BA in English advice

[jordania]

Hi Guys!

I am trying to figure out the route to go to achieve a BA in English, preferably with some
sort of concentration in writing (if that's at all possible).

I don't have any previous credits to transfer and I'm looking to do as much as I can
through testing.

Could someone advice me on the tests I need to take and if there are certain credits needed for this degree
that I have to earn through regular courses? If so, which ones are they?

I am also confused regarding what college to go with.

Thanks so much for helping a newbie out!!

[Kaz]

I am trying to figure out the route to go to achieve a BA in English, preferably with some
sort of concentration in writing (if that's at all possible).

I don't have any previous credits to transfer and I'm looking to do as much as I can
through testing.

Could someone advice me on the tests I need to take and if there are certain credits needed for this degree
that I have to earn through regular courses? If so, which ones are they?

I am also confused regarding what college to go with.

Which test to take and what school to go to are problems that go hand-in-hand. Although most schools are very similar, when it comes to putting together an actual degree plan they have to be specific to a given school. I'm not an English major but I'm going to bet that since you have no previous credits the next person to offer help to you will suggest one of the Big Three (Thomas Edison State College [NJ], Excelsior [NY], and Charter Oak State College [Conn.]) and that you can knock out a lot of lower level English credits fast using CLEPs, starting with Analyzing & Interpreting Literature. I'll also bet that you can't get a further concentration of "writing" within the English major from any of the Big Three, but don't quote me on that.

But I'm going to be a semi-quasi-jerk and say that if I was going to give one piece of advice about getting a BA in English it would be "don't". All kidding aside, English is one of the most overly saturated majors today. Unless you are just doing it for fun/you simply love the field/already work in the field and need a degree to break through a glass ceiling/etc., I would consider possibly pursuing a different major. I'm not down on English personally at all. It's just I constantly see the same comments on other forums like this concerning this major. It's tough out there. I'm actually friends with a woman (in real life ) that has a master's in journalism from a brick & mortar school. No lie, she worked at a florist then got married and had a kid. The end. I'm not saying don't do it, just that this is a huge amount of effort you are about to invest and you should do it with your eyes open and wits about you. Either way good luck!

[jugglingcliff]

Hey!

I'm about to graduate with my BA in English from TESC and I think it's a great degree especially if you want flexibility. There are a lot of jobs out there that an English BA can apply to and it's also a very flexible point from which to proceed to go and get your masters. I've got 99 credits as of yesterday and 12 of those are from TESC. I'm taking 6 credits with them currently and have or will have clep tested out of everything else.

Which tests to take really depends on which school you're going to and how many credits you'll take in class. Any idea about either of those? I would suggest TESC especially if you're military dependent or military or anything like that. If not, they're still a good school and were definitely more pleasant to deal with than the rude answer I was given at Excelsior.

If you're doing TESC, and you want to go through CLEP, you literally have to take all of the CLEP tests besides about ten of them. It's crazy but super cheap and quick compared to four years.