Your Location: California, United States.
Your Age: Late 40’s
What kind of degree do you want?: I’m open to suggestions. I want to maximally apply my existing education, certifications, and professional experience towards obtaining any regionally accredited online Bachelor’s degree (so probably Criminal Justice??) and then towards a Master’s Degree (preferably something other than CJ).

I'm very grateful for all the information this forum has to offer as well as the community of knowledgeable and passionate folks here who take the time to read and respond to posts like this. It truly makes a positive impact on people's lives. I book marked the Wiki and see that there are existing roadmaps/degree plans. I’ll continue to review but I will need help from people who know more about this than me. I need help with selecting a school, choosing a degree path, creating a degree plan specific to my education and experience (Hire College Hacked or ??). Any suggestions/advice is highly appreciated.

I’ve identified these 4 schools. I’m leaning towards UMPI based on what I’ve learned so far.

UMPI: Has a BACJ and an MAOL that are CBE, “YourPace”. Self-paced CBE sounds well suited to my situation. I like that it’s a State school. They state that “previous college credit, certifications, and work—as well as life experiences—are considered and help you graduate faster” but I’m not sure what that would mean specifically for my situation. Would they give additional credit beyond my 90 transfer units to apply towards the CJ requirements and electives based on my certifications and work experience?

LUO: Offers a 25% tuition discount for First Responders and “Personalized service throughout your college experience from a team of knowledgeable academic advisors”. LUO has a wide variety of degrees to choose from including Masters and Doctorate Degrees but it doesn’t appear to have an equivalent to the CBE self-paced curriculum.

Excelsior: Accepts Credit for Professional and Workplace Training and accepts up to 113 transfer credits for a BSCJ degree. This doesn’t appear to be Self-paced CBE. I don’t see myself attending this school if I need to take more than 7 classes and I’m unsure if I could handle 7 classes in this format.

Purdue: Offers an Accelerated Masters in Psychology while obtaining BA in Criminal Justice. They offer up to 25 Credits for POST training and credit for work experience.  They have an “ExcelTrack” that purports to give you to “the same degree faster and for less money.” This school has a for-profit feel to it and they require 180 credits for a degree, not 120. A Master’s in Psychology is far more interesting to me than an MAOL but either will work for me.

Current Regional Accredited Credits: A.S. Degree in Administration of Justice from a California Junior College. 90.5 units total. 3.89 GPA

Course Code, Course Name, Grade, Units
AJ 079, Law Enforcement Career Prep, CR, 0.5
AJ 094, Police Academy Orientation, CR, 1
AJ 100, Intro to Law Enforcement, A, 3
AJ 110, Criminal Law, A, 3
AJ 059A, Basic Police Academy, A, 26
AJ 059B, Basic Police Academy, A, 26
AJ 135, Weaponless Defense, A,  1
ESC 130, Intro to Oceanography, A, 3
HIST 127, Survey of American History, B, 3
NUTR 127, Nutrition Today, A, 3
POSC 100, American Government, B, 3
SOC 101, Intro to Sociology, A, 3
SPCH 105, Interpersonal Communication, A, 3
READ 142, College RDG: Logical Anal/Eval, B, 3
BUS 111, Business Communication, A, 3
PHIL 100, Intro to Philosophy, A, 3
ART 110, Intro to Art, A, 3

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: None, but I’m open to suggestions for testing out of classes or for receiving credit for my existing knowledge and experience. If I remember correctly, I was not required to take a math class for my AS Degree because of the score I received on my placement test over 20 years ago when I entered college and there were several pre-requisites that I didn’t need to take as well.

Any certifications or military experience? I have a Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Certificates with 1,257 hours of CA POST Certified Training.

I have 54 hours, 5.4 CEUs of WMD and Incident Management Training with the Department of Homeland Security.

I have 64 hours of various Law Enforcement certifications related to Narcotics investigations, Trademark, Counterfeiting, and Piracy Investigations, Search and Seizure and Interrogation Law & Tactics, and operating Emergency Vehicles.

I have an additional certificate for Advanced Patrol Operations. I’m waiting to hear back on the number of hours associated with that training but I believe it is at least 80 hours.

I have over a decade of Law Enforcement experience documented with performance evaluations. I’ve worked in custody, patrol, as a detective, and in specialized units. I understand some schools provide credit for work experience.


