Fast/cheap bachelors with lots of low-level classes

[Alpha]

I have experience with this at UMPI as I'm an alumni. If you complete a BLS first, you cannot come back for a second bachelor's degree at UMPI. They consider the BLS to be a terminal degree.

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Other jobs that require a terminal AS/AAS are Paralegal, OTA, PTA, Dental Hygienist, etc.  There just aren't Bachelor's degrees for these fields. 

Since we're into it I'll point out that there are Bachelors degrees in Dental Hygiene
BS in Dental Hygiene (Degree Completion) | MCPHS–Online
Also, there are many OT and PT Bachelors programs.  While earning an Associates degree in these areas is the minimum qualification to becoming an OTA/PTA, holders of Bachelors degrees in these areas remain OTAs/PTAs.  You are not allowed to refer to yourself as an Occupational Therapist or Physical Therapist until you earn at least a Masters degree.
Occupational therapist - Wikipedia

[rachel83az]

They also said "My job will reimburse $2k per year (that year is timed from the last reimbursement not calendar or school year). Otherwise, money is tight."  That to me says that they can't afford to do multiple terms at UMPI to get that BSB - it's a smarter use of their time and money to do the very cheapest degree, which would use as many of their current credits as possible, and do it in 1-2 terms, with as few Sophia/Study.com courses as possible.

You literally cannot do a UMPI degree in 1 term. It's been said multiple times in the forum. You are always going to need at least 2 terms because some classes are only offered in term 1 and some are only offered in term 2. With the 30-credit requirement at UMPI, there is no clear speed advantage to choosing a BLS over a BABA. Pretty much identical GEC requirements still need to be met either way. You still need to take 30 credits at UMPI either way. For a BLS, EeBee needs to take, like, maybe 3 or 4 fewer classes from Sophia. But that's honestly not sufficient, IMO, to say that the BLS will absolutely be the right choice. You can still get the necessary Sophia classes done in under 30 days, so it's not going to cost any extra money if you choose one degree over the other.

[dfrecore]

Other jobs that require a terminal AS/AAS are Paralegal, OTA, PTA, Dental Hygienist, etc.  There just aren't Bachelor's degrees for these fields. 

Just letting anyone who reads this and is interested know, that there is actually a bachelor paralegal studies program at COSC. I plan on taking it as soon as my AAB-Paralegal courses are done so they can transfer over.

This is just a general studies degree with a bunch of paralegal courses that you'd bring in from elsewhere, and then business courses for your UL.  But what I was trying to say was that you do not need a bachelor's degree in Paralegal studies to become a paralegal (and you don't actually need an AA, but it's very common, and it's commonly offered at community colleges, not 4yr schools).

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I have experience with this at UMPI as I'm an alumni. If you complete a BLS first, you cannot come back for a second bachelor's degree at UMPI. They consider the BLS to be a terminal degree.

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Other jobs that require a terminal AS/AAS are Paralegal, OTA, PTA, Dental Hygienist, etc.  There just aren't Bachelor's degrees for these fields. 

Since we're into it I'll point out that there are Bachelors degrees in Dental Hygiene
BS in Dental Hygiene (Degree Completion) | MCPHS–Online
Also, there are many OT and PT Bachelors programs.  While earning an Associates degree in these areas is the minimum qualification to becoming an OTA/PTA, holders of Bachelors degrees in these areas remain OTAs/PTAs.  You are not allowed to refer to yourself as an Occupational Therapist or Physical Therapist until you earn at least a Masters degree.
Occupational therapist - Wikipedia

There are not OTA and PTA bachelor's programs - I specifically said I was not talking about OT and PT.  OTA and PTA are Occupational Therapy Assistant, and Physical Therapy Assistant - and those are different jobs which require far less education than OT's and PT's, which both require master's degrees.  Different jobs.

The Dental Hygienist BS is a bridge program to get people who are already DH's to get a bachelor's degree, and it's basically in Health Sciences or Public Health.  There are only 3 courses in the entire BS portion that have to do with Dental Hygiene.

Again, my point was that there are terminal degrees for many jobs that are AA/AS/AAS degrees; obviously you can go on to get a bachelor's degree, but generally speaking, these jobs don't have (and don't require) bachelor's degrees - they have and require associates degrees instead.

[Alpha]

This is not something to argue about.  You put out some information that was inaccurate and it was corrected.  You said there were no Bachelors degree programs in Dental Hygiene.  You said that explicitly.  That is incorrect.  In regards to the OTA/PTA issue, there are Bachelors degree programs in those disciplines.  If you earn a Bachelors degree in one of those disciplines the job you will get in the healthcare industry is an OTA/PTA job.  Your disclaimer of "What I meant to say..." or "The point I was trying to make was..." may all be true but people can not know what you meant to say, they can only know what you actually said.  Please don't take this personally.  I am simply trying to insure the information on the site is correct.

[rachel83az]

Quick look shows a Bachelor's in OTA from Trinity: https://discover.trinitydc.edu/academic_...ant-ota-b/ There are others.

