Does UMPI feel rewarding? Does it feed the soul.

[trentburke14]

Hey, 

     I am a full-time 30-year-old Youtuber and after 10 years of youtube, I want to return to school. Not for necessity or a promotion at work, but for the pure love of learning. I went to a UNI. right after high school for a few years and earned 42 credits, but dropped out for some personal reasons and my youtube took off so I decided not to return. I have been spending many months looking up schools and trying to balance quality with price. I also would prefer to earn an online degree because I just don't have the time to commute and spend a lot of time at school. So Long story short I found UMPI, but I have some concerns.


     I have read stories about people taking 30+ credits in one session (8 weeks) and finishing their degrees in less than a year. To me, that sounds very hard to believe, not that it is not impossible, but rather do you learn anything? When you complete a class in UMPI do you feel that you gained skills and knowledge? Is there a sense of accomplishment and you're not just doing busy work to get a degree? Personally, I want to go to school for History or English, because I LOVE both subjects, but writing is not my strong suit. I look forward to the struggle and practice of writing in school, but I fear at UMPI I will not improve as much as I would in a more traditional school. Do any current students here have some insight on these matters? Do you feel rewarded and enriched when you finish a course?

     My other concern is about the degree itself. Do people respect the degree when applying for jobs? Also, I plan to get my Master's degree from a different school (Like Penn State World Campaus) could getting a degree from UMPI be a hindrance to my chances of getting accepted in? When I hear about people getting their Bachelor's in 6months and their Master's in 4 months it sounds kinda cheap to me. Like you check off some boxes, did some busy work, and got a piece of paper that says degree on it. I am not trying to sound rude, just that I have some concerns about the retainment of these courses and the fulfillment of achieving a degree from here. (Again im not saying this is true, I hope that its not true, because I do want to go to UMPI.)


     I am highly interested in UMPI because it's cheap, especially if you take a lot of classes. I like the idea that I can finish my degree in less than a year and get started on my Master's. And by saving money, by getting a bachelor's at UMPI, I can spend a little more on my Master's at a school with more of a reputation.

Thanks for your Time.

So I am exactly the person your talking about and some of my information was received here. Next month I graduate with a Bachelors from UMPI and a Masters in Organizational Leadership and I started in October. I finished all my residency classes in the eight week session along with five more classes in which three of them were transferred to the masters program. I slowed down in the masters and instead of eight weeks I took ten weeks to complete because on the last class I thought it would be harder than it was and now I'm enrolled for an MBA program at Hellenic American college. Now here is the answer to your question. Everything I just said above had nothing to do with boosting about what I accomplished because that doesn't matter to me right here right now. What matters is helping someone else feel at ease in the position I was under a year ago and being able to "hack" the system financially and get a real degree with real classes and be able to use things I am and have learnt immediately in my career. And at 48 years old being told I am not the student type and also have challenges such as ADD and Narcolepsy I can tell you being a Ambassador for Sophia Learning in which for $99 I was able to get about 30 credits of core classes to start. If I can do it anyone can. And the best thing is your getting a quality brick and mortar state school education for a fraction of the cost. After speaking with the dean today as I end my career at UMPI I was reminded that the YourPace program was built for people like us. Now I am not telling anyone to do what some of us have and bulldozed through but it's called your pace for a reason and I will tell you this you get your moneys worth and it's what you make of it. There are some truly great teachers and the platform is better than some of used out there. Now I using blackboard and I hate it and miss UMPI. Now I need to figure out a good competency based Doctoral without a crazy dissertation. Just remember everyone has an opinion. Just take all the information provided and make the best decision for you. There are great people here that have helped so many.

Thanks for the insight. Thanks for sharing your experience with UMPI.