I'm back -- and asking for bachelor's help again!

[nataliedujour]

Hello again DF -- long time no see! Y'all helped me out majorly back in 2014-2016 when I was getting my ASBA from TESU, and I'm incredibly appreciative of the huge collection of info this forum provides. With a sudden wealth of free time on my hands this year thanks to Current Events, I've decided to take another look at getting a bachelor's degree with the credits I've accumulated.

This past week I got readmitted to TESU and started playing around with academic evals, and am currently "enrolled" in the Criminal Justice BA... which would be fine, I'm only 29 credits out from that, but I'm noticing all the degree plans I generate now have the Capstone course requirement (expected) as well as SOS-110 Info Literacy as a requirement (less expected). Barring the ability to transfer SOS-110 in from somewhere, which doesn't appear possible, I'd rather not pay full tuition for two classes if I can help it -- I know one of them is unavoidable, and by taking the Capstone I have enough TESU credits to avoid the residency waiver. With that said... I come to y'all with my list of credits, and my question is: what are some of my cheapest options for a bachelor's degree right now, with the credits I've got? Self-paced or quick-to-complete are nice bonuses, and I'll take a slightly more costly self-paced option over a dirt-cheap program that's drawn out beyond reason, but price is my biggest selling point right now. (If the answer is "suck it up and pay for the two TESU classes" then so be it lol.)

My current earned credits, shown as they transferred into TESU:

AP Credits: ENC-101 English Comp I, MAT-231 Calculus I
CC Credits: ENC-102 College Writing, PSY-101 Introductory Psych, ENG-299 Intro to Novel, CAP-210 Intro to Telecommunications
TESU Credits: MAT-105 Applied Liberal Arts Mathematics, MAR-301 Introduction to Marketing, PSY-350 Abnormal Psychology, AST-101 Introductory Astronomy, SOC-210 Marriage and the Family, ENG-298 Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1CR), PLA-100 Intro Prior Learning Assessment (1CR)
ACE Credits: (Aleks) MAT-115 Intermediate Algebra, MAT-129 Precalculus, STA-201 Principles of Statistics, (Sophia) ECO-111 Macroeconomics, (Straighterline) ACC-101 Principles of Financial Accounting, ACC-102 Principles of Managerial Accounting, MAN-301 Principles of Management, PHI-384 Ethics & Business Professional, LAW-201 Business Law, MAN-311 Organizational Behavior, COM-108 Fundamentals of Speech, CIS-107 Computer Concepts and Applications, SOC-101 Introduction to Sociology, POS-110 American Government, REL-405 World Religions, (Other/Misc) PLA-200 Intro to Portfolio Development (2CR), CIS-299 Special Topics Comp Info Syst and CIS344 Computer Security (2CR each -- probably from TEEX?), HRM-331 Human Resources Management (1CR), FIS-391 Intro Fire Safety Education (1CR), FIS-241 Fire Service Hydraulics (1CR)

I'm happy to post any of my degree evals from TESU if it'll help y'all help me -- I appreciate any and all advice! ♡

[natshar]

Hello again DF -- long time no see! Y'all helped me out majorly back in 2014-2016 when I was getting my ASBA from TESU, and I'm incredibly appreciative of the huge collection of info this forum provides. With a sudden wealth of free time on my hands this year thanks to Current Events, I've decided to take another look at getting a bachelor's degree with the credits I've accumulated.

This past week I got readmitted to TESU and started playing around with academic evals, and am currently "enrolled" in the Criminal Justice BA... which would be fine, I'm only 29 credits out from that, but I'm noticing all the degree plans I generate now have the Capstone course requirement (expected) as well as SOS-110 Info Literacy as a requirement (less expected). Barring the ability to transfer SOS-110 in from somewhere, which doesn't appear possible, I'd rather not pay full tuition for two classes if I can help it -- I know one of them is unavoidable, and by taking the Capstone I have enough TESU credits to avoid the residency waiver. With that said... I come to y'all with my list of credits, and my question is: what are some of my cheapest options for a bachelor's degree right now, with the credits I've got? Self-paced or quick-to-complete are nice bonuses, and I'll take a slightly more costly self-paced option over a dirt-cheap program that's drawn out beyond reason, but price is my biggest selling point right now. (If the answer is "suck it up and pay for the two TESU classes" then so be it lol.)

