Excelsior BS in Business Preliminary Review Questions

[bluespecial]

Hi gang, I don't post much but I have been a daily lurker for awhile now. Last month I applied at both Excelsior and TESC for BS in Business programs. It took forever for the DSST transcripts to come but I finally have a preliminary review from Excelsior, I am still waiting for TESC. Excelsior kind of implied the best thing I should do is enroll; they are sending me an enrollment packet and stated in their email that someone would be phoning me within 7 days. But not so fast Excelsior, I am confused by some of their decisions on my credits. I was wondering what you guys thought about 3 specific concerns I have.


1) Course Reason for Exclusion (ENGL*1190) COMMUNICATIONS 2 Course content reviewed upon enrollment

I took a 4 hour class called Communications 2 from a Michigan community college that was a writing composition course. Every 4 year college in Michigan accepts this as English Composition 2. What would it take to convince Excelsior that this class, along with English Composition 1 (which I took at Baker College that Excelsior accepted) would satisfy my written English requirements?

2) I am confused by their determination of my math credits. I have taken the following courses:

Baker College: Introductory Algebra (2.67 credits)
Aleks: Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Pre-Calculus, Introduction to Statistics


On the credits applied section of the review it states:

ALEKS CORPORATION (MCGRAW HILL)
INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS 3.0 U
PRE-CALCULUS 3.0 L

However, on the degree template of the review it states:

Natural Science/Math Requirement Credits Needed

Mathematics Requirement (pre-calc or above) 3.00
Statistics Requirement 0.00


I have done the math, on the degree template they only gave me credit for Introductory Algebra and Statistics. I realize the their would be some duplications but it still seams goofy to me. At the bottom of the credits applied section it states that two Mathematics courses were excluded for duplication, but didn't mention which ones. I figured Intermediate and College Algebra would duplicate but they excluded Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, and Pre-Calc. Is this a mistake or I am missing something here?

3) I took a community college class called "Corporate Responsibility", it is a business ethics course that matches the description for the DSST course Business Ethics and Society. I believe I could pass the DSST exam without studying, however I have always been reluctant to take it because I figured it would duplicate the credit I already have. Excelsior gave me lower level business elective credit for it. I am concerned that if I took that particular DSST and enrolled at Excelsior someday Excelsior will reconsider my previous coursework and throw out the upper-level credit DSST. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I could potentially see the same confusion with this class at TESC as well.

I am definitely going to wait till the TESC review is completed before I make any decisions. I am looking to get some sort of bachelors degree so my resume looks better. I would also consider going the liberal arts degree path at either Excelsior or TESC as well. If anyone has any input on my Excelsior concerns I would appreciate your opinions, I guess at this point I don't know what more they want from me to meet their math requirements.

[NAP]

I'll give this a try.

1. It looks like they weren't sure about this and decided to wait to officially evaluate it. You should at least get Humanities credit and can appeal (send course description) if they decide it is not English II. (It would help a lot if it was called composition instead.) There should be a list in the catalog of the type of courses that are typically accepted for WER.

2. As far as I know, ALEKS PreCalculus or College Algebra are accepted for this requirement. I think it was missed by mistake. Just send a quick e-mail and ask about it.

The duplication issue may (or may not) be clarified by this post:

http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...#post92907

3. When you enroll, you can send the course description and ask for further evaluation. Since this is lower level at the community college, I would be suprised if they raise it to upper-level and call it duplicative. Then, you can ask about taking the DSST for additional UL credit. I hope this works out so you get credit for both, but I think you are right to wait for official approval first.

[joel66]

My wife completed the same courses at ALEKS and Excelsior has accepted College Algebra. She is also working on her BS in General Business at Excelsior. Her official review was three weeks ago.

[knowing490]

They should have accepted the Aleks College Algebra. It was probably an oversight. You can just shoot them an email. They are very good and fast about responding.

[Demo18cc]

You will have to send Excelsior a syllabus of the English class to convince them. My eng 114 which is considered an eng comp 2 class was not accepted after 3 tries. I just decided to be a guest student that had a quick 6 week semester.

[bluespecial]

Thanks for the info everyone. I guess I will need to talk to Excelsior before going any further. It would probably be a deal breaker if my 4 credits for writing ended up going into the humanities section, as I don't need any more humanities or general education credits. TESC has started to update my profile. They are not done yet but they did put my writing class in the Eng Comp 2 section, the Corporate Responsibility class the same as the DSST exam, and I got College Algebra and Pre-Calc too. Strangely they gave the 2.67 credits for Introductory Algebra (thought they wouldn't take it) and said Intermediate Algebra duplicated Introductory Algebra.

I do recommend that if anyone out there that has a lot of community college credits looking to get a Bachelor's degree apply to at least to 2 of the big three to see what would be the best option. This did cost me more money in application and transcript fees but hopefully I can pick the school with the least amount of additional credits needed or possibly easier test out options.

[NAP]

If you do end up needing a different class for English II, consider StraighterLine for it.