Ocean Man's Journey To Earning A Bachelor's Degree

[Ocean Man]

Similar to @Lex DeVille's thread on a journey to earning a PhD, EXECUTION - Lex DeVille's - Journey To Doctor

I too, for the longest time haven been contemplating going back to school. Actually, spending some time out of school for a few years to think about whether or not I actually wanted to attend college was in fact helpful. Personally, after reflecting I know that somewhere in my lifetime I would strive to have a bachelor's, one way or another.

I've been thinking, going through Jordan Peterson's self authorship program, working on making my 1-5-10 more clear, and I'm back in America during C0VlD-19. This is the perfect time for me to finish what I started.

Note: I am not getting this bachelor's to get a job.
I genuinely am interested in learning and wanted to learn. Being able to get a job is an added benefit, but I'm going for my own personal life goals.

Additionally, the only reason why I couldn't start a business in South Korea, was because I didn't have a bachelor's degree. Yes, you can make it in America without a bachelor's degree. But if you're trying to do so in other countries in Asia (in my experience, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan)... you're required to have a Bachelor's. The government will not give you a entrepreneurship visa otherwise. I can't even get a working holiday for South Korea without a bachelor's.

So for me, the benefits of getting a bachelor's are the following:
- Completing a personal life goal.
- Added benefit of having it for job searching (during my time in the slowlane).
- Networking in school.
- Being able to have more options in Asia, specifically South Korea and Japan.

Some peeps may disagree, they dislike the idea of university completely. I for the most part agree. Usually I'm for the position of not getting a degree unless you're degree will give you an actual return or you're going to go for something like lawyer or doctor.

One of the biggest reasons why I never continued my Associates degree. Math.

I'm terrible at it, specifically Calculus. Failed twice. And looking at it, it's because I was half-assing it. I didn't put in the time actually studying after class. All I did was my homework and considered that studying. can you believe it? I let a subject stop me from obtaining this? If I didn't quit, I could've had the degree a year or two ago. Now I'm seeing my fellow highschool mates graduating from university now.

Now it's my turn to kick some a$$.

I currently have an Associates of Arts degree and would like to major in computer science.

Something that'll help me earn my degree more quickly:
I've been working as a software engineer for the past three years. As a result, my local college offers credits to my degree for my work experience. (Up to 25%). I only need about 95 more credits to earn the degree. If I can get the full 25%, that'd leave me with 71 credits left.

But OCEAN MAN, what about math?
Yeah.. My Math skills are terrible and I even more so now that I've been out of college for about three years. But that won't stop me.

Before I enroll back into college (maybe I can even enroll right now and complete the classes that aren't math related).
I just purchased a year subscription to kristakingmath.com which covers math from Pre-Algebra all the way up to Linear Algebra. I will work on my Algebra and Trig foundations before I start learning Calculus. Once I have a good foundation, I'll learn Calculus, see if I can push it all the way into Calculus 2 and once I'm at the point where I feel confident in my Calculus 1 skills... I'll take a math placement exam at the college to see if I can simply jump into Calculus 2.

So my plan now is to self study Math, get my foundations solid, and get passed Calculus 1. Meanwhile, maybe I'll start college again and take up the other classes (Issue is I'm at the point where I need to declare a major (computer science), but I can't declare computer science yet since I don't have calculus finished or physics 1-3. Any programming classes at this point require that I'm admitted into the Computer Science degree, otherwise I can't take them.

I'll continue to post updates to this thread but it won't be every day or every week.
@Ravens_Shadow, If I remember correctly, you taught yourself Math for Janga. If you can do it... I can too. I'll actually be studying, doing work sheets to study what I learned, and using other resources like Khan Academy.

I think the time for filling out any scholarships/fafsa is over at the moment though which blows.

 

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[Ocean Man]

Today I got an acceptance email. I'm going back to school! I applied 12 days ago, which during this time, people were registering for classes. A lot of the good teachers are already full and I can't register for them. But I'll make do.

One step forward!

 

[Ocean Man]

T minus 1 hour and 27 minutes until I start my first class!

 

[Ocean Man]

Haven't been accepted yet but I should be soon. Meanwhile, I've made a rough path of the classes I'd need to take to graduate. I basically finished reviewing pre-algebra about a week or two ago and it's nice to see a lot of things coming back to me somewhat quickly. If I want to be in the fastest lane to graduation, I'd need to be ready to take on Calculus 3 by December. Otherwise, I'd need to be ready for Calculus 1 or two which would push me back a quarter or two depending on which Calculus I'm on.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to take on the higher computer science classes if I'm not within the computer science program already. If you look at Summer 2020, I'm taking zero classes. Not because I don't want to but because I can't take on any classes anymore until I'm accepted in the computer science program.

