It's Time for My Son to Enroll at TESU. Is He on the Right Track?

[Rachel84in]

First, I'm not very creative with usernames and I plead guilty for shamelessly borrowing a good formula that might help differentiate those of us with the same name. 

I've been a long-time lurker and have been working with my son to put together a degree plan for him at TESU. He's studied for most of his CLEP exams using Instacert, which has been great for him. He'd like to get a BA in Liberal Arts as well as an AS in Business Administration. He's interested in banking and would like to pursue a part-time job at a bank and I think it would be good to put on his resume that he's enrolled at TESU. 

Now that it's time to start thinking about enrolling, there are some things that are a little fuzzy to me.  

• It's recommended to sign up for the medical transcription TECEP (but not bother taking it) after enrolling. What exactly does this do or avoid? 
  
• It's my understanding the residency waiver does not need to be paid until time to graduate. Am I correct? (I don't see my son going the 15-credit route)
  
• What would you recommend as far as finishing the degrees? I'm thinking he would just finish them both at the same time unless I'm missing something.
  

I'm attaching an outline of completed and anticipated course work that I think will fulfill the requirements and that my son is interested in taking.  I would appreciate a critique. Below are a couple of questions that have come to mind:

• The DSST Public Speaking course is equivalent to TESU COM 3090. As a Liberal Arts course, would this fulfill one of the 15 cr. UL requirements for the Liberal Studies major? (understanding that another course would need to be taken to complete the total number of credits required in the area of study).
  
• I'm a little unsure about using Introduction to Business, Ethics and Entrepreneurship from TEL to satisfy the Ethical Leadership requirement. McMurray University accepts it as "Ethics and Entrepreneurship in the Modern World." Any opinions on how TESU might accept it?
  

Thank you for taking time to look this plan. I know I wouldn't have been able to do it without the wealth of information on this forum. I'm looking forward to your feedback.

Your Location: Indiana, United States. 
Your Age: 22
What kind of degree do you want?: BA Liberal Arts; AS Business Administration
Current Regional Accredited Credits: None

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:

CLEP:
College Composition 6
Social Science & History 6 
History of US I 3
History of US II 3
American Government 3
Humanities 6
Natural Sciences 6
Western Civilization I 3
Western Civilization II 3
Analyzing & Interpreting Literature 6
English Literature 6

DSST:
World Religions 3

Total Credits: 54

Budget: We anticipate paying about $10K.  
Commitments: He works part-time (about 15 hours/week).
Dedicated time to study: He can study as much as he needs to.
Timeline: Anticipating 2 years, less would be better.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: No

[allvia]

Since I don't see any particular reason you're going with TESU over any other school, do you mind sharing why TESU vs Pierpont/UMPI (or even just UMPI)? I would think for your son's current professional interest, his age, his current lack of RA credits the later would be a better option; and much more budget friendly. I would urge him to go for a BSBA/BABA over a liberal studies. He is quite young, and a business degree would have better ROI long term. Now, if he has technical aspirations then maybe the Pierpont/UMPI BAS might be another option, but since your plan doesn't include anything technical at all, so I would say go with a BABA.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Hairstylist in 1995:

DegreeForum reader today:

“Everyone’s The Rachel now!”

[Rachel84in]

Since I don't see any particular reason you're going with TESU over any other school, do you mind sharing why TESU vs Pierpont/UMPI (or even just UMPI)? I would think for your son's current professional interest, his age, his current lack of RA credits the later would be a better option; and much more budget friendly. I would urge him to go for a BSBA/BABA over a liberal studies. He is quite young, and a business degree would have better ROI long term. Now, if he has technical aspirations then maybe the Pierpont/UMPI BAS might be another option, but since your plan doesn't include anything technical at all, so I would say go with a BABA.

I don't really know a lot about Pierpont or UMPI. TESU looked the best out of the "Big 3."  My son is pretty right-brained and has always struggled with math and science. He's really more of liberal arts (humanities) kind of guy, but he doesn't want to be a teacher or go to graduate school in the Humanities. I don't see him doing any sort of investment banking or anything requiring data analysis but he would probably gravitate toward more of the people-oriented aspects like retail banking or maybe human resources.

