Need some guidance [Possible dumb question about ACE & Pierpont]

[hrcak]

Hello, I've learned about DegreeForum after finding out about the free Sophia deal on Reddit back in spring. Then I learned about TEEX and other sources of credit. I have a few questions and sorry if they're dumb because I'm new to college and degree seeking. I didn't think I could get a degree until that Sophia promotion, it really got me interested in education. 

Currently right now, I have about 70+ ACE credits. (Or had, I just learned about the changes today! I guess I need to contact Sophia. I'm still learning about this Acclaim thing. I guess there still is Parchment)

Unfortunately I missed the $99 ASU courses, but I did end up taking 3 ASU courses that just finished. (I haven't paid for them yet) I have 3 RA credits from a community college on top of that. 

I was considering the Pierpont BOG AAS as I've seen it a lot around here and I'd really like to accomplish my first degree. However, my ultimate goal is to get a bachelor's degree in a business concentration. I'm not sure if I should get the Pierpont AAS first or skip it & just go straight into a bachelor program. I'm very interested in the more self-paced programs like Wisconsin, UMPI, WGU. I'm not sure if the AAS is worth paying 1200 dollars for ASU credits if I'm going to try for a bachelors anyway. What do you guys think or what would you do?

Possible stupid question that I'm having an issue putting into words: If I apply ACE credits towards Pierpont or any degree, do they "disappear" from the ACE transcript/registry? So if I were to enter a bachelor program, would I HAVE to submit the Pierpont AAS as my source for the general education requirements. I do understand that AAS is different than an AS and not all colleges may accept them the same and maybe on a case by case basis. Is there a chance a college could accept less credits if I submit the Pierpont AAS degree than if I were to not have an AAS and submit purely an ACE transcript with a similar amount of credits? I'm not sure if that makes sense.

[jsh1138]

No, the ACE credits stay on your ACE transcript forever. You can apply the same credits to more than one degree.

It's up to every college what they will take in credit and what they won't so it's possible that they will accept any amount of your credit that you can think of. I have had some take 20 credits out of 100+ and I've had one accept some credits and apply them towards my degree and then contact me months later saying they unaccepted some of them. It's just up to the college.

[rachel83az]

Unfortunately, Pierpont will NOT accept courses from Parchment and neither will TESU. As of right now, I think you'll need to bug Sophia to get your courses manually added to Acclaim if you want to go to either school.

UMPI and Excelsior both, AFAIK, accept Sophia on Parchment. So does COSC but they have the expensive RA requirement for their degrees so I would skip them since you have relatively little RA credit. I'm not sure how WGU feels about Sophia & Parchment.

As already said, applying credit towards a degree does not "erase" them from your transcript somehow.

To whether or not $1200 is worth it for an AAS, I'd say it depends. That's still a low price for an Associate's degree. Will an Associate's degree possibly get you a promotion or help you to land a new job while you're finishing up your Bachelor's? If so, I'd say it's totally worth it. If not, it's up to you as to whether or not getting your Associate's degree will provide more concrete motivation to actually complete a Bachelor's degree.