Opinions, please.

I have reached a proverbial fork in the road and I'm looking for your learned opinions.

I spend most of my weekends studying my course material for AJU (and Penn Foster)...four courses at the same time. I'm also usually up until about 1 am studying each night. I will be finished with my first semester at AJU on May 22nd. At this pace, I will have my BA in Communications in 18 months. However, I'm giving serious thought to switching over to Excelsior College in May. There are a few reasons for this:

1. I'm driving my family nuts. While I'm studying at home, they don't get much of my time or attention, and most of my time is spent with my nose in my notebook computer or a textbook. I don't think they will stand for another 18 months of this. It's a quality of life issue.

2. The last time I had an evaluation done at Excelsior, I had about 30-40 credits to go to get a BA. I could test out of most, if not all, of those credits. While I would have to take a day off work to take tests, I could finish that in much faster time than 18 months.

3. Another five semesters at AJU will cost me about $2,000, not including books. With the enrollment fee at Excelsior and the cost of CLEP exams, the cost is probably about the same.

4. While I have identified graduate programs I'm interested in where a NA degree if perfectly acceptable, I have found many other programs that I'm REALLY interested in where a RA degree is required.

I know my AJU credits probably won't transfer to Excelsior, although I know they have a system in place to evaluate NA credits, so I guess it would be a lesson learned for me.

I hate to quit anything, so I will finish this semester at AJU, but after that, I'm strongly leaning toward Excelsior. It's nothing against AJU. I do like the coursework and the customer service is second-to-none. I would recommend them to anyone whose needs would be met with a NA degree.

I'm not trying to turn this into a NA vs. RA discussion. Either accreditation would suit me fine, with the edge going to RA. For me, it's more of a time issue. I think I can wrap up my BA faster with Excelsior and therefore have more "quality" time with the family. I guess I'm looking for Excelsior grads to let me know if I'm mistaken about the time and effort needed to get a degree from Excelsior, if they are happy with the process for getting a degree there, and if the degree has served them well since they graduated.

I'm seriously getting burned out on spending all of my free time studying, my family is losing patience, and I'm getting impatient in terms of getting my degree (which I have been working on, off-and-on, for the past four years.

Opinions?

 

I would go for Excelsior. I understand about the quality of life issue and that is why I dropped from UF's MS program and TUI's MBA (on hold for the MBA anyway). You are going to put in the work for a degree, why not get the one that is "most accepted" (RA). You will have more options in the future. When I started with CCU I thought I would never need an RA degree because I did not want to teach. Well, as with anything - things change - think ahead and be prepared.

 

I agree with Randell.

 

Switch man.

 

One stupid question - are you going to drop both Penn Foster degree and AJU for one Excelsior degree?

 

I'm all for going for the Excelsior degree, given the following:

1. Before allowing your AJU enrollment to lapse, you know EXACTLY what it will take to finish your degree at Excelsior. It would really, really, really suck for you to figure out 18 months from now that the Excelsior degree will take more time than wrapping up at AJU. Also, be sure that you understand exactly what doing a degree completely via testing entails. You have to be extremely self-motivated, and the lack of structure doesn't work for everyone. I know it didn't work for me, which is why I don't have a "Big 3" degree, despite being a huge fan of CLEP and DSST.

2. Take the time to lay out your remaining requirements into an aggressive plan that will let you put your degree to bed in the next 12 months (or less, if you can handle it!). You're feeling pressure to get done ASAP, and if you set some milestones and hit the early ones, it will give you confidence to go ahead and wrap this thing up. There are people on this board that have done 60+ credits via testing in a year. You can do it too, and it will be easier if you have a clear plan of attack. When I decided to go back to school, I created a spreadsheet with my advisor's help listing every requirement I had to fulfill and how I was planning to do it. Over the next two years, I constantly refined that spreadsheet as I took classes and found tests to meet the requirements. The actual path I took to my degree didn't look that much like the initial spreadsheet, but having the plan to refer to kept me focused on my goal, even as I was changing the plan to adapt to new circumstances.

3. You need to discuss with your family why it is important to you to finish this degree. If they resent you for attempting to finish your education, they become a stumbling block instead of your biggest cheerleaders and supporters. That isn't fair to you, and it isn't fair to them. They should be celebrating your achievements, not holding it against you that you've had to sacrifice weekends and evenings for a few years. My mother went to night school for several years to complete her Master's in Education, at the same time as she was going through a painful divorce from my father. Despite the many nights the 4 of us kids spent with a babysitter, I look back at her academic achievement as a positive thing from my childhood - it inspired me to persevere during the difficult times in my own educational journey.

I'm not trying to slam your family, but it sounds like you guys aren't communicating about exactly why you've got your nose buried in the books every night. I would imagine if you explain what getting your degree means to you (and should mean to them!), then you will find that you family will be pushing you across the finish line.

Best of luck!

