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+--- Thread: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. (/Thread-Life-experience-limited-credits-Online-only)
Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - sixoneseven - 02-26-2021
Hey All,
I want to complete a degree remotely. I have limited college credits from a community college that I attended in 2009. I've had a pervious career as a police officer and currently am a pilot for an airline. I would like to find an institution that would provide as much credit as possible for those two careers and possibly include those decade old credits from my local community college.
I have no preference on degree type, whatever would work with my prior experience.
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - natshar - 02-26-2021
(02-26-2021, 09:52 PM)sixoneseven Wrote: Hey All,
I want to complete a degree remotely. I have limited college credits from a community college that I attended in 2009. I've had a pervious career as a police officer and currently am a pilot for an airline. I would like to find an institution that would provide as much credit as possible for those two careers and possibly include those decade old credits from my local community college.
I have no preference on degree type, whatever would work with my prior experience.
ok. What do you have?
List:
Name of school and
All courses are taken at that school with the name of course and course numbers as well the grade.
Also list any certifications you have because you can get credit for those at some schools or through PLA.
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - Merlin - 02-27-2021
(02-26-2021, 09:52 PM)sixoneseven Wrote: I want to complete a degree remotely. I have limited college credits from a community college that I attended in 2009. I've had a pervious career as a police officer and currently am a pilot for an airline. I would like to find an institution that would provide as much credit as possible for those two careers and possibly include those decade old credits from my local community college.
I have no preference on degree type, whatever would work with my prior experience.
FYI, schools don't award credits due to prior careers/life experience. However, you can sometimes earn credit for specific courses if you can provide evidence of your competency. This process is called PLA portfolio creation. It isn't an option at every college, but many of the ones we recommend here do offer PLA as an option for earning credit. The downside is that it can be on the expensive side (since you have to pay to have the portfolio reviewed for credit) and it requires a lot of documentation, plus it may also require support from someone at a prior job who can verify your experience. So building a portfolio isn't usually recommended, due in part to the amount of effort, time, and costs involved.
The easier way is to just take courses from a college that provides competency-based degrees like WGU, NAU, SNHU, UMPI, etc. At those schools, you earn credits by proving your knowledge through testing and/or papers, projects, or presentations. If you already know the material being covered by the course, you can complete it much more quickly than someone who doesn't. Some people manage to complete a course in a few hours or days instead of weeks and months like a normal college class. For courses where you don't have prior experience, you just study the course materials and then take the exam or complete the paper/project/presentation at the end as normal.
So if you want to maximize your ability to leverage your prior career experience, you may want to take a look at some of the competency-based colleges and see if there is a degree that matches your interests and has courses that align with your prior experience.
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - rachel83az - 02-27-2021
Based on your past career as a police officer, a Criminal Justice degree might be right for you. But is that really what you want? Will that actually enhance your career? Where do you want to go with your career in the future? There are many options out there and simply saying you want "the easiest" or "the fastest" degree doesn't necessarily help you with your career.
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - dfrecore - 02-27-2021
What is the reason you want/need a degree, if you already have a career (a 2nd career)? That might be beneficial to finding out what to suggest to you (along with the others asking about coursework, which will be accepted, and certs which also may be).
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - sixoneseven - 02-27-2021
(02-27-2021, 08:45 AM)rachel83az Wrote: Based on your past career as a police officer, a Criminal Justice degree might be right for you. But is that really what you want? Will that actually enhance your career? Where do you want to go with your career in the future? There are many options out there and simply saying you want "the easiest" or "the fastest" degree doesn't necessarily help you with your career.Thanks for this reply. I originally started a cj degree at my local community college. Currently, I'm employed by a lower tier airline. Making the move to a high tier airline will require any type of 4 year degree, there is no preference given to aviation focused degrees. Having said that, I'd prefer to use my previous experience to my advantage in some way. I've read that some colleges will provide credits for life experience?
