12-28-2023, 04:11 PM
Hey all! I posted asking for some advice over on the TECEP forum, and was advised y'all might be interested in what I was up to as well.
Penn State, a relatively well rated state school, has a somewhat unique campus system they call "One Penn State." Essentially, whether you attend at the main campis in State College, PA (University Park) or any of the branch campuses, you get the exact same degree with the exact same courses (obviously not every major is offered at every campus, but the point stands) This applies to the "World Campus," meaning you can get a very well respected degree online. The vast majority of classes (if not all) are asynchronous - they have deadlines, but they're spread out through the semester and outside of some group projects nothing requires any specific time availability. The only exception I've found has been some final exams only being open for a day or two, but emailing the professor with an exigent circumstance has always worked when necessary.
You have to go through the same transfer credit process for WC as any campus - same degree, remember - but you can look up equivalencies for already reviewed courses online. CLEPS/DSSTs are also available.
Here's what I had to say for anyone interested:
I went because it was the best online program I could find that conferred a "name brand" degree. ASU Online was the only other really good option I found (and I sometimes wish I'd gone there; they match Tuition Assistance, more majors, accelerated courses, etc.) Purdue is a name brand school, but Purdue Global is its own degree. PSU confers the same degrees regardless of campus (has to do with how they structure their branch campuses in PA) and is a slightly better rated school. Plus, if you have a military-related justification, you can drop classes at any point in the semester for a refund and not have it effect your GPA - huge deal for me.
The classes are hard compared to any of the online-type schools, even ASU and blow something like Purdue global or UMPI out of the water (other people at my unit attend both), especially in upper division. Lots of writing, and proctoring/group work can be difficult. The BS in political science is really hard, I swapped over to the BA despite the Spanish hurdle. The BS in poly sci requires PLSC 308 and 309, which are only offered in the fall and spring semesters respectively and are basically applied data/research courses, and then you need nine credits of a poly sci data/methodology course, which have 308/309 as pre-reqs and are quite hard. There's transfer credit that works for 308, but very little for 309 and they've never accepted any for the methodology courses.
This is because of how PSU handles transfer credit. They accept pretty much anything for courses, with the exception of some of those remedial courses on SOPHIA. The issue is that you need to submit a syllabus if it's never been evaluated, and it needs to match something like 80% of a course PSU (not PSU world, but anything in the entire catalog) offers. If it does, you get transfer credit for that exact course, and if it works for your major you're set. Otherwise, you get misc credit in the program area. That covers elective requirements, and maybe lower level courses for a minor or something like that, but they're largely useless. The residency requirement is only like 30 credits, but you're not going to be able to transfer in 90 credits that perfectly meet your degree requirements with any of the more difficult majors.
Especially in upper level courses, I'd say at least half of the other people in my class are from UP (the main campus) and the other half is 50/50 branch campuses and WC. That's clearly part of why it's so hard - definitely expected to be easier than UP but sometimes you need to remind a Professor that they, say, can't only open the final for one day because you're in the middle of the Pacific at the moment. But when you do, they tend to be pretty accommodating, and if they're not the advising and military benefits people are amazing. With the exception of the chair of the plsc department, everyone I've interacted with has been great and accommodating, but man they're protective of that BS in poly sci. The only way to do it in less than three semesters would be to transfer in PLSC 308, take 309 the spring, then an overload of methodology courses the next fall.
No proctoring in most of my classes, but it's political science, pretty much everything is papers, and research, with a few open book quizzes and the like. Anything that I've needed proctored where I didn't have honorlock (no webcams on work computers) they've been OK with sending to my Education Services Officer and letting him proctor, but if honorlock works for you you'll be fine; that's mostly in the (extremely challenging but very highly rated nationally) IST and computer science type programs.
They used to cap tuition, but now if you take over 19 credits you pay extra. They waive a lot of the tuition for military, but it's not enough to match TA. Financial aid has been great though - Pell grant, TA, the military grant in aid, a scholarship I applied for, and merit based departmental grants have left me with tuition mostly paid for, and occasionally some extra.
