Associates from one/Bachelor's from Another

[ReyMysterioso]

It looks like Excelsior has lower requirements for their liberal arts Associate's than COSC does. I'm interested in potentially getting my bachelor's from COSC, but may already have enough credits to cover everything but the residency course for an Associates at Excelsior due to the lower requirements. Is there anything that would prevent one from getting an associates at one college, then eventually getting their bachelor's from another of the Big Three?
It's going to take a while due to money to get enough credits for the Bachelor's, and I'm interested in having a 2 year degree on my resume in the meantime if I already qualify at Excelsior.

Or maybe I'm just wasting my money and should just grind and be patient till I get the Bachelor's. What do you guys think?

[dfrecore]

I would get my AA anywhere that was a good choice, then get my BA wherever that was the better option. There is no reason to stick with one school for both (and if you went to a CC for instance, you COULDN'T get both at the same school 99% of the time).

What do you mean by "lower requirements" at EC than COSC? One thing that EC is going to require is a capstone, which is more work than COSC's cornerstone.

Here's the breakdown in cost for each of the Big 3 for an AA in General Studies/Liberal Studies, assuming that you use Modern States/CLEP for as many courses as possible (almost all):

COSC - $2088 (includes cornerstone)
TESU - $2307 (includes residency waiver discount if paid by 6/30)
EC - $3300 (includes capstone, and uses the SL/Study.com/Sophia discount - otherwise add $300)

Obviously, if you have all of your courses already except the cornerstone/capstone, then these costs will go down a bit, but the vast majority of the cost is tuition & fees.

Drawbacks:
- COSC requires a lab science, cornerstone, speech
- EC requires a capstone, info lit (possibly from Davar?), strict on what you can take for English Comp I & II (no CLEP allowed)
- TESU requires speech

[ReyMysterioso]

I do some public speaking and on-camera personality work for my job. What are the odds I could get them to waive the speech requirement? All else fails, I can just take the stupid Straighterline course.
I have a bunch of credits from Shmoop, which knocks out TESU. I have a bunch of FEMA IS credits that could be used at COSC. I already have the lab course completed through SL, and have taken enough courses to qualify for the discount.

What's the cost breakdown for a bachelor's? If I'm close to 60 credits in (or way past, if I can use 25 FEMA credits), it might make sense to just go for the whole dang enchilada. It's those dang upper level credits that are harder to come by.

[dfrecore]

I do some public speaking and on-camera personality work for my job. What are the odds I could get them to waive the speech requirement? All else fails, I can just take the stupid Straighterline course.
I have a bunch of credits from Shmoop, which knocks out TESU. I have a bunch of FEMA IS credits that could be used at COSC. I already have the lab course completed through SL, and have taken enough courses to qualify for the discount.

What's the cost breakdown for a bachelor's? If I'm close to 60 credits in (or way past, if I can use 25 FEMA credits), it might make sense to just go for the whole dang enchilada. It's those dang upper level credits that are harder to come by.

At COSC, you have to take the Cornerstone whether you're getting an AA or a BA, so if you're thinking of going there, it makes sense to do both degrees.  But you're not wasting money by getting your AA there (unlike EC, where you have to take the Capstone for the AA, and then another Capstone for the BA - but if you were getting your BA only, you'd only have to take 1 capstone).

I might just go with COSC for the AA at this point.

[davewill]

I do some public speaking and on-camera personality work for my job. What are the odds I could get them to waive the speech requirement? All else fails, I can just take the stupid Straighterline course.
I have a bunch of credits from Shmoop, which knocks out TESU. I have a bunch of FEMA IS credits that could be used at COSC. I already have the lab course completed through SL, and have taken enough courses to qualify for the discount.

What's the cost breakdown for a bachelor's? If I'm close to 60 credits in (or way past, if I can use 25 FEMA credits), it might make sense to just go for the whole dang enchilada. It's those dang upper level credits that are harder to come by.

I think it would be easier to simply take the SL course. I doubt you could get a waiver, you'd probably have to try to PLA it, and that's more work than knocking out a course you can obviously do with your eyes closed.

[dfrecore]

I think COSC will let you get a waiver for the Speaking course, they are the only ones I've heard of doing this. But you should definitely ask them.

Also, unlike TESU, COSC has per-term fees, so you shouldn't enroll there until you are done with 95% of your courses, and ready to take the cornerstone.

[cookderosa]

It looks like Excelsior has lower requirements for their liberal arts Associate's than COSC does. I'm interested in potentially getting my bachelor's from COSC, but may already have enough credits to cover everything but the residency course for an Associates at Excelsior due to the lower requirements. Is there anything that would prevent one from getting an associates at one college, then eventually getting their bachelor's from another of the Big Three?
It's going to take a while due to money to get enough credits for the Bachelor's, and I'm interested in having a 2 year degree on my resume in the meantime if I already qualify at Excelsior.

