High Schooler Options - BSBA / BABA

[dfrecore]

At EU, you need all the usual stuff for GE, so get the following at the CC (they'll transfer anywhere, in case you end up doing something different):
- English Comp I (which I recommend at the CC, you need the practice writing papers and researching no matter where you end up)
- Business Ethics
- 2 add'l Humanities courses
- 2 SocSci courses (I'm choosing Macroecon and Microecon here, those are required for most business degrees)
- at least 1 history course, preferably US History
- College Algebra or higher
- Statistics
- at least 1 science course, I'd probably do a Biological Science and a Physical Science, and I might do one of these with a lab

This kind of covers a lot of bases - it gets the GE for EU, but it also gets courses that you'd need for high school anyway, and prepares you no matter which degree you choose and which school you choose (kids can change their minds).

Some others to consider if you want to get started on the business stuff:
- Financial Accounting
- Managerial Accounting
- Business Writing
- Business Law
- Prin of Management
- Prin of Marketing
- Intro to Computers/Business Applications in Computers

[prettykiti09]

English Comp CLEP exams are not accepted by Excelsior. At all.
You can take English Comp I from Sophia. However, English Comp II is NOT accepted by Excelsior for Business degrees (it should be accepted for Liberal Studies degrees). Instead of English Comp II, students need a Business Writing course that is available through Coopersmith.

Thanks for this reminder. I read about the ENG acceptable credits changing. Good to see Coopersmith is still a possible option for 1 of them. I'll be sure to keep this in mind helping her pick classes.

@ItsNeverTheLionsYear WOW! thank you so much for taking time to reply with so many details. I'm sure I'll be referring back to this post many times.
One think she's expressed concern about has been pigeon holing herself into a specific study/job field too young. She understands that her desires are likely to expand and change as she grows more and as she enters the job market and gets experience. That's why she's been looking at the broad general degrees. I completely agree about gaining experience in more specific areas through internships or low level positions or even specific studies in order to be an appealing candidate.

@dfrecore Excellent advice about what courses to consider in CC. She already CLEP'd College Algebra but I'll look through what's available through the CC and we'll look at the rate my professors for who's teaching each of these course options. That should help us narrow down a good idea of where to start out at the CC.

[ItsNeverTheLionsYear]

One think she's expressed concern about has been pigeon holing herself into a specific study/job field too young.  She understands that her desires are likely to expand and change as she grows more and as she enters the job market and gets experience.  That's why she's been looking at the broad general degrees.

That's totally fair - I felt the same way at her age! She should be just fine, especially if she gets substantive internships. She can also always decide to specialize her degree later on if she discovers something down the line that she absolutely loves.

If she wants to try things out, she should also try looking for ways she can get experience during the year. I'd recommend seeing if any local charities or nonprofits need help with their office work and take office volunteers. Religious institutions, local government offices, and political parties count too. 

These places have many of the same office needs a business has. They have databases and websites and other IT systems, they have newsletters and email blasts and social media accounts, they organize and host events, they have projects that need managing, they have finances and budgets they need to track, they have (volunteer) boards and advisory committees, they have volunteers supervise other volunteers... it could be great way for her to get some experience and help her figure out what she wants to do in an office environment with low stakes and a low barrier to entry.

Also, now that I'm writing this, be prepared for her to face some rejection or belittlement, at least at first. It's often tough enough as is for a teenage girl to be taken seriously, and it'll be even tougher for one with her ambitions. That said, it sounds like she's more than up for the task at hand, and they'll regret it all when she's a CEO or the president or something like that.

[bjcheung77]

@prettykiti09, which state are you in, which institution is she attending for dual enrolment?  Some states have community colleges that require only 25% of the degree completed at the institution, others may have more, depending on the institution or state regulations.  My recommendation of getting the Associates on route to the Bachelors doesn’t require any extra work or unnecessary classes.

Why get an associates you may ask? Well, it’s from a local institution and you’re getting the classes practically free or extremely inexpensive.  You’re using this for RA, graded credit just in case she’s going to a semi-competitive grad program, and it’s used towards your Bachelors.  How does it work you ask? The Associates degree seamlessly gets transferred entirely into the general education and electives of the Bachelors.

