Fall 2022 - What is YourPace?

[ashkir]

Fall is coming quickly! Term 1 of Fall starts August 29 with term 2 starting October 24th. This is a combined thread for both fall sessions now, to keep discussions in one place. 

Is it too late to apply?
No. You have until October 9th to apply to join in the fall semester. Apply when you're ready! Don't rush, there's 6 start dates in the year! 

It is highly recommended to have a lot of ACE credits before you apply! 

If you're applying, feel free to tell UMPI where you found us when you talk to them (Ashkir's name is St Nicholas). DegreeForum they're also aware of. Facebook, Sophia, etc. They spend a lot of money marketing. Tell them where their market is  

Is UMPI right for me?
If you are self-motivated, yes. If you need a counselor pushing you every step of the way, no. If a family member or spouse can push you, then yes. UMPI takes almost ALL ACE Credits.

What is UMPI?
The University of Maine at Presque Isle (pronounced Presk Isle), which abbreviates themselves to UMPI (and pronounced Umm Pe), is a publicly funded state school by the University of Maine system in the far north of the contiguous United States bordering New Brunswick and French-Canada in Aroostook County, Maine. 

Connect with your Class:
Connect with your class here on DegreeForum by discussing your classes here and offering support to your fellow students. Encourage your fellow students, cheer them on, be proud of them! 

You can also join the class on a dedicated YourPace Discord here: https://discord.gg/2QVzWm5JRr

What does the diploma look like? Is it real? Are there graduation fees? Etc.
There are no graduation fees at UMPI. Their diploma is the same for all students that attend UMPI and they do include your Latin Honors on it. This thread by Ashkir will show you photos of the diploma. Latin honors are as:

• Cum Laude 3.5 to 3.69 GPA
  
• Magna cum Laude 3.7 to 3.89 GPA
  
• Summa cum Laude 3.9 GPA and up. 
  

Course Design / Grading
All courses have chapter content to read with a lot of infographics, videos, and more throughout it. From that point on a course may have:

• Assessment Quizzes that skip your knowledgeable areas.
  
• Milestone discussions where you need to respond to a writing prompt from your professor.
  

Quiz Tips
If your final is a multiple choice exam, spend more time on the quizzes. Purposely get questions wrong. This will cycle through the entire test bank where you can read the explanations in an "explain like I'm five mode" and it'd condense down your study material/reviews where you can focus on the explanations for studying. Almost every question (at least 90%) will be a rephrased question from a Quiz. 

The quiz will start repeating questions, and at that point get the ones that repeated right, and then get the next set wrong, etc. There's usually 2 to 3 quiz banks in each quiz, each with around 6-10 questions each, for a total of around 20-30ish total questions in each quiz. 

Essay Final Tips
Outside of English, UMPI professors do not really care about proper essay structure, as long as your introduction and conclusion is strong. The instructions are incredibly detailed. But, be sure to check the rubric and ensure that all the rubric requirements in section 4 (explementary) are meant. By meeting all of the highest grade possible rubric sections, you're guaranteed an A. 

Utilize the DRAFT feature and get feedback from your professor. 

Discussion Boards & Learning Journals
Discussion boards and learning journals are not required and if you don't want to do it, don't. But, if you don't understand the topic well, I recommend you do them to gain more practice. 

To estimate your grade add your rubric scores up: 
3 out of 4
3 out of 4
4 out of 4
4 out of 4
4 out of 4
18 out of 20

18/20 = 90%

Percentage / GPA tracker: 
A+ 97-100% - 4.0 
A 93-96% - 4.0
A- 90-92% - 3.7
B+ 87-89% - 3.3
B 83-86% - 3.0
B- 80-82% - 2.27

Contacts
Need help? 
Contact the Assistant Director of YourPace, Jessica Winslow! She will also do your audit. Only email her when you need a class added or have a question about your audit. jessica.b.winslow@maine.edu

Academic Coach is Cody Humphrey who will be there to assist you with any technical issues or broken things in YourPace. cody.humphrey@maine.edu 

If you need to escalate anything, the dean is Dr. Susan Chang, PhD susan.chang@maine.edu. 

How to support your class?

• Cheer fellow students on! 
  
• Don't put down other students.
  
• Ask questions (but be nice!).
  
• Encourage others to make a great education choice. UMPI may not be for everyone. 
  

This is meant to be a gross general topic about anything relating to UMPI for Fall Session 2 Students.

• Are you starting this session? 
  
• What do you plan on taking?
  
• What classes are you taking?
  
• How are you feeling?
  
• Any classes causing frustration?
  
• What did you pass?
  
• What are you learning?
  
• What are you doing?
  

