Course plan for BS in Psychology from Charter Oak

[ryanaryn]

I have JSD's BA in Psychology plan for TESU, does anyone have a plan for the same thing from Charter Oak?  I thought TESU would be the best fit for me, but I have 30 credits from Shmoop that I would hate to waste because of their new policy.  Charter Oak said they will accept ACE recommendations for Shmoop credits, so that's a huge help.  However, Charter Oak only offers a BS in Psychology and the courses look similar but still different from TESU's.  I searched for but couldn't find any info on the forum for a Psych degree from Charter Oak, has anyone else gone that route?

[jsh1138]

the BS from Psychology requires more Psych courses than the BA from TESU. I looked at both last year and am currently enrolled to get the Psych BS at COSC


https://www.charteroak.edu/psychology/


that should get you started

[dfrecore]

There's no real difference in the BA/BS for this degree that I can see (not usually a ton of difference anyway), so that won't be your issue.

I have a plan, based on the little I know about COSC - it may or may not work (I think the Gen Ed will be fine), but I've heard it is MUCH easier to work with COSC on getting advising than TESU.  So, if you go this route, you need to find out which courses will work ahead of time.  There are notes in bright yellow at the end of the plan.

Also, just an FYI, COSC accepting Shmoop may or may not be to your benefit - because if you end up having to take more expensive courses in the major, it may cancel out the cost of taking those Shmoop credits.  I don't think it will happen in this instance, but just make sure that the overall degree at COSC is going to be cheaper/easier/quicker than TESU before you make the decision.  Sometimes, it can be a matter or robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Don't let the Shmoop courses throw you off of a good plan.

[jsh1138]

"There's no real difference in the BA/BS for this degree that I can see (not usually a ton of difference anyway), so that won't be your issue."

well the BS from COSC is 39 credits in Psych and the BA from TESU is 30. That seems kind of like a big difference to me. Also, the COSC one requires you to take a statistics class as well as a psychology statistics class, and TESU only requires the regular statistics class

its basically the difference in any field between a BS and a BA. if you want to go heavier into your area of concentration, do the BS. what you want to look at is whether or not you can find the COSC classes elsewhere, because most of the extra ones are UL psychology. You ought to be able to pretty much do the entire BA at TESU on Study.com or whatever but the COSC BS you may have to take a class or two from them, which will drive up the cost


COSC advising is night and day compared to TESU. they add your classes in a day or two and you actually have an advisor that calls you. mine sent me a card in the mail when i signed up. TESU, i dont think i've ever even spoken to my advisor and i've been going there a year and if you can get your classes added in 3 weeks you're doing good. It takes TESU over a week to add the ones that you take from them directly

[dfrecore]

"There's no real difference in the BA/BS for this degree that I can see (not usually a ton of difference anyway), so that won't be your issue."

well the BS from COSC is 39 credits in Psych and the BA from TESU is 30. That seems kind of like a big difference to me. Also, the COSC one requires you to take a statistics class as well as a psychology statistics class, and TESU only requires the regular statistics class

its basically the difference in any field between a BS and a BA. if you want to go heavier into your area of concentration, do the BS. what you want to look at is whether or not you can find the COSC classes elsewhere, because most of the extra ones are UL psychology. You ought to be able to pretty much do the entire BA at TESU on Study.com or whatever but the COSC BS you may have to take a class or two from them, which will drive up the cost


COSC advising is night and day compared to TESU. they add your classes in a day or two and you actually have an advisor that calls you. mine sent me a card in the mail when i signed up. TESU, i dont think i've ever even spoken to my advisor and i've been going there a year and if you can get your classes added in 3 weeks you're doing good. It takes TESU over a week to add the ones that you take from them directly

Wow jsh1138, you REALLY don't like my replies to things, I can tell. Not sure what the deal is there.

All schools have different requirements, so the difference could be because it's TESU/COSC rather than the BA/BS.  There's no way to know, since you can't compare the two (only possible if TESU had a BS or COSC had a BA).

And with Stats, COSC recommends but does not require Intro to Stats.