Budget: I have $15K saved up.  I'd like to go the cheapest route possible, but will consider spending more for easy, fast, and a program I can work at my own pace/schedule with a decent UI.

Commitments: I’ve been out of school for over 15 years. I have health issues that require me to work harder, longer, and at a higher cost for error. I’m permanently disabled from a spinal cord injury (and other body parts) I sustained in the line of duty and am honorably retired. I live a very healthy and regimented lifestyle by necessity. Managing my health is a full time commitment and it will decrease my productivity and ability to focus on school work. I’m in constant pain. I do not take any pain medications out of a need to maintain cognitive function and also to maintain my remaining kidney and liver function. My sleep is heavily disrupted from pain, bladder and bowel dysfunction. Disrupted sleep further reduces my cognitive function. I’ve also had several surgeries on my arms and hands which makes typing painful and difficult. I have additional tendonopathies and partially torn tendons in my upper extremities that are made worse from computer work and I expect I’ll need more surgeries for that at some point. I need to be take frequent breaks, be efficient, and not do any unnecessary work like taking unnecessary classes or doing assignments that I don’t need to do. 

I will also be unavailable for periods of up to 2 weeks, 2-3 times per year. I have a good friend who is kind enough to take me with her on international vacations since I am unable to do things like this on my own. I am at the mercy of her spontaneous travel plans but I usually have at least 8 weeks advance notice before departure. As you can imagine, this friendship and these trips are of high importance to me.

Dedicated time to study: I estimate a minimum of 4 hours per day, 28 hours weekly every day of the year (except for doctors’ appointments and when traveling with my friend), with periodic breaks during study sessions. I will need a 100% online program that I can work on at my own pace from home with minimal to no deadlines, etc. I’m not good at math beyond pre-algebra or with foreign languages. I work hard but my ability to do so is significantly reduced due to my injury. It now takes me a lot longer to grasp concepts, learn, and produce work product like reports, papers, spreadsheets, power points. I’ll need some one on one assistance from school staff at first as I acclimate to the program and then periodically when I get stuck or behind. I can provide the school with whatever documentation they require for ADA accommodations.

Timeline: Finishing the courses required for the Bachelor’s degree as fast as possible within a year would be ideal if I can handle that. My timeline is more flexible for the Masters. Working around my health condition and the 2-3 international trips per year are my primary limiting factors of productivity.

Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I will be funding out of pocket without loans.

Jacksonville State University's "JSU Try It" program updated their course offering for Fall 2024.

Registration just opened for active students to register in FIN 211 Financial Literacy, 3.0 credit, Credit/No Credit grading for Fall 2024. No Application free with JSUTRYIT code. No tuition. No fees. No textbooks.

I believe this course is reserved for Transient and Non-degree seeking students. 

https://www.jsu.edu/tryit/

I went on the WGU Sophia partners page today https://partners.wgu.edu/transferring-pa...instId=796 and it looks like there are no courses. All other colleges have Sophia courses, so I am assuming this might be some website error. I called up WGU enrollment counselors, the person I talked to had no idea. I have also been emailing with another counselor, I emailed her, she did not receive any info but she's looking it.

I assume this is some site problem, but just wanted to see if anyone else knew something about this?

Quick edit: Sophia courses on their site show that WGU college of IT as one of their partners for various courses (US Government course no longer seems to credit transferable for college of IT based on the course description page).

After making MANY degree plans, and considering several different online schools, I officially went with University of the People / UoPeople!  What worked for me, may not work for others, but below is the degree plan I drew up.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...sp=sharing

A few comments.  I am NOT in a rush to complete a BA, I am on a VERY limited budget, and wanted to transfer max credits.  I will be done December 2024.  UoPeople has a partnership with Sophia, and transfer fees are waived for up to 20 courses!

My final total for a Bachelors in Business Administration is:

Application Fee - $60.00
Transfer per course $17 x10 - $170.00
Course Assessment Fees $140 x10 - $1,400.00 (Paid when courses are completed, not up front)
BA Total @ UoPeople - $1,630.00

If you add in my 2 months of Sophia, the total is: $1,768.20

As a note, I have been in business and marketing for 26 years, so my resume is led off of experience, not degree.  Basically, I wanted to fulfill the check box, and UoPeople did that for me.  Yes, they are NA accredited vs RA accredited at the moment, BUT are in the process of RA.  With that said, I have worked in recruiting, and I had NEVER seen accreditation be questioned for a regular business job.  Background checks just confirm a potential employee did in fact receive the degree.  And, I have already researched that if I chose to get my Masters, WGU accepts UoPeople BA, under NA accreditation.  If you want UoPeople BA to eventually do Masters and then Doctorate, you have a bit more work to do researching your options, I cannot provide that information. 

