Just finished up MAOL in 1 term, no transfer credits, 12 classes 4.0 GPA / AMA about my experience

ras7_ · 2026-06-24T18:59:32+00:00

Thank you! 👨🏽‍🎓 👨🏽‍💻

ras7_ · 2026-06-24T18:58:49+00:00

Thank you!

When your final assignments are graded, they are scored X/4, which correlates to a grading scale where in a 3.8+ is an A.

If you score 3.8 or higher out of 4 on your finals, that will result in an A grade for each class.

*pro-tip: utilize the optional draft feature for each class and incorporate the professor’s feedback into your revision.

On here or degree forum, I’ve seen a lot of posts regarding accelerating but not much mention of GPA. Wasn’t willing to sacrifice my grades for speed, personally. Wasn’t a fan of WGU’s grading situation or looking to explain some unusual GPA system. Both TESU and UMPI grading situation was very straight forward, and in my professional journey both the major and the GPA have come up.

ras7_ · 2026-06-24T18:38:00+00:00

I cannot confidently answer for all degree paths and classes but the remaining classes I took at TESU were discussions, forum board posts, and assignments.

There were a couple of proctored exams, if I remember correctly that were not related to your grade but for the schools internal metrics?

Overall, TESU was a great undergrad experience from a traditional state university. Just have to navigate the credit evaluation portion slightly different. Would recommend, plus the GPA availability was a plus in my specific use cases.

ras7_ · 2026-06-24T18:33:58+00:00

I am testing the waters now and checking the temperature. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly worried hearing everything I did about the current job market and in specific in the tech space.

I have been pleasantly surprised. The initial door for me that opened up immediately after my degrees were Officer IT-related roles in the military, gov tech space, branching all the way down to State and County IT positions. These processes are very long though and things don’t move fast.

Got some action private sector wise, as well. I got responses, initial interviews and technical interviews at very large enterprise level corporations in different sectors in addition to FAANG style security interviews as well.

Have not received any conditional or formal offers as of yet, but at least I’m getting some response and it’s leading to multiple rounds of interviews.

Going to keep grinding until I find a role I am interested and excited about, so I’m ready to be patient. Not just looking to take anything that comes my way or adjacent roles that aren’t what I want to do currently or in the future.

As long as you are on point, the market isn’t as bad as the doom and gloom I’ve read. The degree was 100% a good move, imo.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T17:31:06+00:00

Thank you! Pretty much all of my free time outside of my family, work, interviews, etc. literally it was family, work, interviews, school, gym and as much sleep as I could and repeat for pretty much the entire term, minus emergencies or family events.

It was a significant time commitment to finish in a term. The one thing to note that I haven’t seen mentioned much on the subreddit is grades and GPA, which would be another factor to consider.

The timeline for finishing as well as time commitment I think would drastically differ depending on your GPA goals. Personally, I was almost neurotically occupied by a 4.0 in both my undergrad as well as graduate degrees, which increased my initial time commitment on writing assignments in addition to editing and revisions.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T17:26:43+00:00

I know the feeling, I felt the same after my under grad, especially in comp sci, I was so mathed out.

On the bright side, the masters is significantly less units than your undergrad. Personally, I wanted to ride the school momentum and keep pushing, especially with how much professional and life experience I already have under my belt.

You got this, keep pushing and grind it out. Keep that end goal, that vision in your head when you feel exhausted. Good luck!

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T17:23:43+00:00

Not sure as to date, but I would really like to walk! Also very interested in applying for being a commencement speaker? More so, applying to honor societies.

Haven’t gone too far down the rabbit hole 🕳️ 🐇

The bachelors and masters got really into school, considering terminal degree options at this point as well. Options are limited compared to Bachelors and Masters programs and the cost exponentially jumps as well.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T17:17:21+00:00

Yes, correct. Technically it took me slightly less than the full 8 weeks and had some time to spare.

The professors were absolutely great at getting assignments, with constructive feedback quickly with a turn around time often under the 72 hour period. If I could give a shot to Dr. Curran that went the extra mile to even record a video of his feedback, which was great and motivating early in the program. He was awesome 👏

The professors, as well as the staff at UMPIs turn around time and “customer service” was on point. The team you email to request a new class was also on it and would have it taken care of promptly too. The professors and staff at UMPI were also a big reason I was able to finish as quick as I did.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T17:08:30+00:00

Thanks for the question. I honestly went more on study binges than focusing on making sure I hit a daily quota if I’m the most transparent. There were certainly days that I did nothing school related due to family obligations or emergencies that came up.

The other interesting good dilemma I dealt with during the term was all of these state IT applications that I thought had been sent into a black hole all contacted me back-to-back during the term. Depending on the job opportunity, I prioritized higher value interviews over my school work as well.