My current earned credits, shown as they transferred into TESU:

AP Credits: ENC-101 English Comp I, MAT-231 Calculus I
CC Credits: ENC-102 College Writing, PSY-101 Introductory Psych, ENG-299 Intro to Novel, CAP-210 Intro to Telecommunications
TESU Credits: MAT-105 Applied Liberal Arts Mathematics, MAR-301 Introduction to Marketing, PSY-350 Abnormal Psychology, AST-101 Introductory Astronomy, SOC-210 Marriage and the Family, ENG-298 Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1CR), PLA-100 Intro Prior Learning Assessment (1CR)
ACE Credits: (Aleks) MAT-115 Intermediate Algebra, MAT-129 Precalculus, STA-201 Principles of Statistics, (Sophia) ECO-111 Macroeconomics, (Straighterline) ACC-101 Principles of Financial Accounting, ACC-102 Principles of Managerial Accounting, MAN-301 Principles of Management, PHI-384 Ethics & Business Professional, LAW-201 Business Law, MAN-311 Organizational Behavior, COM-108 Fundamentals of Speech, CIS-107 Computer Concepts and Applications, SOC-101 Introduction to Sociology, POS-110 American Government, REL-405 World Religions, (Other/Misc) PLA-200 Intro to Portfolio Development (2CR), CIS-299 Special Topics Comp Info Syst and CIS344 Computer Security (2CR each -- probably from TEEX?), HRM-331 Human Resources Management (1CR), FIS-391 Intro Fire Safety Education (1CR), FIS-241 Fire Service Hydraulics (1CR)

I'm happy to post any of my degree evals from TESU if it'll help y'all help me -- I appreciate any and all advice! ♡

hmm. Honestly you already have enough TESU courses done to avoid the waiver fee. So TESU would actually be a cheap option. Fill out a FAFSA and see if you get a pell grant.

Also all Sophia.org are free right now until the 31st of July. They can meet most gen eds. Do those ASAP.

Also TEEX has some courses that count towards criminal justice.

Do you have to do criminal justice? Because I don't know if it can be fulled tested out of which would cost more money and time for the classes.

If you did Liberal Studies if would be less courses and quicker.  BSBA also could be a good option looks like you've got a lot of it done. Do a "what if" for those and see what happens.

If I were in your shoes, I'd stay with TESU, unless you have your heart set on criminal justice I'd look into other options. Walden has competency based Criminal Justice Bachelors I believe.

[Merlin]

Barring the ability to transfer SOS-110 in from somewhere, which doesn't appear possible, I'd rather not pay full tuition for two classes if I can help it -- I know one of them is unavoidable, and by taking the Capstone I have enough TESU credits to avoid the residency waiver.

TESU eliminated the option to transfer in an information literacy course back in 2018 when they made the cornerstone a required course for all degrees. There is no way to avoid having to take it unless you already have an existing bachelor's degree and you're coming back for a second one. It is considered a GenEd requirement so those are all waived for existing bachelor's degree holders.

So no matter how you look at it, you're going to have to take the cornerstone (SOS-110) and the capstone course for your major in order to graduate from TESU.

It is nice that you have enough residency credits that you don't need to pay for the residency waiver at least.

[nataliedujour]

hmm. Honestly you already have enough TESU courses done to avoid the waiver fee. So TESU would actually be a cheap option. Fill out a FAFSA and see if you get a pell grant.

Also all Sophia.org are free right now until the 31st of July. They can meet most gen eds. Do those ASAP.

Also TEEX has some courses that count towards criminal justice.

Do you have to do criminal justice? Because I don't know if it can be fulled tested out of which would cost more money and time for the classes.

If you did Liberal Studies if would be less courses and quicker.  BSBA also could be a good option looks like you've got a lot of it done. Do a "what if" for those and see what happens.

If I were in your shoes, I'd stay with TESU, unless you have your heart set on criminal justice I'd look into other options. Walden has competency based Criminal Justice Bachelors I believe.

