Advice On Finishing Up BA Liberal Arts Degree TESC

[RockinOut]

Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum and I am trying to come up with a plan for the remainder of my degree. I am planning on getting a BA in Liberal Studies with TESC. I sent in the credits I have so far and here is what I still need:

General Education:
Oral Communication
Quantitative Literacy
Information Literacy
Ethics
Civic Engagement
3 credits in Social Science/Humanities
4 Natural Science
20 General Electives

Liberal Studies Credits:
About 10 credits, 3.33 need to be UL
27 Electives
Capstone


I really enjoy taking Straighterline courses, so I want to knock out as many as possible through that program first. I am working on becoming a better test taker, but I would prefer cheap, online courses over CLEP/DSST.
I am a little confused on what satisfies some of the general education courses. I have emailed TESC and it definitely seems like they want me to enroll first before they give me detailed advice. I am unsure of what to do for oral communication, quantitative literacy, information literacy, ethics, and civic engagement. I will probably chose SL organizational behavior for my leftover social science class, and SL biology with the lab for my natural science credit. Other than that I have the list of SL courses that transfer over to TESC, so can I just take as many as possible (ex. US history, Western Civ, Micro and Macroeconomics, Personal Fitness, etc, etc) to fill up a lot of my election credits? I am also currently taking the TEEX courses and just completed 6 credits through ALEKS (these weren't included when I sent in my transcripts to TESC). I am looking to start the Kaplan PLA course which I read about on here as well. Would Saylor be another good thing to look into?
Thank you so much for any help! I will also continue searching this site for answers

[ladylearner]

Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum and I am trying to come up with a plan for the remainder of my degree. I am planning on getting a BA in Liberal Studies with TESC. I sent in the credits I have so far and here is what I still need:

General Education:
Oral Communication
Quantitative Literacy
Information Literacy
Ethics
Civic Engagement
3 credits in Social Science/Humanities
4 Natural Science
20 General Electives

Liberal Studies Credits:
About 10 credits, 3.33 need to be UL
27 Electives
Capstone


I really enjoy taking Straighterline courses, so I want to knock out as many as possible through that program first. I am working on becoming a better test taker, but I would prefer cheap, online courses over CLEP/DSST.
I am a little confused on what satisfies some of the general education courses. I have emailed TESC and it definitely seems like they want me to enroll first before they give me detailed advice. I am unsure of what to do for oral communication, quantitative literacy, information literacy, ethics, and civic engagement. I will probably chose SL organizational behavior for my leftover social science class, and SL biology with the lab for my natural science credit. Other than that I have the list of SL courses that transfer over to TESC, so can I just take as many as possible (ex. US history, Western Civ, Micro and Macroeconomics, Personal Fitness, etc, etc) to fill up a lot of my election credits? I am also currently taking the TEEX courses and just completed 6 credits through ALEKS (these weren't included when I sent in my transcripts to TESC). I am looking to start the Kaplan PLA course which I read about on here as well. Would Saylor be another good thing to look into?
Thank you so much for any help! I will also continue searching this site for answers

Ok, here are a few tidbits from my experiences.

• Saylor is definitely a good thing to look into. The corporate communication class counts as upper level credit. That's the only class I really looked into there but you can check which other classes offer upper level credit and not take them at Straighterline.
  
• My information literacy requirement was fulfilled by using the TOR information literacy exam although it's two credits. I took it in case I wanted to attend Excelsior but ended up just transferring it to TESU.
  
• Straighterline's business ethics class will transfer as an upper-level philosophy class and fulfill your ethics requirement.
  
• Definitely take the Kaplan portfolio class because it is a quick, cheap way to earn 3 general ed credits.
  
• Straighterline's Criminal justice class will fulfill the civic engagement requirement (so will other classes) and it's not hard at all. When I took it, it was open-book.
  
• As for natural sciences, that depends entirely on what you're comfortable with. I took biology, environmental science, and physics not because I love science but because Patten had all these requirements so I took them all at Straighterline. The labs are not difficult but they are tedious. I would easily pick the biology lab over physics but that's just me. In my case, I had to take the physics lab because it was required at Patten. However, the biology lab sucked less.
  
• Straighterline's Macroeconomics (and possibly microeconomics) has LOTS of quizzes. It increases your chances of passing but can make it a little more tedious to get through.
  
• Straighterline's Western Civilization classes also have a lot of quizzes but were definitely manageable.
  

Saylor is definitely another thing to look into. I strongly suggest taking Straighterline's Religion class because it translates to upper level credits.

[dfrecore]

Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum and I am trying to come up with a plan for the remainder of my degree. I am planning on getting a BA in Liberal Studies with TESC. I sent in the credits I have so far and here is what I still need:

First, I have to ask whether or not you are taking 8 TESU courses/TECEP's to meet residency requirements, rather than going through the Enrolled Options Plan ($3300)? If so, then you will need 7 TECEP's in addition to your capstone. I will recommend those, in case you need them.

