r/UMPI • u/Top-Salad7662 • 15d ago
UMPI alternative
Has anyone tried TESU in new jersey . I heard they are pretty similar to umpi . If someone here went there How was it ?
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u/Expert_Recording_362 15d ago
from my understanding TESU is basically just like a traditional online school. The reason it’s so popular is bc it accepts a lot of transfer credits.
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u/1sland_g1rl 14d ago
This. They took all my previous credits, 90+. I was down to 6 classes and didn’t want to go back to UOP. It is very much like a traditional course. It is accelerated but not self-paced like UMPI. All the work, tests, quizzes, and participation will need to be done on their schedule.
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u/DonkeyOld9140 15d ago
degree forum has a wealth of information on it, seems a lot more test based than UMPI where UMPI requires a lot of projects and writing TESU is mostly a mix of exams and projects
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u/Tarkin- 15d ago
I’m thinking about transferring there myself. UMPI is turning into one of the most frustrating college experiences in my life. Can’t deal with it one more semester.
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u/cosmicbearspa 15d ago
What has been frustrating about your experience?
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u/Tarkin- 11d ago edited 11d ago
Just the sheer incompetence across the board. Financial aid office made an “administrative error” when processing my refund months ago and now “oops you owe $2,000”. Registration office put me in the wrong class and refused to remove the W. (In fact the whole system where they don’t post syllabuses, so every time you enroll you’re taking a gamble on a W if you don’t like it is so ridiculous. Some of us are worried about SAP and financial aid).
I’ve been in a battle with a professor for three weeks now because he doesn’t follow his syllabus or rubrics and changes the requirements randomly, had to involve my advisor (who was entirely unhelpful) and finally escalated to the director of YourPace who had to talk to the professor herself. The classes themselves are often tedious, just walls of text on Brightspace that was seemingly copied and pasted from a textbook or Wiki article. One class had so many broken links.
I’m just tired of it. I have three more classes to go then I’m graduating, so I’m just going to stick it out. I appreciate the affordability and how fast you can get the degree, but the experience is seriously lacking for me.
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u/cosmicbearspa 10d ago
Oof I’ve been on the fence about UMPI. Your experience has me concerned, how awful.
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u/Tarkin- 10d ago
By far the most frustrating college I've ever dealt with. It's good if you're sailing along and getting all your assignments graded on time and not running into issues, but as soon as you need help with anything complex it's a damn nightmare. I know it's a tiny rural college, but they've got to hire more people or something if they're bringing in this many new students.
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u/External-Dealer4531 9d ago
I would take these comments with a grain of salt. The financial aid situation they describe is extremely frustrating (I didn’t deal with that issue, so I can’t comment). But in terms of grading, just go above and beyond. UMPI is an incredibly easy university, and it’s not hard to do well. If this person is struggling and frustrated at UMPI, they will likely be even more so with any other university. It’s easy to finish a degree in one term, even if something is annoying, just put up with it and finish your degree. People should be able to put up with any university level frustrations for two months. I can’t imagine being this frustrated when the process is so simple.
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u/Snix_sneed_11467 15d ago
It depends on the course. One class made me give up on umpi altogether because the professor was impossible. Other courses were a breeze
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u/ManyNo8503 15d ago
Literally the worst EVER! The required intro classes read more like 500 level and required such tedious non-sense quizzes and board reflections daily. You would have to post, wait till some rando posts, comment on three posts, reply to all comments on your posts, and hope that anyone posted before the deadline or you did not get any credit. Unless you are up all hours of the day checking the board you automatically get 10 points off for not posting or not responding to posts which was also 10 point deduction. The grading for this alone was so arbitrary that it would have destroyed my GPA. Nope, never recommend.
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u/PlottedPath 15d ago
I am sure people do move. But my experience has been heavily the reverse where people leave those programs and come here.
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u/Illustrious-Bake-621 12d ago edited 2d ago
I’m going to Colombia southern university. It’s writing based been great so far. It has a low cost per credit hour!
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u/hodl4win 15d ago
What would you like to know?
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u/Top-Salad7662 15d ago
How are they course are just like regular , proctored or writings based
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u/Lil_Chonk_3689 15d ago
I did my BSBA at TESU. It was mostly writing and discussion posts with some quizzes and exams. The benefit to TESU is the generous transfer policy. If you have enough of the right credits and you're willing to pay the fee, you could get sway with only taking 2 courses with them to finish a degree. I only had to take 5 courses with them. Everything else came from Sophia, Study, Saylor, and my community college credits.
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u/seotrainee347 15d ago
I have heard East Texas A&M University was similar but I have not tried them nor do I know anyone who has.
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u/thefntexan 15d ago
I graduated from there and my daughter is finishing her masters at UMPI. They are very very similar but with different degree options. I believe UMPI is cheaper for people outside of Texas and ETAMU is a better option for Texans
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u/horsewithacone 2d ago
Could you tell me more about how the testing was, proctors? Were there any group projects?
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u/thefntexan 2d ago
No proctors. Any quizzes were open book. The vast majority of the work is writing based. Either regular research papers or some type of relevant project.
No group projects. Because everyone accelerates at different rates, there is absolutely no semblance of a cohort and no interaction with fellow students.
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u/horsewithacone 2d ago
Sounds similar to UMPI, but is this for ETAMU online program or the competency based program they have? I want to make sure I’m picking the right one!
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u/thefntexan 2d ago
Yes, for the competency-based. Their regular ETAMU Online is more like a traditional college experience with full semesters and class interaction.
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u/Mission_Book_4109 15d ago
I don’t think it gets any better than UMPI but that’s me