TESU eliminated the option to transfer in an information literacy course back in 2018 when they made the cornerstone a required course for all degrees. There is no way to avoid having to take it unless you already have an existing bachelor's degree and you're coming back for a second one. It is considered a GenEd requirement so those are all waived for existing bachelor's degree holders.

So no matter how you look at it, you're going to have to take the cornerstone (SOS-110) and the capstone course for your major in order to graduate from TESU.

It is nice that you have enough residency credits that you don't need to pay for the residency waiver at least.

@natshar: I can safely say (for better or for worse) I would not be eligible for a Pell grant lol. Even though I'm currently unemployed, my husband makes more than enough money to render me ineligible. Definitely planning on taking every Sophia course I can squeeze in -- I love free courses! I'm not married to the idea of a CJ degree -- that was just the one that happened to be on my mind at the time when I re-enrolled, but if it's not possible to test out I'm open to switching. Liberal Studies looks like it might be easier to get cheap credits for... do you have any recommendations for a concentration, if I were to do a BSBA? Back in 2016 I had toyed with the idea of HR/OM, but I don't know which concentrations are easiest/cheapest nowadays.
Also, I looked into Walden briefly, and I saw they're doing a promotion right now for half-off on a couple of their competency-based programs, CJ and BSBA specifically... I'll have to do some serious digging on how generous their transfer policies are, because that's quite tempting.

@Merlin: I read a thread from last year that mentioned possibly having a TECEP sub in for SOS-110, but it looks like that didn't pan out... there's really no other option besides taking the course itself? Unfortunately this will be my first bachelor's so I don't have the ability to waive that course. Thankfully these two courses together only cost about as much as the residency waiver does, I'm just trying to push my luck for anything cheaper lol.

[natshar]

You have have to do SOS-110 at TESU.

The ONLY ways to get around it are:

1) You are on a catalog that doesn't require it and are grandfathered in to the old requirements.
2) This is your second bachelors degree.


With all the credits you have and the sophia, you'd probably have liberal studies done. And business you have mostly done as well. Nothing wrong with CJ, it is just a bit more difficult to plan and doesn't make as good use of your credits. If you are able to play around with the "what if" in the evaluation. but you might have to be enrolled to do that.

Are any of your ACE credits study.com? If yes, then maybe you can get the study.com discount. I'd ask them about it asap if thats the case.

Did you happen to take TES-100? Then maybe you'd be able to not take SOS-110 not sure though.

[allvia]

With the UL credits you already have I would suggest you look at one of the BSBA options.

[bjcheung77]

With the UL credits you already have I would suggest you look at one of the BSBA options.

Just noticed this thread, I highly recommend getting the BSBA as well. You can work on a concentration last, you have one course (Organizational Behavior) that can be used for the General Management option if you want to leave it with that. Your first steps are to complete as many Sophia.org courses that can apply to your degree, you can take the Project Management course as it would be used as a Lower Level for the AOS Area of Study.

You need to get an evaluation and see what is missing, then work on those with Sophia.org/CLEP and Study.com, I also highly recommend Study.com when you decide on an AOS for the BSBA as it has the most upper level requirements for the BALS/BSBA degrees. If you want the HRM/ORM option, I think that should be fully test-out-able with Study.com and alternative other providers.

[natshar]

With the UL credits you already have I would suggest you look at one of the BSBA options.

Just noticed this thread, I highly recommend getting the BSBA as well.  You can work on a concentration last, you have one course (Organizational Behavior) that can be used for the General Management option if you want to leave it with that.  Your first steps are to complete as many Sophia.org courses that can apply to your degree, you can take the Project Management course as it would be used as a Lower Level for the AOS Area of Study.

You need to get an evaluation and see what is missing, then work on those with Sophia.org/CLEP and Study.com, I also highly recommend Study.com when you decide on an AOS for the BSBA as it has the most upper level requirements for the BALS/BSBA degrees.  If you want the HRM/ORM option, I think that should be fully test-out-able with Study.com and alternative other providers.

Actually they have more than just UL course. almost all of BSBA GM AOS is done. If marketing, management, hr, and org behavior are all UL then, just take LL versions for the core and move the UL ones to the aos. GM aos might be all set besides one finance or accounting course and it can be LL.

