2 Degrees from Thomas Edison State College?

[onlinestudent101]

Has anyone been able to graduate with 2 Bachelor's degrees at once from Thomas Edison State College. I hope this makes sense. I have so many credit hours in criminal justice and general business management - the academic evaluation has confirmed I have completed all the requirements for the BSBA in general management and the Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice (with an exception to the Liberal Arts Capstone). I do not want to take the Liberal Arts Capstone if TESC will not award both Bachelor's degrees at once because I do not want to pay an enrollment fee twice. I was hoping to graduate with both degrees during the same enrollment term. Does anyone know if this is possible? I would greatly appreciate any information. Thank you so much and good luck to everyone with their academic journeys.

[Jonathan Whatley]

the academic evaluation has confirmed I have completed all the requirements for the BSBA in general management and the Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice (with an exception to the Liberal Arts Capstone).

Subtle point: The academic evaluation confirms that you've met the requirements for the one degree or the other if you switch between them on the evaluation form, not that you've met the requirements to earn one degree and the other. Read the Second Bachelor's Degree policy currently under Award of Degrees here.

I do not want to take the Liberal Arts Capstone if TESC will not award both Bachelor's degrees at once because I do not want to pay an enrollment fee twice.

You're assuming that your enrollment ends once you've graduated with a single degree. My understanding is that at TESC the enrollment fee starts a one-year clock – by which you've paid for being an enrolled TESC undergraduate student for one year, and this status won't end just because you've been awarded a degree.

[soliloquy]

My understanding is that you can pick one or the other but not both because after your first degree is conferred you cannot earn another degree until you earn 24 additional credits after the first degree. The other option is to have two area of studies within one degree but not both. I don't really understand the rationale behind making students obtain an additional 24 AFTER the date of the first conferral though. If you have the credits and they have not been used for the previous degree...I don't see what difference the timeline makes. But, that still seems to be the rule.

Award of Degrees

Second Bachelor’s Degree
Students who have received one bachelor’s degree at Thomas Edison State College or another regionally accredited institution and wish to earn a second bachelor’s degree must:

Complete a minimum of 24 additional credits in the area of study/core for a second bachelor’s degree beyond the date the most recent degree was completed
Students must complete all requirements for the degree as listed in the current Thomas Edison State College Catalog.
The College will not award a third associate or bachelor’s degree.

Two Areas of Study Within One Degree
Students may complete up to two areas of study within one bachelor’s degree. No more than 9 credits that are used in the first area of study may be used for the second area of study. All related required credits for each area of study, as well as all degree requirements, must be met at the same time. Students cannot complete a third area of study within one bachelor’s degree.

Perhaps you can receive one degree from TESC and one from COSC though?

Second Baccalaureate Candidates - Charter Oak State College

Concurrent Degree Policy

A student cannot concurrently earn a degree using substantially the same courses at two different institutions. Prior to completing the application, the student must seek approval from the Director of Admissions. The request for approval must include the field of study of the degree being sought at each institution and the courses to be included. The student must demonstrate that s/he will be taking at least 30 credits that are not in the other degree program. The 30 credits must be in the concentration and a minimum of 15-18 must be at the upper level.

[onlinestudent101]

Thank you for the correction. I worded the post incorrectly.

[onlinestudent101]

Do you think I would have to do the additional 24 credit hours in my situation? because the criminal justice courses (most of them) are not being used towards the BSBA in General Management and the BSBA General Management courses (most of them) are not being used towards the BA in Criminal Justice. The criminal justice and general management courses are completely different from each other.

[soliloquy]

I think there's a possibility if you were doing the degrees from the two different schools with concurrent enrollment at COSC there is a chance you could use both. But, TESC seems to make it clear that they do not allow you to earn two degrees at the same time from them.

[Saharapost]

In my case, I have about 3 semesters worth of Mass Communication and Journalism credits from a previous polytechnic studies in Nigeria which I have been unable to get out of the school to US for evaluation because I am not in the country at the moment and some bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with schools that are not fully IT compliant. Since I have acquired these credits before I applied to TESC and did not use them towards the BSBA degree, I asked TESC's advising team whether college's policy that credits to be applied towards a second degree should be earned after conferral of first degree would affect my chances of using the second sets of credits for a second degree in BA in Journalism degree. Here is the response I got:

Courses for a second degree must be earned after you officially
graduate from the first degree. Do not take any courses now as they
will not count.

It is possible that some of the courses that weren't used before will be used in the second degree. However, without an evaluation, I can't tell you how this will work. None of them will be applied to your area of study.

[soliloquy]

I still don't understand the purpose of not letting you earn credits towards your second degree until you've completed your first one. Why do they do that?

[sanantone]

I believe this is a common practice; it's not just at TESC. I've also heard that TESC will not allow two areas of study for degrees that are from different departments, but you would have to verify. For example, you cannot double major in accounting and psychology because accounting is a BSBA program while psychology is a BA program.

You can use old credits toward a second degree, but you still need to meet the 24 new credits requirement. Any courses taken before the conferral of the first degree will not count toward the requirement of new credits.

[soliloquy]

Yes, I'm aware that this is common among colleges in general. I still don't understand the purpose of requiring "new" credits for a degree. If you have the credits that fit the degree plan and they are not already used elsewhere, I don't understand the need to require new ones.