Bachelor's Degree Plan Need Help

[Life Long Learning]

They seem alright, but I'm going through the 8 week accelerated courses so the course load can be rough sometimes. I'm using my tuition assistance to pay for them, so they are free right now. I'm just trying to obtain a bachelor's degree super quick like some of these posts. There doesn't seem to be a easy way right now.

How many credits do you have?  How many on your JST?

[MrBossmanJr]

It's a lot, but a lot of the credits are duplicates according to an evaluation conducted by Excelsior awhile back. I'm glad I knocked out my associate's degree, but I really need that bachelor's degree.

[bjcheung77]

I'm currently taking GEOL114, SOC101, and HIS101 through Excelsior right now. I like TESU and their name, but that means I would have to switch schools and obtain residency through them. I was hoping on just completing a couple classes and a capstone.

Hmm, tell Excelsior to do another evaluation and post it here, do not take any more courses from them until you have an action plan in place, as these 3 courses are general education courses and lower level, you can transfer them in from SL or Study.com at 10% of the price and time - a week a course max.

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See links - Military and Navy page: http://cme.excelsior.edu/navy/
When you click Undergrad Tuition in Step 3, you get to Excelsior or Multi-Source Option

As per here, you only need to take 15 credits total for Bachelors. This includes the Capstone http://www.excelsior.edu/costs-and-finan...duate-fees

Decide what courses remain for your BALS and the costs, find out which of the two options are better.
If you have a cost value and amount of courses remaining, we can see if it is better to stay or switch to TESU.

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Update: Apply now to TESU ASAP, like right when you read this. As of right now, they have a fee waiver worth $75. This gets you an evaluation from them, we can help calculate how much it will cost and cheap, easy, fast way to get you a BSAST Tech Studies. It sounds so much more professional than a BALS. Maybe Excelsior has something similar... Both have the BSPS, but the transfer of credits are not as easy as the BALS. https://www.tesu.edu/military/Tuition-Fees.cfm

[MrBossmanJr]

Oh that sounds like a good plan. I'll e-mail them today. Thanks.

[MrBossmanJr]

This is the response I got:

"Thank you for your interest in the School of Liberal Arts at Excelsior College. Per your request, I am pleased to provide you with a one-time complimentary evaluation for the Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts. Listed below are the requirements it appears you need to complete this degree:
 
21.00 semester hours upper level in the arts & sciences
4.00 semester hours lower or upper level in the arts & sciences
to include . . .
 
3.00 semester hours in English
3.00 semester hours in ethics
3.00 semester hours to fulfill the capstone course
 
Depth Requirements
A depth in the arts & sciences and a second depth in any academic area. A depth consists of 15.00 semester hours in one specific discipline, including 6.00 hours at the upper level. Credits completed for the depth may be built upon coursework already taken and applies to the overall credits required for the degree.
 
While this evaluation was developed using all the credit information we have on file, it is considered an approximation of what you will need to complete the program until such time you enroll in the School of Liberal Arts and we can conduct an official evaluation. Actual degree requirements will be contingent on policies at time of enrollment. For more information about the School of Liberal Arts and its degree programs, please visit our web page at http://www.excelsior.edu/programs/liberal-arts
 
To change degree programs, please fax a signed request that includes your student ID number to our Records Office at 518-464-8646.
 
I wish you the best with your academic pursuits."

How quickly will it take to obtain UL credits?

[bjcheung77]

Ouch! You’re right on the buzzer. That’s what I call the threshold... exactly 7 courses. Are you done with Geo, His, Soc courses you mentioned earlier? They are not part of the missing credits. Have you sent anything to TESU for evaluation? The cheap and fast way to get UL credits is through their own Uexcel exams. The time needed depends on how fast you retain and register the info into your memory before doing the exams.

[MrBossmanJr]

Is having 7 courses bad? The courses I am taking now are not being included yet, but they are lower level courses. I don't retain info that well so I might have to take the courses. I was thinking of doing them in an actual school like Temple University and transferring them back. Earn my engineering degree and liberal arts degree.

[Life Long Learning]

You should be able to test out of 6 of the 7.  If you are good in history it would be easy.  Only the Capstone has to be done at Excelsior.  

Do you have the Post 9/11 GI Bill at 100%?

[bjcheung77]

Is having 7 courses bad? The courses I am taking now are not being included yet, but they are lower level courses. I don't retain info that well so I might have to take the courses. I was thinking of doing them in an actual school like Temple University and transferring them back. Earn my engineering degree and liberal arts degree.

You're trying to hit two birds with one stone, I like that actually, that's a very good plan of getting a BALS and also an Engineering degree. Awesome, so, what type of engineering do you think you're going to go for? There are several recommendations, I would suggest looking at other options in addition to Temple as Temple requires at minimum 45 credits residency for their bachelors degrees in house.

An example is Software Engineering, you can do the final 36 credits at Penn State and have the rest transferred in.... So find the "program" you want and find the "school" you want to go to, you need to plan those courses to transfer seamlessly. If you took those 7 courses carefully planned, that's 21 credits towards your Engineering degree...

What I don't understand is, why not continue at Excelsior or TESU as they have ABET accredited Engineering programs already. You can save your time and $ by going for a Masters in your "engineering field" instead when the time comes... again, you might want to quickly get your application into TESU for an evaluation, you may already have enough for the BS Tech Studies, you may need more for their Engineering programs. And email Excelsior one more time for another evaluation for their ABET Engineering programs...

[Life Long Learning]

What I don't understand is, why not continue at Excelsior or TESU as they have ABET accredited Engineering programs already.  You can save your time and $ by going for a Masters in your "engineering field" instead when the time comes... again, you might want to quickly get your application into TESU for an evaluation, you may already have enough for the BS Tech Studies, you may need more for their Engineering programs.   And email Excelsior one more time for another evaluation for their ABET Engineering programs...

I agree with above!