They do admissions every fall. This year I'm not ready to apply because to apply, I must've passed Calculus 1 and Calculus 2.

This chart is the full chart for graduation (without the possibility of me using work experience for credit which can significantly cut down my time needed for graduation.)

Nine months of taking one senior capstone project at a time.

 

[Ocean Man]

Just filled out my FAFSA for financial aid as well as another college form. Will hear back 30 - 35 days from now.

 

[Ocean Man]

To update the thread! My first quarter is about to start this Monday. I have a little bit of a bad feeling about how the online courses are going to work. I've emailed my teachers twice (weeks apart) for the required books and only 1 out of the three has gotten back to me. Seems like I'll have to wait until classes actually start to personally ask them.

The reason I want to know ahead of time is to see if I can find cheaper versions of the books and not overpay.

 

[Ocean Man]

School officially starts in 54 minutes (00:00 9/21). The past few days I've been trying to read and re-read chapters ahead to give myself a better head start. Lectures for both my CS and Physics class have been up since this morning and I'm almost finished with this week's physics lectures. I'll be awake at 12am to see what my Calculus class will show.

My goal is to finish the entire week's lectures and assignments during the beginning of the week so that I have more time to study, have time for my actual job, and prepare for next week as well. Goal is to keep being ahead of schedule.

Already turned in my first Calculus assignment not too long ago.

 

[Ocean Man]

I wanted to wait until I actually got the diploma, but I’m too excited!

Yesterday, May 6th, I passed and received my CompTIA Project+ certification exam. This exam was my last course.

I have zero remaining courses left and I’m basically done. I’m waiting until next week for my exam scores to come back to the school and for my project mentor to recommend me for graduation.

It has been a long journey, but I’ve now passed the goal line! I have a Bachelor’s of Science in Software Development!

If a mod can change the title to include [COMPLETED] or [GRADUATED], I’d appreciate it!

Thank you everyone for following this journey. It’s only the beginning. And I’m thankful for those mentioning alternative schools to in-person brick and mortars. I highly recommend online colleges such as Western Governor’s University, where you can accelerate in your studies.

 

[ZF Lee]

Great that you've set on a path!
I was worried and wondering what you'd do next...

Great arrangement to find a college that gives you credits for some work time.
It's a significant short-cut of sorts that I'm disappointed I don't have here in Malaysia.

One of the biggest reasons why I never continued my Associates degree. Math.

I'm terrible at it, specifically Calculus. Failed twice. And looking at it, it's because I was half-assing it. I didn't put in the time actually studying after class. All I did was my homework and considered that studying. can you believe it? I let a subject stop me from obtaining this? If I didn't quit, I could've had the degree a year or two ago. Now I'm seeing my fellow highschool mates graduating from university now.

Well, if you can run for start-up competitions and fight the Korean red-tape with moderate success, calculus is actually a very easy enemy to beat.

Just do extra more questions than the homework- without peeking at the answers.
Worked great for me, when I study finance in college and do the calculation questions.

Khan's Academy is great, but you can also take a look at patrickJMT's channel as well for more specific calculus stuff like integrals and limits.

patrickJMT

Keepin' it funky fresh for your mathematical needs. Word.

www.youtube.com

You can also check out Tom Miller's blog on dealing with the STEM-related units.

A great fit for engineering, physics and yes, maths students.
While he's more focused on the first two, he suggests some study and exam-answering frameworks that are a lot more sound than rushing through the questions blindly:

Active Recall: 1 Amazing Technique To Crush Exam Problems - Phyzzle

If there's one study technique to learn that can make or break your next exam grade, active recall is it. Interested? Read on.

www.phyzzle.com

Physics Problem Solving Guide - Phyzzle

"With physics I usually feel okay while I'm doing homework and in lecture, but the I see the test — boom. No physics in my brain at all."Do you go to every lecture, finish every homework problem, but still feel like you have no clue during physics exams?Is your professor so terrible that you...

www.phyzzle.com

Tom also has a paid course- Study Hero, which covers the entire study orchestra- for $79.
I haven't paid for the course, since the blog free content helped me right away.

 

[Ocean Man]

if you can run for start-up competitions and fight the Korean red-tape with moderate success, calculus is actually a very easy enemy to beat.

