Wow - It's been a while!  I was one of the OG's on here many moons ago.  I got my BS from Excelsior in 2008 and then an MBA from Jacksonville State in 2010.  This forum was essential in my degree and I owe so much to a bunch a people on Instacert that led the way.

With that said, I'm now an old man with kids that are in the college exploration phase.  I'd like some advice...

I have a 20 year old son that graduated homeschool 2 years ago and has been working for a couple of years debating the value of college.  We think there would be some value for an in-person college experience for him.  We are looking at Grand Canyon University (GCU) in Phoenix (We live in Colorado Springs).  They have a large online presence, but we think he needs some of the in-person college experience to round out some of his social skills.  With that said, he would like to complete his degree as quickly as possible.

GCU promotes Sophia, which is new to me, but looks incredible.  Any information about Sophia (pros and cons) would be appreciated.  Additionally, anyone with specific info on GCU and how to best expedite credits via CLEP/DSST/Sophia/etc would be greatly appreciated.  It's been hard finding specific requirements on the GCU website about how many testing credits can be transferred in.  He is looking at a Business degree.

My daughter is 17 and graduates in May from home school.  She is probably looking at staying home for a year before any sort of in-person college experience.  With that said, she has a good acumen for testing and work-at-your-own-pace type classes.  Would you recommend Sophia for her?  CLEP?  I know it depends on the school and what they will accept, but what is the softest way to introduce her to this world?

I'm sorry for the relatively broad questions and I know there are probably discussions on all of these things that I have just not found yet here on the forum, but please humor me.

Thanks in advance!

- Ben

Man, this is playing out like a movie.

Here is the USIP story
https://www.tiktok.com/@gen.sherman5/vid...6144767262

KAROLINE LEAVITT drops a bombshell about employees at the U.S. Institute of Peace trying to hide from DOGE employees:
https://x.com/WashObserver/status/1902415324172935623

And for those thinking a federal judge is going to step in to save them. GL with that. 

FEDERAL JUDGE DENIES USIP REQUEST TO BLOCK DOGE TAKEOVER
https://x.com/Tracking_DOGE/status/1902476680540684597

So, I was looking at some of the schools on the TRACS website and found the Omega Graduate School also known as the American Center for Research in the Social Sciences (ACRSS) , which offers a Doctor of Social Leadership program similar to Virginia University of Lynchburg DHA program structure. The program only requires 36 credits and costs about $18,000, which comes out to $500 per credit; financing may be possible as they offer a payment plan that can be paid monthly for $250. The program does not require a dissertation but rather an action research project broken into two classes, DSL: Action Research Project Prospectus and Action Research Project.



It appears the program can be completed in 5 core sessions/semesters, which can be completed as fast as two years (full-time student)



Here is the catch: the school is a Christian school, and the students are required to incorporate Christian and religious themes into their work. 



I just thought I'd share this in case anyone is looking for a doctorate program and is willing to consider a nationally accredited program. 



https://ogs.edu/degrees/doctor-of-social-leadership-dsl/
https://ogs.edu/finance/tuition/
https://ogs.edu/four-ways-leaders-can-promote-constructive-social-change/

central global university - based in Georgia

dgree mill? or legit

Inching along and hoping to finally finish up my bachelor's this year after getting my BOG from Pierpont in December of 2024. I'm looking to get the BAS from UMPI with a minor in MIS and I want to make sure I'm on the right track with everything. 

