No previous college and wanting a Marketing degree

[bjcheung77]

I've read in some previous posts on this forum (see, I do search before asking   ) that Pierpont won't transfer credits afterwards, does that still ring true? There was one particular thread in which several people said they won't, but I think you need to earn one credit from Pierpont or something of that nature. Any details on that?

---

Also, thank you all for helping me form a strategy. I really value all of your input.

At this time, Pierpont only requires 1 graded credit, you can transfer in credits anytime.  My suggestion is to get the 1 graded credit from ASU UL for $25 and the rest can come from Sophia.org, you can follow the exact instructions here on the wiki, Rachel83AZ has done a great job creating and updating many of the pages.  Link: Pierpont C&TC

[rachel83az]

Thanks for all the info, I'll be thoroughly reviewing everything over the weekend.

I did reach out to SNHU with some questions a few weeks ago and got no response. That didn't give me a good impression, but I am interested in their Social Media Marketing program. They are the only school that hasn't responded to any inquiries. 

Something that's not clear to me yet - which schools are potentially competency based? I wouldn't necessarily be accelerating through courses, but I also like the concept of moving forward though a course at my own pace. Can you do this with SNHU, TESU, UMPI? With my job, I do three 12's a week. So on a work day, I essentially have no free time. But on days off recently, I have spent up to 10 hours a day on Sophia. Having some flexibility would be good. How rigid are the weekly schedules of TESU, SNHU, UMPI? Do you have to fulfill the entire amount of time in the courses, or can you complete the work and move on?

TESU is not fully competency-based, but you can transfer in 104-114 competency-based credits from elsewhere. However, most TESU courses (included the required cornerstone & capstone) can be partially or fully completed ahead of the due date. So, if you have more time, you can work ahead and then only have to worry about the weekly forum post(s). There is some rigidity, but not as much as at other schools.

UMPI is fully competency-based. So long as you complete (IIRC) at least 2 classes per term (1 class per session/2 months), they don't care how fast or how slow you complete the courses. Any course you start during a given session do need to be finished before that session ends, though. Example: you quickly finish 5 classes in a session and you still have 3 weeks left in the session. But, you know that the next 7 weeks are going to be busy at work and you're not going to be able to do anything but eat, sleep, go to work. In that case, you would NOT ask for another class to be opened for you; you would be able to do nothing for 7-8 weeks (except communicating your status to UMPI so they know you didn't just drop out), then you'd do whatever class(es) you could in the 2nd half of the second session. You might wind up spending longer on your degree than you would if you hadn't needed to take that break, but you at least have that flexibility.

SNHU is not, as far as I'm aware, flexible at all. You have weekly due dates and I'm not sure how much, if at all, you can work ahead. Once you transfer 90 credits to SNHU, you're stuck to a standard college/university schedule. This is fine for some people, not okay for others. For people who want a degree ASAP, SNHU is not a great option. But they can still be a good choice for some people.

The wiki states, "The GEC of UMPI is one of the most complex and hardest to understand of any college." Can anyone elaborate on that?

For a lot of schools, the gen eds are pretty straightforward. You need, for example, 45 gen ed credits and that corresponds exactly to 15 gen ed classes. Each gen ed requirement is filled by exactly one gen ed class and every gen ed class fills exactly one gen ed slot. This is how it works at TESU. Once you grasp the requirements, it's pretty easy to fill out the slots.

On the other hand, there are schools like UMPI where the requirements are more complex. If you read the GEC requirements, you can see that some classes can fill as many as 3 or 4 GEC requirements. In theory, this means that you can complete the requirements with something like 20-30 credits. HOWEVER, UMPI also requires a minimum of 40 credits in the GEC area. You cannot fill the "missing" credits with any random elective(s) you want, they have to meet UMPI requirements. So, instead of being allowed to take (say) 3 history courses and call it done, you'd fill requirements 2A, 4C, and 5D each with different classes EVEN THOUGH one single class could theoretically meet all three requirements. See https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...ivalentsif you haven't already

Once you wrap your head around how it works, it's not that bad. But it can be difficult to grasp at first.

I've read in some previous posts on this forum (see, I do search before asking   ) that Pierpont won't transfer credits afterwards, does that still ring true? There was one particular thread in which several people said they won't, but I think you need to earn one credit from Pierpont or something of that nature. Any details on that?

