COSC AA to TESC BA? Could it work? Here's my plan.

[yum2177]

Hey everyone,

My plan is to attend grad/law school and I understand I need graded material for LSAC. I have a current GPA of around 2.1 in 19 units, 9 units in failed classes. I would like to get a BA in Political Science from TESC but utilize an AA from Charter Oak State for the graded DSSTs and FEMA acceptance (I completed my first FEMA yesterday, it was awesome :hurray. I compared GE of both schools and they looked pretty much the same, the only issues I see is TESC maybe not accepting FEMA even though they are coming from Charter Oak as free credit and they may not accept Technical Writing as part of the Written requirement.

So here's the COSC plan:

A. Written English Requirement
Engl 1 3 CC-Taken
DSST Technical Writing 3

B. Literature and Fine Arts
Analyzing & Interpreting Lit CLEP 6

C. Social/Behavioral Science
Intro Psych CLEP 3

D. Ethical Decision Making
Ethics in American DSST 3

E. Info Lit
COSC Corner Stone 3

F. Oral Communication
Speech 3 CC-In progress

G. Non-US History/Culture
Intro to World Religions DSST 3

H. US History/Gov
US History 1 CLEP 3

I. Global Understanding
Fulfilled by Intro World Religions DSST 3

J. Mathematics
Intermediate Algebra 5 CC-Taken

K. Nat Sci
Intro Human Bio 3 CC-Taken
Intro Chem 4 CC-In progress

L. Free Electives
Astronomy DSST 3
Civil War Reconstruction U DSST 3
Human Growth and Dev 3 State Univ-Taken
Aerospace Studies 1 State-Univ-Taken
Intro Library Research 1 CC-Taken
FEMA 4

= 60 units for AA

FEMA 20 potentially for TESC free electives
_________________________________________________

For Thomas Edison State, I plan on taking majority of the Required Courses at my CC.

American National Government
Intro American Gov 3 CLEP

Political Theory OR
Political Process
Intro to Political Philosophy 3 CC

Comparative Government
Intro to Comparative Politics 3 CC

International Relations
Intro to International Politics 3 CC

Research Methods or Quantitative Methods
I am unsure what this is/take with TESC 3

Macroeconomics
Macroecon 3 CC-Taken

Political Science Electives
Stats 4 CC
Microecon 3 CC
Upper Div U 3 TESC
Upper Div U 3 TESC
Upper Div U 3 TESC

Free Electives
Substance Abuse U 3 DSST
Capstone U 3 TESC
= 40 units for BA + 20 FEMA units from COSC= 60

COSC 60 + TESC 60 = 120


The grad school I am eyeing is my local state university that I was at. I absolutely fell in love with the school but personal circumstances prevented me from staying there so I am looking for a way to get back. Their prereqs for the MPA are Stats, Micro, and Intro Poly Sci. I emailed the Chair and he said they don't care what your major is or where your degree is from, as long as you have good grades in prereqs with good GREs/LSAT. They offer a joint MPA/JD with another school.
One of the big things I am worried about is if I take all of the extra FEMA courses and when I transfer them to COSC, they will apply as free credit. Does this look good?

BTW I just invested in Instantcert and it is amazingly, unexpectedly effective compared to previous study habits.

Thanks everyone.

[inkleind]

Since I'm just starting, I want to follow this...

[sanantone]

I only see 15 UL credits for the TESC degree. 18 UL credits are needed in the area of study; UL credits anywhere else do not count toward this requirement. Since some of the required courses are UL at TESC, they may or may not consider a LL CC course as an equivalent. TESC only offers three UL political science courses. One of them is international relations, and that's a required course. TESC also offers two political science TECEPs, but they're both LL.

[KayV]

Charter Oak doesn't make it as obvious as they used to have it on their website, but you could complete a concentration in Political Science from them.

Political Science - Charter Oak State College Catalog

[rebel100]

Unless there is an articulation agreement in place between COSC and TESC I would be leery of expecting the FEMA to transfer over. TESC, any school for that matter, will usually want to see the credit from the original source, since that source is FEMA and they don't take FEMA...well, I suspect they won't take those credits. I also doubt that just because a grade appears for a DSST at COSC, TESC will automatically reflect the grade.

I could be wrong, you could try contacting TESC direct.

