Best options for someone with a bunch of art credits and no degree?

[alleycat]

Get her high school transcript also. See if it's listed on there. I have seen so many errors on high school transcripts it's not even funny. If it's there the school has to fix it and finish their job in reporting it to the college. Well from the looks of it she's off to a healthy start to a BA in Humanities not enough for the art degree I don't believe.

[txnicole]

That school is using a mix of hundreds and thousands to indicate level. I checked GWU (google searched the course numbers) and some are renamed but she could just explain that the 300s, 400s, 3000s and 4000s are all upper levels (or were at the time).

If you're doing a TESU Liberal Studies ( BA in Liberal Studies Degree at Thomas Edison State University ), and IF they accept everything the way it is categorized, then the way I see it looks like this:

CAS477, CPH422, CPH4220, CPR3250, and CPH3000 give her 15 upper level credits in art. She has 54.5 left over.

Use another 15 credits in art to wrap up the 30 credits in the concentration.

Use 27 more of the art credits to fill up the electives section.

Leaving 12.5 credits in lower level art courses, you can put 12 in knowledge of human cultures from the general ed requirements. The other half credit will end up in general ed electives.

The english lit I and II and American history I and II will probably end up in general ed electives because the other art courses would have filled up knowledge of human cultures. So another 12 hours to general ed, bringing the total in general ed to 12.5 credit hours (out of a possible 17 to 20 total).

College comp I and II fill the written communication obviously.

So, if TESU accepted everything in that way, it looks to me like she needs very little...

3 Speech
3 Math
3 Info Literacy
3 Diversity
3 Ethics
3 Civic Engagement
6 Science
1 Cornerstone
3 Capstone

Which would bring it to 115.5 and then she'd need a few filler credits to get to 120.


I can just as easily see her being able to do the BA in General Studies with an Applied Arts / Studio Arts concentration from COSC.
https://www.charteroak.edu/catalog/curre...d_arts.cfm

There the same 15 credits of upper level courses would make up the concentration requirements for upper level credits, plus she would need 18 more art credits in the major. Using up 33 of her art credits there and sending the other 36.5 to general electives.

Then on to the core curriculum of general ed requirements...

Written Communication (6 credits) would be filled by her college comp I and II.

Information Literacy (1-3 credits) is filled by the cornerstone so you can ignore this.

U.S. History/Government (3 credits) is filled by American History I

Non-U.S. History or Culture (3 credits) is filled by one of her art history courses in the major

Literature and Fine Arts (3 credits) is filled by her art courses in the major

Her American History II, and English Literature I and II go to general electives because there isn't a spot specifically for them.

So that's using all 87.5 credits, leaving her with the need to fill a few general ed requirements and 15 upper level credits.

Ethical Decision-Making (3 credits) could be filled with either the Business Ethics & Society DSST or the Business in Society TECEP which are both upper level.

Global Understanding AND Social/Behavioral Sciences could BOTH be filled at the same time by either UExcels 3 credit exams on 'World Conflicts since 1900' OR 'World Population.'

Capstone (3 credits) - only from COSC but is upper level

So that's 9 more upper level credits, and the remaining 6 credits upper levels can be in any subject at all (really easy to pick 2 upper level credit sources when you don't have to worry about subject matter). See the chart for what counts are upper level here ( https://www.charteroak.edu/catalog/curre...ograms.cfm )

Mathematics (3 credits) - need college algebra or higher which is always lower level

Natural Sciences (7-8 credits) - again, lower level, and requires 1 lab credit

Cornerstone (3 credits) - only from COSC and lower level

Assuming she does 7 credits in science, this brings the grand total so far to... 118.5 and she can finish things out with freebie courses like TEEX, FEMA, etc..

This is a sort of quick and dirty assessment of her situation. I think Charter Oak would end up being cheaper and easier since her courses fill the requirements for general ed a bit better there, but not by a massive amount. The biggest difference would probably be in terms of what her degree would be called, one would be liberal arts and one would be general studies with a studio arts concentration. Well, that and whether or not you guys want to graduate from the same school or not.

[dfrecore]

One would think... To complicate matters, she never stepped foot in a community college. Our high school had a "dual enrollment" program with two community colleges; coursework was completed as part of her high school classes.

She has transcripts from both colleges, and she is 90% sure that she is missing credits for Chemistry and Government. Most likely, our guidance office failed to transmit the information, or something was lost.

See spreadsheet for what has been confirmed. High probability there will be 6-8 Chemistry credits and 6 American Government credits added in the near future.


Credits1.xlsx

Dual enrollment is about taking a college course, and then getting high school credit for it. Even if the college course is taught on the high school campus. In a dual enrollment program, it's up to the student to request that the college submit the transcript to the high school, not the other way around. There is no way for the high school to even know the student is taking or has completed the course until the college transcript shows up (obviously the student can tell the high school that they are taking a college course, but the high school can't grant credit until they receive the transcript).

So even if the high school makes a mistake, it doesn't matter. The course, if taken at the college, should be on the college transcript. The high school transcript is irrelevant at this point.

