Initial Questions About BA History (T

[mysonx3]

Excelsior is cheaper at this point, though that may depend on what (if any) existing credits you have. I don't have a degree plan for it, but I believe there's a thread where somebody (probably dfrecore) worked it out in order to calculate the price for Excelsior vs TESU.

If you decide to stay with TESU (and, depending on your financial situation, it may be worth doing that because of the information factors you mentioned), your plan looks solid. A few notes:

1. You don't have anything listed for the Historical Methods requirement. There currently isn't a way to get this via alternative credit (one of the reasons Excelsior is cheaper - they don't have this requirement). I took it at TESU, but I think the cheapest online options are Fort Hays State University or American Military University.

2. As long as the Military History class comes in as upper level, and you take an upper level course for the Historical Methods class, you'll be good to go on your upper level requirements. However, there are cheaper options than the Military History class. You could take the Civil War Era class from Study.com, or one of the upper level history classes from Coopersmith. That would also likely be a faster option, though I haven't tried CSU Pueblo. So unless you're taking the class because it interests you and you're willing to pay more and probably spend more time, you should choose a different option.

3. If you're already taking the upper level Vietnam War class from Study.com, you should take the lower level one instead of the DSST. You'll be basically done with the quizzes by the time you finish the upper level class, and taking an extra Study.com exam is cheaper than taking a DSST (plus, you can take it from home)


Your plan looks very similar to mine, so feel free to PM me if you need any help with any of these classes/tests.

No way - it's the absolute legend himself responding. Your guide to history at TESU was the only one I could readily find and understand and was exactly what I was basing my research on yesterday. Thanks a ton for the response.

For the historical methods requirement, I was under the impression that I would need to complete this along with the capstone at TESU so I didn't bother listing it, but I will take a look at those possible alternatives. Also, I believe there is another course, SOS-110, that I will need to take at TESU (I believe this replaced TESU-100? Not 100% sure, but couldn't find any alternative credits equivalent to this required course).

As for the military history class, yeah, I'm a huge military history nerd, so this class caught my eye and I would be willing to fork out a little bit more out of pocket for it. Also, you are absolutely right about using Study.com for the lower level Vietnam course. I've never used Study.com, but I'm assuming you are recommending taking the courses at the same time (or directly after one another) for the easier and cheaper credits.

The only other thing I was going to ask about at the moment was the process of selecting the general education and free electives. I found a list of 'general education courses,' and at the bottom, it says any of the above courses can be used as general education electives, but I can't seem to find a separate list of all courses that would apply to selecting free electives. I'm not particularly interested in planning out free electives at the moment, but I would like to create a basic plan for my general education to get started on that simultaneously. How did you go about this process? Thanks a ton again.

Well, I don't know if I can be considered a "legend" until I actually complete my degree (ETA March 2020), but I appreciate the kind words and I'm glad the plan on the wiki was helpful to you. I wanted to include the link in my initial response to you, but was on my phone so it would've been a pain. Glad you found it anyway!

Doing some back-of-the-napkin math, it looks like you could save about $2k by taking 16 credits in a term at TESU. If you're willing to take on the stress of that, it can be done (I did an equivalent course load at a CC and got all A's while knocking out several CLEPs/SDC courses in the meantime, but your mileage may vary of course). If you go that route, 9 of those credits will be taken up by SOS-110, the Capstone, and Historical Methods. In order to hit exactly 16 (which is the most efficient and cost-effective), you'll need to do either a science lab or ENG-298. For the last six, I would recommend doing ePacks, as they are basically test-outs so will have a lot lower workload. There are ePacks for US History I & II that you could take instead of the CLEP, or you could just do something else and use it for gen ed or an elective.

I would highly recommend taking the Soviet Union DSST by September 30th, even if it means being a bit underprepared because the worst-case scenario is you fail and get to retake for free, best case scenario is you pass and saved yourself some prep time by giving it a go before being totally prepared.