BA English at TESU

[beto]

Hi everyone,

This forum has been great for me to help my wife getting her degree, too bad I didn't find it before she took two TECEP exams (English Composition I&II) and had already paid for another 3 (Psychology of Women, Environmental Ethics and Marriage and the Family). 

From now on she should be good through study.com mostly. I've gathered tons of information from the forum and came up with this upgraded version of the degree plan (attached; costs in Australian dollar), overcoming issues that people have raised here, such as American Gov't from study.com not being accepted anymore (but fine from InstantCred); Use of Coopersmith for Survey of Literature II; CSM Learn as a good solution for who's not very familiar with math but still has to complete the quantitative literacy, and so on...

[Quick facts: I'm the partner of the interested person (Anne), we are from Brazil, and we came to Australia because I've got scholarships to continue my studies. She is quite busy working in a restaurant, but she has taught English in Brazil for 7 years, she is extremely good at it and completely in love with English and teaching, however, she has never been able to get a degree as a mother of two. A bachelor's degree is what prevents her to work in Australia as a teacher. We looked at all possibilities here in Australia and around the world and the "Big Three" seems the only option we can actually consider, and she is VERY excited about the BA in English at TESU.]

It would be great if some of you could take a look at the plan and let me know if this will work out fine. Also, I would like to make a few specific questions, listed below:

1) Would the fact that she is an international student (Brazilian) living abroad (Australia) be an issue at any stage?
2) Are there any extra costs we should consider other than NJ non-resident fees and residency fee waiver (we have to go through this option since she wants to get this degree as soon as possible and without having to cram 16 credits in one term)?
3) I've noticed a few scholarships that do not require the candidate to be an American citizen, could she actually get it? For this, we're planning for her to take as many courses as possible until June so we enroll and apply for scholarships.
4) What is the difference between "General Education Electives" and "Free Electives"?
5) Within "Area of Study", one is required to take 33 credits in total with 18 credits from Upper Level (UL) courses. There are two mandatory courses (Liberal Arts Capstone and Non-Western Literature) that are already UL, do they count towards the total of 18 UL credits requirement? We decided to stay on the safe side and ended up filling the rest with UL courses.
6) I've seen a lot of concern, in 2018, about the required "Non-Western Literature" and people were taking Chinese Lit./Poetry at BYU. However, this is available at study.com with identical code and description (shorturl.at/aU047) and it's supposed to be transferable to TESU (shorturl.at/chzAI). Could anyone confirm that?
7) When should she take the first evaluation? So far she has only 6 credits and soon another 6, all from TECEP. The plan is to start off Intro to Psychology and The Science of Nutrition from StraighterLine soon to get USD 59 OFF (Black Friday) and after that start the long journey on study.com (about 6 months, if everything goes smooth).
8) As far as I understand, the evaluation is sort of automatic, and it follows an order to consider your credits. Is it something to be concerned about?

Thank you so much!

(Special thanks to dfrecore, jsh1138, jsd, bjcheung77 and rachel83az for many posts and answers that have helped us directly and indirectly)

[rachel83az]

Ouch! You have most credits coming from SDC! That's going to be a lot more expensive than it needs to be. Also, TESU only accepts up to 90 credits from any one source and your plan may be over that. For a MUCH cheaper option, check out this plan: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan

[beto]

Ouch! You have most credits coming from SDC! That's going to be a lot more expensive than it needs to be. Also, TESU only accepts up to 90 credits from any one source and your plan may be over that. For a MUCH cheaper option, check out this plan: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan

Is Sophia being accepted? From what I understood reading other threads I thought we couldn't consider Sophia.
Thanks for this link with the sample plan, it's going to be quite helpful!

[rachel83az]

Ouch! You have most credits coming from SDC! That's going to be a lot more expensive than it needs to be. Also, TESU only accepts up to 90 credits from any one source and your plan may be over that. For a MUCH cheaper option, check out this plan: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan

Is Sophia being accepted? From what I understood reading other threads I thought we couldn't consider Sophia.
Thanks for this link with the sample plan, it's going to be quite helpful!

People who finish(ed) a class at Sophia in October or later are fine. Acclaim badges are working fine and TESU is accepting Acclaim. Those of us who partook of earlier Sophia credits are the ones who are having issues.

[dfrecore]

So in looking at this, I agree you can use other course providers, I'd probably just go Sophia for what you can do, and then Study.com for the rest. It will be cheaper. For Civic Engagement, you can do Study.com's Comparative Politics, which may be much easier for her than American Government.