EDIT: Just looked and TESU's BA in Psych is 39cr in the major.  Not sure where you got 30, but it's clearly 39 (9-10 specific required courses depending on where you take the Social Psych course, the capstone, and 2 electives).

https://www.tesu.edu/heavin/ba/psychology
II. Area of Study: Psychology 39

[jsh1138]

the 39 you're quoting for TESU's BA includes the statistics course and an ethics course. i had them with the core stuff bc they will count off your requirements in the core. i also had "intro to psych" in the core bc that's where it went with my degree but you can call it 39 credits for the BA at TESU if you want to take 2 maths and 2 ethics. if you count it that way though, COSC is going to require 3 maths, so its still more requirements from them


i dont have a problem with your replies, i just think if you look at COSC's requirements, which i have bc i'm actually taking this degree from COSC right now, they ask for more classes in psych and for more of those classes to be UL than TESU does. I was trying to provide a contrast for ryan, not argue with you. "they're basically the same" is not going to help him any, bc they're not the same, at least not imo. I pointed out specifically where they're not the same and got a "wow" for my trouble. respectfully, i don't think that's my issue

[dfrecore]

the 39 you're quoting for TESU's BA includes the statistics course and an ethics course. i had them with the core stuff bc they will count off your requirements in the core. i also had "intro to psych" in the core bc that's where it went with my degree but you can call it 39 credits for the BA at TESU if you want to take 2 maths and 2 ethics. if you count it that way though, COSC is going to require 3 maths, so its still more requirements from them


i dont have a problem with your replies, i just think if you look at COSC's requirements, which i have bc i'm actually taking this degree from COSC right now, they ask for more classes in psych and for more of those classes to be UL than TESU does. I was trying to provide a contrast for ryan, not argue with you. "they're basically the same" is not going to help him any, bc they're not the same, at least not imo. I pointed out specifically where they're not the same and got a "wow" for my trouble. respectfully, i don't think that's my issue

Both TESU and COSC both specifically say they require 39cr in the major.  Both require Intro to Psych and a stats course in the major. I think they both require 18cr of UL in the major (from what I can tell at COSC, and I know for sure at TESU).  They are VERY similar degrees.  BASICALLY THE SAME still holds true in my opinion.

When I said that a BS/BA are basically the same, what I meant was that some schools have BA's for certain degrees, and some have BS's, and it's not much different.  Many northeastern liberal arts colleges don't offer any BS's at all, even for STEM degrees.  There's also some info that I know is true, having worked in HR for a long time (found this quote on a forum I read a lot): "Since the difference between a BA and a BS varies so much from school to school, you can’t really accept a pat answer to this question. No philosophical difference between the two degrees is universally true."

[sanantone]

Once it comes to getting a job or getting into graduate school, the whole BS/BA thing won't matter at all. I have done the same jobs as psychology majors with a BA in Social Science.

I once got into an argument on here with someone who swore that a BS in Psychology was preferred by graduate schools, and Ivy Leagues won't even consider someone with a BA. That turned out to be a lie. I was able to find the biographies of the psychology doctoral students at an Ivy that was specifically mentioned, and the majority of students had a BA.

I concur with Dfrecore. TESU and COSC's programs aren't very different, and employers and graduate schools are not going to care if you took a statistics course that is specific to psychology. If the statistics in psychology course is not very quantitative, it might even hurt you because you won't have the skills for certain research or analyst jobs.

[Yenisei]

Does COSC still offer 24 credits for the Psychology GRE (IIRC, a 40th percentile score was required)? I don't think there would be any savings in time to prepare for it vis-a-vis the CLEP/UEXCEL, etc., but there might be some cost savings, depending on Modern States vouchers.

[dfrecore]

Does COSC still offer 24 credits for the Psychology GRE (IIRC, a 40th percentile score was required)? I don't think there would be any savings in time to prepare for it vis-a-vis the CLEP/UEXCEL, etc., but there might be some cost savings, depending on Modern States vouchers.

They still take GRE Subject exams, but it doesn't say how many credits they would take.

There would definitely be a cost savings, as it's $150 + $27 for the transcript to be sent.  For 24 credits (if they gave that), it would certainly be a lot less than taking 8 courses/exams.  1 UExcel is normally $110 + $50 for the testing center fees.  There are only 3 CLEP exams that cover Psych, and they're all LL.