Right, haha?
I’ll definitely kill it in Math!

Thank you for the encouragement and additional resource, I’ll definitely use them!

 

[Ocean Man]

​

I just paid for my first quarter. Here are the classes I've signed up for:

• Physics 1 of the engineering series.​
• Computer Science 211 - Foundations of Computer Science​
• Math 151 - Calculus 1 (I failed this class twice already).​

All in all, 16 credits total, which makes me a full-time student. I also paid the application fee for enrolling into the college which was $55.00. No financial aid as of this moment, working on filling out my FAFSA and other documents. Note that this is only for the classes and not the books and other miscellaneous fees, time to look into what I need for the class.

 

[Ocean Man]

So you'll take physics 2 and calc 2 in the same semester. I did that, it was tough. Be sure to master calc 1 this semester, it's super foundational to the rest of those classes.

I've been out of school for years, already in my career, and today our online courses became available (Only the syllabus, class schedule, etc... as school doesn't actually start until Monday). While looking at the syllabus, the textbook, and our schedule.. Damn I'm going to be super busy.

I'm looking at the class schedule.. quiz/test at the end of every week, readings and videos every day, homework everyday, etc...

Having a full-time job on-top of three core classes... This quarter is going to be something haha.

 

[Ocean Man]

I finish my first quarter back sometime between Dec 8 - 10.

My thoughts?

Wow! I can understand why people say it's easier to finish school when you're younger. It's difficult working 8+ hours at the same time studying calculus, physics, and computer science. Next quarter should be a tad bit easier since I will not have a computer science course.

Physics has been difficult, but I find it extremely interesting! I'm not good at it and I'm slow at solving the problems, actually failing currently but with my recent exam I should be back in a passing grade. I find myself thinking about physics almost daily. If I'm riding the subway, I think about how the subway might be moving. Another example is if I'm sitting down or doing a certain action, I think about the forces that are acting upon me or an object. It's just great being able to use something I learned from class in the real world.

A cool problem I had on my physics exam went something like this:
SpaceX is trying to land a rocket that's coming back from space. Say you're given two forces, thruster force and gravity... To successfully land the rocket , will the thruster force be 1. Greater than gravity? 2. Equal to gravity? 3. Less than gravity?

My point is, wow! Although nothing super complicated, I'm able to actually somewhat use what I learn and apply it to some things in the real world, unlike a lot of the other classes you're required to take.

I'm going to pass Calculus this time, but I honestly have no idea what's going on since all my attention has been on physics. Since it's a new topic to me, I have to invest so much time studying it to actually understand concepts and ideas that I rarely have time to study calculus after work, homework, and other lectures.

I will be registering for my next quarter's classes tonight.

Following my path from my flowchart that you can find some comments above, I'm a quarter behind graduating the fastest path. I'll be taking Calculus 2 and Physics 122. Things should be easier since it's two classes. But the topics taught in these two classes are going to be completely new to me so it's going to be really difficult. Especially Physics 122, I find a lot of students in that class currently are having a difficult time. I wonder how I'm going to do since I'm struggling with Physics 121.

But the plan must go on! I'm trying my best!

I really want to learn more about physics as I think if I have a good understand of it, it may help me in the future. I want to create or help people on a massive scale and with large magnitude. I think these subjects can help me. I think a majority of the people/students get stuck on the theory part and just focused on passing the classes. Rather than the grade or theory being the priority for me I'm focused on how I can apply what I learn from these classes with the real world. With this additional knowledge from physics or calculus how can I help people or solve problems?

[I'm kind of just ranting at this point. I don't expect this post to make too much sense.]

The story continues! I'm going to the next level!

 

[Ocean Man]

Moving onto Calculus 2 and Physics 2! According to my roadmap, Physics 2 will be my last Physics class and then afterwards, it's math only. Until I can apply into the CS major program.

 

[Ocean Man]

Update - I've decided to transfer to WGU an online university. I've already had my transcript evaluated and the majority of my courses are eligible to be transferred.

I officially start in May and I'll be directly transferring into my major whereas I'd need to wait 3-9 more months to even apply for my B&M major. I only need to complete 18 more courses (including the senior capstone) to graduate with my BS in software development.

Here are the benefits:
- It's an online university which means that I'll be able to maintain a full-time job during the day and work on school during the night.
- A term (roughly 6 months) is around $3,400 for unlimited classes. WGU is based on competency which means if I already know the subject, I'm able to take the final exam on the first day if I wanted to and complete the class. I don't need to spend 5 weeks going over something I already know. Additionally, three each quarter at my community college averaged me around $1,800-3,000. It's that expensive for only three courses for each quarter.