Also, for some reason, you have a bunch of non-English courses in the Area of Study. That area must be filled with English/Lit courses. So, Leadership Comm, The Holocaust, Sociology of Work, Psych of Personality, and History & Systems have to be removed.

Last, you may want to consider Excelsior as well. It will be cheaper than TESU, even if you take some extra courses there. You could get a BALA with an Area of Focus in English, and you just need 2 UL and 5 LL courses to get that.

EC is $5300 for 7cr (so you bring in 113cr). It's $5850 for 13cr (you take 2 additional courses there, and bring in 106cr).
TESU is $6654 for 6cr (you bring in 114cr).

EC is not an "English" degree, but you may not need one to teach English there (and I would check to see if that's necessary).

[rachel83az]

To answer the questions in your original post:

1. This will not be an issue with TESU or any of the providers listed on the wiki page. There are a handful of colleges and a provider or two that doesn't allow international students but you don't have to worry about this. 
   
2. It looks like you've got the costs pretty well covered. I see that you've estimated high but the numbers are a bit odd. For instance, why do you have $402 for the graduation fee when it's $298? Why an extra $104? 
   
3. I'm not sure you can get scholarships in this situation but it certainly doesn't hurt to try. Some (most?) of them may require that the money be used on actual courses and not just paid directly to you. They may even require a certain number of credits per term. Make sure you check the requirements, especially since you want to do this ASAP.
   
4. GE electives must come from the GE requirements section. Math/science/etc. Parts A-D of section I. Free electives can be in ANY subject. As an example, Coopersmith's Culinary & Hospitality courses do not fall under general education requirements but they could be used as free electives.
   
5. Yes, Non-Western Literature counts as an UL credit. dfrecore has already point out that you cannot just fill the AOS with random courses, though. A BALS could be faster and cheaper if an English degree isn't required (that's essentially what you've originally planned and there is a TESU BALS plan on the wiki as well) but, in this specific instance, I'm not sure that a BALS is a good choice. From what I can see with a quick search, you need a teaching degree OR "any" bachelor's degree and (possibly) a TEFL certificate in order to teach English in Australia. But I'm not sure that they'd choose a Brazillian with a generic degree to teach English in Australia if they can find someone who has an actual teaching or English degree instead. 
   
6. In 2018, the SDC course didn't exist. I think it was introduced in late 2018 or early 2019. 
   
7. Finish up ALL of Sophia (per the wiki), except those courses that overlap with the already paid-for courses from SL and the TECEPs, and send those credits in. I'm assuming that she's already applied to TESU? If so, with her TECEPs, she's fully enrolled and can send transcripts at any time. 
   
8. It's not completely automatic and there is normally nothing to be concerned about. There are times when advisors will stick something in "the wrong slot" and you have to request to have it moved but this is usually no big deal. 
   

[beto]

Thank you both for clarifying and giving tips!

I misunderstood another post when mentioned sophia.org credits transfer to TESU, we will definitely fill as much as we can with their courses.
The costs in our spreadsheet are in Australian dollars, that's why they are slightly higher (about 35%). This info got buried in my long text, sorry.

I want to make sure she can get what she really wants before changing plans slightly (BALS) or changing completely (BALA from Excelsior). Considering her work experience and the CELTA certificate she should be accepted as a TESOL teacher with any degree, definitely better if English/Literature/Teaching though.

So it turns out she needs 6 UL specifically related to English/Literature. In this case, cheap ways seem scarce. I've found: Intermediate/Advanced Technical Writing (study.com) and Medieval Hispano-Jewish Poetry (Coopersmith). Considering she is really keen on this BA Eng. at TESU, are there other known cheap options to get the remaining UL credits?
I see that there are BYU courses but for over US$600 and two courses at Harvard during summer ("Poetry in America for Teachers:" series, one is: "The City from Whitman to Hip Hop" and the other is "Earth, Sea, Sky") for US$1000 (4 credits) each. We couldn't afford it all.

Thanks!

[rachel83az]

Although Coopersmith places Medival Hispano-Jewish Poetry under "English", I am not positive that TESU brings it in as an English course; let alone an UL one. If someone can get confirmation, I'll definitely move it to that spot on the plan.

Aside from Non-Western Literature and Advanced Technical Writing, you'd need 3 more UL English courses. That's about $1900USD if they're taken at BYU. It looks steep, but I think you could afford this. It just looks scary at first glance!

You have about $2400USD planned for SDC courses. With most of those courses now being taken at Sophia instead, you'll be spending $500USD or less on Sophia. The faster Sophia can be finished, the more you'll save. Add the 6 recommended SDC courses and the plan on the wiki should only cost you a couple hundred more than your degree plan was originally. Possibly slightly less, depending on how much time is taken on Sophia.

