Time to revisit the plan.

OK, I believe a number of you are familiar with my financial situation (bought a condo, now I'm pretty near broke, very happy BTW). So I need to nail down what my plan is for the short term. I'm having a great deal of difficulty determining which school will give me the most credit and where I would be best served completing a two year degree. I'm running out of free or nearly free options.

This may not sit well with some, but any accredited (NA or RA, don't imagine my prospective employers will know the difference until I reach a higher level) two year degree is just fine, even if it is not a technical degree like I would prefer (so basically I want you to throw out any ideas you have). It's just a step. I honestly just want to make sure I get something before I put this aside for several months or more and focus on paying my mortgage. I am not planning to do many CLEP, probably just a basic computer CLEP. I would be open to doing one additional, but that's probably all.

So far:
Every FEMA course ever rumored to be worth credit anywhere (50+ if I'm not mistaken!)
Every NFA course ever rumored to be worth credit anywhere (4)
AP Literature (passed w/a 4)
Three IT certs (A+, N+, MCP XP Pro)
Planning on doing ever last ALEKS course ever reviewed positively by ACE (have done beg. alg, int. alg, col. alg, and trig, currently doing pre-calc)
Planning on CLEPing computer apps

So a few things to consider:
Are any of the FEMA or NFA classes considered core "social studies" or "science" at any schools? I think I'm set in the other core areas (English, and math).

Finally, I really have no choice but to finally choose a school and plan accordingly. I think Red Rocks in Denver may give me the most credit, but they have a residency requirement, so I'm not certain I am any better off. BTW I am in Colorado, so it doesn't cost as much for me as for most of you.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to consider this.

 

Quick Update:
Considering taking a straighterline econ class for my "social science" requirement.

 

I don't recall if you ever said what your career goal is - knowing this would help us in suggesting appropriate degrees.

 

Well you could do like I'm doing. I took a lot of PF courses, 2 semesters worth. Put it on the payment plan and moved all my credit to Clovis, if you’re using TESC then move it there, worry about PF later. Clovis took 30 of my PF hours and even some D's from another school and it maxed me out at 45 hours of transfer credit. I will be done by the fall semester. Call Clovis they have a crazy good credit transfer policy. For what I need at Clovis it is going to cost me $500-$700 which is cheaper than a associates from TESC.

 

This is the part nobody likes. I'll take any two year degree, regardless of major. The rational for this is personal (I understand why so many do not like this, I do not require any more explanation on that particular matter). Ideally, it would be a tech related degree; however, this is absolutely not required. I suspect that tech degrees are fairly fluid in the sense that one specialty can fairly easily convince somebody that he/she is proficient in another. I would really enjoy continuing down the IT road, but I'm not married to it. Frankly, an emergency management degree is fine for the moment.
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Thanks for the tip on clovis. Could you provide some specific data on the costs assosiated with that school? Also, isn't that one of the schools that takes FEMA credit? How much will they apply towards a two year degree?

 

I'm not sure about the Fema credit but if you only take two classes at time its $125 plus some fees. All told it will run you $200 for two classes. That’s 30+ a credit hour. Their AGS degree will take just about any credit you have from any accredited school out there. I could have been done this summer if I would have taken the full 15 you have to take with them, I just don't have the cash right now so I am gonna break it out over two semesters.

 

Perhaps you have an instate tuition rate? I'm amazed that they are so cheap.

 

No thats for anyone.Payment Information

 

What sort of jobs are you planning to apply to? Pretty much the only time a 2 year degree is of value to an employer is when it's a vocational one, e.g. an AAS in HVAC repair. What are your career goals?

 

They don't take ACE recommendations according to their admissions office so I would be going in with almost nothing They also told me $58/hour.

Do you have any information to the contrary concerning ACE?

 

It depends on how many credits you take that’s why I said six. Sucks they won’t take ACE credit. I would send the ACE transcript to them and see what they said. The first person I talked to over there did not know what they were talking about I would call and ask to talk to records. Also I posted their tuition chart a few post above in a link, check it out. It might be a way to just pick up some credit on the cheap.

 

I disagree - apart from vocational careers employers prefer to hire people with associates in math, science, foreign language, English, and business over candidates without a degree.

For example an In'N'Out employment adds say "Post-secondary education is preferred" and a McDonald's add says "Second-year student pursuing an Associate of Arts degree from an accredited Junior College."

 

I clicked your link and it brought me to a page about payment methods and requirements as opposed to a price chart. Could you double check the link or show me what I'm missing? Thanks again for your help.

 

Sorry man here is the right one. Tuition

 

the audibly board fellow on the phone would have done well to be a bit more detailed in his explanation of price. It was like pulling teeth to begin with! Thanks. That's GOOOD. I'm impressed, that's cheaper than straighterline. Now I don't know what to do, definitely cannot graduate from there, but perhaps they will be useful for picking up a few credits I need for somewhere else.

 

Cheaper than straighterline is a good thing, whats better is you can transfer it anywhere.

 

Are they 100% online? Is there proctoring? Must one buy books or is it self contained? Is it self paced?

 

Q1: No

Q2: Each course description (at least the ones I looked at) tell if it is proctored or not.
eCampus Course Information
For example this course appears not to need a proctor:
http://www.clovis.edu/OnlineInstruct...PSY101-2N1.pdf

Q3: The course I looked at follow a schedule (as have the courses I took at other CCs)

Note: Above answers found on the Clovis web pages.

 

You mentioned that employers will not know the difference but higher level schools might. If you plan to go further with your education at a later date, you need to be sure your future school will accept your credits from your current (or soon to be current) school. If you go to a NA school, there is a good chance that an RA school will not accept the coursework and units. I'm not saying that some of the nationally accredited schools are bad, I'm just saying you need to check carefully if the units will transfer.