COSC Questions Answered Here :)

[wannagraduate]

Wow! I have looked at this thread and it has answered so many questions. Thank you!

I do have a few more questions that I was hoping would be answered:

1. Some people have indicated that you choose what classes transfer over from previous schools. I went to a four year college and accumulated 140 credit hours that mainly have nothing to do with my "concentration". Some courses I did not do so well on so I don't want the grades to transfer (and they don't apply to my major anyways). Not only would this affect my GPA, but it would affect financial aid as well. Does COSC actually allow this?

2. The catalog indicates certain courses under each concentration (for instance principles of management, principles of marketing, etc.). Are these required courses or can you use other LL business courses to fulfill the requirements.

Thanks for all of your help!

[burbuja0512]

Wow! I have looked at this thread and it has answered so many questions. Thank you!

I do have a few more questions that I was hoping would be answered:

1. Some people have indicated that you choose what classes transfer over from previous schools. I went to a four year college and accumulated 140 credit hours that mainly have nothing to do with my "concentration". Some courses I did not do so well on so I don't want the grades to transfer (and they don't apply to my major anyways). Not only would this affect my GPA, but it would affect financial aid as well. Does COSC actually allow this?

2. The catalog indicates certain courses under each concentration (for instance principles of management, principles of marketing, etc.). Are these required courses or can you use other LL business courses to fulfill the requirements.

Thanks for all of your help!

Hi there and welcome!

I have a question regarding your 140 credits. Is it possible that you might already have a degree if you put them together into something like a Liberal Arts or a Learner Designed Area of Study? Is there a reason why you'd want to choose a specific area of concentration that would be different than what your credits focus on?

Here's what I'm getting at: At 140 credits, you have put in your undergraduate time and money. Why not just wrap your credits into a degree as best you can and then spend your energy on a masters degree if you still feel like studying? This may not work for your intended career path, but since MANY undergrad degrees don't do a lot for your job prospects other than help you meet the bachelor's requirement, you might want to think about it. You might also want to re-think whether COSC is best for you. COSC will require that you take both a Cornerstone and a Capstone, while TESC will not. So without looking at your credits, assuming that you have enough upper level credits, you could hypothetically just transfer your credits to TESC and then graduate if you could fit them neatly into a degree plan. (Either an existing one or LDAS)

For each concentration, there will be required courses and electives. For my business administration concentration, I did pretty much exactly what my advisor suggested for the business requirements and had some flexibility for the biz electives. If you have a certain combination in mind, you can design your own plan. Click on this link: Concentrations (Majors) and CPS Forms at Charter Oak State College and scroll down to the bottom to see the individualized study information. TESC's LDAS info is here: Thomas Edison State College | Learner Designed Area of Study (LDAS) in case this is a better fit. I don't know what options that EC would have here, but I know that they do also require a Capstone.

I would love to hear more about what you have in mind and I'm sure others will be able to help offer their advice too. It sounds like regardless of what you choose, if you're careful, you won't be too far from a degree. That being said, I met people at my COSC graduation who had well over 200 credits because they changed majors and schools too often. We definitely don't want that to happen to you unless credit collecting is your ultimate goal

[agent6488]

Hoping I can butt in here and ask: between
Thomas Edison State College
Charter Oak State College
and
Excelsior College

is TESC the only one that does not require corner/cap stones?
Am I correct in assuming that a full course can slow down someone like me who is planning on building a business or liberal arts degree out of 30 previous community college credits and standardized tests?
In the interest of speed, should I go with a school that takes GRE, or will just tests like CLEP suffice?

I'm all for slower-paced enrichment, but that's not a goal for my bachelor's at the moment. Thanks.

[burbuja0512]

Hoping I can butt in here and ask: between
Thomas Edison State College
Charter Oak State College
and
Excelsior College

is TESC the only one that does not require corner/cap stones?
Am I correct in assuming that a full course can slow down someone like me who is planning on building a degree out of 30 previous community college credits and standardized tests?
In the interest of speed, should I go with a school that takes GRE and CLEP, or will just CLEP suffice?

