Discerning a Path Toward a Baccalaureate Degree

[DeanLewis]

Greetings everyone,
I've been a longtime reader of degree forum but decided to join today to solicit some guidance on the best path forward at one of the "Big Three" toward the completion of a baccalaureate degree. 

To begin, I should say that I have a very unorthodox educational history. For instance, I am currently 21 credits into a 30 credit Masters of Arts (in religion) at a local regionally accredited university. I was admitted without a bachelors degree, as some seminaries and theological institutions have provisions for this sort of thing. (Long story short, I received a lot of unaccredited training that qualified me to be able to study at the graduate level). I currently have a 4.0 and have 3 eight-week courses left.

To add to that I discerned about a year ago that I wanted to pursue a Doctor of Chiropractic degree, and set out to fulfill the bare minimum admissions standards (of 90 credit hours, 24 in the natural and physical sciences, half with labs). I have, as of this week, been admitted to a D.C. program at a local university. 

That said, I live on the state line between two state governments that have conflicted licensure requirements for my intended profession. While one side doesn't require a baccalaureate degree for chiropractic licensure, the other side (and several other states) does. With that said, I'm looking for the most efficient (and yes), the quickest, way to earn a bachelors degree in any subject at a regionally accredited college. Ideally, I would like to do this before I graduate with my M.A. in December, and I'd like to get the bulk of it done before I start classes in my D.C. program on May 13th. 

Over the past year I have taken several CLEP exams, and this past week several StraighterLine courses, and earned some conventional credit at a local Community College, which amounts to:

CLEP (30 Hours):
Analyzing and Interpreting Lit - 3
English Comp - 6
American Government - 3
Natural Sciences - 3
History and Social Sciences - 6
Principles of Marketing - 3
Information Systems - 3
Human Growth and Development - 3

StraighterLine (11 Hours):
Microbiology - 3
Anatomy and Physiology I - 3
A&P I Lab - 1
Anatomy and Physiology II - 3
A&P II Lab - 1

Community College (20 Hours):
General Biology w/ Lab - 5
Introductory Chemistry For Health Sciences w/ Lab - 5
Human Nutrition - 3
General Psychology - 3
Human Communication - 3
(State) Constitution - 1 

Aside from this I have some non-ACE evaluated professional training that an (ATS accredited) seminary transcripted as 20 graduate "pass" hours (they operate on a total pass/fail grading system) that are unapplied to any program currently. I have 12 hours in culinary arts transcripted from 12 or so years ago, but they are also "pass" hours. So I'm unsure what schools (if any) might be able to make use of this. It seems that Excelsior doesn't accept hours such as these. 

I have found that I can complete StraighterLine courses in a day or two, so ideally would like to make use of as many of those as possible.

Thanks for your guidance/input!

[dfrecore]

I would advise applying to both TESU and COSC, and seeing what they give you for all of your credits, including your graduate-level credits. I will guess that neither of them will give you non-ACE evaluated credit, unless it's some specific certificate that they already award credit for - you can search both their websites for it.

But, with the grad credit, if both of them award UL credit, then you're pretty close to a degree with both, and will just need to take maybe 30cr.

For both, I would do the following:
SL - Intro to Comm (they both require speech)
Insurance Ethics (free) - not sure if this will fulfill COSC's requirement as it's only 2cr, but TESU will take it

You're going to need a math course - for COSC, I think they require College Algebra or higher although I'm not certain of that. At TESU, they only require something easy like Applied Liberal Arts Math (DSST or TECEP) or College Math (CLEP or Study.com).

TESU would require a Diversity course, like Sociology (CLEP)

COSC is going to require NON-US History and Global Understanding, but the religion courses you bring in will work there, so I don't think you need anything else.

It will mostly just depend on what each gives you for credit, and then you can come back and post your evals to have us help you determine which would be the easiest/cheapest/fastest to finish. The sooner you apply, the better off you'll be. COSC will probably come back with your eval much quicker, and if they give you a bunch of UL credits, I would say to just go for it and finish that degree (they're probably going to be cheaper than TESU).

