Graduating Faster Plan? Or purchase degree hacking course

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, it's great you're asking questions and getting the ball rolling, but you missed the addendum and template. Without those details, it's going to be hard to 'gauge' how to help you or provide more concrete advice as all we're doing is throwing various answers to your questions, and advice is subjective that also goes in many different directions... Please review this thread here where I just updated with a response: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Excelsior Here's another example: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...navigating

[TheSuccessPlug]

Welcome to the board, it's great you're asking questions and getting the ball rolling, but you missed the addendum and template.  Without those details, it's going to be hard to 'gauge' how to help you or provide more concrete advice as all we're doing is throwing various answers to your questions, and advice is subjective that also goes in many different directions... Please review this thread here where I just updated with a response: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Excelsior  Here's another example: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...navigating

Hey bjcheung77 thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for the help. I'm not sure how to edit the original post, I looked everywhere on the webpage and dont see the word edit. I'll still post the template here!

Your Location: San Antonio, TX
Your Age: 30
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelor of Finance, then Transfer to Graduate school for Masters Financial engineering
Current Regional Accredited Credits: I have 53 credit hours total, the schools did not know the term regional accredited credits but these are regional accredit schools. (Texas State University & Northwest Vista Community College)
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: None
Any certifications or military experience?: No
Budget: I make around $400 profit per month, trying to spend as little as possible
Commitments: I work uber eats on weekends for bills, currently taking AI/machine Learning courses during the week along with day trading stock options.
Dedicated time to study: 4-8 hours Monday-Thursday
Timeline: Asap , I dont know if its possible within a year
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I might be able to do Fafsa but I do know I owe in back taxes

Is there any other information you need from here? You mentioned an addendum but I dont think I understood what you meant by that. I see you've given great assistance on other threads, I appreciate you for helping us and for helping me here as well!

[bjcheung77]

Great addendum (from budget to tuition assistance) and template (anything above the budget)! So, now we know some basics, with that little energy, money, time, I would shoot for the UMPI BLS with a minor or two of your choice, couple that with the cheapies and freebies. This is going to max your certs, degree, experience as your main goal is to get the Bachelors. Which Masters are you referring to? WQU? It's a hard program, I applied, did their exam, failed...

[karehiro]

Getting into any good masters in Financial Engineering program or getting hired as a quant trader requires a strong quantitative background. This means pursuing a degree in math, computer science, engineering, physics, statistics, finance, or quant-heavy economics (the programs which require Calculus 2). Just look at the breakdown of the class background for Berkeley's Master of Financial Engineering program for an example of what both universities and businesses look for.

Knowing that, you should pursue a degree in one of those fields which will best set you up. A general business degree or liberal arts degree won't help you. Before I would pursue any degree with the schools that people here generally recommend, I would make up a list of which Financial Engineering grad programs you're interested in. Once you've made that list then I'd request info from them as to whether a specific degree from 'X' program would satisfy the school's admissions requirements. In particular I'd also ask whether it would make you a competitive applicant or not, and I would ask if having ACE credits are acceptable as an applicant. Many grad programs specifically require that you take certain relevant classes as RA graded credit and you should know whether those grad programs expect that as well.

If the schools you want are good with ACE credits in your degree, I would pursue TESU's BA in Computer Science since it most likely would be the cheapest overall option for a technical degree. 

WGU also offers degrees in Comp Sci as well as Finance, but you'd need to finish in 1 session in order to make the costs comparable. And I'm not sure how Financial Engineering programs would look at Pass/Fail models like WGU so that's another thing to ask those programs. 

But you should also make sure your financial aid situation is settled before you make any decision.

[wow]

Great advice from Karehiro. Given your time restrictions, I'm not sure I agree with Bj's recommendation of UMPI. It's great for many people, but finishing a degree there in one or two terms really depends on the amount of "free" time you have outside of work and other commitments, the depth to which you want to learn the materials, your reading speed, your test taking skills, and your comfort with writing. If, after considering those factors, you think you can get through it quickly, then UMPI can be a good choice.