*Another* Big 3 Decision Thread...

[Bewood]

Hello all!
First post, and I'm (of course) looking for some help... I've been lurking for a couple weeks and reading as much as I can here. Firstly, thanks to the community for all the awesome info. It's been a great resource!

Now for my situation: Active Duty Navy, stationed in Yokosuka, Japan for the next 3 years. I have extensive 'Applied Professional/Free Elective' credit 48 LL, 15 UL from my military experience. (Please see JST, attached).

Also on the attached JST are 3 CLEPs which are recorded. One is from 2009, and the other two were passed a couple of weeks ago during a 'CLEP-a-Thon' that the on base Testing Center hosted, (which I won!).

Here's where it gets just a bit confusing: I won by passing 8 CLEPS in 4 days. However, only American Government and Humanities have showed up on my JST so far. I also passed:

Not yet recorded:

US History 1 - 60 (3)
US History 2 - 61 (3)
Intro to Sociology - 59 (3)
Information Systems - 62 (3)
History and Social Sciences - 61 (6)
Principles of Management - 56 (3)

Recorded:

Humanities - 55 (6)
A&I Lit(2009) - 71 (6)
American Government - 59 (3)

I also took the 6 credit College Composition with Essay, for a total of 9 CLEPs, but Ill have to wait for the score for that one, to see if I passed. I'm 80% confident that I did... fingers crossed!

SO...

Right now I have, unless I counted wrong:

63 'Applied Professinal/Elective' credits (48 LL, 15 UL)
36 CLEP credits (42 if I passed College Comp)

99-105 Total credits.

JST Link https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/72b5...341589936f

I am trying now to decide between the Big 3 with several goals and conditions in mind.

My goals/conditions are:

1) To get an AA/AS in Liberal Arts or General Studies ASAP. I don't particularly mind or care from where.
2) To apply that Associates degree toward a BA/BS in Liberal Arts/General Studies/History as easily as possible.
3) To test out of as much as possible. I'm fine with a Capstone, or a couple of courses, if necessary.
4) To avoid math as much as possible. (Studying for College Math CLEP now, hoping that for LA/History that will do it!)
5) Long term, I plan to coach golf and teach History at a high school after I retire from the military. (8 more years!)

A couple of other items to consider:

1) Cost is not a huge deal to me. Military tuition asssistance will cover most of what I do with any of the big 3. Especially since I plan to go almost all test out and CLEP/DSST are all free for us.
2) For some reason I am drawn to Excelsior. I think it may be the fact that I know they will take all of my 63 electives, (59 required for the BSLS.) Will the other two take them all?
3) I know the least about COSC, and the most about EC and TESU in that order, from my research so far.

After ALL of that, I have two questions:

1) Should I apply to all 3 and have my evaluations done (once my JST is updated) ?
2) Where should I go!?

Thanks to anyone who read and who will reply!

[Notgodot]

Just a couple observations/thoughts -

Once everything shows up on your JST, it certainly wouldn't hurt to send it to all of the Big 3 just to see how everything shakes out.

TESU left a lot of my Army credits on the cutting floor, so to speak, as they wouldn't fit into the Free Electives as there was no more space, and they weren't considered General Electives.

It looks like you're pretty close to being able to get an AAS if you want: Programs of Study > Board of Governors A.A.S. Degree Completion Program | WVNCC | West Virginia Northern Community College
Maybe just a math course away. Others are better at telling what you might require. But honestly, you're not that far away from a Bachelors, so you don't really need the associates as a stopgap, or to get you to the BA faster (it won't, as far as I know)

Good luck!

[dfrecore]

I'm not a huge fan of the AA at TESU, as it's too expensive (that $2000 residency waiver is a killer). COSC is probably your best bet there, but even then, I'm not a huge fan (it really won't get you anywhere professionally later on).

I say, you are so close to a BA at one of the Big 3, go for it instead.

One problem at TESU - they do not have space in any program that I can see where you can really get the most bang for your buck with your military credits. The "military" degrees seem to be BSAST's, requiring more math than you're going to want to do. The BSPS is where I can see those UL credits you have being used the most, but even then, you're only getting 15cr out of it, which to me is not enough.

I've included degree plans for TESU's BALS and BSPS anyway. If you apply at TESU, I would definitely ask about your military credits working in a better way for you. If they aren't helpful, then apply for the BSPS and lets see what they give you. You can easily switch to the BALS later.

For EC, make sure you apply as a POAG student to get the discount (after joining POAG of course, $25). https://poag.org/

I don't know enough about EC and COSC to help you, but I do know that they are much more flexible in how they apply credits - helpful for those that already have a lot of credits completed like you. In most cases, I think they are a better choice than TESU in these circumstances.

Thank you for your service, and good luck!

[KayV]

As Notgodot pointed out, you are extremely close to an AAS from West Virginia Northern Community College. I put in a CLEP Natural Science and the College Math you are working on, but they might "find" an acceptable science in your JST transcript.

If you need an AAS for purposes of military advancement, the WVNCC AAS would be a better deal than any of the Big 3.

West Virginia Northern Community College
Board of Governors AAS

1. COM 1: CLEP English Composition I 3
2. COM 2: CLEP English Composition II 3
3. SCI: Saylor/ CLEP Intro to Biology or SL/ TECEP/ UExcel Nutrition 3 or CLEP Natural Science 6
4. MATH: CLEP College Mathematics 6 (or ALEKS College Algebra 3)
5. SOC 1: US History 1 - 60 (3)
6: SOC 2: US History 2 - 61 (3)
7. COMP: Information Systems - 62 (3)
8: ELEC 1: History and Social Sciences - 61 (6)
9. ELEC 2: Principles of Management - 56 (3)
10. ELEC 3: Humanities - 55 (6)
11. ELEC 4: A&I Lit(2009) - 71 (6)
12. ELEC 5: American Government - 59 (3)
13. ELEC 6: From JST transcript

As far as a bachelor's degree, I would strongly suggest that you run all of your CLEPs and your JST transcript through TESU's military portal. That would let you know the degree you are closest to completing.
https://mvp.tesu.edu/

And thank you for your service!

[Bewood]

Thank you all for the great feedback so far!

I plan to CLEP the College Math as well as Natural Science pretty soon.
And to clarify, as suggested above, the idea behind getting an Associates is to get the 'check in the block' to help with military advancement along the way.

Thanks again, and if anyone has any more advice, I'm all ears.

I'll keep everyone updated with my decision and progress.

[KayV]

Truly, check out that MVP link above from TESU.
Another degree that might work for you is in Technology Studies from Charter Oak, but most of the Tech/ Cybersecurity/ Computer Science degrees require higher math.

[marquardt21]

The BSLS from EC is one of the easiest degrees to earn. All of the requirements can be met by testing out using CLEP, DSST or EC's own test except for the capstone and Information Literacy . They are a very military friendly school. Unfortunately they will not accept the College Composition with Essay clep. To test out of this subject you would need to take their college writing exam. The best thing for you to do is to apply to all three schools to see what need to finish your degree with each school.

[KayV]

After looking through the Charter Oak Technology Studies degree, I agree with the above poster about the Excelsior BSLS degree. The hardest part about the BSLS is finding upper level Arts and Science exams, but since you are interested in teaching History eventually this should work.

This is a BSLS from Excelsior with two areas of focus that would be listed on the transcript: History and Technology. You would have to either take the Excelsior English Composition exam for 6 hours or take Straighterline English Composition I and II. There are also a few UExcel exams but the rest are DSST and CLEP.

[dfrecore]

Let us know how the MVP thing goes, and we can help you further with your TESU degree and whether or not it's worth doing.