 

TCord, in the past you have blogged about the difficulties encountered trying to management your time for both studying and family. Recognize that testing out will require significant self-motivation because with the exception of the final test date you have no intermediary checkpoints to keep you on track time-wise. You might need to cut-back to three courses a semester and extend your degree completion time by a semester with Andrew Jackson University.

The current study schedule is obviously creating a source of disharmony in your household. Maybe, you need to reserve 2 or 3 nights a week strictly for family time; the weekend and Wednesday might be a workable schedule to stay away from the books and computer. With only 18 months until you graduate from Andrew Jackson University you can achieve your goal of earning a degree while maintaining a healthy personal life, but only if your family is part of the decision making process. There are plenty of graduate schools where a nationally accredited degree is acceptable.

 

Terry,

My suggestion is to finish out your semester with AJU and enroll with Excelsior. I think you will have a good shot at transferring over those AJU credits to Excelsior. I was able to transfer 9 graduate credits from Aspen to Excelsior (this occured last December). I submitted my Aspen transcripts and a copy of the course syllabi. The process took about a month (on their end). It was pretty painless, actually.

BTW, regarding Excelsior's enrollment/graduation fees. If you are non-military, then the enrollment fee will run you $995 and the graduation fee $495. Service members receive a nice discount. Not sure about veterans.

Anyway, best of luck.

 

Hi there,

While I don't know the various schools involved here, a third option may just be to slow down, suspend your studies for a bit, and consider your next move after a breather. It's no joke about the stress that studies can cause your on family - even when your nose isn't in the books, the degree is still in the room for everybody, as part of your mind is elsewhere.

After some significant new responsibilities on the job this year, I decided to take my foot off the gas pedal on my doctorate, and be content with achieving about half of what I was planning for this year, and 6 months later than I was planning. It just occurred to me that I'm not in a race against anybody, so I should fit the degree into my life, not vice-versa.

It actually feels much better to not be so dogged about it! Good luck with your choices! Cheers... DD

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a degree from Excelsior. If switching schools gets you to the same goal (a bachelors degree) but greatly improves your quality of life at home, I'd go for the Excelsior degree in a heartbeat.

I'd imagine that getting your degree is important to you and might be used to help you improve your job etc. Keep in mind, however, that we don't live to work, we work to earn enough money to pay for the things we really want to do and enjoy. Don't cause a rift in your family life, life is too short, especially when there is a just as good and viable option to complete your degree.

Don't think of it as quitting. Think of it as reacting to a situation and adjusting to new information.

 

I had always planned to finish up the current semester at PFC and transfer those credits. I won't be completing my AS at PFC.

Regardless of what I decide, I plan to finish the current semester at AJU. I'm not going to just drop out.

@Fortunato: My family has been supportive of my, but after four years they want their husband and father back. I can understand their frustration. They have taken a back seat to my studies, more often than not.

If I plan to go the Excelsior route, my plan is take a day off work each month and make that my "test day". I will take two or three exams that day, which could get me anywhere from 6 to 18 credits for one month's worth of studying. By comparison, I have been working on 9 credit hours since the end of last September (I got an extension after I couldn't work on my studies during the holidays due to work). My plan would be to study through InstantCert and Cracking the Clep. I may have to take a few courses through other schools for some of the upper-level credit I need.

@Japhy: I am a veteran, and it looks like Excelsior does have a veterans discount.

 

Assuming you have a full time job I would recommend you take only two coures at the same time. The exception being if you are knowledgable about a course.

I only took two coures at the same time picking an "easy" one and a tough one.

 

Amen! I needed to hear that.

 

The larger issue is political with your family... You need to take care of their issues first. You can't go for even a few months with an unhappy family.

As for leaving AJU, why did you think it was the answer in the first place? Are those reasons still in play. Excelsior may be the better option in the long term, assuming you are a good test taker, because of the RA degree, and not necessarily time to completion.

 

Just some $0.02 for someone who doesn't know you at all so this may be worthless.

But for what it's worth, you spend a good amount of time here AND I think I've read posts by you that suggest that you spend a lot of time reading academic books even if they're not for a class you're taking.

Maybe you've become obsessed with the journey?

I'd take a step back and conduct an analysis on what you have to do vs. what you're doing What are value-added activities for you? Be ruthless and you'll find time for your family.

Just my take.

 

Well, I think you have all the answers in your own question!
I know that you're not really thinking in terms of NA vs RA, but if you can do faster in a RA college than an NA, I don't think you should even think twice. RA all the way.

I mean, even if it was the same time frame of completion and cost by both, you should go with the RA one.

The only reason I see to go for a NA is when the program that you want and the time frame of completion is only available in a NA school.

 

I would ask myself this question:

"If I were to die today, would I wish that I had spent more time studying?"

 

Depends on if there's a test at the Pearly Gates!

 

TCord,

You are experiencing many of the same things that led me to choose Bellevue's accelerated BA. It was way more expensive, but each course lasts only 4 weeks. I just couldn't stomach the degree that went on forever, nor could my family and friends. My advice is to go with the school and deree path that is the quickest and still gives you what you need out of it.

Pug