Just have to retake the management and marketing as LL options but that is easier than doing more UL. study.com has marketing, management, and organizational behavior all as ll.

HR could also be a good BSBA major but it would require more work for UL courses.

Do an audit for BSBA GM. That could be a really good option as far as speed goes. Looks like you it almost done.

[nataliedujour]

So with the BSMA GM, aside from SOS-110 and the capstone I'm missing:
3 Gen Ed elective credits (somehow -- pretty sure I can just put something from Sophia here though)
FIN-301
MAN-372 or BUS-311 (would Sophia "Intro to Business" satisfy this?...)
ECO-112 (I can Sophia this)
MAN-373
AOS requirements: I have 4 credits out of the 18 required -- 3 in MAN and 1 in HRM, both courses UL.

With the BSBA HR/OM, aside from SOS-110 and the Capstone I'm missing:
3 Gen Ed elective credits (somehow -- pretty sure I can just put something from Sophia here though)
FIN-301
MAN-372 or BUS-311 (would Sophia "Intro to Business" satisfy this?...)
ECO-112 (I can Sophia this)
MAN-373
AOS requirements: I need MAN-331, PSY-360, and 9 HR/OM elective credits

With the BA in CJ, aside from SOS-110 and the Capstone I'm missing:
AOJ-102,SOC-291, AOJ-101, AOJ-358, AOJ-111, AOJ-363, PHI-383 and 4 more AOS elective credits

It almost certainly would be easier to get the missing credits I need for either of those BSBAs, but I'm definitely curious as to what the availability of AOJ alt credits is like...

[natshar]

So with the BSMA GM, aside from SOS-110 and the capstone I'm missing:
3 Gen Ed elective credits (somehow -- pretty sure I can just put something from Sophia here though)
FIN-301
MAN-372 or BUS-311 (would Sophia "Intro to Business" satisfy this?...)
ECO-112 (I can Sophia this)
MAN-373
AOS requirements: I have 4 credits out of the 18 required -- 3 in MAN and 1 in HRM, both courses UL.

With the BSBA HR/OM, aside from SOS-110 and the Capstone I'm missing:
3 Gen Ed elective credits (somehow -- pretty sure I can just put something from Sophia here though)
FIN-301
MAN-372 or BUS-311 (would Sophia "Intro to Business" satisfy this?...)
ECO-112 (I can Sophia this)
MAN-373
AOS requirements: I need MAN-331, PSY-360, and 9 HR/OM elective credits

With the BA in CJ, aside from SOS-110 and the Capstone I'm missing:
AOJ-102,SOC-291, AOJ-101, AOJ-358, AOJ-111, AOJ-363, PHI-383 and 4 more AOS elective credits

It almost certainly would be easier to get the missing credits I need for either of those BSBAs, but I'm definitely curious as to what the availability of AOJ alt credits is like...

Yes the gen ed elective just do anything non-business on sophia that doesn't duplicate anything you already have. 


For BSBA: 

So FIN-301 can be LL: study.com Finance 101.

Man-372 or BUS-311 Sophia intro to business would not work: Do study.com Business 120

ECO-112 Sophia

MAN-373: Do study.com business 113

Sophia intro to business if a free elective.


I'd see if you can get these to count as UL for the AOS for GM:

MAR-301 Introduction to Marketing
MAN-301 Principles of Management
PHI-384 Ethics & Business Professional
MAN-311 Organizational Behavior
HRM-331 Human Resources Management 


If you can get at least 4 of them to count for GM then you'd have all you UL done. Idk where you took them from to get UL back in the day. Just take Management and Marketing from a different source then you did the first time around to get them as LL. It is a different course number so you should be able to do both. Also, sophia project management is free and counts as LL AOS. e-mail TESU and ask them.

For BSBA HR: how do you need MAN-331 when you already have it done? Anyways Sophia project management is free and counts as LL. Maybe PHI-384 or MAN-301 would count for the AOS, idk it doesn't hurt to ask.



The Criminal Justice credits are not all available via alt credit. Not sure which ones, but I'm pretty sure you'd have to pay more find them and take a semester to do them. Looks like all UL ones aren't on study.com and if they don't have them, not sure where else they'd be with ACE.