Your Location: KY, USA
Your Age: 30
What kind of degree do you want?: BAS (any bachelor's really)
Current Regional Accredited Credits: 9

State College of Florida Total Credits: 9
ENC 1101 Written Communication 1, 3, B
EUH 1001 Western Civilization, 3, B
POS 1041 America Government, 3, B

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:
Sophia.org: 36
Intro to Business, 3, 92%
Sociology, 3, 90%
Microeconomics, 3, 82%
Macroeconomics, 3, 82%
Intro to Ethics, 3, 83%
US History I, 3, 88%
Environmental Science, 3, 83%
Workplace Communication, 3, 3, 89%
Art History, 3, 90%
Intro to Infomation Technology, 3, 96%
Intro to Web Development, 3, 96%
Personal Finance, 3, 91%


Any certifications or military experience?
Not sure if these go here but:
Google UX Cert (10)
Google IT Support (15)
Google Data Analytics (12)

Budget: About $5,000

Commitments: Just a FT job 

Dedicated time to study: 20-30 Hours Per Week

Timeline: I'd like to finish everything in the next 12 months hopefully.

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: None.


I was following the plan from the wiki that someone had shared, I don't think I need to complete the TEEX courses since I already seem to have enough technical credits, I skipped those (am I on the right track with this?)

So my plan is to complete the following Sophia courses over the next 3 months:
Critical Thinking
Intro to Nutrition
Intro to Programming w/ Python
Spanish I
College Readiness
Art History II
Ancient Greek Philosophers
Essentials of Managing Conflict
Project Management
US History II
Developing Effective Teams
Conflict Resolution
Human Biology
Intro to Biology W/ Lab

To hopefully maximize my transfer credits. Does everything look good?

Here are the classes I have completed and are currently enrolled in this term:

UL Non-Western History Requirement:     HTY 370 (COMPLETED)
UL Pre-Modern History Requirement:       HTY 301 (ENROLLED)
UL History Requirement:                           HTY 489 (ENROLLED)
UL Political Science Course:                    POS 335 (COMPLETED)
UL Political Science Course:                    POS 343 (ENROLLED/ONLY FINAL LEFT TO SUBMIT)
UL Political Science Course:                    POS 301 (ENROLLED/ONLY FINAL LEFT TO SUBMIT)

I need 4 more UL History courses for this term, Spring 2 in order to graduate in May, this current term.

HTY 350 Sebold is one. Is anyone else enrolled in any UL History Courses that are NOT taught by Dobbs? 

I need 3 more and I DO NOT want to take Dobbs! Is anyone else currently enrolled in any other UL History courses? My advisor emailed me and told me she couldn't (or maybe won't?) tell me the professors and courses which are available. Weird, right? She just sent me a list of course numbers off my degree plan which are shown to be options to satisfy the requirement but that didn't even list HTY 350 which I know will satisfy the requirement and I know is available. Not every course is offered every term. 

I'm a little frustrated. But hopefully, I will be able to figure it out on my own by asking you all. I will also post on Reddit. I tried to join the Discord but I really don't know how to work Discord so I couldn't find the information I needed. 

Thanks in advance!

NJCU pursues merger with Kean U... And, Yes, U of Phoenix sale stalled!

Interesting turn of events, NJCU wants to merge with KU as it tries to get more students in the surrounding communities and claw back from a financial emergency.

The thing is, with this merger, how is it going to achieve that goal?  What are they actually trying to do here?  I think they'll take on more debt if they're trying to buy KU and have it as a subsidiary.

On another thought, if KU wanted to merger with them, what benefit would they get? NJCU seems to be having an enrollment slump and it's something they should fix first.

Link: https://www.highereddive.com/news/new-je...ty/741823/


Here's a copy/paste: "Yes, the U. of Phoenix Sale Is Still Stalled"

"The University of Phoenix, once the premier for-profit institution in the country, is taking advantage of its ability to court other options as an acquisition deal with a University of Idaho affiliate inches toward a two-year stall."

Link: https://www.chronicle.com/article/yes-th...ll-stalled


UK - Private schools could be forced to close under Labour's plan to impose VAT.

I'm wondering why they want to do this just for the tax purposes.  Private schools have some families that can't really afford private school and go on partial or full financial incentives or scholarships.  With these extra taxes, some schools may even close due to lack of enrollment it causes.  

In turn, you'll be getting less VAT tax to begin with, they're digging a hole for their education budget... I'm so glad we don't have this going on here, hopefully we don't either. Not sure why they even want to see a change for the worse happen. Basically, the copy/paste below sums it up!