Frankly, with your plan, I think it would be better to either do the whole bachelors at COSC, or just start and finish with TESC making allowance where you can to accumulate a gpa. I think TECEP have grades no?

Alternatively, consider taking a core of classes elsewhere and transferring them in. This can really help with UL course requirements, and you could keep it relatively inexpensive or maybe use financial aid to reduce the out of pocket costs. University of Idaho and CSU-Pueblo and others have courses that could be used this way...

[yum2177]

Unless there is an articulation agreement in place between COSC and TESC I would be leery of expecting the FEMA to transfer over. TESC, any school for that matter, will usually want to see the credit from the original source, since that source is FEMA and they don't take FEMA...well, I suspect they won't take those credits. I also doubt that just because a grade appears for a DSST at COSC, TESC will automatically reflect the grade.

I could be wrong, you could try contacting TESC direct.

Frankly, with your plan, I think it would be better to either do the whole bachelors at COSC, or just start and finish with TESC making allowance where you can to accumulate a gpa. I think TECEP have grades no?

Alternatively, consider taking a core of classes elsewhere and transferring them in. This can really help with UL course requirements, and you could keep it relatively inexpensive or maybe use financial aid to reduce the out of pocket costs. University of Idaho and CSU-Pueblo and others have courses that could be used this way...

Everyone here has been bringing up very good points I think it would be easier to just finish the whole thing at COSC. Now do you know where I can find course offerings for COSC poly sci?

Edit: nevermind just found the catalog, it was just really hidden.

[rebel100]

Everyone here has been bringing up very good points I think it would be easier to just finish the whole thing at COSC. Now do you know where I can find course offerings for COSC poly sci?

Here is the Poly Science degree plan: https://www.charteroak.edu/prospective/p...cience.cfm

I've no idea how many, if in fact any, of these can be completed at COSC. I can tell you that COSC courses are really expensive. What you could do is try to find courses that match the description of requireents and transfer them in. That's why I mentioned CSU-Pueblo and UofIdaho, either is about half or less the cost of a similar course taken at COSC. You could also consider completing a dual major which would open up more options for you. under a dual concentration you would likely complete 18 UL credits in Poly Science (3 of those credits being the COSC Capstone) and the other 12 UL credits in say history or Psychology or whatever floats your boat. The history option would mean at least 2 UL DSST exams could be used. Here is the Master list of Exams form COSC that details where exams will fit: https://www.charteroak.edu/exams/exams-master-list.pdf

A dual concentration should make the process cheaper and quicker...there just aren't that many UL poly sci courses out there. Note that a course doesn't have to specifically be a poly sci course to fit within a degree plan centered on poly sci...for example I suspect the CSU-P SOC 422 and 492 would nicely satisfy the International Relations and Methodology requirements, SOC 411 and 404 would make great electives and they offer a Poly Sci UL in their POLSC 305 "War and Peace" Sociology > Division of Extended Studies > Colorado State University-Pueblo those along with the Capstone would likely suffice for the primary concentration. With the DSST Civil War and Soviet Union you would be halfway through the second UL concentration in History and only need to find two more classes, I suspect that the Substance Abuse DSST could be used as a UL elective leaving you room for any upper level history class. This is essentially what I did in creating dual concentrations in Organizational Leadership and Health Care. I was also able to develop a consortium agreement with myself, CSU-P, and COSC to access my financial aid (PELL Grant) to pay for it.

[rebel100]

30 plus credits would come free of charge from FEMA, and if you subbed the DSST Business Ethics you would have another UL exam that would satisfy 3 credits Ul and the Ethics all in one. You might also look at the DSST Human Cultural Geography as it nails 3 gen eds: global, non us, and behavioral/ss, it's a BGN

TECEP can be applied at COSC, there is UL credit available there too.

[dfrecore]

I don't know anything about COSC, so I'm just piping in regarding TECEP's. I've taken 2, and they tell you the score, but then give you a "CR" on your transcript instead of a grade. I'm not sure how these would transfer over to COSC, you would want to find out before taking them.

I've heard that UExcel gives grades for their exams, that might be a better option than TECEP's.

Also, you can't transfer your GPA from school to school. Your GPA at each individual school is calculated based on the courses you take there; when you transfer courses, you transfer your CREDITS, not your grades.