Pursuing a BA

[LookinAhead]

Hi, I’d like to finally finish my degree so it’s not a barrier when applying for roles. For background, I’ve been a product management and design leader within software companies for a number of years, so I’m looking for something that complements my career path.

I’d love to understand the options I have to get an accredited bachelor’s and how to build a solid plan. I haven’t applied anywhere yet. 

Your Location: Texas, USA

Your Age: 50

What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelor’s with ability to ladder to an MBA/EMBA (not sure on timing for the MBA). Degree areas that I’m interested in (in rough order): business/leadership, Data Science, Data Analytics, or UX Design. I could go for software engineering, but don’t want to deal with compiled languages (Java/C#/etc.)

Current Regional Accredited Credits: 27 from UT Austin (from the 90s):

• 3 - English - Rhetoric and Composition
  
• 3 - Math - Elem Functs and Coord Geometry
  
• 5 - First-Year Spanish I
  
• 3 - Geology - Age Of Dinosaurs
  
• 4 - Intro Study Of Drama and Theatre
  
• 3 - Improvisation and Action
  
• 3 - Introduction to Visual Theatre
  
• 3 - Intro to Technical Production
  

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: none 

Any certifications or military experience?: no

Budget: I’m trying to understand this, so I don’t have a number. Cheap is good, but speed will be more important

Commitments: I have a family and will get back to a full time job, but studying will be a high priority

Dedicated time to study: I’ll go conservative for the estimate: 15 hours a week, though I would likely push past that, especially for flat-rate programs that would let me move quickly.

Timeline: as soon as feasible

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: none at the moment

My questions

1.  What would be good degree/school options?
   
2. What would the plan look like? I'd love both a suggested plan and the way I should build my own plan, in case I need to tweak or go a different route. 
   
3. What am I not thinking about and what questions am I not asking that I should?
   

Thanks for your help! This forum is incredible.

[SpartacusPM]

Since you’re in Texas and open to a business/leadership degree. I would recommend looking at East Texas A&M University. They have BAAS in Organizational Leadership. I have completed it myself and enjoyed the program. It is competency based and $1,000 per 7 week term for TX residents. Since you’re starting with some credits I would recommend using a combination of Sophia Learning credits and Coursera certifications to get what you’re missing . If you use facebook I suggest joining the group Sophia to ETAMU. There is a spreadsheet there that was created so you know what classes to take that will transfer over.

[MISin08]

Spartacus's rec for a school local to you is a great one. There's several schools popular on the forum and in most instances we're giving up local connection for ease and speed. In case you didn't see it, here's a few links to threads with some fundamentals:

https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ed-Version

https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...HT-for-you

For many forum users, University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) is a great option because they are quite flexible both as to incoming credit types and sources and the number and variety of majors and concentrations, plus the competency-based format. 

From your description, I'd recommend a business degree with a tech or project management concentration, but most of all I recommend keeping it simple and fast. I included a tech concentration, which supplemented my work experience but added time, and when my situation changed I had to drop for several years (see my user name lol). When we're young we belabor choice of major, but once you have work experience, getting it done is more critical. There's some nifty graduate programs out there and that's where anyone over 40 needs to be looking to differentiate themselves, in my opinion. Other things that have helped me are a dedicated laptop and large/dual monitor and study space with a door. Nutrition, hydration, sleep, and the book "Making It Stick" (ISBN 978-0674729018). NotebookLM and old-fashioned paper note-taking. Let us know when you have more questions. Good luck.

Phillip

[LookinAhead]

Great, thank you both for your quick replies! ETAMU, UMPI, and WGU were all on my list after reading through the forums. I've requested access to the FB group so I can check out that spreadsheet when I'm in. While it would be nice to have a degree from a Texas-based school, I'm certainly not tied to it.

Any recommendations or resources beyond that spreadsheet that would help me put together potential plans so I could compare? For example, I'm trying to understand when I should use Sophia vs. CLEP vs. Study.com and any potential impacts those choices would have at different universities. Suggestions for the order of completing things would also be helpful, if it matters (my understanding is that I'd want to get to 90 credits via Sophia/Study.com before applying to the university).

Again, thank you!

[LookinAhead]

Okay, following up as I work through this. Thanks again for the pointer to the FB group with the spreadsheet, SpartacusPM, it was very helpful. I’m building my plan spreadsheet here (thoughts/feedback would be great).

I have some basic questions to validate my understanding as I evaluate the ETAMU BAAS in Organizational Leadership. A lot of the relevant forum content is a few years old, so it’s hard to know what remains accurate, so my apologies in advance.

1. ETAMU requires at least 30 credits be taken at the school. Does it make sense to hit that requirement by completing the Applied Major Courses there or should I think about it differently? Those plus Texas History are 33 credits, so I may take one on Sophia instead.
   
2. How do you choose between Sophia, Study.com and Coursera?
   
3. How do you pick good courses that you know will map to the ETAMU requirements (both core curriculum and electives)?
   
4. How do you know if you can use a CLEP to test out and how/where do you take them these days?
   

MIS08, to your point, speed and ease are important, so I’ll likely build a version of the plan for UMPI. Would you be up for sharing the plan you followed?


Thanks!

[SpartacusPM]

Okay, following up as I work through this. Thanks again for the pointer to the FB group with the spreadsheet, SpartacusPM, it was very helpful. I’m building my plan spreadsheet here (thoughts/feedback would be great).