I've already evaluated the credits I can transfer in. I still have time to transfer in certificates if I have any (I don't). The deadline to submit certificates are early April which means I still have some time to obtain as many certificates as I want to even further reduce the amount of courses I need to take to graduate.

I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner.

Reasons why?
- I didn't really know about WGU's credibility and online schools have a negative stigma around them.
- Family often questioning my decision as to why would I want to finish as soon as possible? Why don't I take the couple of extra months to really "soak in the knowledge". Yeah right... How does sitting in a classroom for 5 weeks going over a topic I already know and being given a subpar education make any sense?

Anyways, I'm excited for the future. I'm glad I can finally start working on classes that actually relate to my major and career. I'm going to finish this shit.

----
Already got it all mapped out. Although there are 19 courses (which includes the senior capstone) listed as "Incomplete", the majority of those I can finish really quickly, especially with the certificates I'll be transferring in.

 

[Ocean Man]

Took my first certificate exam tonight, boom:


Once I transfer that certificate in that'll reduce the number of courses I need to graduate by two. This means I now only have 17 classes left until I graduate with the degree. Let us see if I can get any more!

Just signed up for another certificate exam for this upcoming Friday. If I pass, it would also reduce the number of courses I need to graduate by two, meaning 15 classes left (if I pass!)

 

[Ocean Man]

Just passed another course. 13 courses left until I graduate!
Just finished green, starting blue bordered course.

 

[Ocean Man]

I finished another class today, which leaves me with 11 classes left to graduate! I took a break for a week or so since I felt burnout completing so many classes nonstop in a month. Now I’m back at it!

 

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[Ocean Man]

Just passed my Software Quality Assurance course a few minutes ago. 10 classes left until I graduate!

 

[Ocean Man]

Just took my ITIL Foundations certification exam and I passed! What I like the most about the ITIL framework is its focus on providing value to the end-user.

Personally, the most important thing for me when it comes to my work and serving others is that the things I create, should be entirely focused on providing value and a sense of warranty to the end-user. Which is something that this certification places an emphasis on.

Eight courses left until I graduate!

 

[Ocean Man]

Wow it's been several weeks since my last post and I've got to say, that's because I got tired from accelerating, life got busy, and now I'm back in Korea.

Today I passed a course, which means I have seven courses left until I graduate. The course that I passed was on IT Foundations. My specialty is software not networking, cables, hardware, and information security. All of that was new to me. It was definitely interesting and I can see the benefit of knowing this information, but it really did slow down my progress and I did need to go much slower to consume and information and understand what was going on.

My next two courses are for the CompTIA A+ Certificate. This means I'll be studying for Core 1 and Core 2 of the exam. This certificate is also more IT-focused which means that I'll be progressing slowly through the courses to understand the material.

 

[Ocean Man]

I'm not dead!

Just finished one of my longest courses, the CompTIA A+ Core 1 certificate course.

Six more classes left until graduation!

My next course is the CompTIA A+ Core 2, once I pass that course I would have the complete CompTIA A+ certificate. Supposedly, Core 2 is much more difficult than Core 1.

My term ends in less than two weeks so I'm not going to enroll in Core 2 until the start of my next term. The reason being is that if I enroll now and I don't finish by the end of my term, they would fail me. So although I'm not enrolling until my next term, I'll be studying Core 2 until my next term starts.

We're almost there!!

 

[Ocean Man]

I received news that I passed the course on mobile application development using C# this morning! Which means I have two remaining CompTIA courses and then after those two-my final graduation capstone! I’ve already applied for approval to take one of the CompTIA exams so I should be done with one of the two courses, shortly!

I’m so close to the finish line!

 

[Ocean Man]

I just took the necessary steps today to re-apply to my college. My goal is to start attending online during this fall quarter, knocking out courses other than calculus. As soon as I'm accepted, I'm able to talk with a faculty advisor to kind of help plan out my path and assist me in filling out the prior learning (work experience) form to get those credits from having work experience.

 

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[Ocean Man]

I enrolled into three classes for this upcoming fall quarter, Physics I, Calculus I (<— this class is what stopped me.), and Foundations to Computer Science II (<— this is the only computer science class I can take for an entire year before I’m admitted into the CS program next fall.. what a waste of time). Total cost will be around $1700, no financial aid, and this does not include textbooks. It’d be really nice if I can get some financial aid. Looking into the FAFSA and scholarships.

