Help with fastest affordable path for a Bachelors in Accounting

[linda43]

Your Location:  Los Angeles, CA
Your Age: 44
What kind of degree do you want?: Accounting
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 0 
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 0
Any certifications or military experience?: 0
Budget: I have $10K or so saved up.  I'd like to go the most affordable route possible, but will consider spending more for easy and fast.
Commitments:  Just two teenagers & spouse. I currently work full time and can work on my studies part time or in the evenings/weekends.
Dedicated time to study: 2-3 hours daily.  But can study as much as is needed during the night or weekends as long as my schedule is free.
Timeline: As soon as possible.  But realistically 12-18 months would be ideal.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: 0

Thank you in advance for your guidance.  Graduated High school and went straight to work.  Never went to College. 
Trying to find the fastest way to obtain an Accounting degree and the best course of action to take.
I'm currently licensed as a Loan officer and real estate sales agent.
Currently working as a team lead in reverse mortgage.
My future goal after obtaining a accounting degree would be to get my CPA and or Masters.
Thank you again for everyone's help.

[tesu-acct-student]

The CPA exam is the same in all jurisdictions, but each jurisdiction has different requirements to sit for the exam and to obtain the license. I'll assume you want to sit for the CPA exam as a California candidate. Here are the California requirements to sit for the exam:

https://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/applicants/cp...k_tips.pdf

Summary: bachelor's degree with 24 semester hours in accounting subjects and 24 semester hours in business subjects. This qualifies you to sit for the exam. Once you've completed these requirements and passed the exam...

Here are the California requirements to obtain the CPA license:

https://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/applicants/cp...k_tips.pdf

Summary:
Pass the CPA exam
Obtain 30 additional semester credits. Many do this via a master's in accounting but a master's is not a requirement. You will need to have at least 20 additional credits of accounting courses and ten credits of accounting ethics courses.

I'm not up to date on the cheapest/fastest options for an accounting degree so I can't comment there.

Wishing you the best! 

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, great post to get the ball rolling, great info within the addendum and template... My suggestion is to get started with Sophia.org and Study.com to get the general education, electives, and requirements. I would shoot for a possible one-and-done solution, example A: for the BA Accounting at UMPI, you can decide to do a double major in BA with a concentration of your choice, if you ever wanted to. You then can ladder up to the MAOL if you wanted later as well... Example B: WGU BS Accounting and then the MAcc, if you max your transfers to each, you will get both the Bachelors and Masters for under 10K.

[Jonathan Whatley]

You have no bad option between UMPI, WGU, and TESU. Each has pros and cons.

UMPI: Self-paced competency-based education. The only brick-and-mortar university of the three. On average, the fastest and lowest cost of the three for business degrees. Two choices of accounting degree, a BA in Accounting or a BA in Business Administration with Accounting concentration. Myriad options to add additional concentrations, minors, or major. Assignment-based, no exams.

Cons: Accounting is the only big area where UMPI’s material has been reviewed as a bit weak. Best if you’ll be strong at self-studying the subject. More additional study than average may be needed for the CPA exam, and especially if you just take the accounting concentration as opposed to the full major. No specialized accreditation in business, though that makes no practical difference for most graduates.

WGU: Self-paced competency-based education. The accounting curriculum is praised as rigorous and well-designed. ACBSP business accreditation.

Cons: Proctored exams. The most impersonal student-faculty relationships of the three. No option to add any concentration or minor.

TESU: The accounting curriculum from TESU itself appears solid. Some options to add additional certificates or major, but fewer than UMPI. ACBSP business accreditation.

Cons: Proctored exams. Courses from TESU itself follow traditional semester schedules. Likely on average the most slog per credit hour.

[huiwh1998]

You have no bad option between UMPI, WGU, and TESU. Each has pros and cons.

UMPI: Self-paced competency-based education. The only brick-and-mortar university of the three. On average, the fastest and lowest cost of the three for business degrees. Two choices of accounting degree, a BA in Accounting or a BA in Business Administration with Accounting concentration. Myriad options to add additional concentrations, minors, or major. Assignment-based, no exams.

Cons: Accounting is the only big area where UMPI’s material has been reviewed as a bit weak. Best if you’ll be strong at self-studying the subject. More additional study than average may be needed for the CPA exam, and especially if you just take the accounting concentration as opposed to the full major. No specialized accreditation in business, though that makes no practical difference for most graduates.

WGU: Self-paced competency-based education. The accounting curriculum is praised as rigorous and well-designed. ACBSP business accreditation.

Cons: Proctored exams. The most impersonal student-faculty relationships of the three. No option to add any concentration or minor.

TESU: The accounting curriculum from TESU itself appears solid. Some options to add an additional certificate or major, but fewer than UMPI. ACBSP business accreditation.

Cons: Proctored exams. Courses from TESU itself follow traditional semester schedules. Likely on average the most slog per credit hour.

I believe TESU has a campus, as I saw their campus on YouTube...

[Jonathan Whatley]

I believe TESU has a campus, as I saw their campus on YouTube...

It’s offices to support the online program. I believe the only in-person learning delivered by TESU is in the hybrid accelerated second bachelor’s in nursing program. It appears those in-person components occur principally at hospitals in New Jersey. It’s possible they have a classroom on campus. At most that’s an occasional classroom for dozens of students.