I'm all for slower-paced enrichment, but that's not a goal for my bachelor's at the moment. Thanks.

Hi and welcome!! Yes, for now that is a correct statement. It is my understanding that capstones at TESC are recommended but not required. I believe EC requires just a Capstone, and COSC now requires both the Capstone and the Cornerstone.

Whether this will slow someone down will vary from person to person and major to major. The COSC Business Administration concentration, for example, is much lighter on math than the TESC BSBA. In my particular situation, had I gone for the BSBA at TESC, I probably would have taken much longer learning pre-calc than I would have taking an 8 week Capstone course. I was able to meet my math requirements through the College Math CLEP and of course there was a certain amount of calculating skills needed to pass Finance and the Accounting courses/tests, but it wasn't that bad and didn't take too long. This is just one example, but I'm sure that there are other situations where a specific major might be quicker at EC or COSC based on the required classes.

However, if your goal is to test out + use previous credits as quickly as possible, AND you aren't picky about your major, TESC may be a quicker option. For example - in my situation, had I gone to TESC, I probably would have gone for liberal arts to avoid the BSBA pre-calc/statistics requirement.

One other thing that I want to mention is that after having gone through the Capstone at COSC, my perspective on the Capstone has totally changed. Initially, I was really bummed that I had enrolled at a school that required that I take a class. I enjoyed testing and didn't want to bother with assignments and classmates. After all, learning on my own is fun and efficient.

However, what I learned was that my Capstone wasn't really about learning just the topic. It was also about understanding how to navigate my way through an online class. My 24 B&M credits come from 21 butt-in-seat credits and 3 online credits. I took one online class in 2007 and I am so glad that I did. It really prepared me for the online environment, which is substantially different, and often more difficult, than a physical classroom. To anyone that is considering an online graduate experience (or even if you're not 100%), I would HIGHLY recommend taking at least one, preferably two or three internet-based classes. I would hate for someone's first online experience to be at the graduate level.

Ok.. I know that a recommendation to take a Capstone is not what you asked for, and I'm sure it won't be applicable to your situation, but I wanted to mention it anyhow for the benefit of anyone reading this thread, especially a younger reader that may not have any college experience other than through CLEP and DSST.

Hope this helps!

[bricabrac]

is TESC the only one that does not require corner/cap stones?
Am I correct in assuming that a full course can slow down someone like me who is planning on building a business or liberal arts degree out of 30 previous community college credits and standardized tests?

FYI, the TESC BSBA degree does require a capstone, it is business policy (BUS421). It can be taken as a course or tecep exam at TESC; or, transferred in from another RA institution (course AKA strategic management).

[burbuja0512]

FYI, the TESC BSBA degree does require a capstone, it is business policy (BUS421). It can be taken as a course or tecep exam at TESC; or, transferred in from another RA institution (course AKA strategic management).

Great info - I had no idea. So, for someone who wants to test out quickly at TESC without having a single class, would Liberal Arts or LDAS work?

Edit: I just re-read and realized that you could just take a TECEP, which could replace the actual class, so even the BSBA Capstone could be tested out of.

[agent6488]

Thanks!
Sounds like I'll be looking into the BA in Liberal Studies at TESC. I had initially had my sights set on Excelsior because I've read they assign transcript letter grades to test scores:
Which online College to choose - BA in 4 weeks degrees by examination and distance learning

However, I later read that grades are transcribed under the name of the test anyway, so I figure if I pass them, the GPA is not a huge issue, since I'm not really trying to fool anyone into thinking I got graded on actual coursework.
My goal is graduate school. I've heard that as long as the BA is complete, the amount of CLEP credit on it is not a big deal for graduate admittance. Hopefully that holds true for GPA as well.

TESC calculator says about $6000 for a scenario like mine.