Hope this helps someone.

Hi, can anyone help me to enroll in 1 credit  TECEP® APS-1000-TE Medical Terminology?  Please advise or DM me . Thank you for your help .

How does one modify their signature block?  I want to update it with all my Classes I have taken, Certs I have earned and other info.  I can't seems to find where to create it.

Hi , I would truly appreciate your guidance. I have been in the Clinical Research arena for 30 years but would like to make a career switch to counseling/therapy . I have no degree so would need to start fresh - from 0!. 

In North Carolina I have the option of BSW that has a path to licensure  as a "therapist" but ultimately I think I would like to go onto a MSW as I would like to have my own practice and work within hospitals ( including VA - and I read that government institutions would require Masters at minimum) . I am looking to incorporate certain modalities into therapy - example EFT, Hypnotherapy etc. 

Do you think a path to MSW would be  feasible with one of the Big Three as a starting point?
Only issue is - MATH  - arghhh ... I can do basics and may do ok with stats etc as I have worked with some of that over the year in my roles but I literally have grade 8 math!

Suggestions and thoughts would be appreciated.


Your Location: NC, USA
Your Age:52
What kind of degree do you want?:Ultimately Masters in Social Work but BA could be in Social Work or BA in Psy
Current Degree, Credits ( of any sort): None , although I have worked in the clinical research field in South Africa, UK and USA for 30 years. I have certificates in pharmacology from South Africa but it's not something that could transfer as it was standalone certificates and doubt I could reach the relevant College at this point.
Budget: Overall - BA/MSW : Do you think $20,000 would do it? I would like to cashflow this where possible
Commitments: Work as consultant so I limit work to 40hrs a week, Single so my time is almost my own 
Dedicated time to study: 15-20hrs a week easily ( 2-3 hrs a evening and 10hrs over weekends)
Timeline: I want to finish as fast as possible
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: None

I have 3 years left in the Military (Navy) before I reach high year tenure and am forced to retire.  I may be able to get a 2 year extension, but I want to get a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Data Analytics so that I can get a MS in Data Analytics in due time.

What can I do to minimize the time required?  I know I still have a lot of work to accomplish, but I am taking at least an hour a day and can dedicate 4 hours a day on the weekend.  Any assistance would be appreciated.

Hello everyone, I have recently heard about this community, and have fallen in love with it. It is awesome for there to be a community with so many people helping each other to maximize education in the cheapest and fastest way possible. If possible, I would like to ask you guys for some help in regards to my specific situation.

My background:

I am a 20 year old spanish citizen, currently enrolled in an economics degree due to finish next year (around july of 2025). Even though it is from a decent university, it lacks a bit of depth in math. I do not really know how to convert my average to gpa, but it is around 17/20.

My goal:

I want to get into a quantitative finance master's degree, as soon as I finish my bachelor's, ideally from a top university in the US, in order to get into computational finance jobs. However, after looking into them, I found that they require courses in calculus, linear algebra, statistics (with calculus), analysis and some programming, which I do not have. I tried to do them in my current university, but unfortunately, it does not offer them. I also tried to do it in other universities, but because of prerequisites, I will not be able to finish all these courses in time.

My question:

- Is there any way I can do these courses online? I have heard about sophia or study.com to complete some of these courses, but I am scared that they will not be recognized for the master's (I asked some of my preferred universities, but none of them was very clear about it), so I want to do them through Regionally Accredited universities, ideally from europe (as they are usually cheaper)


- From what I have seen, these are not that different from what I would need to get a bachelor in math from an university like TESU or SNHU, which would greatly benefit my application, however I can't spend more than $15k. What do you guys think would be the best university for my specific situation? I am willing to do general credit through sophia, as I don´t think it would affect my grad school application (please tell me if I'm wrong).

- Is my goal of finishing this in a year attainable?

I thank everyone for the help and I am sorry if I'm missing anything, I'm still a bit overwhelmed with everything.

It looks like NAU's Personalized Learning is no longer being offered. Some reddit posts say they are no longer accepting new students, and the whole thing wraps up in a few years.