Quest for Finance / Real Estate Degree completion is on.....

Excelsior Degree Plan

I have decided to change away from the CPA track at Excelsior. My main reason for this is that I now understand the difference between "accounting" and "finance," and I am much more interested in finance.

There are business people here that are much more experienced and educated than I am, obviously, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but here's what I've come up with. Accounting deals with the past, and finance with the future. Another way to look at it is that accounting is counting the beans, whereas finance is all about how make more beans while profitably managing the beans you have.

Since I am a fund investor, real estate investor, super-part-time insurance inspector, and will be concerned with a bit of financial management for what will hopefully be my new job in a couple days, the finance arena makes more sense for me (I think) than becoming a CPA.

I have a BSAST from TESC, so a lot will transfer in. DANTES Microecon I took years ago. Business Ethics I took at TESC. I have also taken Principles of Finance and Business Database Systems at Colorado State U, so those should meet the Finance and Computers part of the Excelsior business core. The rest will be as follows:

CLEP Macroeconomics
CLEP Principles of Accounting
CLEP Business Law (DONE....scored 62)
CLEP Principles of Management (if they do not accept my military Principles of Supervision)
CLEP Principles of Marketing
ECE Operation and Productions Mgmt
ECE Business & Policy
ECE Organizational Behavior

For the finance concentration:

--DANTES Money and Banking
--TECEP Securities Analysis & Portfolio Management
--online courses from Adams State College (in my home state of Colorado) in real estate (BUS 386/387) that also simultaneously qualify me to sit the Colorado Real Estate Licensing Exam.

----Need to find a test/course to fulfill Advanced Financial Management/Advanced Corporate Finance requirement (any suggestions?????)


I think that (for me, anyway) this will produce a much more interesting and applicable business degree. It will also be much quicker for me to finish. The job that I think I'll be getting an offer on is an occupational health and safety job. That experience, coupled with my real estate and insurance inspection experience and this Finance degree, should set me up very nicely for a long-term career in risk management over the next several years.

Thank for everybody's input as I have struggled to put my career/education path together over the past year!

-JassenB

 

Hi Jassen,

I might found the course to satisfy the Advanced Financial Management requirement.

Northern Arizona University offers an online course in Financial Analysis.

http://www.distance.nau.edu/Classes/detail.aspx?class_ID=13498& (BTW, their prerequisite (Fin 311) is Principles of Finance)


Their fees for summer session are quite reasonable. It's in-state tuition for all students. (Somewhere around $650.00 per 3-unit course)

http://www.distance.nau.edu/finances/tuition_tables.aspx (Make sure "Summer 2005" is selected in the "Change Term" box)