[burbuja0512]

Thanks!
Sounds like I'll be looking into the BA in Liberal Studies at TESC. I had initially had my sights set on Excelsior because I've read they assign transcript letter grades to test scores:
Which online College to choose - BA in 4 weeks degrees by examination and distance learning

However, I later read that grades are transcribed under the name of the test anyway, so I figure if I pass them, the GPA is not a huge issue, since I'm not really trying to fool anyone into thinking I got graded on actual coursework.
My goal is graduate school. I've heard that as long as the BA is complete, the amount of CLEP credit on it is not a big deal for graduate admittance. Hopefully that holds true for GPA as well.

TESC calculator says about $6000 for a scenario like mine.

A couple of things to think about:

1) Do you have any specific graduate program in mind? If so, you'll want to make sure that you meet the pre-requisites for the program and also give them a call to see if they'll have an issue with a non-traditional transcript. Many graduate programs don't care about the testing, but some will, especially if you're looking at very competitive schools. If you're not particular, you WILL be able to find something and yes, even many "good" schools don't care. (I had no problems getting accepted to my MBA program)

2) Don't feel like you're "fooling" people with a transcript full of CLEP/DSST. I've taken B&M classes that were much easier than some of the CLEP's I've taken. It's just a different, self-paced way to learn the same material.

3) I don't know how TESC and EC grade CLEP/DSST, but I believe that both of them will recognize ECE's and TECEP's with letter grades. These will give you a GPA for sure. I never took a TECEP, but was pleased with the one ECE I took. It cost $250, so a little bit more than a CLEP or Dantes, but it was UL credit, so well worth it. Even if you only have a few graded tests or classes, you definitely will need a GPA for many grad schools even if they don't care about testing credits. I'm also pretty sure that TESC requires a GPA, though this isn't my area of expertise

4) Another way to get a letter grade is through Straighterline. If you haven't looked at it, check it out if there is a topic that you don't want to test out of. For $99 bucks a month plus $39 for each class, you can get a letter grade and a three credit class. It can be a little bit more tedious than studying for a test, so I only did this for classes that I didn't want to (or couldn't) test out of.

Good luck and let us know if you have questions on the degree planning, though I know that you'll probably find at least a few TESC Liberal Arts plans if you do a forum search.

[bricabrac]

Great info - I had no idea. So, for someone who wants to test out quickly at TESC without having a single class, would Liberal Arts or LDAS work?

Edit: I just re-read and realized that you could just take a TECEP, which could replace the actual class, so even the BSBA Capstone could be tested out of.

Let me first apologize for the length of this response. I felt certain comments could be taken the wrong way without definition. Plus, if you haven't noticed before, I'm a talker.

If you want a quick test out degree I would definitely pursue liberal arts. In my professional experience when you mention a liberal arts degree there are no implied expectations. Unless you've been in hiring committee meetings or behind closed doors with leadership this will be hard to explain and is the reason most say any degree is ok if only to check a box, or, if you are going for your masters.

Yes, I guess by looking over a few of the templates on this forum you could test out of a BSBA but personally, I would not do it. First, you have no true writing or communication experience. Second, no GPA (and I am not referring to one basket weaving course); those of us who have work experience do not include GPA on resumes but it is requested on applications. Third and most important, to me anyway, it would be quite embarrassing to have a lot of test knowledge but no practical experience, learned or otherwise, to link those shortcuts to. The business world, at least in my industry, is ruthless; the interview process alone can make the ill prepared sick.

IMHO, you should take some courses at a community college, tesc, or any other school. It's not an easy program by any means. I've got 15+ yrs bus exp, 30 tesc crs, 21 cc crs, and at present 100+ testing/alternate course crs. I mention all that to say, I am currently studying for the tecep (test date Thursday) and am a ball of nerves.

I sure hope God smiles on me the day of the test.

[wannagraduate]

In response to the question "Why don't I just try to use the current credits for a degree" is because none of them are upper lever courses. All of them are lower lever. So I figure since I can transfer upper level business courses from LOMA exams I have taken, I can CLEP out of the rest. I have lower level credits in just about everything you can imagine from French, to spanish, to business, to music, to computer science, etc. Needless to say, I had a problem choosing a major. Thanks for your help!