11-29-2016, 11:35 PM
So, I had almost given up on the idea that I would ever say this... but I am finished. Discovering this site and its vast wealth of information has allowed me to finally finish something I had started over 13 years ago. So, my grade for my capstone posted today and they reevaluated and I have been certified for December graduation.
My story is similar to many on this site. I had taken classes part time while in the Army. After four years in the army, I went to a community college where over a decade of off and on attendance I accumulated numerous credits, but never seemed to wrap it up into a finished piece of paper. Many things in life would get in the way and it never seemed I would finish. Thanks to this site and its members I can finally say I am done and will be receiving my BA in Liberal Studies from Thomas Edison State University.
I figured I might as well give my take on my plan. I started mid september and had my capstone paper turned in by late October. I transferred in quite a bit. Here is what I completed in an alternative manner to finish my degree:
My upper level area of study consisted of the following:
Intro to World Relgions via straighterline (3 hours): Let me preface my commentary with this... I prefer a one and done test to straighterline. It is am amazing resource, however, DSST / CLEPS were more enjoyable to me. I would absolutely still recommend SL however. I bought an older edition of the text book for this one. I feel the material and course would have been a bit easier and quicker to conquer had I splurged for the ebook. It's not an extremely difficult course though and it is rather interesting.
Microbiology without lab via straighterline (3 hours): I found this one tedious. This is not my best subject. I bought a used physical version of the text book and again, it would have been nice to have went for the ebook, especially for this one. I managed to make it through this one however and it was one of the cheaper courses in my plan. No major complaints.
Business Ethics via straighterline (3 hours): This one I actually had the ebook as it was only an additional 20 dollars. This was my first and favorite straighterline course. I took one of the tests the first day and binged the rest other than the proctored exam the next day. I found the text and the topic interesting.
Organizational Behavior via DSST (3 hours): I took this one cold and passed with more points than I needed. I can't remember my exact score offhand but I found it to be pretty common sense.
Substance abuse via DSST (3 hours): I spend about 3 hours going through instacert before taking this exam. I feel this one was pretty common sense, but I also feel the light studying I did was vital to passing this exam.
Some LL I needed:
Social Sciences and history via CLEP (new version) (6 hours): I had a solid knowledge of the subject matter from previous course work and personal study so I took this one cold and got a 60 something. Knowledge of history and economics seemed to be all that was needed to pass this one. I had recently taken microeconomics and history has always been something of great interest for me. If you don't know much about economics I would brush up on that before taking this.
Civic engagement:
I had a class I figured would fill this slot from UMUC. However, they denied my appeal on this.
American Government via CLEP (3 hours): I studyed a few hours on instacert and did the practice test on free clep prep and managed a 60 something on this. I have always been interested in this topic and this test played to a strength of mine.
Ethics:
Environmental Ethics via TECEP (3 hours): I figured out about the free ethics course after I had already scheduled this so I just decided to take this instead. I studied quite a bit more for this than I had for other exams due to hearing TECEPs were harder. It was very specific.
Information literacy:
A&I literature via CLEP (6 hours): I had already taken a DSST and decided to double up. I took this cold and barely passed with a 53. I was shocked as I figured this would be a breeze for me as I had always considered I was rather well read and good at this sort of thing. Still, I managed to pass.
Quantitative Literacy:
Intermediate Alegebra via ALEKS (3 hours): ALEKS is a godsend and with ACE approval being extended, if you haven't done it, do it now!
Cornerstone via TESU (1 hour): Super easy.
Lib 495 Capstone via TESU (3 hours): I ended up writing a 37 page paper for this one. I found it was formatted to be rather repetitive and unlike any paper I had ever written. I turned it in early because I actually used vacation time to finish it.
Whew! So, I think I got everything. The rest of my degree was all transfer hours from UMUC and community college. I figure I might as well share with you guys and gals and it hopefully might help someone. If anyone has any questions about what I did or how I did it, feel free to ask.
In conclusion... if you have been trying to finish your degree for a while now, it can be done. If you asked me a few months ago if I was going to be considering where to go for my MBA right now (pretty settled on WGU I think), I would have laughed at you. Go Nike with it, Just do it. I want to thank everyone on this forum for this wealth of information.
