Blended degree

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

Ultimately, my goal is to teach University as a Foreign Expert in Shenzhen, China. Up until 2018, there were no requirements for foreign teachers working in China, and many foreigners taught classes despite having no college experience— unfortunately, those days are over. Now you have to have at least a bachelor's degree to get a required visa, and the best opportunities go to those with a master's or PhD.

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Foreign Experts in STEM and economics are highly sought after in China, so having this degree would automatically give me an edge over in competition. However, in order for this to work, I would eventually need to be accepted into the master's program at MIT. Otherwise, as far as China is concerned, the certificate is a useless piece of paper. I spoke to a TA for this course, and he told me that it's "unlikely but not impossible" to get the master's degree without any prior college experience.

I need to get a blended bachelor's degree first. I'm looking for a blended degree in STEM or economics, or perhaps education, from a respectable University. I don't mind doing some on-campus classes, but I should be able to test out of as many of them as possible. 

Ni hao and hello. First, you are likely in the wrong forum, but I'll try to help out and see if we can figure that out for sure first.

I currently live in Beijing, working as an international university admissions counselor. For context, my students filter into those "prestigious" programs like the Ivies and Top 30 and maybe even the Billboard Hot 100; I know a lot more about their admission requirements and expectations than I do about the Big 3. Anyone else here would be able to advise you much more effectively if you go that route, which may or may not work for you. I'm posting as a guy who worked abroad all my adult life, and was even on the hiring committee for teaching staff here and there. I hope some of this advice may be useful for your specific context.

1. If you don't have a BA/BS right now, focus on that and don't be concerned about a MA/MS that is just a pipe dream. Get started on an undergraduate degree, get it, then get in a graduate program if you want. You could be hired in China with the undergrad degree then do distance learning for grad.

2. For the record, China has a surplus of underqualified teachers; it's estimated that around 2/3 of all of them are working here illegally. It's not so unfortunate that they want to tighten down like the rest of East Asia, and I wouldn't do it illegally, but hey, it is what it is. Either way, in addition to the BA/BS degree from ANY accredited institution, you also need to have two years' experience in your field. Have you been instructing, tutoring, and/or volunteering in some way? 

3. With the exception of hard-to-retain positions, university stints here would generally require a graduate-degree, and are often lower-paid than you might expect. Even teachers in Kindergarten would likely pull in more when total hours are added up, so keep that in mind as well. Within the education field, test prep or counseling is often more lucrative.

4. A Bachelor's degree should be your first priority, but you could set yourself apart with a quick TEFL/TESOL certificate if you want to be even tangentially involved in education. More aligned to your interests, however, is Hong Kong University's free University Teaching course that could also show some commitment: https://www.coursera.org/learn/university-teaching

5. A Master's degree is going to require any/a specific Bachelor's as a prerequisite.

6. Blended doesn't matter, but you could. Prestige won't matter for your undergrad degree, unless if you enter into counseling in the education field or maybe a place like Wall Street English, simply due to expectations from clients. I'd say just get any kind of degree--possibly through the Big 3 mentioned often on this forum if you want one quickly--then build up from there. You could even consider teaching abroad elsewhere first to build up experience, if required. If you have specific questions about your own personal context, feel free to ask.