Looking at UIdaho (https://www.uidaho.edu/-/media/UIdaho-Re...atalog.pdf), I see that it looks like they have 2 (possibly 3) UL English classes: Business Writing, Shakespeare, and possibly Technical Writing. Technical Writing may overlap with the SDC option, though. UIdaho is $510 per course, which is marginally cheaper than BYU.

You would need to contact an advisor to find out if UIdaho's Technical Writing overlaps with SDC and, if not, to have it added to the degree plan.

[beto]

Although Coopersmith places Medival Hispano-Jewish Poetry under "English", I am not positive that TESU brings it in as an English course; let alone an UL one. If someone can get confirmation, I'll definitely move it to that spot on the plan.

Aside from Non-Western Literature and Advanced Technical Writing, you'd need 3 more UL English courses. That's about $1900USD if they're taken at BYU. It looks steep, but I think you could afford this. It just looks scary at first glance!

You have about $2400USD planned for SDC courses. With most of those courses now being taken at Sophia instead, you'll be spending $500USD or less on Sophia. The faster Sophia can be finished, the more you'll save. Add the 6 recommended SDC courses and the plan on the wiki should only cost you a couple hundred more than your degree plan was originally. Possibly slightly less, depending on how much time is taken on Sophia.

Looking at UIdaho (https://www.uidaho.edu/-/media/UIdaho-Re...atalog.pdf), I see that it looks like they have 2 (possibly 3) UL English classes: Business Writing, Shakespeare, and possibly Technical Writing. Technical Writing may overlap with the SDC option, though. UIdaho is $510 per course, which is marginally cheaper than BYU.

You would need to contact an advisor to find out if UIdaho's Technical Writing overlaps with SDC and, if not, to have it added to the degree plan.

You're right, the savings from changing most of SDC to sophia, should allow us to invest in UL courses elsewhere. I've been doing some research and haven't found anything to beat BYU, yet, thanks for the link. She could perhaps do Business Writing and Shakespeare from UIdaho and just one from BYU (like Studies in Poetry). I think we will stick to the plan and keep looking, there are still lots of general studies to be done anyway.

About the Coopersmith Medieval Hispano-Jewish poetry (LIT-401), in the class code is literature, in the 400's and in the description they recommend it to be:
"In the upper division associate/baccalaureate degree category, 4 semester hours in Judaic Studies, Religion, Medieval Literature, Poetry, Sociology, or as General Elective (6/13)(8/18 revalidation)."
Sounds promising, but we can't contact any advisor yet to make sure about anything as she isn't enrolled yet. She has just been doing TECEP exams (non-matriculated student), all we can do is call in a specific time frame and get some mysterious answer. I will try though, we might get lucky and have a decent answer. Otherwise, I will organize all the possibilities, and later after she takes most of the things out of the way, she enrolls before starting sos101/capstone and makes sure she gets the right last UL. Does it make sense?

You've been great Rachel, thank you so much.

---

Also, I haven't found information about "ENGL405: The American Renaissance" from saylor.org, that should work as AOS UL. Anyone could confirm this one as well?

[bjcheung77]

Just an FYI, I would recommend that... You should follow through with getting as much general education and free elective credits as possible in order to get the bulk of those required courses completed.  If you didn't know already, most BA degrees at TESU have roughly 30 credits difference and that is the "major", you can decide on the major later.  You may want to discuss with your partner if a BA English is at all necessary.  I ask is because I'm not sure which avenue or level of teaching Anne is into - Adults, Children, Youth, or something else, such as Business English at a Corporation.

Something to think about, RA vs NA.  My recommendations from most expensive and most ideal combo that is RA to cheapest or least expensive and least recognized NA options.  For the programs listed below, you can transfer in 90 credits into the NA Ashworth College, you just need to take 10 courses from them and you can move to a RA Masters at Walden or continue with a NA Masters at UofPeople. Another option is to take any inexpensive NA Bachelors and ladder to UofPeople / Walden or another affordable NA/RA unversity, depending on what Anne wants to teach.

1) TESU BA English + Masters in English (or another subject your partner is thinking of) from another college or university
2) TESU BALS with a Humanities (or Social Science) Concentration + Masters in English from another college or university
3) Ashworth College Bachelors Early Childhood Education + Walden Masters of Science in Early Childhood Studies
4) Ashworth College Bachelors Early Childhood Education + UofPeople Masters of Education (Advanced Teaching)
5) A mix and match of these programs, end goal is a cheap BA and affordable Masters combo in English/Education/Teaching