TESU guidance needed please

[Tripletmom]

I'm so grateful to have found this forum.  A little about me - I am 52 years young and decided it was time to get a degree!  If I could afford it, I'd quit work and become a full-time student.  I absolutely love it!  I'm fortunate that I've advanced in my career to the point that a degree isn't needed and I'm quite happy where I'm at but not at retirement age.  Instead, I have a desire to pursue advocacy work on the side (even as a volunteer) through knowledge of the social sciences and law.  Law school is the ultimate plan, but one thing at a time.  Initially, I was looking at a human services degree from Excelsior, but the amount of UL credits required definitely makes me look at TESU more closely.  I have a few questions if anyone can help.  1) I'm not clear on the difference between the BA in Liberal Studies and the BA in Professional Studies.  Is one better than the other in terms of further education beyond the bachelors?  2) I read a post recently that TESU doesn't list the concentration on the diploma. Does Excelsior?  Does it really matter?  3) How is a GPA determined if credits are being transferred in as pass/fail?  If it would be useful I can post my credits.

Thank you in advance for the guidance.

[dfrecore]

1) At TESU, between the BALS and BSPS - neither is better, it would just depend on what credits you already had. For the BSPS, if you already have a bunch of credits from somewhere that aren't considered Liberal Arts, and would get thrown into the Free Electives area, then it might be a good bet. Some recent examples: a Paramedics, classes taken at an Art Institute that were Fashion design rather than art, a Paralegal, a Real Estate agent, or a person who took Culinary courses. You can kind of create your own degree from those types of courses.

#2 - I don't know

3) P/F courses don't have a GPA, so they're not used to determine your overall GPA. They just don't count in the calculation at all.

Go ahead and post your credits so we can see what you've got.

[Tripletmom]

I'm currently enrolled at my local community college, but they are useless in advising and I prefer self-study.  I intend to transfer my ACE credits to them soon, but it's not likely that they will apply them towards my AA degree.  My courses are as follows:

English Composition                  A    3 Community College
American Government               A    3 Community College
Introduction to Law                   A    3 Community College
Criminology                              A    3 Community College
Human Growth & Development   A    3 Community College
Social Work & Human Services    A    4 Community College
Stress Management                    A   3 Community College
Introduction to Psychology               3 old CC transfer
Gen Ed transfer                               3 old CC transfer
Business Communication                  3 Shmoop
Media Literacy                                  3 Shmoop
Criminal Justice 107:  Criminal Law     3 Study.com (Guardian)
Education 105: Special Education History and Law    3 Study.com (Guardian)
Finance 102: Personal Finance           3 Study.com (Guardian)
Developing Effective Teams               1 Sophia  
The Essentials of Managing Conflict    1 Sophia
Cyber Security for Everyone               2 TEEX  
Ethics and the CPCU Code of Professional Conduct   2 The Institutes
Decision Making and Problem Solving    1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Effective Communication                      1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Developing and Managing Volunteers     1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency    1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Leadership and Influence                      1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Planning for the Needs of Children in Disasters 1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Leadership 1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC

Intro to Business Law & Ethics              3 Saylor (will finish this month)
History of the Vietnam War                    3 Study.com (will finish this month)
Intro to Sociology                                 3 Study.com (will finish this month)
*need Math and Science

This journey is a personal goal so I do want to take relevant and interesting courses.  I do go around in circles on the best approach, so I am open to suggestions on the path to take.  Thanks in advance.

[Ideas]

I think in terms of getting hired, no it doesn't matter if your concentration is on the diploma, because you can list it on your resume and they get the transcript later. But in terms of personal reasons, I wouldn't display my diploma that's generic like that. I believe that Excelsior doesn't, but I'm not sure.


For my TESU BSBA degree, I will have a blank GPA / no GPA. But now that you have to take the Capstone at TESU, everyone would have some grade, for at least 3 credits.