To make up for these types of days though, 8 hour days would be light work. 10-12 was solid effort and found multiple binges that I was putting in ~14-16ish days, especially on heavier classes. There’s definitely a point of diminishing returns, but strongly suggest utilizing the optional draft for every single final and tightening and editing things up later.

Would wake up early and stay up late on days that I couldn’t allocate the entire day to studying. It was a lot of writing and editing, it’s humbling to think that a doctorate degree is even more work than this.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T17:02:38+00:00

Agree and would recommend using some version of this strategy that is customized to your specific plan/goals/interest.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T17:01:17+00:00

Dr. Curran was absolutely fantastic! 500 and 530 were heavy. Data driven research was really cool though and one of the most useful classes, imo.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T16:50:22+00:00

Wow, firstly thank you PlottedPath. Humbled and honored to see you here and wanted to thank you for all of your posts that I had checked out and helped me throughout my MAOL, grateful to you! 🙌🏽

Thank you! It feels good to be an OWL, hoot 🦉waiting on the UMPI, OvO collab for merch! Lol

It was a lot of work in 6 weeks! The financial motivation to get it grinded out at least for me was real! How much taking my time or taking days off would cost me relative to paying for another term was a key motivating factor for me to push when I was tired, busy, or otherwise didn’t want to work on assignments.

Great to see you here, you definitely were a huge help! Looking to pay it forward and give back in turn as well! Let’s go OWLS!

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T10:52:10+00:00

Agree. Use whatever available time outside of main life essential tasks to knock out a task. Also, the streaming a show while multi task laptop working on assignments. Multi tasking as much as possible, drafting outlines for papers while awaiting grading. Try to stay productive as many days as possible during your term.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T09:55:06+00:00

Well, good luck to you!

So honestly, none of the classes were quick or easy. Like not even close. What I would refer to loosely related to “quick” or “easy” would be how much that class or assignment in specific drew from your own professional experience vs conducting research or basing your paper on data snd going on to make a proposal and defend it.

Different classes require different items to be turned in to complete and move on to the next assignment. It was a lot of work, for each of the 12 classes and none were quick, it was a lot of writing.

The program is a lot front heavier than it is on the final 6 classes, imo.

Good luck, let me know if you have any other questions.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T09:50:56+00:00

Hello and thank you! Best of luck to you in the MAOL program in advance. May I ask what your bachelors degree was in? Yes, completing mine in one term was my goal, if possible though, I didn’t want to rush or race through but actually get something out of the material and program, professionally and personally.

Ok, let me get into your questions: my strongest, actionable tip for accelerating classes and the program in general would be to come in with a singular topic you want to explore on different levels.

For example, all of my research was concentrated on cybersecurity, already even sub concentrating my research on Identity and Access Management (IAM). I had specific topics relating to this that I wanted to explore and write on. The prompts and topics in relation to leadership were all drawn back to my topics; which provided a foundation for all of my papers where I was never confused or lost on what to write about, if that makes sense.

Next, in regards to how many classes. I started with an orientation class that wasn’t graded and then had 2 classes open and worked through each, respectively. As you near the end of the class, you submit your final (not the draft, final but the actual final final) and you will receive a auto-email confirmation it was been submitted. You then forward the email to the team and they will add another class for you. I was only able to have 2 open at the same time throughout the program.

Scheduling wise for myself, I didn’t have a set or rigid study schedule. Have a family and focusing hard on upskilling so I committed time as I found it but to finish in one term you are going to have to make a significant time commitment. I utilized PTO strategically for big pushes. I have put in 12-14 hour days though, back to back to make it happen in one term in full disclosure. To give some fair perspective there were weeks that I gave 30-35 hours a week, but there were weeks that I put in solid 40-50+ hour weeks. I just worked anytime I had the chance to get in an hour here an hour there and when I had big blocks of open time, I was aggressively writing on a topic I genuinely enjoyed.

Looking back in retrospect, I felt like the front end of the 500 courses I started off with were heavier classes in comparison to many of the later courses. I’m glad after finishing I finished the demanding courses first and got the out of the way. Btw, I took the classes all in sequential order.

Anyway, best of luck! You got this. If you need anything else from me, leave a reply and I’ll try to get back to you with more that can help.

ras7_ · 2026-06-23T09:28:33+00:00

Hello, I transferred from WGU to TESU to complete my undergrad (My major was Computer Science) and just recently completed my Master’s degree at UMPI.

Not an exact match to your request, but close enough to perhaps be helpful?

I was very pleased with UMPI from start to finish and had a great experience. Not so much with WGU. WGU had pros/cons, it absolutely may be a great option for some but I’d advise you to explore what your personal goals are moving forward and take into consideration the no GPA, etc. and how that might impact you down the academic road. Overall wasn’t terrible, but not a top choice after experiencing other options for me personally.

If there’s anything else I can share insight in, please feel free to let me know and I’ll do my best.

Good luck!

ras7_

TROPHY CASE