 

[Strategery]

So you'll take physics 2 and calc 2 in the same semester. I did that, it was tough. Be sure to master calc 1 this semester, it's super foundational to the rest of those classes.

 

[Ocean Man]

the work is too mind-sucking that I end up wearing myself out.

I can definitely see that happening. Yesterday was the first day, but I started on Saturday night because some of the lectures were available before school actually started. I notice that I need to be careful of wearing myself out. I'm studying three core science/math based-classes and need to realize my brain can only take so much at a time. Although I'm pushing myself a lot to complete as much as I can in as little as possible, I think I can tone it down a little bit as well haha.

What I've found more successful for myself, was to chop my assignments up into mini-tasks, to be spread across the days.

This is a great idea and I've actually started to implement this a bit.

A side benefit is that if I can't solve a question during that session, I can either save it for later and let my brain process stuff unconsciously

This is what I do when I'm developing software. If I'm stuck with a bug or can't figure out how to go about something. I'll stop and realize that overnight or over lunch, without even thinking about the problem I come back and look at the problem saying, "Wow! The answer is obviously... How did I not see that before?"
----

It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to get ahead in my calculus class. Lectures are being posted late. But I actually feel bad for the professor but at the same time a lot of respect. Although the lectures are being posted late. He's literally trying his best to provide us with online instruction. It's obvious that the math department never had to do online courses and thus he's learning a lot about how to shoot the videos, upload everything, and I can tell he's trying his best.

He doesn't have his own tablet pencil so it's difficult for him to write out on his iPad the graphs, equations, etc... You know how finicky it is trying to draw with your finger when it comes to using tablets.

You know what he did? He searched up a DIY tablet pencil and made his own tablet pencil using (if I remember) cotton, foil, and water. It's not the best solution and it doesn't work the best. But wow... Now that's dedication... He's waiting on the state to give him a new one since his was stolen.

I can tell he cares a lot about the class and teaching.

 

[Ocean Man]

Apologies Lee, I saw your reply but I was unable to respond to it.

And sometimes I hear managers are required by their bosses to pursue a Masters on-the-job.

In these times, one can't exactly run away from studying while working.

These days, I'm contemplating a Master's and if it's worth it for me. Like you said some managers are required to pursue a Masters on-the-job. I noticed that unlike Bachelor's there are more Master programs that are part-time/night-time/online and catered for the working professional. I wish they did as much catering for those in bachelor's degrees and working, LOL. But I think COVID changed the market up. Once this gets better, I'm sure a Bachelor's won't be enough.

The value of a Bachelor's degree was already dwindling before COVID, I think COVID made a bachelor's value almost useless now. I believe that All that matters is can you perform the job and you have some sort of basic qualifications/evidence that shows me you can.

But I guess the intention behind all these recurrent assessments is to ensure we aren't having charlatans in the industry.

Very true. But again, I think to put a stamp saying, "A degree means you can do the job" isn't correct. There needs to be a better way. If you remember me trying to get an entrepreneurship visa in South Korea and all the BS I had to go through just because I didn't have a Bachelor's... I think they need to change the system and let people show their clients if they can perform the job. In the end, people don't care about the degrees they have and just want the job done and trust that the person has experience. Ignoring professions such as doctors.

"Sure, college forces some mindless rote memory of knowledge you may probably never use in the real world. But what college actually does is to train you to re-learn things, even though you forget them."

I agree with this statement.

 

[Ocean Man]

The start of my quarter is tomorrow.

If you haven't been following along or as a reminder, I'll be taking calculus two and physics two this quarter.

I must pass calculus two in order to apply to my major program in March.

This will probably be the hardest quarter of my schooling so far.

Physics one was incredibly difficult for me and I spent literally 90% of my time focused on trying to pass physics one. And guess what? They say physics two is much more difficult than physics one.

Either way, I just wanted to post this update. Wish me luck! I'll be trying my best to pass this quarter!

Thanks to everyone who's following along my journey so far!

 

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[Ocean Man]

I've recently dropped out of Physics 2. I was failing all my homework, quizzes, and exams and was trying my best to keep up. But the math used in Physics 2 was several grades above Calculus 2 that I'm currently in.

I'll have to re-take Physics 2 sometime before I graduate with my BS. On the bright side, I'll have more time to study calculus, as I've literally poured all my time into Physics. If I pass Calculus 2, I'll be able to apply to my major.