A bit lost and need some advice/help thanks!

[BearEDU]

Hey I read a lot of threads, posts, and the wiki. But I'm still a bit overwhelmed and a bit lost. I was hoping you guys can advise me on what to do.

Background can skip
I want to get my life back together and try to get my bachelors. I finished high school years ago and attended college part time. During the course of my life I decided to just get a job and work. But as time went on I dragged on going back to school to get a bachelors. As I'm getting older the fear is sinking in. I cannot survive in this world with a part-time job, and doing freelance on the side. I need that bachelors to get a full time job and take my life back into control.

What I have now
My CUNY College credits

2006
History 151 Col era- Civil war
Grade C
3 credits

Orientation Seminar
Grade B+
1 credit

2007
Introduction to Art history
Grade C
3 credits

History 112 World History 1500 - Present
Grade D / Redid class to get A-
3 credits

Intro to Psychology
Grade C+
3 credits

Elementary Spanish
Grade C
3 credits

2008
English 120
Grade B-
3 credits

2009
CSCI 120 Intro to Computing
Grade A+
3 Credit

2011
PGEOG 130 Weather and Climate
Grade A-
4 Credit

AFPRL 235 African Literature
Grade A-
3 Credit

Total Credits 29


Certifications
Comptia A+
Working on Comptia Networking+

My questions


I want to attend a school that is 100% distance learning no on campus requirements. I was thinking between Thomas Edison State University or Charter Oak State College. Both of these colleges I heard takes in majority of credit transfers. I'm not sure if my certifications will do anything, I know WGU takes them as credits.

Which bachelors is the easiest to attain at the moment with the most credit transfers from other sources?
I read on here I can get free college credits FEMA or doing SL to get credits to transfer in?
I'm still a bit confused on SL/CLEP and other credit places. Do most people take SL/CLEP for college credits because its easier/cheaper than the actual school course?
Once you transfer in your credits for your bachelors can you use the same credits to attain another bachelors in same school/or another school?

I was planning on getting a computer related bachelors but if its easier to attain another bachelors that take in majority of credits i can get from SL/CLEP. I was thinking of doing that first then attaining another bachelors. or getting more certifications etc

Thanks for taking the time to read this =).

[dfrecore]

What kind of degree do you want? In order for someone to help you with planning, you need to decide what degree you would get at each school.

Regarding non-traditional courses/exams like CLEP, DSST, SL - that's all explained here: http://www.degreeforum.net/showthread.php?t=26144 Read starting from the beginning, all the way to the end. Even if some of the info is outdated, it's still very good at explaining what we do here.

And, the cost of a course at TESU is $1500, the cost at COSC is $1100. The average cost of a course/exam here is about $100 (that's high, most can do it for less). So it's the difference of paying $4000 for 40 courses (120 credits) or $45,000 (COSC) or $40k (TESU if you paid for 4 years of the Comprehensive Plan). You can also test out or take a course using providers we talk about here in a matter of hours/days, as opposed to months per course at one of the schools.

WGU will give credit for certs, and so will COCS and EC. But again, it depends on the degree you want as to which will be the better choice. For IT, I'm always going to recommend WGU, they have the best selection, and BY FAR the best price.

I also always recommend that if you are in a computer-related field, to get some of the better certs. There are plenty of useless ones that won't get you much, but there are some very valuable ones as well. And again, WGU not only gives you a degree, but a bunch of certs as well (included in the price of tuition).

[cookderosa]

Hey I read a lot of threads, posts, and the wiki. But I'm still a bit overwhelmed and a bit lost. I was hoping you guys can advise me on what to do.

Background can skip
I want to get my life back together and try to get my bachelors. I finished high school years ago and attended college part time. During the course of my life I decided to just get a job and work. But as time went on I dragged on going back to school to get a bachelors. As I'm getting older the fear is sinking in. I cannot survive in this world with a part-time job, and doing freelance on the side. I need that bachelors to get a full time job and take my life back into control.

