Your Location: Midwest US
Your Age: Late 30s
What kind of degree do you want?: Currently need 60 hours for licensure as a paraprofessional. Eventually want to get an AA/AAS and BA (long shot, but it's the plan)

Current Regional Accredited Credits: 52

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:  Have modern states voucher for one exam, need to take the exam in a few weeks. 

Any certifications or military experience?: Short term paraprofessional license in Illinois. 

Budget: Cheaper the better.

Commitments: Occupied full time (work and parenting)

Dedicated time to study: 2 hours a day

Timeline: Summer 2026

*I am native Hindi speaker and was looking into getting credit via ATCFL or equivalent. Suggestions welcome.

I am currently first trying to obtain 60 hours for full paraprofessional licensure.  I would like to eventually obtain an associates degree as I am just a few classes away from such (I need to take a science class, and an English class).  While a BA is a long shot, I am not opposed to pursuing an AA/AAS that meshes easily with an eventual BA.

Looking into - UWisconsin system (some colleges offer the AA degree with eventual path to a BA), Upper Iowa University, UMPI, TESU, WV Community College System (the few options that remain). 

Currently, UMPI looks quite appealing, but it is far so regional recognition may be an issue (has anyone experienced this?).

The $1,500 price tag is real. They accepted 90 of my transfer credits. That included a recent Associate’s degree, Saylor/ACE credits, and some industry certifications. I only had to take 10 classes to finish.

You need to watch out for the transfer rules. They will accept your credits, but only if they map directly to a recommended ACE credit or appear on an official college transcript. Do not expect them to accept random industry certs unless they map to something official.

I have 20 years of experience in business management, so the actual coursework wasn't overwhelming. The stress comes from the Degree Hearings.


It is competency-based, but it is not easy. The rigor is the same as the semesters I did at Temple and community college. The big difference is the standard. They require "Mastery" to move forward. That is basically an A or B+. If you know most of the material but miss a few minor points, you don't get a C. You fail. Then you have to study and book another hearing.
I had to redo hearings for four of my 10 classes. One class took me four tries to pass.

Grading is fast. Projects usually take three or four days max. The feedback is solid when you don't pass.
The live hearings also aims to solve the AI cheating problem. You have to solve scenarios on the spot. You cannot just memorize definitions or use ChatGPT when a professor is staring at you.

They are obviously a small team and they are struggling to scale. They jumped to 800 students this year and things are getting clogged. Transcript evaluations are slow. Finding a time slot to talk to a professor can be a challenge.

Despite the admin delays, the program feels very human. There are weekly forums with over 30 students and an active Discord community. You actually know your professors. They are not just text on a screen.

I finished everything in six months. This degree got me accepted into Master's programs at both Universidad de Andalucía and WGU.
It is DEAC accredited. That is National accreditation, not Regional. If that works for your goals, I highly recommend it.

Your Location: Midwest US
Your Age: Late 30s
What kind of degree do you want?: Currently need 60 hours for licensure as a paraprofessional. Eventually want to get an AA/AAS and BA (long shot, but it's the plan)

Current Regional Accredited Credits: 52

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:  Have modern states voucher for one exam, need to take the exam in a few weeks. 

Any certifications or military experience?: Short term paraprofessional license in Illinois. 

Budget: Cheaper the better.

Commitments: Occupied full time (work and parenting)

Dedicated time to study: 2 hours a day

Timeline: Summer 2026

*I am native Hindi speaker and was looking into getting credit via ATCFL or equivalent. Suggestions welcome.

I am currently first trying to obtain 60 hours for full paraprofessional licensure.  I would like to eventually obtain an associates degree as I am just a few classes away from such (I need to take a science class, and an English class).  While a BA is a long shot, I am not opposed to pursuing an AA/AAS that meshes easily with an eventual BA.

Looking into - UWisconsin system (some colleges offer the AA degree with eventual path to a BA), Upper Iowa University, UMPI, TESU, WV Community College System (the few options that remain)

For those who have done this, does the YourPace degree have any such indication on the diploma indicating that it was done online/remote/as a YourPace option?

