Need Advice for best route to go!

Hello all!

First, thank you so much for all of the wonderful advice and insight you have given thus far! I've spent the last few days crawling the forum for information and insight.

I currently have 54 credits, mainly Gen Ed. (I believe maybe 12 credits total are UL). I am hoping to be able to finish my degree within an year. I have 8 years of experience in business management and as an educator and have an AMAZING job opportunity on the line that I need a fast track (and soon after, a Masters) to be able to advance in. Right now, I'm just focused on finishing the Bachelor's. There are enough one-year M.Ed programs that I can shoot out.

Because I have so many LL classes done, I'm not sure how many CLEP classes I can take however I want to take as many as I can.

I've also read that PLA is an option, I have enough published work, projects where i think I could get at least 15-18... maybe more credits in however I'm not sure if I can afford that at this time (unless Financial aid could cover it :/). I did also take an assessment that Learningcounts.org offered that gave me an idea of which UExcel classes I can possible take due to my experience... seems like there are another 50 credits or so there.

Also, could someone explain "professional credits"? Is this the same as PLA? I've been trying to find a good explanation but haven't seemed to locate anything giving me a clear distinction between the two.

Right now, I'm planning to enroll in one of the big three, and take some classes at the local CC to transfer in. Other than that, I'm at a loss of what to do . I don't care about major. I just need a BA asap.

Any thoughts/ideas/plans would be appreciated!!

 

Bumping

 

Yeah. Big 3.

 

I am not sure who use the term "professional credits"; but I know most colleges/universities use "non-traditional college credits" comprises from PLA, CLEP, DANTES DSST, Excelsior exams, TESC exams, Professional certifications, and college/university course test out.

Have you checked out Western Governors University's programs? If you are good, you can complete the rest within 6 months. Keep in mind that Western Governors University does not accept credit transfer after you start you program. All the transfers must be complete prior starting the program. They are also working with Straighterline.com courses.

But if you looking at Thomas Edison State College, you have other sources from Straighterline.com, Saylor Foundation, TEEX, FEMA (?), and PLA.

 

My advice to "I need a degree fast" is Excelsior College's Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies.

Good luck!

Shawn

 

If cost is a concern, then I recommend COSC (they accept FEMA directly for free) or TESC (under the Per Credit Tuition Plan). The easiest degrees to test out of will be liberal studies, business administration, psychology, and social science at TESC. In my opinion, it is much faster to test than to complete PLAs. I used the Instantcert flashcards for most of the tests I took. For tough subjects, I would go through them twice; for easy subjects, I would go through them once.

These are test out plans for TESC that are kept up to date.
Sanantone's General Education Options - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BSBA General Management - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BA in Psychology - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BA in Social Science - Degree Forum Wiki

I don't have a plan for liberal studies, but all need is a combination of credits from the social sciences, natural sciences, and/or humanities.
Sanantone's BA in Humanities - Degree Forum Wiki
Sanantone's BA in Natural Sciences and Mathematics - Degree Forum Wiki
BA in Liberal Studies Degree at Thomas Edison State College

TESC and COSC will also let you design your major or concentration from scratch under the learner designed area of study and individualized studies options, respectively. One can complete a business administration degree at TESC from scratch for under $4,000. If you want more information on that, just let me know.

 

As a graduate of COSC, I would recommend either TESC or Excelsior. If I could change one thing about my educational background, I would have chosen a different college over Charter Oak. I had a horrible experience with my capstone advisor. Some people have good experiences, but you really don't have much control over who is assigned to guide you through the project, and if you get a bad professor, there's not much you can do about it. The culture among the administrators seemed to be to support the professor they knew rather than to listen to the concerns of someone who was only an online student. The problem was corrected in the end, but I had to go through the entire appeal process, and it was a pretty nasty experience.

 

What happened?

 

The only thing I can think of that you might be referring to are corporate training programs that have been ACE evaluated for college credit. You can look up any corporate training courses on the ACE College Credit Recommendation Service to see if college credit is recommended for them:

College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT)

 

Excelsior uses the term Professional Credits. They include areas such as engineering, business, law, and education. Their BS in Liberal Arts allows up to 59 semester units of professional credits.

PLA (Prior Learning Asessment) can be in just about any academic area although some schools (TESC for example) do not allow this method for English Composition or some areas of math).

 

One can throw in the same amount of professional credits by choosing a BS in a learner designed area of study (TESC) or individualized studies (COSC). Although, I think it's better for people to avoid degrees in liberal studies, multidisciplinary studies, interdisciplinary studies, self-designed degrees without official titles, etc. If one has little to no credits and wants to study business, he or she should just get a business degree.

PLAs are time consuming and more expensive. In my opinion, they should only be used for subjects that don't have any tests.

 

Thank you for these plans.

Also, I read a thread from 2 months ago that TESC had temporarily suspended accepting FEMA credits. Is this still the case? or was there an update that I missed?

Thanks again for the help!!