This is no longer true. That condition was apparently caused by a computer bug and has been fixed. If you have a Pierpont degree, you will be able to send Pierpont transcripts whether or not you actually took any credits from Pierpont itself. If you're considering both Pierpont and UMPI, you might want to check out https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pi...egree_Plan

[upgrayedd]

That's really helpful, thank you so much.

Side note: I've been trying to explain the legitimacy of these various paths to online degrees to my older sisters. They both went the traditional route years ago, one of them $60k in debt for, what I will accurately call, a 4 year degree - only to end up in a career that wasn't very lucrative, and she left the field altogether. And I still can't convince her that I can earn a real degree without massive debt. I have no support or encouragement where I'm from. So I'm very thankful for all the info and resources here. This is a great community!

[LevelUP]

Something that's not clear to me yet - which schools are potentially competency based? I wouldn't necessarily be accelerating through courses, but I also like the concept of moving forward though a course at my own pace.

Competency-based basically means you pay a flat rate for a term, and then you can take as many courses you want during the flat-rate term taking courses one at a time with usually a minimum of one course. There are no deadlines for anything.

The colleges that are competency-based that we have degree plans for are UMPI, WGU, PUG, and TAMUC.

The wiki states, "The GEC of UMPI is one of the most complex and hardest to understand of any college." Can anyone elaborate on that?

The GEC can get complex mainly due to all the overlaps involved and picking the right classes so it overlaps with what you need. Following a degree plan should be easy though.

That's really helpful, thank you so much.

Side note: I've been trying to explain the legitimacy of these various paths to online degrees to my older sisters. They both went the traditional route years ago, one of them $60k in debt for, what I will accurately call, a 4 year degree - only to end up in a career that wasn't very lucrative, and she left the field altogether. And I still can't convince her that I can earn a real degree without massive debt. I have no support or encouragement where I'm from. So I'm very thankful for all the info and resources here. This is a great community!

We have had some people here become professors, earn 6-figure salaries in IT and other fields, got accepted to competitive master's degree programs and some got accepted into top law schools.

We are a strong community that supports each other here. If you have any questions or need help, don't be afraid to ask.

[dfrecore]

Side note: I've been trying to explain the legitimacy of these various paths to online degrees to my older sisters. They both went the traditional route years ago, one of them $60k in debt for, what I will accurately call, a 4 year degree - only to end up in a career that wasn't very lucrative, and she left the field altogether. And I still can't convince her that I can earn a real degree without massive debt. I have no support or encouragement where I'm from. So I'm very thankful for all the info and resources here. This is a great community!

Honestly, if your siblings don't believe - spend exactly ZERO minutes trying to talk to them about this.  Any time wasted in that effort will detract from time spent doing useful things like getting a degree.

Don't get distracted by things outside of your control.  Don't try to convince anyone of anything.  Just move forward and get'er done.

[upgrayedd]

I registered with ASU to complete a course from the Pierpont degree plan: CIS-194 Technical Support Fundamentals. I'm either confused, or the course isn't available. I registered, activated, verified my ID, all 3 days ago. Anything I find about the course takes me to the same page, which asks you to Sign Up. After clicking Sign Up, you log in and you're at the Dashboard. From the Dashboard, searching for the course takes me back to that page again to Sign Up. Then looking through My ASU and Class Search, it doesn't come up at all. I looked at some other classes but it's a mixed bag if they're available or not.

Does anyone know of an alternative to that ASU class? Also, to receive the one credit from that class it costs $400, is that correct?

[rachel83az]

From your dashboard, click on the "Add Courses" link in the grey bar running across the top. Do Ctrl+F for "Business Technology Fundamentals". Click the yellow "+ Add Course" button next to the course. In the sidebar on the right, click "Enroll".

---

Also, no, that 1-credit class is $25. No more and no less. It's the only $25 course that ASU offers right now.

[jch]

You should be able to access active courses via the "My Current Courses" section at https://welcome.ea.asu.edu/dashboard
The first CIS-194 item doesn't have the $400 fee, just the initial $25.

[upgrayedd]

Got it! Geez, I feel silly for asking now. Thanks for your help.

[upgrayedd]

Finished that ASU course. Is it the first part of Google's IT Support certificate? I was wondering if Coursera would store my completion of the course or not since it was through ASU. I would like to go on to complete the entire certificate but it would be nice to not repeat the first course.