What I have now
My CUNY College credits

2006
History 151 Col era- Civil war
Grade C
3 credits

Orientation Seminar
Grade B+
1 credit

2007
Introduction to Art history
Grade C
3 credits

History 112 World History 1500 - Present
Grade D / Redid class to get A-
3 credits

Intro to Psychology
Grade C+
3 credits

Elementary Spanish
Grade C
3 credits

2008
English 120
Grade B-
3 credits

2009
CSCI 120 Intro to Computing
Grade A+
3 Credit

2011
PGEOG 130 Weather and Climate
Grade A-
4 Credit

AFPRL 235 African Literature
Grade A-
3 Credit

Total Credits 29


Certifications
Comptia A+
Working on Comptia Networking+

My questions


I want to attend a school that is 100% distance learning no on campus requirements. I was thinking between Thomas Edison State University or Charter Oak State College. Both of these colleges I heard takes in majority of credit transfers. I'm not sure if my certifications will do anything, I know WGU takes them as credits.

Which bachelors is the easiest to attain at the moment with the most credit transfers from other sources?
I read on here I can get free college credits FEMA or doing SL to get credits to transfer in?
I'm still a bit confused on SL/CLEP and other credit places. Do most people take SL/CLEP for college credits because its easier/cheaper than the actual school course?
Once you transfer in your credits for your bachelors can you use the same credits to attain another bachelors in same school/or another school?

I was planning on getting a computer related bachelors but if its easier to attain another bachelors that take in majority of credits i can get from SL/CLEP. I was thinking of doing that first then attaining another bachelors. or getting more certifications etc

Thanks for taking the time to read this =).

Not 2 bachelor's. One bachelor- from the fastest to the slowest, we're talking about 6-12 months difference. Pick the one that will help you get that career you want, not simply that will "check the box." A check-the-box degree works best when someone already is mid-career and is being held back from promoting, that's different from someone wanting to learn a skill and start a new career. Take your time, you've got alot of good credit that will all transfer easily into the colleges you're looking at. Spend today and tomorrow picking the degree that will help you land that job, and then from there you can plan! Welcome to the board!

[BearEDU]

Hi,

Thank you both for taking the time to read my thread. I will definitely take some time to read the thread posted.

I do have plans to work in Entry IT. but atm I was thinking of picking up an easier bachelors so I can get a promotion to full time in my current job thats not related to IT but can transition to IT with certs + a bachelors in anything in the company.

Then from there was thinking of picking up more IT certs and learning more then picking up another bachelors in IT. Atm I'm just not confident in my self doing IT.

I was thinking of picking up one of these first
TESU BA in Liberal Studies
TESU BSBA in General Management

Im still a bit lost on what a capstone is for certain degrees. From my understanding a capstone is course you must take before graduation to demonstrate your skills. But i saw that some tests can you be test out? for capstone. Is there campus requirements for capstone as well?

Is it possible to get more than one bachelors?
Is it possible to use previous credits in a bachelors to fulfill another bachelors? Does TESU credits transfer to COSC

Thank you guys helping me out with these silly questions.

[BearEDU]

so from reading more threads it seems like my option should be to sign up for ACE. Then sign up for ALEKS to get some math credits. What im lacking the most is Math credits. Then from there decide what transfer over. It seems like TESU changed alot over the years and its getting harder. Charter Oak State College seems a bit easier as they accept more credits going in. Though I seem to prefer TESU

Slowly! Im getting there!. Does these college credits from TESU or COSC ever transfer to another university or cuny schools like http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/

[bjcheung77]

so from reading more threads it seems like my option should be to sign up for ACE. Then sign up for ALEKS to get some math credits. What im lacking the most is Math credits. Then from there decide what transfer over. It seems like TESU changed alot over the years and its getting harder. Charter Oak State College seems a bit easier as they accept more credits going in. Though I seem to prefer TESU

Slowly! Im getting there!. Does these college credits from TESU or COSC ever transfer to another university or cuny schools like http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/

In brief and short - no. See below for details.

There's one thing you need to understand when transferring to another Univ such as the CUNY schools.
They're going to be looking at your transcripts from all sources, that being said, you did NOT take them from TESU/COSC.

You need to see if those CUNY schools accept ACE/NCCRS or whatever else you've taken (AP/IB/CLEP/DSST, etc)
Unless you have taken the courses at COSC/TESU, those will transfer as they are Regionally Accredited courses but expensive!