Its CEO Julie Robinson said: 'It is frustrating to discover the Government has been planning in private for what it rejected in public.

'The loss of any independent school has a huge impact: for local employment, businesses and, most importantly, families. 

'This tax on education will not raise money, not benefit state schools and not improve outcomes for children.'

Hi

May i check with your views on this Uni - I receive a email abt them offering afforadbale mba n dba

appreciate if anyone can advice on this matter

Finally anew master after MAOL. https://www.umpi.edu/news/umpi-to-offer-...rce-needs/

Someone else had an existing thread on the South College DBA program meant to provide feedback and tracking on their progress. I thought this was a good idea and wanted to create my own sort of tracker along with basic thoughts as I move through the program. There is almost no information out there regarding acceleration in this CBE program, so hopefully this can help answer some questions to potential students in the future. This will not be an all encompassing tracker covering all aspects of the program, but instead more of a general feel and informational.

I enrolled and started classes on 3/1/25 and initial thoughts on the program up to now is that it is well thought out and paper intensive. I graduated from WGU with both a Bachelor’s and Master's degree and accelerated very quickly for both, finishing my Bachelor’s in about 1 month and my Master's in 7 days, so I know I have the capabilities to accelerate in any program that allows it. I can already tell that South's DBA is much more intensive in both quantity and quality of papers. At WGU, following the rubric was the only requirement; if it asked for 3 sources and 10 paragraphs for a paper that was all I completed and it was graded and passed. I find that South expects more from students in their papers, which is welcome in a doctoral level course. For example, nearly all of the papers I have written are open ended, there are no hard requirements as to maximum pages or sources. They expect the student to do their own research and put together a well written research paper. There is much more freedom to write papers based on your own subject while using the topic of the assignment. I find this to be beneficial to keep writing fresh, but others may feel differently.

Long story short, this is much more difficult than WGU but it is absolutely able to be accelerated. I work on schoolwork every day, typically at night once I am back from my job and the hours are significantly more than I had to put in at WGU. At my current pace I hope to be done with all courses besides the dissertation or capstone in the next 2 months or sooner. It all depends on how fast assignments continue to be graded.

3/1: Classes start (I took the day off since it was a Saturday, so no work done).

3/2: Started working on the program. Completed the majority of DBA 6505. Waited on some grading.

3/3: Completed DBA 6505 pending final grades. Started DBA 6506.

3/4: Completed majority of DBA 6506. Waiting on grading while I continued working.

3/5: Completed DBA 6506 pending final grading.

3/6: All grades in, passed DBA 6506. Waited a few hours for course to disappear from my portal and then a new one appeared around 6pm local time. Looked at the course but didn't work on it that night.

3/7 to 3/10: Worked on and off on DBA 6525 and as of today have completed all work. Waiting on grading but I'm graded up to Module 4 out of 5 Modules. Still need to submit final papers once grading is complete and then wait a day or two for that to be graded.

3/11: Some papers were graded on DBA 6525 and I was able to submit the classes final paper. Waiting on grading.

3/12: DBA 6525 passed in the afternoon once final paper was graded. After about 3 hours the course was removed from my portal and replaced with DBA 6635. I started working on the course that night and completed all of Modules 1 and 2 out of 6 total Modules.

3/13-3/14: Continuing to work on DBA 6635. By the end of the night on 3/14 all assignments were complete aside from a single locked assignment I cannot see or work on until the rest are graded.

3/15: The professor graded a large amount of my assignments in DBA 6635 and all that is left for grading is Module 5. Once that is complete (hopefully they are all graded on Monday) I can see the final locked assignment and complete it. I plan to finish that final assignment the same day it unlocks to hopefully get my next class loaded on Monday or Tuesday.

3/16: Nothing new graded yet. I expect the remainder of grades to come back tomorrow. Once this class is passed, that leaves a total of 7 classes including the final dissertation or capstone.