Share your experience with our forum so future students and UMPI's staff that reads this forum can see how we feel! Please feel free to rant, get a breath of fresh air, ask for advice, and more here. We're all here to make sure we're all successful. Support your fellow students and graduates, and graduates support the students that were once in your shoes! 

Keep us updated on YourPace.

[ss20ts]

Good luck everyone! Welcome to UMPI!

[amrly813]

I'm starting with Eng 101 (with the dreaded Prof. Matthews) and Hum 103. I'm going to try and work on these first milestones and hope they're good enough to be accepted.

[Jennr2z]

Starting with BUS 260 Leadership and American Government. Done with all milestones and working on the final assessment for American Government now

[bjcheung77]

Wow, American Government was that quick for you? The class started on the 29th and you're done with it in a few hours? When you're done with the BUS 260 Leadership you can ask for courses to be added to your course load and work on them... Good luck and have fun going at your comfy pace!

[sixxx2069]

Hello. I am currently enrolled at UMPI doing a liberal studies w/ criminal justice minor. I like the CBE aspect; it suits my needs. However, I am finding it so difficult to get through the first essay. I have an extremely hard time writing and am doubting whether this school was a good choice. Thankfully I just started Monday and still have time to withdraw. I'm not sure what to do/where to go at this point. 

I have looked at Excelsior quite a bit as well as TESU. Any help at all would be very appreciated. 

Your Location: Virginia, US

Your Age: 33

What kind of degree do you want?: Anything. Whatever would be fastest ideally. I am doing an accelerated second degree nursing program after I finish this first degree. I do have an aversion to anything business-related. My strong points are science/social sciences. Ideally it would be in psychology but I'm fine with liberal studies. 

Current Regional Accredited Credits: None.

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 

Sophia Credits: 68 

Art History I - 3
Art History II - 3
Developing Effective Teams - 1
Human Biology - 3
Visual Communications - 3
Essentials of Managing Conflict - 1
US History I - 3
US History II - 3
Environmental Science - 3
Intro to Ethics - 3
Accounting - 3
Conflict Resolution - 3
Intro to Business - 3
College Algebra - 3
Project Management - 3
Microeconomics - 3
Macroeconomics - 3
Intro to IT - 3
Intro to Psychology - 3
Intro to Web Development - 3
College Readiness - 3
Intro to Statistics - 3
Intro to Sociology - 3
Communication at Work - 3


Study.com Credits: 7

Bio 101L - Intro Biology w/ lab - 4
Com 120 - Presentation Skills in the Workplace - 3

Lawshelf.com credits: 3

CRM 101 - Basics of Criminal Law - 3

Any certifications or military experience? Active CNA license 

Budget: I qualify for full pell grant and am not worried about cost as much as speed

Dedicated time to study: Full time, no current commitments

Timeline: Ideally finished in the next 6 months. But it's not a huge deal if there's a better option that isn't as writing intensive as UMPI

[LevelUP]

Ashkir's tips for UMPI are solid gold. So make sure you read them carefully. These tips will give you an advantage over other UMPI students.

If you have any questions? Post them!

Want to vent your frustrations? Post them!

Want to share your victories? Post them!

[arrakis]

I started on 29th as well.
Math 140 done. The quizzes were much more difficult than final exam.

[LevelUP]

Hello. I am currently enrolled at UMPI doing a liberal studies w/ criminal justice minor. I like the CBE aspect; it suits my needs. However, I am finding it so difficult to get through the first essay. I have an extremely hard time writing and am doubting whether this school was a good choice. Thankfully I just started Monday and still have time to withdraw. I'm not sure what to do/where to go at this point. 

Since you qualify for the full pell grant, you only need to do two courses a term to be considered full-time,  in which case the term should be free. So I would try it, at least for the first two courses, since you have nothing to lose.  

For me, it's easier to write if I create a detailed outline first. So I would do that first, following the instructions and rubric. Then fill in the content, submit a draft, and see what the professor says. 

How many courses do you have to take to finish your degree? Looks like quite a few more than 10.

[KSoul]

I'm starting with Eng 101 (with the dreaded Prof. Matthews) and Hum 103. I'm going to try and work on these first milestones and hope they're good enough to be accepted.

Hang in there. Professor Matthews can require some agility to hit the milestones and mastery for the final assessment; however, at the end of the day, I think she is fair and, post experience, is remembered as a Professor seeking to advance the students writing skills. For those interested in speed and achieving an easy 'A,' P. Matthews would not fall into that category, but this does not qualify her as described in discord and here. I would encourage you to take an extra beat before pressing send, and you'll be surprised at how much more you can adjust or apply to your work. Doing this has allowed for very few revision requests from professors.