As far as current certifications:
Basic Law Enforcement Academy (POST)
Airline Transport Pilot
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - rachel83az - 02-27-2021
Yes, colleges like TESU will allow you to directly get credit for life experience but it requires creating a portfolio. However, this is MUCH more work and costs a lot more than just testing out of courses. If you want to maximize life experience and get this done as quickly as possible, I would suggest completing everything but English Comp I/II at Sophia.org and then applying to UMPI's Criminal Justice degree program: https://online.umpi.edu/programs/ba-criminal-justice.aspx UMPI is a competency-based program, which means that you will be allowed to complete as many credits as you can within one term. With your prior experience, you should be able to complete the CJ degree much faster and easier than you'd be able to complete a degree at TESU with the portfolio stuff.
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - graduatesoon - 02-27-2021
(02-27-2021, 05:25 PM)sixoneseven Wrote:(02-27-2021, 08:45 AM)rachel83az Wrote: Based on your past career as a police officer, a Criminal Justice degree might be right for you. But is that really what you want? Will that actually enhance your career? Where do you want to go with your career in the future? There are many options out there and simply saying you want "the easiest" or "the fastest" degree doesn't necessarily help you with your career.Thanks for this reply. I originally started a cj degree at my local community college. Currently, I'm employed by a lower tier airline. Making the move to a high tier airline will require any type of 4 year degree, there is no preference given to aviation focused degrees. Having said that, I'd prefer to use my previous experience to my advantage in some way. I've read that some colleges will provide credits for life experience?
As far as current certifications:
Basic Law Enforcement Academy (POST)
Airline Transport Pilot
TESU will give up to 35 credits for ATP with a letter from FAA see https://www2.tesu.edu/oplr/client.php?client=FAA-ATP not COSC.
There is an old thread I cannot find that a local CC will give credits for POST graduation credits. It may be something similar to this up to 39 credits at Rio Saldado https://forum.officer.com/forum/local-discussion-groups/u-s-states/texas/170475-transferring-police-academy-to-college-credit maybe someone else remembers or commented on it.
They probably/may slot into free credits needed for 120 credits to graduate and some police credits may slot into required credits for BALS. If you can get a BSBA may help in the long term if you stay long term and want to move up. Military JST credits may help.
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - graduatesoon - 02-27-2021
(02-27-2021, 06:08 PM)graduatesoon Wrote: [quote pid='331198' dateline='1614464704']
[url=https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/User-graduatesoon][/url]
Thanks for this reply. I originally started a cj degree at my local community college. Currently, I'm employed by a lower tier airline. Making the move to a high tier airline will require any type of 4 year degree, there is no preference given to aviation focused degrees. Having said that, I'd prefer to use my previous experience to my advantage in some way. I've read that some colleges will provide credits for life experience?
As far as current certifications:
Basic Law Enforcement Academy (POST)
Airline Transport Pilot
TESU will give up to 35 credits for ATP with a letter from FAA see https://www2.tesu.edu/oplr/client.php?client=FAA-ATP not COSC.
There is an old thread I cannot find that a local CC will give credits for POST graduation credits. It may be something similar to this up to 39 credits at Rio Saldado https://forum.officer.com/forum/local-discussion-groups/u-s-states/texas/170475-transferring-police-academy-to-college-credit maybe someone else remembers or commented on it.
They probably/may slot into free credits needed for 120 credits to graduate and some police credits may slot into required credits for BALS. If you can get a BSBA may help in the long term if you stay long term and want to move up. Military JST credits may help.
[/quote]
Life Long Learning posted " $140 total for 20 credits of Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)" for law enforcement with other options available
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-140-total-for-20-credits-of-Prior-Learning-Assessment-PLA-is-a-slam-dunk
Check the local CCs near where you graduated POST they may have agreements to award credits.
Airlines are like police, CJ credits like everyone else has will be missed when you look to promote, use them for extra credits because they want business or HR or something else promoteable degree. Airline management will look for something similar unless you want to rely on your medical passing until you are 65 and stay in the cockpit.
RE: Life experience, limited credits. Online only. - bjcheung77 - 03-01-2021
I would apply to TESU and send in all your transcripts for an academic evaluation. While waiting for their review, finish courses you know you need for the degree on Sophia.org for Lower Level/Study.com for Upper Level, this way you'll be proactive and closer to your goal. You may also want to check out a degree from COSC, Excelsior, and see if a BSGS or BSLS is an option for you. You can ladder a Bachelors of Science in Liberal Arts/Studies to say a Walden Masters for an affordable price, or any competency based masters for that matter...