Also, the 18cr UL have to be in your area of study, so if you take World Religions to fulfill Info Lit, that will not count as an UL course in your AOS. Unlike EC/COSC, you don't need as many UL credits ,but those must ALL be in your AOS, and you can only have 2 100-level courses in there as well.

Here is the link for the Gen Ed courses for 2016: Thomas Edison State University | General Education - 2016 or After

General Education:
Oral Communication - DSST or TorCollegeCredit.com - Principles of Public Speaking
Quantitative Literacy - Any math course, I recommend the Applied Liberal Arts Math TECEP, also ALEKS Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Precalc and/or Statistics
Information Literacy - DSST or SL World Religions OR Technical Writing TECEP (not on the list, but mine went there)
Ethics - SL Business Ethics, any DSST Ethics course, or Environmental Ethics TECEP, 2cr Insurance Ethics course may work if you can get an exemption
Civic Engagement - SL or CLEP American Government OR Intro to Comparative Politics TECEP (ladylearner said Criminal Justice will go here, but its not on the list and I've never heard that it would work)
3 credits in Social Science/Humanities - lots of choices all over the place, many TECEP's available as well
4 Natural Science - lots of choices available, Science of Nutrition TECEP is available, there is also a Nutrition lab at Rio Salado college, although you can just take a second science course with no lab if you want
20 General Electives - Kaplan, Insurance Ethics, lots of choices available

Liberal Studies Credits:
About 10 credits, 3.33 need to be UL -
27 Electives
Capstone


I really enjoy taking Straighterline courses, so I want to knock out as many as possible through that program first. I am working on becoming a better test taker, but I would prefer cheap, online courses over CLEP/DSST.
I am a little confused on what satisfies some of the general education courses. I have emailed TESC and it definitely seems like they want me to enroll first before they give me detailed advice. I am unsure of what to do for oral communication, quantitative literacy, information literacy, ethics, and civic engagement. I will probably chose SL organizational behavior for my leftover social science class, and SL biology with the lab for my natural science credit. Other than that I have the list of SL courses that transfer over to TESC, so can I just take as many as possible (ex. US history, Western Civ, Micro and Macroeconomics, Personal Fitness, etc, etc) to fill up a lot of my election credits? I am also currently taking the TEEX courses and just completed 6 credits through ALEKS (these weren't included when I sent in my transcripts to TESC). I am looking to start the Kaplan PLA course which I read about on here as well. Would Saylor be another good thing to look into?
Thank you so much for any help! I will also continue searching this site for answers

Hope this helps!

[Vaeal]

Straighterline has a course that satisfies Oral Communications. I forgot what SL calls it but it transfers as Fundamentals of Speech Com-108. It involves you uploading videos on youtube for one of their staff to review. I found it to be a very easy class. There's actually a LOT that SL satisfies but remember that TESU has a rule that limits the amount of credits you can transfer in from a single source to 90.

[adavis84]

Sorry to hijack the thread and get off topic, but I wanted to get clarification on:

Straighterline's Criminal justice class will fulfill the civic engagement requirement (so will other classes) and it's not hard at all. When I took it, it was open-book.

Did TESU apply CJ101 to your Civic Engagement req? Anyone else done this? That'd be great to know since it's not on their list : General Education Courses: Enrolled in 2016 and After.

Straighterline has a course that satisfies Oral Communications. I forgot what SL calls it but it transfers as Fundamentals of Speech Com-108...

Also interested in knowing if people have had COM108 fulfill the Oral Comm req. TESU only lists Public Speaking and Technical Comm. I have COM108 on my evals, but my Oral Comm is open still.

If either (or both) of these turn out to be something I can use, I have a lot less work to do

[swalke321]

You could always try e-mailing academic advising to see if they can move the courses. They will either move the courses or tell you why they can't. TESU uses some type of computerized system that does not always put classes where it should.

[ladylearner]

Sorry to hijack the thread and get off topic, but I wanted to get clarification on:



Did TESU apply CJ101 to your Civic Engagement req? Anyone else done this? That'd be great to know since it's not on their list : General Education Courses: Enrolled in 2016 and After.



Also interested in knowing if people have had COM108 fulfill the Oral Comm req. TESU only lists Public Speaking and Technical Comm. I have COM108 on my evals, but my Oral Comm is open still.

If either (or both) of these turn out to be something I can use, I have a lot less work to do

Sorry, I just checked my evaluation and it was government, not criminal justice. I'm going to edit my original post for b future reference. I'm not sure if it was there at one point and got moved or if I'm mistaken. Criminal justice is now listed under human cultures along with history classes and economics.

I took intro to communication at Patten and it was transcribed as com108 but yet went toward my electives. I requested that it be moved from Gen ed electives to the Oral communcation requirement and it was.

[adavis84]

Thanks! I'll see if they'll move my COM108 as well.

[RockinOut]

Hi there! Will you let me know if that works? I am planning on taking the COM108 through SL. Thanks

[RockinOut]

Thank you so much for all the advice!

No, I am not planning on taking an TECEPs but thanks for the suggestions.
I did take SL World Religions, so I will transfer that over to my general ed credits and look into another UL credit option.
What is the Insurance Ethics course?