Or maybe I'm just wasting my money and should just grind and be patient till I get the Bachelor's. What do you guys think?

you can do it, just know that no matter what the contents of your AA are from wherever you earn it, none of the big 3 will accept an AA as automatically covering the gen eds- you'll still have to hit those and or fill gaps.

Random example: School A requires a foreign language, School B does not. You earn your AA from School B and then transfer to School A. You might get all 60 credits to fill slots/electives, but you still need that pesky foreign language!

[ReyMysterioso]

What's the process for enrollment? Can you apply, see what courses they accept and where they place them within a degree program - but then hold off on actually enrolling and being hit with the term fees until you fill in more credits?

Or would you have to re-apply if you don't enroll within a certain period of time? (Not that it would necessarily be a big deal to pay another application fee if I HAD to do so.)

[dfrecore]

What's the process for enrollment? Can you apply, see what courses they accept and where they place them within a degree program - but then hold off on actually enrolling and being hit with the term fees until you fill in more credits?

Or would you have to re-apply if you don't enroll within a certain period of time? (Not that it would necessarily be a big deal to pay another application fee if I HAD to do so.)

I'm not sure how it works at COSC, but it should work the way you think.  You apply, then wait to see how the eval comes back.

If you post all of your courses here, I can probably tell you what the evals will look like at COSC and TESU.  Maybe even EC.

[ReyMysterioso]

What's the process for enrollment? Can you apply, see what courses they accept and where they place them within a degree program - but then hold off on actually enrolling and being hit with the term fees until you fill in more credits?

Or would you have to re-apply if you don't enroll within a certain period of time? (Not that it would necessarily be a big deal to pay another application fee if I HAD to do so.)

I'm not sure how it works at COSC, but it should work the way you think.  You apply, then wait to see how the eval comes back.

If you post all of your courses here, I can probably tell you what the evals will look like at COSC and TESU.  Maybe even EC.

Thanks. That would be really helpful, and I would appreciate any such info.

Below is what I have currently have credits in via ACE. Unfortunately TESU stopped taking shmoop, which renders all those courses useless at TESU as they weren't before the cutoff window.
Below the ACE list is a list of FEMA courses I typed into a google doc to keep a running count, but devoid of any other context. Do you happen to know if there are any FEMA IS courses that transfer in as anything but free electives? If so, I can go back and dig up the course titles to go with the numbers if that's helpful.
 

 
Western Civilization I*
StraighterLine
05/28/2018
05/28/2018
Pending Organization Review 
 
Business Statistics
StraighterLine
05/28/2018
05/28/2018
Pending Organization Review 
 
Introduction to Biology Lab*
StraighterLine
05/28/2018
05/28/2018
Pending Organization Review 
 
Business Ethics*
StraighterLine
05/30/2018
05/30/2018
Pending Organization Review 

Date Completed
National Emergency Training Center (NFA)
Self-Study Course for Community Safety Educators 
National Emergency Training Center (NFA)
NNFA-0149
Course
05/03/2018
Shmoop University
American National Government 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0039
Course
05/02/2018
Classical Literature 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0030
Course
05/19/2018
Comparative Government and Politics 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0040
Course
05/21/2018
Film Studies 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0033
Course
05/14/2018
Human Sexuality 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0042
Course
05/03/2018
Journalism 101 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0051
Course
05/02/2018
Modernist Literature 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0023
Course
05/25/2018
Professional Writing 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0052
Course
05/17/2018
Psychology 101 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0043
Course
05/25/2018
Statistics 
Shmoop University
SHMO-0059
Course
05/17/2018
SOPHIA Learning, LLC
Developing Effective Teams 
SOPHIA Learning, LLC
SOPH-0021
Course
04/30/2018
The Essentials of Managing Conflict 
SOPHIA Learning, LLC
SOPH-0026
Course
04/30/2018
StraighterLine
English Composition I* 
StraighterLine
OOSL-0005
Course
05/22/2018
Introduction to Biology* 
StraighterLine
OOSL-0017
Course
05/06/2018
Texas Engineering Extension Service
Cyber Security for Business Professionals 
Texas Engineering Extension Service
TEEX-0252
Course
04/28/2018
Cyber Security for Everyone 
Texas Engineering Extension Service
TEEX-0250
Course
04/26/2018
Cyber Security for IT Professionals 
Texas Engineering Extension Service
TEEX-0251
Course


IS-120.c - Complete (.5)

IS-130 - Complete (.5)

IS 230.D - Complete

IS-235.C - Complete

IS-240.b complete

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IS-120.a Complete

IS-0003 Complete

IS-0005.a Complete

IS-0008.a complete

IS-0010 complete

IS-0011.a complete

IS-0103 Complete

IS-0111 complete

IS-156 complete

IS-288 complete

IS-305 Complete

IS-315 complete

IS-317 Complete

IS-331 complete

IS-915 complete

Is-253.a complete