Wife is two courses away from a BA

Mrs. Viking never completed her BA degree...about 30 years ago. Had some advice from an academic advisor that didn't pan out right and never got the right number of credits in the right areas.

In the meantime, life happened and she never got around to finishing. She is now interested in finally making it official and finishing her work. She contacted the university she attended and they are now suggesting she take two more courses and she'd be finished. They want her to take a 100-200 level Humanities course and a 300 level Communications course.

Since the university she attended is quite far away, they said they will accept courses from another university and transfer them in, so her degree will be from there, where she did the bulk of the work.

I've been doing some searching online and keep coming back to these forums. So much information and knowledge being shared...awesome!

From what I could find, looking at price and convenience, she is interested in 2 BYU online courses:

IHUM 101: An Introduction to the Humanities (Online) - BYU Independent Study - Online Courses

and

COMMS 300: Media Ethics, Law, and Responsibility (Online) - BYU Independent Study - Online Courses

She plans to send the info to the person she's dealing with next to see if they would accept them.

She is SO motivated that she's asking me to look into a Masters program somewhere once she finishes up her Bachelors!

Thanks to all for the great posts with great information!

 

C'mon man, don't pinch pennies over two courses. Let the girl finish up. But if you need a comparison price look here:

https://is.lsu.edu/courselist.asp?nid=102&Level=CO&Online=0

As for grad school. C'mon girl, get real. You're off the grid for 30 years and now you're in grad school? OKOK. So what field?
What degree?

 

Wow! Didn't realize we were pinching pennies, but yes cost is a factor, kind of demanding and expensive to commute across the country for a couple of classes. She also does not want to overspend for a couple of courses, not in her major, that will transfer into her school. (NOT taking the classes at the original school, either in person or online, was THEIR suggestion BTW.)

We looked at LSU and could not find a 300 level communications course. We also looked at the community college option for the lower level humanities course, but that still left a need for the other course anyway. The closest university that would offer that is over an hour away, so online is certainly more convenient...for both...than traditional options.

As far as a masters goes, she has taught ESL in the past, without a degree needed, at post-secondary institutions and has also worked extensively in that field for educational consulting firms designing ESL curriculum (as well as tutoring). She's interested in teaching that again at a post-secondary level, which now requires a masters. So not really a major career change, but a way to become "current" in something she already has experience in and enjoys.

But....we are nowhere near that, she just wants to finish up the 2 courses for her BA by the fall and already has too much work lined up for spring of '14 to even start on her masters then.

We'll see what the school says, if they don't accept them, we may need to figure out another option.

 

...don't age her too much, very early 50's!!

 

I'm 59 and will be starting my masters in the fall... so what's wrong with that???

 

What is wrong with starting grad school after a wait?

 

If you are pinching pennies - will the Humanities CLEP exam work for the humanities requirement?

Other than that - the BYU Independent Study Courses look to be good and relatively inexpensive options.

BTW - I second the grad school option if that's what your wife wants. Nothing wrong with that at all

Good luck!

 

there's nothing wrong with grad school randell. but let's finish that little ba first, no? let's put first things first, no? i'm just saying that if you need to pay a few extra bucks to finish the degree where you started it then it's probably worth the money. especially if you're thinking of grad school. is some other school going to accept 30 year old credits? maybe not. if the school that granted the original credits will allow her to finish then i say, finish where you started. then, once you finish (or get really close), you can plan grad school. Our old buddy billy shakespeare once said, "there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip."

 

No need to go back to the original school. They have indicated she does not need to take the two courses there as they would accept transfer credits. They wanted her to send course descriptions and indicate what school she would be taking the classes from before approving. If they don't accept BYU, we'll figure out something else.

Your actually right about focusing on the BA though...but that's exactly what we've been doing. Once the discussion of going for her masters (for the reasons stated earlier) started she knew she had to finish this first. She's been working with the school on it since last year. Now that we see the end in sight, thinking about options for the next step is certainly not premature.

So...while we are nowhere near planning grad school, we are certainly thinking about it. Since we discovered this site, she realizes pursuing a masters degree online eliminates many, many hurdles for that next step.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. She was not receptive to that earlier, thinking she would need to study just as much as if she took the course. I mentioned it again tonight and she seemed more interested in it. We'll see what the school says about BYU first and then see if we can propose CLEP.

It's also not really about pinching "pennies" as much as pinching "time". If she can get the credits through CLEP, she would spend less time studying for the exam rather than taking the class.

 

You do have a point but I have always planned 1-2 steps ahead. When I was 75-80% complete with my BS, I had my plan in place for an MS. When I was 50-75% complete with an MS, I had my plan in place for a PhD. When I was 2 years into owning my condo, I had a plan in place to pay it off in under 10 years. I plan multiple steps ahead with plenty of room for changes in plans.

 

So they're going to accept 100% of her 30 year old credits and let her add 6 credits from some other school and she gets her degree? OK then, great. If BYU doesn't work she can look at LSU.

https://is.lsu.edu/courselist.asp?nid=102&Level=CO&Online=0

 

Wow! What's coming up next?

 

I completed an MBA after the PhD, just got my Lean Certification from SME, and I am flip-flopping between the PMP (they change the exam at the end of July so it caused me to reevaluate) and a grad certificate from CSU - Global Campus.

 

Heck, I was looking into graduate programs back when I was only 15 credits into my BS! LOL Certainly nothing wrong with her considering options given that she is only two courses away from her BA. She could even start applying to grad school programs now, and receive conditional admission (with the understanding that she would need to complete her degree before beginning the grad program).

 

I think you're confused Kizmet. The original school where Mrs. Viking attended is going to accept two courses in transfer and she'll then receive her BA from said original school. Capish?

 

You should also look at the following independent studies options, just find the right one for her (nothing wrong with BYU, but they aren't the cheapest nor the most customer friendly).

CSU Pueblo probably has her courses, you can start anytime, I finished a couple of these over long weekends...none where particularly intensive (I took 5 courses there). Their customer service is second to none...really, I rate them at the very top of the list. Schedule of Courses > Division of Continuing Education > Colorado State University-Pueblo

The University of Idaho and the University of Arkansas both offer independent study courses, Uof Idaho has a good bit at the upper level....these courses are around $300/3 credit.
Courses-Independent Study in Idaho-University of Idaho
Correspondence / Independent Study Courses

 

and i think that you're confused. i knew that she just needed the two courses. that's why i gave her the link to lsu.
comprendo?