The only other thing to keep in mind: TESU has a BA in Religion, which COSC does not, if that matters to you. It just depends on whether or not you already have 30cr of it as to whether or not you could get it.

[natshar]

Send EVERYTHING to TESU and COSC. Anything that could possibly count for credit send it, you never know what could happen.
You best degree option is a Bachelor of liberal studies.

[bjcheung77]

LOL, you're not serious are you, DeanLewis. I read the web page for South Harmon Institute of Technology and it's a sham!

[davewill]

LOL, you're not serious are you, DeanLewis.  I read the web page for South Harmon Institute of Technology and it's a sham!

I assume he knows that since "Dean Lewis" is the fictional Dean of the fictional S.H.I.T. in the movie.

[allvia]

LOL, you're not serious are you, DeanLewis.  I read the web page for South Harmon Institute of Technology and it's a sham!

I assume he knows that since "Dean Lewis" is the fictional Dean of the fictional S.H.I.T. in the movie.

It is from the movie 'Accepted', pretty funny in a far out way (you can't overthink it) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384793/

[DeanLewis]

Thanks for the feedback all (especially dfrecore). Honestly I TESU was the most complex of the three schools, but it seems very few folks recommend Excelsior (which has perhaps the clearest website). I am excited about the possibility of TESU's BA in Religion, and am applying there first and will follow up.

With regards to S.H.I.T., of course! I'm surprised everyone here hasn't seen Accepted :-)

[davewill]

Thanks for the feedback all (especially dfrecore). Honestly I TESU was the most complex of the three schools, but it seems very few folks recommend Excelsior (which has perhaps the clearest website). I am excited about the possibility of TESU's BA in Religion, and am applying there first and will follow up.

With regards to S.H.I.T., of course! I'm surprised everyone here hasn't seen Accepted :-)

Since getting transcripts evaluated can take time (a month at TESU), I'd go ahead and apply to all three at the same time, that way you'll be able to make a decision and get started all at once. Excelsior tends to be more expensive than the other two, so isn't as popular here, but if you have almost everything done, the difference may not be a big issue. If you happen to be closer to complete there, it may well be the best choice.

[DeanLewis]

Thanks for that info davewill. I actually applied to Excelsior late last year, but they wouldn't accept my grad credit for an undergraduate degree.


TESU called today, and I was transferred between undergraduate admissions and graduate admissions, and no one had a clear answer except for saying that only credits up to the 400 level can be applied to a baccalaureate degree. When I brought up their "Enrollment in a First Baccalaureate Degree After Earning a Graduate Degree"  policy, no one seemed to be aware that it existed or what it meant. 

Alas, while this is all a bit discouraging I have added 5 credits to my list today with another SL class and the 2 credit "Insurance Ethics" class recommended in the first response, bringing my total to 72 undergraduate hours (2 ul). Perhaps I can test through the remainder program at TESU without too much effort.

[sanantone]

Thanks for that info davewill. I actually applied to Excelsior late last year, but they wouldn't accept my grad credit for an undergraduate degree.


TESU called today, and I was transferred between undergraduate admissions and graduate admissions, and no one had a clear answer except for saying that only credits up to the 400 level can be applied to a baccalaureate degree. When I brought up their "Enrollment in a First Baccalaureate Degree After Earning a Graduate Degree"  policy, no one seemed to be aware that it existed or what it meant. 

Alas, while this is all a bit discouraging I have added 5 credits to my list today with another SL class and the 2 credit "Insurance Ethics" class recommended in the first response, bringing my total to 72 undergraduate hours (2 ul). Perhaps I can test through the remainder program at TESU without too much effort.

When you apply as an undergraduate student with graduate credits, the graduate credits will most often be evaluated as 300 and 400-level credits. I did have a masters-level statistics course evaluated as 200-level because there was no equivalent upper level course. Most of the credits from my first masters degree were evaluated as AOJ-499. XXX-X99 is a generic code for anything that doesn't have a direct equivalent at TESU. No one in admissions would know about this. Only the registrar and academic advisors know about credit evaluations.