[jg_nuy]

Here is one of the plans from UMPI that could serve him pretty well and is not too science or technical related - very little math involved:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan

The general education requirements that he doesn't already have could be done using Sophia:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...ts_Roadmap

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For TESU, I would recommend the BSBA in Finance or the BSBA in HRM over the BSLA:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan

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TESU requires 30 RA credits. If you are considering paying the waiver fee, you can also consider some LL TECEP exams to reach that goal.

DSST Public Speaking course is equivalent to TESU COM 3090 - at TESU, it would be slotted into the general education Oral Communication requirements, so it would not be counted into the 15 UL liberal arts requirements.

Pretty much any Intro to Ethics course will fulfill the Ethical Leadership requirement. Intro to Business would not.

[bjcheung77]

@Rachel84in, Welcome to the board, I would suggest having him go through a few more Modern States plus Sophia.org classes and see what subject matter interest him the most. He can also take a look at some ACE credit using cheap/freebies available, these can be used for the electives... He might be interested in computers, cybersecurity, data analytics, IT, Project Management, UX design, etc, have him take classes to see where he is more interested in, then decide on a path such as Pierpont BOG AAS with an emphasis of choice, ladder that to UMPI BAS (Applied Science) with a minor or two. With the money he saves, he can try to go for the MAOL last, the total would be close to 10K for an Associates, Bachelors and Masters combo, and he'll be well versed in multiple fields...

[Rachel84in]

Thank you all for your input. You've given my son a lot of options.

[allvia]

Since I don't see any particular reason you're going with TESU over any other school, do you mind sharing why TESU vs Pierpont/UMPI (or even just UMPI)? I would think for your son's current professional interest, his age, his current lack of RA credits the later would be a better option; and much more budget friendly. I would urge him to go for a BSBA/BABA over a liberal studies. He is quite young, and a business degree would have better ROI long term. Now, if he has technical aspirations then maybe the Pierpont/UMPI BAS might be another option, but since your plan doesn't include anything technical at all, so I would say go with a BABA.

I don't really know a lot about Pierpont or UMPI. TESU looked the best out of the "Big 3."  My son is pretty right-brained and has always struggled with math and science. He's really more of liberal arts (humanities) kind of guy, but he doesn't want to be a teacher or go to graduate school in the Humanities. I don't see him doing any sort of investment banking or anything requiring data analysis but he would probably gravitate toward more of the people-oriented aspects like retail banking or maybe human resources.

I do still think the business degree would be better long term ROI, but for practical and financial reasons I still think UMPI would be a better option in your son's sitution. Sophia is pretty much all he'd need beyond UMPI, even at a slower pace of up to 3 terms it would be cheaper than TESU (both are state schools, so that's equal value).  UMPI also has BLS options if that is something you just feel is a better fit, here are the UMPI YourPace degree program we talk about here: https://www.umpi.edu/yourpace/academic_programs/

[CharisandJon]

I agree that a business degree would serve him a lot better in his professional goals. There are so many different types of roles in banking, like working with loans, underwriting, asset management, credit analyst, financial advising, treasury analyst, fraud examiner, etc. (investment banking is just one aspect that’s pretty competitive/grueling and most bankers don’t work in). These all have their own career pathways, but I just wanted to give some examples as there are wide variety of roles in the banking industry. Typically, a finance degree is the most desired/helpful degree in the banking industry (accounting is good too). If he doesn’t want to do a finance or accounting degree though, then a business degree would be a lot more beneficial than a BLS. Even if he wants to stay in retail banking and move up the ranks to a retail banking manager, they’ll prefer that he has a business bachelor’s degree. A business bachelor’s degree will also be better and preferred if he wants to get into HR. If he’s set on a liberal studies degree though and you’re looking into UMPI, then UMPI’s BLS degree with minors in like business and/or accounting would probably look better. He might even be able to do a double degree with UMPI’s BLS and BABA degrees, but I’m not 100% sure about that.