Crippling self doubt! (aka starting college at 40!)

[Mil0]

Hi all, 

First, I want to say THANK YOU! I don't think I'd have gone through with this if it hadn't been for the ability to read other people's experiences and what they're all going through. So thank you! I kept getting the "your post is too long" error so I had to cut out most of my intro. 

1) Basic info about yourself: Hi! I'm 39 years old and I'm starting college for the first time ever. I'm working on an associates degree and ultimately want to end up with a Masters. I work full time in my field and am generally deployed to various parts of the US and territories throughout the year. When I'm home, I'm surrounded by CLEP testing centers and am hoping to be able to CLEP out of the majority of my General Education requirements (and as much of the degree as possible to be honest!). I'm still not 100% certain what CLEPs would translate to which course since they don't always have the same names. 

Have you read the Beginner’s Guide?  - Yes
Have you read the Wiki? - Working on it! 
Do you have any certificates? Credits from previous studies? None that would transfer easily. I also have a ton of FEMA IS courses that I've completed, but that's generally for "fun" as I do them when I have nothing else to do and am out of books to read during a deployment! I also had my private pilots license. I had seen some schools will give you credit for ground school. I'm just not sure how to get a transcript from flight school, or if it is worth it. 

2) Answer the following questions, so I can better gauge which of the 3 you're looking at - cheap, easy, or fast.

A) Are you close to a testing site for CLEP? Yes. From what I've seen, there are several within 10 minutes of my house.  

B) Do you have time to study and test at a site or would you rather do everything online for a little extra in price?  I do have time to study but I don't mind paying a little extra. I recently took the ACCUPLACER test at my local community college and did not enjoy sitting in a room with other people. The kid next to me was actually whimpering during the test and started crying during the math section. I felt badly for him but it was very distracting.

C) What is your price range you're looking at for the degree and time you want to set to complete the degree? Obviously, the less expensive the better but I understand that you get what you pay for. I'd like to get through the Associates degree (especially the general ed stuff) and Bachelors as quickly as possible because I would like to get into the part of my education that I'm actually interested in. 

D) Are you leaning towards cheap, easy, fast or a combo of them all? Rank them in priority.  
1) Fast 2) Easy 3) Cheap.  
I do work full time and have a very intense job. However, when I'm not deployed, I have a tremendous amount of down time to make up for how high intensity my job is. 

3) Have you applied to the school of choice, are you currently enrolled (taking a course)? I'm currently enrolled at Montgomery College (my county's community college). I have not registered for classes though but I have taken the "ACCUPLACER". I have to enroll in classes in the next week or two but I wanted to sort out what I should do to prevent making any mistakes that will cost me time and money later on.  

Do you have an academic evaluation? No. I'm starting from scratch so I don't have anything to evaluate as far as credits from other schools. 

4) What exactly are you looking for help with or advice on?  

I need help with the following:

1. I need help building a spreadsheet to plan which alternatives I should use for the credits that I need. I'd love help from someone who understands what I need and how I can get it. I know that there are tons of options like Aleks.com, Study.com, Saylor.org and so on. I know a lot of them limit you to two classes a month, or basically two CLEPs a month. I don't want to be held back by someone else limitation and I'd really like to truly work at my own pace. With the list of credits and where I should get them, I really feel like I can start knocking them out. Advise from someone who has actually done this before would be fantastic.  
   

I've read a lot of the blogs from people who have done a "bachelors in a year" and blogged about it but the resources they've posted tend to be out of date or aren't working anymore. Everyone has referenced a "spreadsheet" that they've made but when I go to click on it, it isn't there. Even if I could download that spreadsheet, I still need help translating which CLEPs or alternative sources of credit would be best to fulfill that requirement. 

What I would love to end up with is basically a spreadsheet that lists out what I need to do, the best sources for the credits (or just where I should get them), and the order it should be done: 

College Course, Education Source (study.com, MC, saylor, etc), Credit Hours, Cost, Credit Type, Completed (Y/N), Date

This is the link to the degree at my local community college. Montgomery College Associate of Science Emergency Preparedness 
By going to MC, I am guaranteed to be able to matriculate into almost any school in Maryland. In addition, if I decide that I just "can't" do it because of time or money or whatever, I'll at least have an Associates degree at the end of it. The "Suggested Course Sequence" shows the typical two year course schedule that they have. They also offer a "Certificate" which is just the Emergency Management courses that says it could be completed in two semesters (or less). I don't see why I can't fulfill the general education requirements via alternative sources, transfer them in, and then get the Associates and graduate in significantly less time than 4 semesters. 

Big 3 "Equivalents": 
TESU: BS in Homeland Security and Emergency Management
COSC: BS in Public Safety Administration
[/url]Excelsior: [url=https://www.excelsior.edu/programs/public-service/homeland-security-and-emergency-management-open-emphasis]BS In Homeland Security And Emergency Management (Open Emphasis)

These are "similar" but not really as closely aligned with what I'd like to spend my time studying. Similar to the AS, which is oddly named "Emergency Preparedness Management" but I've seen that they've changed the name of it twice in the last few years. Judging from the syllabus/curriculum, it's a solid start, although fairly remedial given my expertise in the field. I was starting with the Associates so that if it turned out that I couldn't handle the workload of the degree, in addition to working full time, I'd at least have "something" to show for it. 

My plan was to ultimately end up getting my Masters in Emergency & Crisis Management at University of Central Florida (UCF) but UCF recently added BA and BS options when they originally only had graduate degrees. One of my colleagues is a professor at UCF and said he'd be thrilled if I came to study with him, which is what I'm hoping to do. 

I'm not sure what the difference is between a Bachelors of Arts and a Bachelors of Science. If anyone could explain that, I would appreciate it. My first assumption is that it's simply based on the classes that you choose to fulfill your credits. Perhaps more math & science classes for a BS instead of a BA? There are tons of random questions that I've got about college in general! 

This got super long and I'm feeling like I totally forgot stuff that I needed to post. I did read the other posts where people got similar help so I'm really hopeful that some one out there would be able to help me! 

Thank you all! 

Short cut: 
Associates Degree Advising Worksheet (displays the requirements for the degree)