Bachelor's in PTA: https://www.clarksoncollege.edu/physical...tant/index and https://www.fnu.edu/prospective-students...ant-pta-2/ + I don't know how many others

Maybe you do only need an Associate's for most PTA/OTA jobs but Bachelor's degrees certainly exist and aren't that hard to find.

[dfrecore]

I KNOW there may be A bachelor's degree out there for one or more of these degree fields - that was not my point. The point is, those are VERY common all over the US at CC's and other 2 year schools, and an associates degree is what is generally needed to pass a national exam to become one of those things. A bachelor's degree is not necessary, and not common.

Yes, a school here or there may try to capture some of those students with an associates degree and try to "bridge" them to a bachelor's degree - but that's not what I was talking about (and generally these degrees require you to already have the Associates degree AND certification from somewhere already, and then fit them into a liberal studies or health studies or other general-type degree, so it's not a bachelor's degree in XYZ in the normal sense).

I guess if you could find the bachelor's degrees EVERYWHERE like you can find RN-to-BSN degrees all over the place, then it might change these from terminal degrees. But I was wondering why UMPI considers a BLS a terminal degree, when that is not the correct terminology for what they're trying to say about that degree (that they don't allow another degree once you get it). TESU does not allow a 2nd bachelor's degree - but they don't say "a second bachelors is a terminal degree."

[rachel83az]

I KNOW there may be A bachelor's degree out there for one or more of these degree fields - that was not my point.

That is not what you said previously.

There are not OTA and PTA bachelor's programs - I specifically said I was not talking about OT and PT.  OTA and PTA are Occupational Therapy Assistant, and Physical Therapy Assistant - and those are different jobs which require far less education than OT's and PT's, which both require master's degrees.  Different jobs.

Yes, a school here or there may try to capture some of those students with an associates degree and try to "bridge" them to a bachelor's degree - but that's not what I was talking about (and generally these degrees require you to already have the Associates degree AND certification from somewhere already, and then fit them into a liberal studies or health studies or other general-type degree, so it's not a bachelor's degree in XYZ in the normal sense).

The FNU degree I linked to is a full bachelor's. 120 credits. The Trinity one is oddly worded but it seems to be a full bachelor's program that will also accept students with an Associate's degree so long as the student in question has completed certain prerequisite classes.

I agree that the UMPI usage of "terminal degree" for a BLS is bizarre, though.

[dfrecore]

I KNOW there may be A bachelor's degree out there for one or more of these degree fields - that was not my point.

That is not what you said previously.

There are not OTA and PTA bachelor's programs - I specifically said I was not talking about OT and PT.  OTA and PTA are Occupational Therapy Assistant, and Physical Therapy Assistant - and those are different jobs which require far less education than OT's and PT's, which both require master's degrees.  Different jobs.

Yes, a school here or there may try to capture some of those students with an associates degree and try to "bridge" them to a bachelor's degree - but that's not what I was talking about (and generally these degrees require you to already have the Associates degree AND certification from somewhere already, and then fit them into a liberal studies or health studies or other general-type degree, so it's not a bachelor's degree in XYZ in the normal sense).

The FNU degree I linked to is a full bachelor's. 120 credits. The Trinity one is oddly worded but it seems to be a full bachelor's program that will also accept students with an Associate's degree so long as the student in question has completed certain prerequisite classes.

I agree that the UMPI usage of "terminal degree" for a BLS is bizarre, though.

I was specifically talking about OTA and PTA jobs, and then someone brought up OT and PT master's degrees.  And I said I was talking about OTA/PTA, NOT OT/PT, which are NOT the same.

And again, these degrees are not true degrees that I can see.  You are not getting 30 or 40 UL credits in the major of OTA/PTA - you are getting a general degree, maybe health sciences degree, with the requirement that you already have to bring in your OTA/PTA degree and/or certification.

All of that to say that I was talking about TERMINAL DEGREES and this got way off track. Ugh. Sometimes this forum sucks.

[EeBee]

Hi,

I've been reading about COSC and UMPI on many threads here and think either would do fine especially if I switch to History/Pol Sci. I tutored AP History for years as a side gig so I could probably race through that. While my job prefers a bachelor's related to the filed, it is not *requirement* - just the degree. However, if I want to go up from there, a master's will be required so I will take the advice to not go for the LS.

To finish the UMPI Gen Ed's I think I need:
SOPHIA
ENG 101
HUM 103
Art History
Environmental Science
HIS 106
Business Law
Introduction to Ethics

STC
Bio 105
Organizational Behavior

INSTACERT
American Government

UMPI
PCJ 215
MAT 140

If anyone has any feedback, I would love it. Otherwise, I was planning to start the Study.Com immediately
Thanks!
EB

[bjcheung77]

Finish your InstantCertCredit, Sophia.org, Study.com and then work on your UMPI courses. You need at minimum 30 credits at UMPI, do those last. Make sure you apply and get an evaluation from UMPI to see what remaining courses you need before you begin, otherwise you might be taking duplicate courses without a degree plan for reference. Last step is to plow through those courses and finish them off as effectively and efficiently as possible, multi-task with a secondary monitor if you don't have one already...