Help with degree plan!!

[Rosie90]

I just received my preliminary review from Excelsior. However, I'm a little confused as to where I can complete my courses. If using either Sophia or study.com would be the best option. Also, what is the  humanities distribution requirement?

A little background on me, after many years and now being a little past 30 and a mother I decided to go back and finish my Bachelors. I spent most of my time working with special needs students and I allowed money and certain things that were going on in my life to deter my career. Now I'm ready to focus and fulfill my dream of completing my bachelor's. 

Thank you all in advance 

[rachel83az]

This is for a BA Liberal Arts? Please list out the courses that you transferred into Excelsior and where they came from. This will help us to avoid recommending courses that could possibly overlap with what you've already done. Ethics and Humanities can be completed inexpensively through Sophia ( https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List ) but the UL credits will likely need to come from both Study.com and Coopersmith.

[Rosie90]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I follow your suggestions and check out the websites you mentioned. Also, I completed my AA degree through a brick and mortar college back in my hometown. All the courses that were accepted came from there. Yes, this is for a BA in liberal arts, my AA was also in liberal arts.

[bjcheung77]

Yes, the BSLA from Excelsior is the most popular program (better than the BALA), I highly recommend working on the Lower Level requirements with Sophia.org and the Upper Level requirements with Coopersmith, Davar, and Study.com

[rachel83az]

Okay, I'm not an expert in Excelsior but here is what I would do:

Take Ancient Greek Philosophers at Sophia and THEN take Introduction to Ethics. Ethics makes much more sense if you take philosophers first. Because Sophia is a monthly subscription, I would go ahead and take every humanities course there. If you only want to take the minimum, I think Greek Philosophers, Ethics, and Approaches to Studying Religions would be the easiest.

You can see which Study.com courses Excelsior brings in as UL here: https://study.com/college/school/excelsior-college.html I can't remember if Excelsior requires all 30 UL to be in the AOS or not. If so, no business, computer science, or finance courses. English, Psych, Science, Social Science should all be okay.

Some Coopersmith equivalencies are listed here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Co...Consulting

Olivet Nazarene has 4 UL courses available for $150 each. See here for details: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ol...University One is history, one is literature, two are theology/religion.

---

Yes, the BSLA from Excelsior is the most popular program (better than the BALA), I highly recommend working on the Lower Level requirements with Sophia.org and the Upper Level requirements with Coopersmith, Davar, and Study.com

According to Davar, I'm not sure any of their courses come in as UL at Excelsior now. The equivalencies have been removed from the business page. Business Ethics and Micro/macro econ are listed as being UL recommended but you only find their equivalencies on the gen ed page.

[bjcheung77]

The reason I pointed out the BSLA is a better option than BALA is because, the BSLA allows applied professional credits versus the BALA are Arts & Science courses. So for instance, a member has some business or professional credits to transfer in, it'll not fit in the BALA but will fit in the BSLA... it's the most flexible program at Excelsior.

In regards to the Coopersmith, Davar, Study.com, before enrolling in any courses, always email the academic advisor your intention to take the course and get approval before taking it. Just to make sure the course comes in as intended, this will make things go so much more smoothly...

[Rosie90]

Thank you for taking the time to post the links and all the information. I will definitely follow your advise. Thank you for helping. I'll complete the LL courses with Sophia and do a combo of coopersmith and study. Com to complete the UL courses. As far as Olivet Nazarene, I'll look into it. It seems reasonably priced.

Thank you so much!

---

The reason I pointed out the BSLA is a better option than BALA is because, the BSLA allows applied professional credits versus the BALA are Arts & Science courses.  So for instance, a member has some business or professional credits to transfer in, it'll not fit in the BALA but will fit in the BSLA... it's the most flexible program at Excelsior.  

In regards to the Coopersmith, Davar, Study.com, before enrolling in any courses, always email the academic advisor your intention to take the course and get approval before taking it.  Just to make sure the course comes in as intended, this will make things go so much more smoothly...

Thank you for that information I'll ask my advisor about the bsla and also confirm the courses with them prior to taking them.

[ctcarl]

Lots of good info in this thread.

I'll just add that I did my BSLA at Excelsior and found the program to be very flexible. While my degree was based on a very old catalog, it's not that different from the current offering in terms of the UL credit requirements; 21 Arts/Sciences and 9 in Applied Professional or Additional Arts & Sciences for the BSLA, vs the BALA, which requires all 30 UL credits to be in the Arts & Sciences.

I used Coopersmith and Davar for all but 5 of my UL credits, but I could have easily taken all 30 from them. The key with either provider is, as has been pointed out upthread, to ask your advisor in advance if the course fits your degree plan and will be accepted as UL credit. Excelsior is very liberal when it comes to accepting these courses, and of eight or ten I think they only shot down two or three for UL credit.

[Rosie90]

Lots of good info in this thread.

I'll just add that I did my BSLA at Excelsior and found the program to be very flexible.  While my degree was based on a very old catalog, it's not that different from the current offering in terms of the UL credit requirements; 21 Arts/Sciences and 9 in Applied Professional or Additional Arts & Sciences for the BSLA, vs the BALA, which requires all 30 UL credits to be in the Arts & Sciences.

I used Coopersmith and Davar for all but 5 of my UL credits, but I could have easily taken all 30 from them.  The key with either provider is, as has been pointed out upthread, to ask your advisor in advance if the course fits your degree plan and will be accepted as UL credit.  Excelsior is very liberal when it comes to accepting these courses, and of eight or ten I think they only shot down two or three for UL credit.

That's great. Let me ask the advisor for a review with a bsla plan.

In regards to the coopersmith and davar, do they also require proctored exams. I've heard study. Com does prpctored exams. I'm only asking because I live overseas and doing proctored exams will be a bit of a challenge due to the huge time difference.

[rachel83az]

Study.com uses RPNow as a proctoring service. These are NOT scheduled. They use your webcam to record you as you complete the exam and then someone reviews it later. These can be taken whenever you want.

Coopersmith uses ProctorU. This one does require scheduling but you can schedule the exam for a time that is convenient for you. It is similar to RPNow except someone watches you while you take the exam. It is live proctoring.

Davar allows you to choose either option. If you prefer RPNow, you can choose that one. If you prefer ProctorU, you can choose that one.

With either proctor, you'll be able to take an exam even in the middle the US night.