Degree Plan Thoughts/Input Please

[namwen]

I'm working on a degree plan for my 17 year old son. The school that he goes to agreed to let me work on some college courses at home with him in order to satisfy his graduation requirements. He is taking the second half off the year off in order to knock the credits out and then come back in the fall ready to graduate in December. If all goes well he will be a great shape and ready for college.

His career goals are to to physical therapy, sports science or nursing. All require heavy doses of science so we are going to knock out the obvious ones and go from there. PT is now a doctoral program so I'd like him to have a solid degree as a back up plan in case he changes gears down the road. Personally, I prefer that he do all of his general education now and move on to nursing. This way he has a good career at 20-22 and can move on to PT if he chooses. I don't really want him to work on a generic science degree and then find out that he's not interested in going to school for another 3-4 years. I am only an adviser on what his ultimate career will be but I am an enforcer when it comes to getting his general education, lol.

So, I'm trying to decipher a good plan for the kid at this point. He is motivated and having a great time so far. Keep in mind, the courses that I have planned out are a requirement for him to graduate high school early. I am also looking into the best option that would allow him to get an associates degree by the end of next May and then go from there. You thoughts would be appreciated.


January 14th-March 7th

4 - NMJC - A&P I + Lab
3 - SL -English I
3 - SL -English II

March 8th-March 16th (Break between NMJC 8 week sessions)

3 - Penn Foster - Math for Business and Finance

March 17th-May 8th

4 - NMJC - A&P II + Lab
3 - ALEKS - Basic Algebra
3 - ALEKS - Intermediate Algebra
3 - ALEKS - College Algebra

Summer Session

4 - Biology + Lab
3 - Government

33 - total

[Jonathan Whatley]

I would try to keep sources of credit as conventional as possible.

Your son has an exceedingly good chance of ending up, one way or another, at the doors of an undergraduate program at a traditional school. Credit from another regionally accredited college, like NJMC, will be accepted as widely as credit from any other college – subject to the receiving school's overall rules for transfer credit, not too too far from automatically.

StraighterLine, ALEKS, and other sources whose credits are accepted at the Big Three on the basis of ACE CREDIT or National CCRS reviews? Not so much, not so universally. Penn Foster might gain a little in some contexts from also being from a nationally accredited college.

In a situation this one especially especially, I'd put a considerable premium on earning credit from basically the major league, "traditional nontraditional" sources of credit that are most widely and readily accepted:

• regionally accredited colleges themselves
• CLEPs and APs, from the College Board
• and DSSTs, which originated in the DOD and are are now owned by the ETS

Of course, a few regionally accredited colleges have testing programs whose credits appear on their own transcripts: UExcel and ECE from
Excelsior, TECEP from Thomas Edison, and Course Credit by Examination from Ohio University. For English Composition, I'm a fan of the TECEPs.

(My thinking here owes much to our Jennifer Cook DeRosa, whose book is highly recommended. This post, and its shortcomings, are my own!)

[namwen]

Thanks for the input. My thought process here is to get him prepared for nursing entrance or to obtain an associate degree for transfer to a university.

What are your thoughts on most state schools and/or private schools taking an associate degree in transfer towards general education?

Also, a far as any nursing program and their admission policies I am OK with the moves that I have made so far.

I'm staying away from taking any of the science courses non-traditionally.

[namwen]

Thoughts? Anybody?