Hello guys and gals, I posted this on another forum and I see a few familiar faces from there (Tcord, Steve Foerester, etc.). I found this site and I hope a few more of you can post your opinions.

To those of you that do not know me I'll give a brief intro and then move on to the guts of this. Professional Law Enforcement Official with nearly 13 years experience in just about every area (patrol, Investigations, etc.). For the past several months I have been exploring my options in the Distance Education world. I am not trying to skim on an education but I am trying to get through a bachelor's program as quickly as possible then move on to a masters program (or Law School) and take it slow and easy. What gets confusing about me is that I am the type of person who has multiple interests which makes it difficult to pick and choose a degree program. From the other boards I feel like I've been given some good advice which is to finish off a lowel level degree and then worry about the Masters level since most masters programs accept you in as long as the prereqs are completed. My passion has been to work for the mouse (WDW) in some form or fashion. I have been interested in Set Design, Construction Management, Animatronics, The Disney Undercover Security, etc. so you can see I really like the Theme Park Industry (Disney Specific).

 In the meantime I have taken 15 courses through The Backup Training worth 9 hours of LE credit at North Idaho College. I am going to try and complete all of them which would be worth 17 hours through North Idaho College. I have also completed 33 of the FEMA courses which is listed on another thread (at degreeinfo.com) if you do a search of my name. I have around 9 hours I can transfer from LSU. I have been waiting on Mountain State University to evaluate all of my training, FEMA courses, etc. in order to see where I stand with their degree program in Organizational Leadership. MSU claims that you can complete their degree in 18 months if you finish all of the prereqs. That would leave you with 48 hours of core courses over 18 months. I am contemplating changing careers so I am trying to make sure I can choose a path that doesn't limit me. I am still considering Law School as well.

In the meantime Pugbelly (from degreeinfo.com) has been helping me come up with another game plan as well (thanks again). TESC appears to accept a vast majority of my FEMA courses and would apply it toward their AAS in Environmental, Safety and Security Technologies. The figuring we did today with all of my general ed courses leaves me with approximately this:

English 200 Level (Probably CLEP it)
3 hours humanities (art, music, religion, poetry)
3 hours social science (psych, sociology)
3 hours General Ed Elective
3 hours free elective

to finish my AAS and move on to my Bachelor's which at this point would be Bellevue (similar to what Pug is doing). Now Bellevue could potentially be completed in 15 months with their accelerated program. Also of note is that TESC accepts Penn Foster which means I could complete those remaining courses for their AAS quick.

Now at Bellevue my interest is with two of their programs:

Business Information Systems

Computer Information Systems in Business

These are a bit different than the potential one at MSU which is Bachelor of Science in
Organizational Leadership -
Criminal Justice Administration.

So here is my dilemma guys. Here is my breakdown of credits given to me by MSU by the way so you can review it and comment:

IS-3 Radiological Emergency Mgm 1.00
IS-5 Intro Hazardous Material 1.00
IS-8 Bldg for Earthquakes 1.00
IS-139 Exercise Design 1.00
IS-208 State Disaster Mgmt 1.00
IS-230 Prin Emergnecy Mgmt 1.00
IS-235 Emergency Planning 1.00
IS-240 Leadership Influence 1.00
IS-241 Decision Making & Prob 1.00
IS-242 Effective Communication 1.00
IS-244 Dev & Managing Volunteer 1.00
IS-279 Engineering Prin & Practice 1.00
IS-301 Radiological Emerg Response 1.00
IS-386 Intro Res Coastal Const 1.00
IS-650 Bldg Ptnrships Tribal Comm 1.00
IS-100 Intro to ICS 0.50
IS-700 NIMS 0.50
IS-200 ICS Single Resources 0.50
IS-800 Intro NRP 0.50 TOTAL = 17 Hours


As it stands right now it looks like neck and neck they might be around the same time to finish. I'll evaluate cost next.

MSU is $290 per credit hour. 48 X $290 = $13920 Now this is just for their core program. With their core program at 48 hours and my transfer of 44 credits into the program it still leaves me with 36 hours I need to fulfill while I'm in their program. Now the good thing is that they accept Penn Foster as well.

The TESC/Bellevue route would be a hard number to figure out since I don't know how much it costs to transfer into TESC and complete their program. However Bellevue costs per credit hour $295. If I could transfer in with an AAS from TESC that would leave me with 60 credits to finish from them. 60 hours X $295 = $17,700. Now I obviously would have to figure out how much it would cost to get the AAS from TESC as well.

So at face value it looks obvious that the TESC/Bellevue route would cost more. My main concern though is finishing as quickly as possible and moving into a masters program at one of the B&M Universities here. I still do not know what I want to major in but I am taking Bruce's advice and not worrying about it right now. I actually do have a third option as well.

Red Rocks Community College accepts a huge chunk of the FEMA courses and they apply it toward an AAS in Emergency Management. It looks like I would only need to complete 5 courses (15 hours) through them and I would have that AAS done. Now here is where it gets interesting. They have a transfer agreement with Colorado Universities including Regis, CSU, etc. to accept all of the 60 hours toward a bachelor's degree. Now the confusing part is this. I am interested in Regis. Specifically this program in Computer Information Systems. If I read this correctly you move from your bachelor's directly into your masters program. The masters program in Computer Information Technology appears to be 24 hours in length IF you finish some prereqs through RRCC. Now this program is VERY expensive so I won't even try to debate the cost of this program.

I want you guys to throw it all at me now. I still have some time to debate all of this but I really need your input. Which path do you think is the best one at this particular point? At this point I feel like getting an associates done would be an exciting first step. It is not my end goal though so I shouldn't place too much importance on it. I just know that I would feel good getting it done. I also want to make sure that if I finish an associates degree I can transfer it to other universities and hopefully have most of the credits transfer (like one from TESC which is where I'm leaning). MSU would require me to complete their core courses plus quite a few others in order to finish on time in 18 months. TESC/Bellevue sounds doable IF they accept all of the FEMA credits and it could possibly be done in 15 months plus the time it takes me to finish an English CLEP and 4 other courses through Penn Foster. The last option through RRCC sounds great as well because not only would I finish my AAS really quick but Regis offers a bachelor's/masters wrapped up in a neat (albeit expensive) package.

So here it is in a nutshell. If you see some unanswered questions ask me and I'll answer them. I really need your help and as always thank you for taking the time to read and comment.