I wanted to confirm whether there are any restrictions on the source of credits for the 24cr minimum required for a second TESU bachelors degree. 

I already have a BACS from TESU and am looking into getting a Math BA as well. I need 24 credits, but can they come from anywhere? Are study.com or Coopersmith credits accepted or do they need to be from a regionally accredited institution? Thanks

They have a robust online presence at the Master's level (including through Coursera) but there's no real clue that their doctoral-level versions of the same programs can be completed remotely or if they require moving to Sonipat.

The tuition looks ridiculously cheap by US standards.

There seems to be a LOT of general business classes in the WGU accounting degree. So, I'm wondering if it's more of a general business degree with some accounting classes added to it, and it's not a REAL-DEAL accounting degree. How does it compare to what most other schools would be teaching?

WGU Accounting degree only has 9 accounting classes:
WGU Accounting – B.S.

UMPI Business Admin degree w/ an accounting concentration has 10 accounting classes:
YourPace Business Administration, Accounting Concentration, B.A.

The UMPI Accounting degree has about 15 accounting classes:
YourPace Accounting, B.A

What do you guys think?

I made a thread about UMPI vs WGU accounting with a more detailed list of concerns & differences.
if you want to take a look it's in the UMPI forum: here
Thanks.

I'm considering taking this microbachelors. TESU says it transfers in as 8 UL credits, but they don't include course names. Anyone know the course names? Thanks!

Your Location: California
Your Age: 45
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelors degree and possibly a masters
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 31
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: about 4 courses from sophia
Any certifications or military experience?: no
Budget: any
Commitments: none
Dedicated time to study: every day
Timeline: ASAP! need the degree immediately
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: none

This is a spreadsheet showing all the courses I have ever taken: course progress towards the UMPI Accounting BA degree
I put this UMPI plan together myself, so it might need adjustments. it's 128 credits, and 120 are required for the degree.

I have credits from these schools, which are shown on the spreadsheet:
SMC = Santa Monica College (Santa Monica, CA)
WLAC = West Los Angeles College (Culver City, CA / Los Angeles, CA)
LATTC = Los Angeles Trade Tech College (Los Angeles, CA)
Sophia = Sophia Learning LLC

I was originally going for a computer science / information systems degree. Now I'm looking at accounting or business admin.
If you were me, what would you do? Would you continue toward CS/IS, or switch to accounting/business?

I want to maximize what I already have done, and reduce the amount of additional work needed. Hopefully all my CS courses count as elective filler.
Can I get a CS/IS/MIS minor on an accounting or biz degree with the classes I already have?

If you think a generic liberal arts degree & a business related masters degree is a better option, go ahead and suggest it.
I have seen a lot of people suggesting UMPI BLS + UMPI MAOL here for some reason.
I'm also curious why so many people want to take the project management degree at UMPI? What's the big attraction to that one?

So far I have only really been considering UMPI. If you think another school might be better you can suggest it.
I think UMPI will take all of my comp-sci credits and let me use them as elective classes, which means I won't need any further electives.

potential bachelor degrees:
UMPI YourPace Accounting BA
UMPI YourPace Business Administration BA w/ Accounting Concentration
UMPI YourPace Business Administration BA w/ Supply Chain Concentration

potential masters degrees:
WGU Masters in accounting
UMPI Business, M.S. with Finance concentration
UMPI Business, M.S. with Supply Chain Management concentration

My current idea is to take the UMPI YourPace Accounting BA, and then later I can take the WGU Masters in accounting or some other masters program. I don't really want to take a masters program right away because of the cost involved of both money and time.

If you have an opinion on WGU vs UMPI I also made this thread to ask about it: WGU vs UMPI for accounting
Thanks!

Does anyone here know of any that are offered by distance learning? 

And to you rknowledge, would any qualify a degree-holder for a Chaplain role in any branch of either a. The U.S. Armed Forces or b. The German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) based on each service's requirements + the degree curriculum, standards, and accreditation?