option in terms of speed)

Pros
- $300/cr in-state rate, which I think can go down with the OnlineDegree.com scholarship (25% discount for taking a single OD course), that puts you at $225/cr which is an unbeatable rate.  So, it certainly can't hurt to send in your transcripts and see what they'll take, and make a plan to see what you can do
- accepts up to 70cr of transfer from CC & alternative credit combined
- accepts up to 90cr from a 4yr school
- more options for different degrees than the Big 3, including General Studies

I'd definitely look into it.

If you change your initial post to sort by school (so only put the school on there once, list all courses underneath, add grades), I will look at a couple of different degrees for you and tell you what the pricing might be for TESU, COSC and UMGC.  Tell me what degrees you're looking at for each school.

Oh I didn't even realize they didn't accept D's. Good catch with that one.

Worth noting UMGC is partners for some of the ace like StraighterLine, study.com, onlinedegree and more. Of course the big 3 are as well but UMGC might be more alt credit friendly than COSC at this point.

---

If you have the money and time at least apply to both TESU and UMGC (and maybe WGU since its free). Then send your transcripts. You could even just send the RA stuff for now to save on transcript cost and speed.

[dfrecore]

Pros & Cons of UMGC:
Cons
- only allows C grades or higher to transfer (so that's probably not a great option in terms of speed)

Pros
- $300/cr in-state rate, which I think can go down with the OnlineDegree.com scholarship (25% discount for taking a single OD course), that puts you at $225/cr which is an unbeatable rate.  So, it certainly can't hurt to send in your transcripts and see what they'll take, and make a plan to see what you can do
- accepts up to 70cr of transfer from CC & alternative credit combined
- accepts up to 90cr from a 4yr school
- more options for different degrees than the Big 3, including General Studies

I'd definitely look into it.

If you change your initial post to sort by school (so only put the school on there once, list all courses underneath, add grades), I will look at a couple of different degrees for you and tell you what the pricing might be for TESU, COSC and UMGC.  Tell me what degrees you're looking at for each school.

Oh I didn't even realize they didn't accept C's. Good catch with that one.

Worth noting UMGC is partners for some of the ace like StraighterLine, study.com, onlinedegree and more. Of course the big 3 are as well but UMGC might be more alt credit friendly than COSC at this point.

---

If you have the money and time at least apply to both TESU and UMGC (and maybe WGU since its free). Then send your transcripts. You could even just send the RA stuff for now to save on transcript cost and speed.

They DO accept C's.

UMGC does have partnerships, but I think only the OD ones gives you 25% off.  But, being that they only take 70cr of CC/Alternative credits, they definitely are not more alt-credit friendly than COSC (who will take 90cr of alt-friendly, and CC).

[natshar]

They DO accept C's.

UMGC does have partnerships, but I think only the OD ones gives you 25% off.  But, being that they only take 70cr of CC/Alternative credits, they definitely are not more alt-credit friendly than COSC (who will take 90cr of alt-friendly, and CC).

I mistyped. I meant D's I'll fix my post. Thanks.

SL gives you a discount equal to instate if you take 4 classes but useless if you already get instate. 

I guess I meant they accept more options like onlinedegree which is NCCRS that COSC doesn't take. COSC accepts only a few providers now.

I just realized that onlinedegrees discount is just like SL in the fact if you already get instate you aren't eligible.

[dfrecore]

I just looked and I think I gave you a degree plan back in early 2019 for TESU, and it still applies. The only changes would be which courses came in with D's (because those can't be used in the AOS), and I'm not certain how the Institutes Ethics course comes in now (mixed messages on whether it fulfills ethics requirement).

COSC will be similar in price, you could do a BSLS w/concentrations in Marketing & Communications. They will take D- grades, except for English & major.

EC is also a good option. They will take C- or higher. BUT, they also have a great deal where if you take 2 additional courses there in addition to your required 3 (so 13cr vs. 7cr), you only pay $550 on top of the required tuition and fees for those 2 extra courses. Those are some cheap UL credits! So they aren't a terrible option.

[ss20ts]

Pros & Cons of UMGC:
Cons
- only allows C grades or higher to transfer (so that's probably not a great option in terms of speed)

 
This is the same for most colleges. I have never been able to transfer anything below a C-. Some won't even take a C-.