StōbeMusic

Last year I decided to take advantage of my employer’s education reimbursement program. I took two four classes at the end of last year, two per session. I’m going to UMPI online (called YOUR PACE). It’s a competency based college with select degree programs. The one I chose? It had to be in line with what I do for a living (so they’d pay for it), so I decided on Project Management with a concentration in Information Systems. Since my Associate degree was in Electrical Trades, most of my classes did not transfer in. It didn’t bother me much since I was going to chip away at it bit by bit on the company’s dime.

Well things change, and rapidly. The company I work for is a management partner for an internet provider, and there’s a good change we may not get that contract again. So I’ve got to put my college into overdrive so I have options. I was extremely stressed out because I had 6 general electives including a lab AND most of my business courses. How was I going to get all of this done in a year! Not to mention a foreign language requirement! Well about that. While I was researching how taking Spanish at UMPI was, I discovered that many people had a negative review on the class. Hmm, I don’t want a terrible experience at something I already know is going to challenge me. As I read the reviews I started to see a name pop up over and over. “Just take it on Sophia,” “I got my credit at Sophia,” “Sophia is much better and it will transfer to UMPI”. What is this…. Sophia?

After some research, I found sophia.org. No this isn’t an ad, it’s honestly something I found (and wish I found sooner, but more on that in a bit). I stumbled into something I never knew existed, low-cost online courses on a subscription based platform. You pay $99/mo and take as many courses as you can manage. I decided to try to find some YouTube videos on the subject, and I came up with “College Hacking”. Well that sounds like cheating doesn’t it? No it’s not at all, it’s just a way to demonstrate that you already know the material so you can get your credits. Why sit in a classroom for days on end when you can read on your own time and pass the coursework? I then asked my advisor for the list of classes that UMPI will accept from Sophia, and it was surprisingly a lot. I found 10 courses plus the lab requirement I needed to finish my prerequisites as well as 4 business courses!

WOW! Now I can see the end. If I can just get through these courses in record speed, then I can meet my goal of having my workplace pay for my entire Bachelor degree and before I find myself potentially unemployed. Other people were doing it. You just have to focus a LOT of time. I did some research into what classes were the quickest to complete and I started there. Knocking out some classes within a day or two. Unreal! With each class I checked off my list, the more and more motivated I became to really do this. Can I really complete all 10 courses and the lab within a month? Can I really get the equivalent of a whole year of study done in just 1? Can I only pay $3.20 per credit hour? Unheard of.

By the last week I had two courses left, the hardest of the month by far, Business Ethics and Operations Management. I was able to get these behind me and successfully met my goal of completing all those courses within a month. I even had 3 days to spare. Although I could breathe easy, I still had my UMPI courses to do (I was simultaneously enrolled, yes I’m crazy.) I was able to send my transcripts from Sophia to UMPI and I contacted my advisor who requested the registrar team to update my transcripts. I can’t begin to tell you about how proud of myself I was to see all of those courses satisfied. What a relief! I was also able to finish 4 UMPI courses this session as well. That’s a total of 14 courses and a lab in an 8 week period. I just got my final grade on my last class. I’m so proud to say I was able to pull an ‘A’ in all 4. We’ll see if I can keep that grade as Financial management is up next.