Beginning Thomas Edison, pretty confused

[jkeegan]

Hello everyone. I recently enrolled in TESC. I Got the email with my financial aid awards, but i am still not sure how to go about beginning the process. I have my AA from ocean county college, and I plan on going over there tomorrow to have the transcript sent. I am confused about the PLA. I have a bunch of things that i think i will get credit for, but Don't know how to get that started, and I also want to test out of as many classes as I can. Basically I don't know where to begin. Can anyone point me in the correct direction? Thanks So much for any help.

[cookderosa]

Hello everyone. I recently enrolled in TESC. I Got the email with my financial aid awards, but i am still not sure how to go about beginning the process. I have my AA from ocean county college, and I plan on going over there tomorrow to have the transcript sent. I am confused about the PLA. I have a bunch of things that i think i will get credit for, but Don't know how to get that started, and I also want to test out of as many classes as I can. Basically I don't know where to begin. Can anyone point me in the correct direction? Thanks So much for any help.

Welcome to the board, I've taken a lot of classes at Ocean. I wish you had posted BEFORE you enrolled at TESC, but in any event,, just start reading-reading-reading here and you'll be able to start asking the right questions to get you on the best path. Welcome!

[bsinsc]

Welcome.....I never got a great vibe from the TESC PLA advisor I spoke with. I found a site called learningcounts.org They have a class called CAEL 100 (Council on Adult and Experiential Learning) which teaches you in 6 weeks what you need to know to put together a PLA portfolio worth 6 credits and you get 3 credits for the PLA course itself. I just finished this last week and have submitted my portfolio. I am like you and have an AS. So, keep in mind that if you do PLA most of the credit you will be awarded is lower level. It's $500 for the course, so it might be cheaper and easier if you take some CLEP and DSST exams. You can submit other portfolios after you complete the course at $250 each. There are some scholarships available for the course, too. check it out and let me know if you have anymore questions!

Jill

[jkeegan]

Thanks for the responses! After reading on here, I do not believe that I will have to do a PLA to get credit for some of what I have. I think that I am going to do the FEMA courses for the free electives, which is what I was hoping my PLA would cover. Between the AA from ocean, which I am having sent over to TESC and the FEMA courses, and of course some Cleps, DSSTS, ertc, I should be well on my way toward getting my bachelor's done.

[jkeegan]

too clarify, I applied, and received my financial aid award notification, but have not yet enrolled in any classes at TESC. If would seem now, that my best bet it to wait for them to get my transcript form OCC, and start taking the FEMA course, and send them over, at which point I will be able to see what I need to cover, what I can test out of, and what classes I actually need to take. Am I correct? Thanks Again!

[dew125]

Do you know what degree you want? The easiest ones to test out of it seems are the BA in social science, in liberal studies and the BSBA general management. There are so many great degree templates on this forum that can be found through searching.

Once you have decided what degree you're working towards use this page Undergraduate Ways to Earn Credit - Thomas Edison State College - acalog ACMSâ„¢ to help you plan your courses/tests to fit into your degree plan.

Definitely send your transcripts over because that takes time on TESC's part. You should be able to start studying for UL (upper level) credit towards your bachelors degree, as well, until you know exactly where your current credits will fit into your degree plan. I hope this helps a little.

[dcan]

Concur. You will probably get a lot of feedback if you make a thread listing:

1. What credits you already have
   
2. What degree plan(s) you are considering
   
3. What your personal/professional goals are (e.g. reason for the degree)
   
4. What your current plan is (courses, tests, etc)
   

Regarding #3, I've noticed quite a few people start off with one degree in mind but often switch after lots of feedback from the folks here. By including that someone may be able to think outside your box, so to speak.

And I've never heard anything good about a PLA, let alone paying $500 to learn how to write a PLA that you pay another $400-$500 for (and re-learn how to write it anyway). $900 for maybe six PLA credits vs $900 for 27 test credits? No comparison!

[jkeegan]

Thanks so much everyone. My AA from OCC is in liberal arts. I was planning on finishing through Kean at OCC, with a BA in history, so I used that as my plan while finishing the AA. That being said, because I have alot of histories, I may go for the BA in history form TESC, but if there is something I can get done faster, I will go for that. I am trying to get into Law enforcement, and the attitude seems to be "We don't care what your degree is in or where it's from, you just need a 4 yr degree"

Here is the layout of my AA from OCC

BIOL-119 DL1 Nature of Science & Human Body

CSIT-110 DL4 Computer Literacy

HIST-100 DL1 History of Civil Society

POLI-183 DL2 Intro Political Sci

CHEM-180 01 Intro Chemistry

COMM-154 E09 Fund of Public Speaking

ENGL-255 E01 World Literature I

PSYC-172 E01 General Psychology

SPAN-151 03 Elem Spanish I

ECON-151 E01 Macroeconomic Princ

HEHP-225 E01 Contemporary Health

HIST-171 E02 Western Civil I

ARTS-181 DL5 Art History I

ENGL-152 15 English II

HIST-172 03 Western Civil II

HIST-173 06 US History I

MATH-156 13 Intro Statistics

ENGL-151 E05 English

HIST-174 03 US History II

MATH-151 06 A Survey of Mathematics

SOCI-181 15 Intro Sociology