By any chance, did she take any AP courses/exams? That could be why she thinks she got college credit for something, but didn't actually take it at the college, and can't figure out why it's not showing up on the college transcript. If so, then she would need the AP transcript - you can probably get an unofficial copy online. Chem and American Government are both AP courses.

Also, Am Gov is usually only 3cr whether by college course, or AP exam.

[dfrecore]

In looking at the courses, you're going to have to send the transcripts to TESU (and COSC and EC if you want) to see what they will bring these courses in as. You are limited to the number of 100-level courses you can have in the core (even in the LL section of it), plus, you don't know what they will bring in as LL, and what they will bring in as UL.

At TESU, I would apply for the Art degree, just to see what they say about the courses, and then if you don't get what you want there, you can easily switch to a BALS degree.

The art degree is very specific in what they want, so it's not just a matter of bringing in the Art courses and voila, you've got an art degree. You have to have Survey of Art History I & II, a course in 2-dimensional design, a course in drawing, a course in painting, and then 15cr additional elective in studio art or art history. The electives part is easy, it's the specific requirements that will be harder to meet. This will also (probably) require that you send in the syllabi for each course that is not simple for them to figure out (obviously Drawing I is easy to figure out, but Design II or Resources II might not be an easy one for them to know).

You also want to make sure that they get the course correctly identified as UL if that's what it's considered at that school. This is important, because TESU will want 18cr of UL, while COSC and EC want 30cr of UL. So this part is critical that they get right.

It will probably take you a little time to get all of that together, but it will be worth your time and effort to get the info into the correct hands so that they do this right. And, what you'll need for 1 school, you'll probably need for the others as well.

In the meantime, you can easily take a few other courses that you know you need at TESU - but make sure they will work at COSC or EC if you're thinking about either of those schools. Courses like math, Ethics, sociology, World religions, etc.

[aviator guy]

Dual enrollment is about taking a college course, and then getting high school credit for it. Even if the college course is taught on the high school campus. In a dual enrollment program, it's up to the student to request that the college submit the transcript to the high school, not the other way around. There is no way for the high school to even know the student is taking or has completed the course until the college transcript shows up (obviously the student can tell the high school that they are taking a college course, but the high school can't grant credit until they receive the transcript).

So even if the high school makes a mistake, it doesn't matter. The course, if taken at the college, should be on the college transcript. The high school transcript is irrelevant at this point.

By any chance, did she take any AP courses/exams? That could be why she thinks she got college credit for something, but didn't actually take it at the college, and can't figure out why it's not showing up on the college transcript. If so, then she would need the AP transcript - you can probably get an unofficial copy online. Chem and American Government are both AP courses.

Also, Am Gov is usually only 3cr whether by college course, or AP exam.

No AP courses. I managed to track down the current dual enrollment offerings at the school, everything lines up exactly with what she has currently, plus the government and science courses. It's just going to require a bit more research. Oh, and there are 6 credits available for American government, at least in the current program.

[aviator guy]

txnicole and dfrecore - thank you for the help and input.

I think her strategy right now is to apply for the Study.com guardian scholarship and take one or more ALEKS courses, since these will count toward either TESU or COSC. That will get the ball rolling, and once we get the community college thing straightened out, she can start sending out applications. We're leaning towards TESU (see below) but COSC may be worthwhile. Not seeing any good options for Excelsior or WGU.

One thing with TESU -the Study.com affiliation (even if we have to pay for it) could lead to substantial savings on both the capstone and the residency waiver. (It may also waive the cornerstone, I'm not positive on this.) This seems to tip things in favor of TESU.

[ndelco]

One thing with TESU -the Study.com affiliation (even if we have to pay for it) could lead tosubstantial savings on both the capstone and the residency waiver. (It may also waive the cornerstone, I'm not positive on this.) This seems to tip things in favor of TESU.

The affiliation currently saves $1000. You pay $1800 instead of $2500 for the residency waiver, and get the $300 Cornerstone waived. It's definitely worth subscribing for a month if she doesn't get the scholarship.

Edit: I forgot she'll need the Capstone also, so there's another $400 saved! It's only $1098 instead of $1500.

[alleycat]

For COSC in Applied Art she will need History, Theory and/or Literature of Art 9 cr, minimum 3 upper level
Studio credits 21 cr, including 9 upper level an appropriate related art area 3 upper level. It doesn't look like she has enough theory or history on her transcript. For TESU she will need 2 dimensional design, art history 1 and 2 along with drawing and painting. Along with lower level and 15 upper level courses.

[aviator guy]

We will obviously have to see how her credits come in, but I'm not seeing an advantage to an art degree vs liberal studies. It seems the art credits will be far more difficult to come by.

[bricabrac]

We will obviously have to see how her credits come in, but I'm not seeing an advantage to an art degree vs liberal studies. It seems the art credits will be far more difficult to come by.

I always felt that in these type of circumstances, Arts degrees, PLAs would be the best method to earn credit. Most artists have a body of work, or professional portfolio, that could be used in documenting/assembling PLA submission(s). I've read on the forum TESU has a very inexpensive PLA fee for up to a certain number of credits. There is also another vendor Learning Counts. If interested, do a good search of the forum on the subject. I think someone with the right combination of knowledge and experience would benefit from using PLAs for course credit. Just something to think about while weighing options.