Help with my Excelsior General Business Degree Plan

[perriquit]

Hello guys. I have most of my general education requirements covered for Excelsior and I am looking to complete the Bachelor of Science in Business, General Business Concentration. Your feedback will be appreciated here is my plan:

General Business Concentration:

Business Core Requirements

Financial Accounting..........................................................3cr FHSU complete
Managerial Accounting......................................................3cr FHSU complete
Intro. to Business Law.......................................................3cr Penn Foster (pending)
Computers.........................................................................3cr CLEP (pending)
Principles of Management................................................3cr Penn Foster (complete)
Principles of Marketing....................................................3cr Penn Foster (complete)
Financial Managemen......................................................3cr Penn Foster (complete)
Prod/Op Management......................................................3cr Col. Sate Pueblo (pending)
Business Policy................................................................3cr Excelsior College (pending)

Organizational Behavior Requirement:

Organizational Behaviour...................................................3cr Penn Foster (pending)

Ethics Requirement:

Ethics...............................................................................3cr Clovis College (pending)

Advanced Level Business Credit:

Intermediate Accounting I ................................................3cr Penn Foster (pending)
Total Quality Management................................................3cr Col. State Pueblo (pending)
Secs. and Investments........................................................3cr Penn Foster (pending)
Business Statistics..............................................................3cr ALEKS (pending)


Please let me know if you think this will work thank you!

[MISin08]

Hi,

I don't think ALEKS Bus Stats will get you advanced business credit, even though ACE may say it is advanced. Some liberal studies majors on the board have said EC gave them advanced credit for this course. For me they rated it lower-level as meeting the Stats A&S requirement for business majors. If you've already met that, ALEKS Business Stats will most likely duplicate.

I don't have much experience with Penn Foster, but those choices look reasonable. Colorado State has been good for me so far; you can find feedback on this forum about Ops Mgt (big thread) and Total Quality (one user's experience).

Small thing. Maybe Accounting is really interesting to you, and if so, just disregard what I'm about to say. I'm finding the advanced-level credit is the most fun part of the degree, and Intermediate Accounting, well, if it were me I would do just about anything else.

Phillip

[dharmachic]

Hi Perriquit,

I recently enrolled in EC BS General Business, so I went through the same actions of creating a degree plan that you are doing now. When I enrolled, I found out from my advisor that my plan did not work as exactly as I hoped and I needed some extra credits. Coming from that experience, this is my educated guess (please don't take this as gospel):

MISin08 is likely correct that Business Stats will not be accepted as Advanced Level. I would also question whether Intermediate Acct I would be accepted as it doesn't sound like a upper level course. From my advisor's email, "An Advanced level Business Course is one given in a Junior or Senior year at a 4-yr College or University." EC would not take my Business Law II course because I had taken it at a community college even though it is the same content as the equiv. Bus Law II exam that is accepted as advanced level. I don't know anything about the "Sec and Invest" class, so cannot comment on that.

So as I see it, you have at least 6 advanced credits, and maybe 9, that you will likely need to take. The easiest and surefire way I have found to satisfy these is to take the exams that are accepted by EC as advanced level listed on pg 51 in the Business Catalog.

Your other business components seem okay. You didn't post any of your arts and sciences or whether you met the WER requirement.

Here is the other surprise I encountered in my official evaluation: I had completed a paralegal certificate program at a local college and hoped that most if not all of those courses would more than be enough for my arts & sciences and add'l credit components. EC took some but not others, saying that they were considered electives and not arts and sciences. Those courses were not applied at all (even under the "Additional Credit Component"). It seemed pretty random to me since for ex. they took Tort Law and Property Rights, but rejected Civil/Criminal Evidence and Probate Law. I ended up having to take CLEP Sociology to finish up the arts & sciences component. EC applied the following to my Advanced Level: ECE Organizational Behavior, ECE Ethics, and DANTES Management Info Systems; I will be taking DANTES Money and Banking for my final 3 credits.

I hope this helps! The Business Catalog (esp the chart on p 37 and exams on pgs 50-51) is very helpful and an invaluable resource. Let me know if you have any questions.