[bjcheung77]

Hi,

Thank you both for taking the time to read my thread. I will definitely take some time to read the thread posted.

I do have plans to work in Entry IT. but atm I was thinking of picking up an easier bachelors so I can get a promotion to full time in my current job thats not related to IT but can transition to IT with certs + a bachelors in anything in the company.

Then from there was thinking of picking up more IT certs and learning more then picking up another bachelors in IT. Atm I'm just not confident in my self doing IT.

I was thinking of picking up one of these first
TESU BA in Liberal Studies
TESU BSBA in General Management

Im still a bit lost on what a capstone is for certain degrees. From my understanding a capstone is course you must take before graduation to demonstrate your skills. But i saw that some tests can you be test out? for capstone. Is there campus requirements for capstone as well?

Is it possible to get more than one bachelors?
Is it possible to use previous credits in a bachelors to fulfill another bachelors? Does TESU credits transfer to COSC

Thank you guys helping me out with these silly questions.

There's an option for getting up to 4 undergraduate degrees if you wanted
(not that you should waste that much time on them, go for the masters!)

The requirements for the new degree are just 24-30 credits in another AOS (Area of Study)
This is pretty much standard for every university, from 24-30 "NEW" credits in another field.

Capstone is usually the final course of the Bachelors degree program. Some take it before/some not.
You can't test out of the Capstone (TESU BSBA *was* the only exception), it's a course that's required for all degrees at the Big 3.

[BearEDU]

Hi,

Thank you for clarifying those things for me.
Some more questions =)
If I transfer in my CUNY school credits 29 into TESU will those disappear? Will i not be able to use those to apply to a cuny school later on to get another bachelors when i graduate from TESU BSBA General Management?
What would happen if lets say I enroll into TESU and half way I decide to go back to Cuny, will my original 29 credits from the Cuny school still count?

For capstone does it reqiure you to do anything special? For example in BSBA General mangement or Liberal studies.

Thanks for your help.

Also your spread sheet is amazing!

[davewill]

Hi,

Thank you for clarifying those things for me.
Some more questions =)
If I transfer in my CUNY school credits 29 into TESU will those disappear? Will i not be able to use those to apply to a cuny school later on to get another bachelors when i graduate from TESU BSBA General Management?
What would happen if lets say I enroll into TESU and half way I decide to go back to Cuny, will my original 29 credits from the Cuny school still count?

For capstone does it reqiure you to do anything special? For example in BSBA General mangement or Liberal studies.

Thanks for your help.

Also your spread sheet is amazing!

Transfer credits are always judged by their original source. Having TESU accept your CUNY credits has no effect on CUNY's use of them if you go back. Generally, courses from regionally accredited (RA) schools (like TESU and CUNY) are usually transferable to other RA schools. The alternative credit sources we use for "testing out" do not come from RA schools and each school has their own policies about if and how much of it they will accept. The Big3 are unique in that they will accept a wide range of alternative credit, and a lot of it. Almost the whole degree. If you change your mind about TESU later, it's the alternative credit that may not be able to go with you.

The Liberal Arts capstone (needed for all of TESUs BA degrees) is essentially a 25 page research paper on a subject of your choice. Sort of a mini-thesis. It's broken up into chapters, so it's not really as hard as it sounds. There are threads here that talk about it. The BSBA capstone is a little different...someone else here can address that better.

[BearEDU]

Hey,

Thanks for making that clear for me.

I see you completed a TESU BA: Comp SCI congrats! I was curious what is the capstone for that and there's also another one called cornerstone. I wanted to get a BA in Comp SCI at TESU/WGU at first but its going to be hard for me since I really don't know more than the super basics of computers. I mainly know the hardware side which most of every one knows these days. So I figured I should aim for either Liberal arts or general management if they are easier to get so I can get a full time job faster. With that being done i can move on to learning and getting more Certs to find a IT position later on. Though currently my job only requires high school degree and Comptia A+ for Entry IT. I feel like getting a bachelors in anything will help my cause a bit when applying for it.