WARNING ABOUT WEST VIRGINIA RBA PROGRAM

[Jonathan Whatley]

I've stuck with this because of the specific area of emphasis and minor that was available to me would help to ensure I could get accepted into a Master's program in my chosen field. According to the requirements of the very few programs I can afford, a general studies degrees will prevent my acceptance. You MUST have a degree, minor, concentration, etc in the subject area. 

The other options that have flat rate or competency degrees were NOT covered with my PELL funds. I am disabled, lower income and had no additional money to spend.  I tried them all and found that the per credit hour fee would seem to be covered at many universites but the way they time the sessions/semesters, the PELL was never sufficient. At WVROCKS courses through West Virgina universities, my PELL was more than sufficient. Others that could've worked (financially) the offerings were business, psychology, education, computer science, English, etc. (not my chosen fields.)

Pell does completely cover flat-rate competency-based tuition at UMPI.

I’m going to assume your subject is not available as a UMPI YourPace competency-based program. But there’s an advanced approach that might help you: a transfer minor. Is your subject listed as a minor in the UMPI catalog? If so, you might be able to use your Pell to fulfill the requirements of a major and UMPI residency, and use transfer credit for fulfill the requirements of the minor. Your degree would have a YourPace major you would have to take, and the “transfer minor” you really want. (If your major is Applied Science or Liberal Studies, you’d also have to complete one of the YourPace minors as part of the requirements of that major.)