Helen

[MISin08]

Nice follow-on Helen.

DSST Management Info Systems is a pretty easy exam for upper-level. I've also thought Business Law II would be a good exam for General Business majors because legal issues are so present in business. I am tempted to take it even tough I technically don't need it. We'll see what my GPA is like in a few months

Phillip

[dharmachic]

Thanks, Phillip! And I agree that Bus Law II would be very useful to apply to your business degree. One thing I've learned while working in the legal field is that every business transaction (and most other transactions you perform in life), even seemingly insignificant ones, has legal implications that could put you at a disadvantage if you don't have a general understanding of law.

Only downside is that I don't see very many test resources for that particular exam, as opposed to the others maybe. I was considering taking that for my final 3 adv. credits, but like you, wanted to broaden my knowledge by studying an area I didn't know quite as well, hence Money & Banking.

Good luck!
Helen

[perriquit]

Dharmachic thanks so much for your input it is very valuable!

I was thinking to complete my general education requirements with Bible classes from Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary for $105 x credit hour (SACS accredited). For example I need credits in history so I was planning to take History of Chrsitianity and other Bible classses since it is a topic that I like, but now I am worried they won't take them as art/sciences credits since they are religion classes. Anybody could give me a hand there?

thank you!

[dharmachic]

Tough to say for sure. It may be that EC will take a few religion courses to a certain extent and then not the rest, claiming them as electives.

If financial cost is a consideration for you, I'd focus on local community college courses (I took all my classes online for $26 x c.h.), and the CLEP and DSST exams. Since I wanted as many letter grades, I took mostly DSSTs and classes. Do a google search on your state's community college districts and see what classes they offer, and chances are that you will find them at reasonable cost.

Good luck!
Helen

[perriquit]

Hey Dharmachic I notice you are taking Business Strategy from Excelsior, since I am going for the business degree as well, could you give me some input about the class? difficulty level etc etc? I am a bit scared and I wonder if I should take that class alone or I could also take other college credits at the same time. Thanks!

[dharmachic]

Hey perriquit,

I'm currently in my 4th week in the 15-week class. You read a chapter per week, answer a chapter quiz and participate in online discussions every week. There is a case study paper that acts as a full semester project and is worth 30% of your grade. You choose your topic in the first week, but I haven't started on the paper, so I can't attest to the difficulty of that yet. I am using the international edition of the textbook, which is working just fine and saved me a lot of money.

There is also a capstone exam that covers not only business strategy, but also all the other business subjects, like finance, accounting, marketing, operations, etc. It ties in all you've learned (so I hope you've kept your notes from your other classes/exams!), but although it sounds daunting, it is worth only 5% of your grade. But this is one reason why you may want to take this class last.

The chapter quizzes are easy, taken straight from the textbook. I haven't been graded on my discussion postings yet, so I don't know how well I did in those, but I'm not too concerned about it.

This class is billed as the capstone course for the BS degree, so it is supposed to be taken towards the end of your program. You are supposed to obtain advisor approval before taking the course (which I did), so I don't know how strict EC is in letting you take the course too early in your program. Of course, since you appear to have most of your business classes done already, I suppose you could make an argument for that, but I can't say for sure.

Concurrently with this class, I am studying for the DSST Money & Banking exam which I hope to take soon. If you are good in time management and are focused, you could definitely juggle other courses/exams - this class does not demand all your time.

I'm not sure if you're enrolled in the program yet, but be aware of the financial costs too, since your $895 enrollment fee covers 1 year, after which you are billed $440 every year as a student services fee. That is another reason why it is recommended to wait until you have most if not all credits completed before enrolling and taking this course.

Lastly, I would HIGHLY recommend that you search for "Business Strategy" in this forum and save all the postings of students who have previously taken the course and posted their feedback. It is very helpful, not only in what to expect, but how to study for the capstone exam and what approach to take with the case study paper to maximize points with the professor, as understanding the professor's style is almost as important as learning the material for a good grade. (I have Professor Herbert Sherman, by the way.)

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
Helen

[MISin08]

I appreciate your feedback on Bus 495, Helen, thanks. I am taking it in May.

Phillip