My story is similar to many on this site. I had taken classes part time while in the Army. After four years in the army, I went to a community college where over a decade of off and on attendance I accumulated numerous credits, but never seemed to wrap it up into a finished piece of paper. Many things in life would get in the way and it never seemed I would finish. Thanks to this site and its members I can finally say I am done and will be receiving my BA in Liberal Studies from Thomas Edison State University.
I figured I might as well give my take on my plan. I started mid september and had my capstone paper turned in by late October. I transferred in quite a bit. Here is what I completed in an alternative manner to finish my degree:
My upper level area of study consisted of the following:
Intro to World Relgions via straighterline (3 hours): Let me preface my commentary with this... I prefer a one and done test to straighterline. It is am amazing resource, however, DSST / CLEPS were more enjoyable to me. I would absolutely still recommend SL however. I bought an older edition of the text book for this one. I feel the material and course would have been a bit easier and quicker to conquer had I splurged for the ebook. It's not an extremely difficult course though and it is rather interesting.
Microbiology without lab via straighterline (3 hours): I found this one tedious. This is not my best subject. I bought a used physical version of the text book and again, it would have been nice to have went for the ebook, especially for this one. I managed to make it through this one however and it was one of the cheaper courses in my plan. No major complaints.
Business Ethics via straighterline (3 hours): This one I actually had the ebook as it was only an additional 20 dollars. This was my first and favorite straighterline course. I took one of the tests the first day and binged the rest other than the proctored exam the next day. I found the text and the topic interesting.
Organizational Behavior via DSST (3 hours): I took this one cold and passed with more points than I needed. I can't remember my exact score offhand but I found it to be pretty common sense.
Substance abuse via DSST (3 hours): I spend about 3 hours going through instacert before taking this exam. I feel this one was pretty common sense, but I also feel the light studying I did was vital to passing this exam.
Some LL I needed:
Social Sciences and history via CLEP (new version) (6 hours): I had a solid knowledge of the subject matter from previous course work and personal study so I took this one cold and got a 60 something. Knowledge of history and economics seemed to be all that was needed to pass this one. I had recently taken microeconomics and history has always been something of great interest for me. If you don't know much about economics I would brush up on that before taking this.
Civic engagement:
I had a class I figured would fill this slot from UMUC. However, they denied my appeal on this.
American Government via CLEP (3 hours): I studyed a few hours on instacert and did the practice test on free clep prep and managed a 60 something on this. I have always been interested in this topic and this test played to a strength of mine.
Ethics:
Environmental Ethics via TECEP (3 hours): I figured out about the free ethics course after I had already scheduled this so I just decided to take this instead. I studied quite a bit more for this than I had for other exams due to hearing TECEPs were harder. It was very specific.
Information literacy:
A&I literature via CLEP (6 hours): I had already taken a DSST and decided to double up. I took this cold and barely passed with a 53. I was shocked as I figured this would be a breeze for me as I had always considered I was rather well read and good at this sort of thing. Still, I managed to pass.
Quantitative Literacy:
Intermediate Alegebra via ALEKS (3 hours): ALEKS is a godsend and with ACE approval being extended, if you haven't done it, do it now!
Cornerstone via TESU (1 hour): Super easy.
Lib 495 Capstone via TESU (3 hours): I ended up writing a 37 page paper for this one. I found it was formatted to be rather repetitive and unlike any paper I had ever written. I turned it in early because I actually used vacation time to finish it.
Whew! So, I think I got everything. The rest of my degree was all transfer hours from UMUC and community college. I figure I might as well share with you guys and gals and it hopefully might help someone. If anyone has any questions about what I did or how I did it, feel free to ask.
In conclusion... if you have been trying to finish your degree for a while now, it can be done. If you asked me a few months ago if I was going to be considering where to go for my MBA right now (pretty settled on WGU I think), I would have laughed at you. Go Nike with it, Just do it. I want to thank everyone on this forum for this wealth of information.
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