If you’re wondering, it goes like this, dual enrolment along with CLEP/AP for Associates, these go towards the Bachelors, take the remaining credits of both lower and upper level from ACE/NCCRS sources until you hit the 113 credits towards Excelsior University BSLA.  Graduate both the High School and Associates at the same time when you hit those 113 credits, finish the remaining 7 credits at Excelsior and voila, you’re done!

Essentially, several of our high school students have resourcefully planned their Associates, Bachelors combo and have finished one right after the other.  An example of someone doing the CC Associates, TESU BA Comp Sci, and the WGU MBA and being the youngest in history for the Associates at the CC, plus youngest at TESU… My third time posting this link: https://modernstates.org/news/how-to-get...gh-school/

[prettykiti09]

@bjcheung77 We're currently in FL but not certain we'll be here her entire high school/ college career. She's starting dual enrollment at the local community college (called state college here) which limits dual enrollment students to a max of 11 credits (3 classes) per semester for up to 3 years. I'm currently most concerned with mapping out her High School Diploma and end goal of a bachelor's degree. I will definitely look through it once I have it mapped out and see how close to the Associates we are and if we can interchange any classes to make the Associates fit and consider applying to graduate locally (assuming we're still local at that point). I don't think they take NCCRS credit and only take some ACE credits, so meeting the associate's degree requirements may or may not line up.
I have also read about the possibility of basically nesting an associate's degree into a bachelor's degree and getting both from Excelsior.
I am by no means ruling out the possibilities but I am focusing more on the bachelor's degree. If she ends up speeding through ACE, CLEP, NCCRS, etc. I don't want to make her slow down or wait to do classes through the local college just for the sake of the associate degree, but if it works out and timing is right then it's definitely worth doing.

[bjcheung77]

Excelsior is a great option for the Bachelors, if you're adding the Associates to the degree, I think it's a bit too much as they charge for an associates capstone. Some colleges/universities don't have Associates capstone course requirements, TESU has some Associates that do have capstones, some associates at TESU don't, UMPI does not if I recall correctly. I usually recommend getting the associates at the institution if it doesn't take any extra energy, money, time to get them. The Associates at TESU/UMPI for example, are free on route to their respective Bachelors counterpart...

What you should do is create a spreadsheet of the Excelsior BSLA or BSBA requirements by using the requirements on their catalog or webpage. You'll know what courses you require and then select alternative credit, plus your community college credits, this way you won't be taking any extra courses when her dual enrollment starts, you'll also have your ACE, NCCRS, alternative credits lined up to the requirements, you'll just then need to go through it - provider by provider until it's complete. I agree, too much to think about, skip the Associates for now, get that spreadsheet done and link us to it.

[prettykiti09]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15IYVX1rOcgI0wG3D6JTo9NtNUdo_ci2ecKdUpISed1g/edit?usp=sharing

on the Doc
PSC =  Our local community college

Here's what I have so far.  I think upper level will be where she hits some snags.  I know EU has changed and started counting some of the UL SDC courses as LL  so I'll have to keep researching on that and on the other credit options. 
I looked at the AS in Business Admin from the local community college and it has some of the same courses listed as being LL and required for their degree so I do see a possible concern with trying to line up both that EU would not count those credits and would see them as duplicated material to the UL from the other sources.  So I'm thinking we save those classes for the future and see where we land.

[dfrecore]

I think ASU UL is kind of pricy, so that would be low on my list of options. I especially hate their English Comp I course - peer-reviewed at best, my kid learned absolutely nothing in that course.

CIS309: Business Process Management may not count as meeting the Principles of Management requirement, I would be prepared for it to not work just in case
CIS405: Business Intelligence is part of the Applied Business Analytics Certificate - not sure that EU will bring that in as a Business Elective (they're not real gung-ho on computer courses in general)

Also make sure that you don't take too many of the business courses from a CC, as a certain number need to be UL

Quantitative Analysis can be met by Coopersmith's MAT-303: Quantitative Analysis (UL) course

[bjcheung77]

@prettykiti09, find your medium/provider list that your teen is interested in, build a degree plan from those. You're using dual enrollment, do so for all classes you can take, supplement those with the ACE options such as Sophia.org, they have a transfer guide to show you which courses are acceptable and what it transfers in as, do the same for Study.com or whatever else. In essence, you're completing the requirements with an ACE/Dual Enrollment combo, taking courses that can be done from these combined with the final requirements at Excelsior.