[Merlin]

Decision Making and Problem Solving    1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Effective Communication                      1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Developing and Managing Volunteers     1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency    1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Leadership and Influence                      1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Planning for the Needs of Children in Disasters 1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC
Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Leadership 1 FEMA/Transferred to FCC

FYI, from what I can tell, TESU stopped accepting FEMA credits back in 2014 or so. If you want to use those credits, Charter Oak still accepts them and I believe Excelsior still does as well (only if transcripted via FCC or COSC like you have listed.)

This was a bummer for me since I have a dozen or so FEMA credits from 2013 that I had planned to put towards a degree, but are no longer useful.

[davewill]

It totally does not matter what it says on the diploma because nobody sees it unless you choose to show it to them. An employer is going to see your resume, where you'll list your concentration, and maybe your transcript, which will also list it.

[dfrecore]

So, I'm not sure what Gen Ed transfer is, just as an FYI to other posters in the future, when listing your credits, you put what you have at each school separately.  It doesn't matter what School B transferred the credit it as, it only matters what you actually took at each school.

I am also unsure about the placement of some of the credits, but I did a spreadsheet to show what I think TESU will bring everything in as.

As stated, FEMA credits won't count at TESU any longer (even on an FCC transcript).

Also, I'm not sure you should pay the money to take the Saylor Business Law exam, if you don't know what the other Law courses you've taken will come in as.  I mean, it's only $25, so not a big deal, but it may end up being a duplicate credit (it may not).

Stress Mgmt - no clue there, so I threw it in Free Electives, it may be able to be moved up to Gen Ed, I really can't say.

Business comm - not sure if it comes in as COM or MAN, if it's MAN then it would go to Free Electives, and you could move something else from Gen Ed's to AOS LL.

If you're interested after looking this over, you should definitely apply to TESU.

[Tripletmom]

Wow, thank you so much for the degree plan.  Can I use this for the social sciences concentration by inserting those specific classes where it lists "SocSci?  I've listed my classes below in the suggested format.  The Stress Management class was a requirement by my CC for a required health class. 

This is exactly what I needed to make the leap.  I'm going to enroll at TESU asap.  I'm so excited!

When I have the required credits, should I apply for the WV BOG?  Is it just as easy to do it at TESU as part of the BA?


B&M CC:  English Comp I, American Govt, Introduction to Law, Criminology, Human Growth & Development, Social Work and Human Services, Introduction to Psychology, Stress Management
Saylor:  Intro to Business Law & Ethics (in progress)
Shmoop:  Media Literacy, Business Communication
The Institutes:  Ethics 312
Sophia.org:  Developing Effective Teams, Essentials of Managing Conflict
Study.com:  Personal Finance, Special Education History and Law, Criminal Justice: Criminal Law, History of the Vietnam War (in progress), Intro to Sociology (in progress)
TEEX:  Cybersecurity 101 

  
  

[dfrecore]

Wow, thank you so much for the degree plan.  Can I use this for the social sciences concentration by inserting those specific classes where it lists "SocSci?  I've listed my classes below in the suggested format.  The Stress Management class was a requirement by my CC for a required health class. 


B&M CC:  English Comp I, American Govt, Introduction to Law, Criminology, Human Growth & Development, Social Work and Human Services, Introduction to Psychology, Stress Management
Saylor:  Intro to Business Law & Ethics (in progress)
Shmoop:  Media Literacy, Business Communication
The Institutes:  Ethics 312
Sophia.org:  Developing Effective Teams, Essentials of Managing Conflict
Study.com:  Personal Finance, Special Education History and Law, Criminal Justice: Criminal Law, History of the Vietnam War (in progress), Intro to Sociology (in progress)
TEEX:  Cybersecurity 101 

  
  

You can do a SocSci concentration, although I'm not sure it matters much.  But if you want to, then you'll need to move some things around - You can't have Humanities courses in the AOS (COM is the only one in there now, but it will rule out other stuff like LIT and ENG which are cheap and easy to find through Shmoop).