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+--- Forum: Degree Planning Advice (https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Forum-Degree-Planning-Advice)
+--- Thread: Help planning my degree (/Thread-Help-planning-my-degree)
Help planning my degree - booklovingirl - 09-11-2021
Hi Everyone,
So glad to find this site. Hope you're able to help me too.
I want to finally get my degree. I've been working in finance/accounting for almost 30 years. Started doing bookkeeping right out of high school (graduated at 16), I have been the financial manager for a non-profit in Los Angeles for the last 15 years, managing funds, grants, audits, etc. I do non profit tax returns as well. But I never got a degree -- in fact I have no formal credits even towards it.
The thing that's most important to me is speed. I'd like to get a degree as fast as possible -- but a relevant one, i.e. accounting or business, not just general studies.
Below is my basic data, I would appreciate any advice on this.
Thanks in advance!
Your Location: California, United States.
Your Age: 46.
What kind of degree do you want?: Business/accounting/finance.
Current Regional Accredited Credits: None
Any certifications or military experience? I am mid a Google Data Analysis certification on Coursera but not done yet.
I could probably take and pass the Microsoft Excel Expert exam but haven't done that yet.
RE: Help planning my degree - rachel83az - 09-11-2021
Questions:
Does budget matter? Do you prefer papers or exams?
UMPI is fast and cheap. But you need to write quite a few papers for your classes. UMPI has a BABA in Accounting (and others).
TESU costs more and may take slightly longer (still less than a year). But you can take exams for most of the classes. TESU has BSBA in Accounting or Finance (among others).
RE: Help planning my degree - booklovingirl - 09-11-2021
(09-11-2021, 12:54 PM)rachel83az Wrote: Questions:
Does budget matter? Do you prefer papers or exams?
UMPI is fast and cheap. But you need to write quite a few papers for your classes. UMPI has a BABA in Accounting (and others).
TESU costs more and may take slightly longer (still less than a year). But you can take exams for most of the classes. TESU has BSBA in Accounting or Finance (among others).
Hi! Thanks for asking. Budget does matter. But I think I would prefer exams as much as possible. I hadn't heard about UMPI before. Does UMPI take credits from Sophia, etc? Do they require a capstone/cornerstone like TESU?
RE: Help planning my degree - ss20ts - 09-11-2021
(09-11-2021, 01:06 PM)booklovingirl Wrote: Hi! Thanks for asking. Budget does matter. But I think I would prefer exams as much as possible. I hadn't heard about UMPI before. Does UMPI take credits from Sophia, etc? Do they require a capstone/cornerstone like TESU?
UMPI accepts courses from Sophia, Study.com, and InstantCert. Those are the most commonly used. None of the business degrees at UMPI have a Capstone or Cornerstone course. You are required to complete a minimum of 30 credits at UMPI along with the majority of your UL courses. Most courses do have a fair amount of writing. It's a competency based education (CBE) program which typically utilizes papers/projects over exams. UMPI has a BA in Accounting, BA in Business Administration with a number of concentrations available and a BLS with several minors available.
https://online.umpi.edu/
RE: Help planning my degree - rachel83az - 09-11-2021
(09-11-2021, 01:06 PM)booklovingirl Wrote: Hi! Thanks for asking. Budget does matter. But I think I would prefer exams as much as possible. I hadn't heard about UMPI before. Does UMPI take credits from Sophia, etc? Do they require a capstone/cornerstone like TESU?
If you would prefer exams as much as possible, you can get a BSBA from TESU for about $6500-$8000 (depending on how you choose to do things). UMPI costs $1400 per term (a term is two months). After transferring in courses from SDC/Sophia/InstantCert, it seems to take most students on this forum two or three terms to get a degree. Occasionally, 4 terms. Total cost: around $3300-$5000 (depending on how long everything takes you).
RE: Help planning my degree - booklovingirl - 09-11-2021
This is very helpful. Is there a way to figure out which courses I should take from Sophia vs SDC vs Instant Cert for TESU?
And similarly for UMPI? In other words, I wouldn't want to spend the time to take an accounting course on Sophia if I have to take the same UMPI course later...
RE: Help planning my degree - rachel83az - 09-11-2021
For UMPI: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-6-Month-UMPI-BA-in-Management-for-3-222 That's for a Management degree, but the Accounting concentration would largely be the same.
For TESU, there's:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sample_TESU_General_Education_Requirements_Roadmap
and
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sample_TESU_BSBA_Accounting_Degree_Plan
or
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sample_TESU_BSBA_Finance_Degree_Plan
For TESU, to meet the 30 RA credit requirement, you could also use XAMK credits: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/XAMK You can see current class offerings here: https://www.xamk.fi/en/openstudies/ TESU's BSBA has 15 credits of electives where you could put XAMK courses. If you combine this with an easy 16-credit term to avoid the residency waiver, this would get you to the necessary 30 RA credits needed for a TESU degree.
For you, I would probably suggest:
Capstone
Cornerstone
PLA-100
CIS-107 ePack (requires very little study)
ACC-102 ePack
MAN-210 ePack
The ePack courses are exams that cost as much as regular classes and that count toward residency. CIS-107, ACC-102, and MAN-210 are all required courses for a BSBA at TESU. If you're familiar with accounting already, ACC-102 will probably be a piece of cake. You can use Study.com to study it while you have a subscription there. I am not completely sure about MAN-210, but it is a LL class and should also be a relatively easy exam. PLA-100 is a 1-credit course that takes 5-10 hours to complete. The cornerstone can be mostly completed in the first week. This leave you to concentrate on just the capstone.
RE: Help planning my degree - bjcheung77 - 09-11-2021
Since you're just starting off, I would recommend taking 30, 45 or more credits with Sophia.org while you're coming up with the decision of degree/school of your choice.
You should: Invest in a second monitor and work on courses that transfer into both TESU/UMPI.
- Review this link: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sophia.org_Equivalency_List
- Take a look at this thread to see what courses you want to take: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-6-Month-UMPI-BA-in-Management-for-3-222
RE: Help planning my degree - booklovingirl - 09-11-2021
This is awesome! I'm going to go through all the links, thank you so much.
bjcheung77 -- why do you say two monitors? I've seen you recommend this to others as well. I use two monitors routinely at work but I am not clear on what exactly you are recommending in terms of studying? Watching two videos at once on different platforms?
RE: Help planning my degree - rachel83az - 09-11-2021
Sophia is open-book. So you can have the PDF open on one monitor while you take the Milestones (exams) on the other monitor.