I have some basic questions to validate my understanding as I evaluate the ETAMU BAAS in Organizational Leadership. A lot of the relevant forum content is a few years old, so it’s hard to know what remains accurate, so my apologies in advance.

1. ETAMU requires at least 30 credits be taken at the school. Does it make sense to hit that requirement by completing the Applied Major Courses there or should I think about it differently? Those plus Texas History are 33 credits, so I may take one on Sophia instead.
   
2. How do you choose between Sophia, Study.com and Coursera?
   
3. How do you pick good courses that you know will map to the ETAMU requirements (both core curriculum and electives)?
   
4. How do you know if you can use a CLEP to test out and how/where do you take them these days?
   

MIS08, to your point, speed and ease are important, so I’ll likely build a version of the plan for UMPI. Would you be up for sharing the plan you followed?


Thanks!

The spreadsheet sheet should be up to date. I would recommend the Google Project Management certification on Coursera. This will count as 9 credits. (6 UL, and 3 LL). Take everything else on Sophia. The spreadsheet tells you exactly what to take. Follow that and you will be good. That will leave you with the 33 credits to take at ETAMU, including Texas Government, which you can’t take at Sophia or Study. Only ETAMU or another Texas college. Since you still have plenty of credits to work on. You might be able to get it done a community college for cheap. A few have gone to WTAMU and taken it. But I think it’s something like $700. For that price I would just take it at ETAMU. Ask a bunch of questions in the FB group. It’s a great resource

[LookinAhead]

Great, thank you!

[MISin08]

Okay, following up as I work through this. Thanks again for the pointer to the FB group with the spreadsheet, SpartacusPM, it was very helpful. I’m building my plan spreadsheet here (thoughts/feedback would be great).

I have some basic questions to validate my understanding as I evaluate the ETAMU BAAS in Organizational Leadership. A lot of the relevant forum content is a few years old, so it’s hard to know what remains accurate, so my apologies in advance.

1. ETAMU requires at least 30 credits be taken at the school. Does it make sense to hit that requirement by completing the Applied Major Courses there or should I think about it differently? Those plus Texas History are 33 credits, so I may take one on Sophia instead.
   
2. How do you choose between Sophia, Study.com and Coursera?
   
3. How do you pick good courses that you know will map to the ETAMU requirements (both core curriculum and electives)?
   
4. How do you know if you can use a CLEP to test out and how/where do you take them these days?
   

MIS08, to your point, speed and ease are important, so I’ll likely build a version of the plan for UMPI. Would you be up for sharing the plan you followed?


Thanks!

I went to Excelsior, not UMPI, and I created a spreadsheet using their catalog to gather the requirements and I used a website “Bain4weeks.com” (a great piece of history for us, but no longer current in details) to help me plan and map CLEPs and DSSTs to requirements. Unfortunately, I no longer have the spreadsheet; it was on a work computer and I'm no longer at that job. At that time the choice, practically, was Excelsior, Thomas Edison, or Charter Oak, and UMPI had not yet created their YourPace program. Excelsior had a very liberal transfer policy (still does, just not as liberal), plus it was featured prominently in a well-known book that inspired me to do this. For UMPI, this thread https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-for-3-222 and an associated wiki page https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:UMPI should be useful for you.
 
I took CLEPs at my local university. Here’s a search tool: https://clep.collegeboard.org/clep-test-center-search
I understand it’s now possible to take CLEPs remotely. I sort of enjoy the ritual of testing at the center. I also enjoy taking exams (it’s sick, I know) but if I were starting over, I would probably try to use Sophia or Study.com as much as possible.
 
Some general tips:

• If you struggle with or are rusty on math or with academic writing take them early. Procrastinating math bit me.
  
• You can speed up your comprehension of any new subject by reading about it or the “feeder” subjects on Wikipedia. 
  
• Open textbooks are useful when reading the info from another source helps cement understanding. https://openstax.org Many subjects have YouTube videos.
  
• Several courses share learning (and in the case of Study.com, they even share lessons) and build on one another. This means there’s a logical progression. A business major should study Social Science general education prior to taking related business subjects. Intro Sociology and Intro Psych both feed Principes of Management, Principes of Supervision, and Human Resources, and all these feed into Organizational Behavior. 
  
• The two Principles of Economics feed Accounting and Finance.
  
• If you are inclined to take Philosophy, take Philosophy before Business Ethics.  
  
• Business Law is one of the harder “easy” classes and there’s not really anything that leads into it, so plan on a lot of vocabulary study. Principles of Marketing, similarly, is a lot of vocabulary and for me was easier to study after Principles of Management, because for me it was easier to stay interested in marketing once I could see it as a strategic activity. Studying Intro to Business (which I skipped) might have made that transition easier as it’s a sampler of the entire business curriculum.
  

The way I understand it the key to getting through UMPI YourPace and other CBE programs quickly is a hard sprint at the end. I would think that’s not for everyone, and possibly not for every subject. I’m considering UMPI for their MS in Business, and while I think I could do the core business topics in one session, the Business Intel subjects, being more new learning, would probably extend to a second session. If I wanted to study in an area (such as Humanities subjects for example) for enjoyment or for “bettering myself”, I would take it slower. I guess that seems obvious, but 30 credits in one UMPI session is going to be a challenge, and a reality check about that (as well as thinking strategically about how to accomplish it) before committing might be beneficial. I found metacognition (thinking about my thinking) and figuring out how to get through the degree itself turned out to be a major learning accomplishment beyond "checking the box" that I apply on the job and in life. 

I hope some of this is helpful.

Phillip