05-24-2012, 05:34 PM
Hi Brad, I get a lot of what you are saying and I think you and I have a lot in common with our current situations so I'd like to give you an overview of what I am doing.
Until 8 months ago I had not taken a single class in 17 years. I had zero college credits, had never stepped foot on a campus and had never enrolled anywhere. I had hit a ceiling in my career (spent 8 years as a consultant at Microsoft with no growth or movement and recently started a new job but needed to be in school to show I was serious) because I did not have the degree to back up my work experience and knowledge.
My employer told me about WGU and I called them and talked to them, they told me I would need at least a few credits and I was pointed to Straighterline. I took 3 classes with Straighterline, finished each one in about 3 weeks for each class. My complaints with Straighterline is really that it is pricey, it wasn't reimbursable by my company and the text books can be pricey.
While looking up information on Straighterline and WGU I found a link to DegreeForum and lurked for weeks. I found out about CLEP/DSST exams, FEMA credits, and the "Big 3" schools. I decided WGU wasn't for me and that I wanted to speed up my degree so I applied to TESC to take advantage of the easy transfer of FEMA credits. Over the next few weeks I racked up 12 FEMA credits. But I still didn't know what I was doing and had no plan.
I searched all over the forum for degree plans. It helped a lot. It made me decide to CLEP/DSST out of almost everything. I decided to pay out of pocket for exams and take a handful of classes one at a time with TESC. I took my first DSST (Intro to Computing) two weeks ago. I passed it in 14 minutes. I couldn't believe I got 3 credits in 14 minutes, I was hooked. I have two exams scheduled tomorrow and another on Tuesday. Instead of taking classes now I am just studying on my own with InstantCert and the Peterson practice tests for about 45mins to an hour a night.
If I pass all my exams tomorrow and Tuesday I will have 39 credits. I will be starting my TESC math class in a month or so, I could start it sooner if I needed to but my employer isn't pushing too hard right now. TESC confirmed that I have 6 months from the time of my acceptance to enroll, so I'm banking as many credits as possible with exams in that 6 months.
I have also taken some of the degree plans I found by searching the forums and tweaked them to work for me. My plan has me on target to have 90 credits by the end of 2012 and have my degree completed by June of 2013. I wish you all the luck and hope that it all works out for you!
Until 8 months ago I had not taken a single class in 17 years. I had zero college credits, had never stepped foot on a campus and had never enrolled anywhere. I had hit a ceiling in my career (spent 8 years as a consultant at Microsoft with no growth or movement and recently started a new job but needed to be in school to show I was serious) because I did not have the degree to back up my work experience and knowledge.
My employer told me about WGU and I called them and talked to them, they told me I would need at least a few credits and I was pointed to Straighterline. I took 3 classes with Straighterline, finished each one in about 3 weeks for each class. My complaints with Straighterline is really that it is pricey, it wasn't reimbursable by my company and the text books can be pricey.
While looking up information on Straighterline and WGU I found a link to DegreeForum and lurked for weeks. I found out about CLEP/DSST exams, FEMA credits, and the "Big 3" schools. I decided WGU wasn't for me and that I wanted to speed up my degree so I applied to TESC to take advantage of the easy transfer of FEMA credits. Over the next few weeks I racked up 12 FEMA credits. But I still didn't know what I was doing and had no plan.
I searched all over the forum for degree plans. It helped a lot. It made me decide to CLEP/DSST out of almost everything. I decided to pay out of pocket for exams and take a handful of classes one at a time with TESC. I took my first DSST (Intro to Computing) two weeks ago. I passed it in 14 minutes. I couldn't believe I got 3 credits in 14 minutes, I was hooked. I have two exams scheduled tomorrow and another on Tuesday. Instead of taking classes now I am just studying on my own with InstantCert and the Peterson practice tests for about 45mins to an hour a night.
If I pass all my exams tomorrow and Tuesday I will have 39 credits. I will be starting my TESC math class in a month or so, I could start it sooner if I needed to but my employer isn't pushing too hard right now. TESC confirmed that I have 6 months from the time of my acceptance to enroll, so I'm banking as many credits as possible with exams in that 6 months.
I have also taken some of the degree plans I found by searching the forums and tweaked them to work for me. My plan has me on target to have 90 credits by the end of 2012 and have my degree completed by June of 2013. I wish you all the luck and hope that it all works out for you!
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