Sent your SOPHIA transcript with parchment, getting them to look the courses up with the Credly transcript without course number is a pain. Definitely engage with your advisor and "transfer specialist," you can get things changed if you push it. You only have one semester to submit syllabi before they'll award general credit.
Tl;dr, name brand degree (again, same diploma as UP and mostly UP students) from a name brand school, but you put in the work for it, and have to jump through the same hoops another PSU student would have to. Advising, the financial aid office, the military affairs and pre-law advising people, and the amazing professors help a lot.
Penn State, a relatively well rated state school, has a somewhat unique campus system they call "One Penn State." Essentially, whether you attend at the main campis in State College, PA (University Park) or any of the branch campuses, you get the exact same degree with the exact same courses (obviously not every major is offered at every campus, but the point stands) This applies to the "World Campus," meaning you can get a very well respected degree online. The vast majority of classes (if not all) are asynchronous - they have deadlines, but they're spread out through the semester and outside of some group projects nothing requires any specific time availability. The only exception I've found has been some final exams only being open for a day or two, but emailing the professor with an exigent circumstance has always worked when necessary.
You have to go through the same transfer credit process for WC as any campus - same degree, remember - but you can look up equivalencies for already reviewed courses online. CLEPS/DSSTs are also available.
Here's what I had to say for anyone interested:
I went because it was the best online program I could find that conferred a "name brand" degree. ASU Online was the only other really good option I found (and I sometimes wish I'd gone there; they match Tuition Assistance, more majors, accelerated courses, etc.) Purdue is a name brand school, but Purdue Global is its own degree. PSU confers the same degrees regardless of campus (has to do with how they structure their branch campuses in PA) and is a slightly better rated school. Plus, if you have a military-related justification, you can drop classes at any point in the semester for a refund and not have it effect your GPA - huge deal for me.
The classes are hard compared to any of the online-type schools, even ASU and blow something like Purdue global or UMPI out of the water (other people at my unit attend both), especially in upper division. Lots of writing, and proctoring/group work can be difficult. The BS in political science is really hard, I swapped over to the BA despite the Spanish hurdle. The BS in poly sci requires PLSC 308 and 309, which are only offered in the fall and spring semesters respectively and are basically applied data/research courses, and then you need nine credits of a poly sci data/methodology course, which have 308/309 as pre-reqs and are quite hard. There's transfer credit that works for 308, but very little for 309 and they've never accepted any for the methodology courses.
This is because of how PSU handles transfer credit. They accept pretty much anything for courses, with the exception of some of those remedial courses on SOPHIA. The issue is that you need to submit a syllabus if it's never been evaluated, and it needs to match something like 80% of a course PSU (not PSU world, but anything in the entire catalog) offers. If it does, you get transfer credit for that exact course, and if it works for your major you're set. Otherwise, you get misc credit in the program area. That covers elective requirements, and maybe lower level courses for a minor or something like that, but they're largely useless. The residency requirement is only like 30 credits, but you're not going to be able to transfer in 90 credits that perfectly meet your degree requirements with any of the more difficult majors.
Especially in upper level courses, I'd say at least half of the other people in my class are from UP (the main campus) and the other half is 50/50 branch campuses and WC. That's clearly part of why it's so hard - definitely expected to be easier than UP but sometimes you need to remind a Professor that they, say, can't only open the final for one day because you're in the middle of the Pacific at the moment. But when you do, they tend to be pretty accommodating, and if they're not the advising and military benefits people are amazing. With the exception of the chair of the plsc department, everyone I've interacted with has been great and accommodating, but man they're protective of that BS in poly sci. The only way to do it in less than three semesters would be to transfer in PLSC 308, take 309 the spring, then an overload of methodology courses the next fall.
No proctoring in most of my classes, but it's political science, pretty much everything is papers, and research, with a few open book quizzes and the like. Anything that I've needed proctored where I didn't have honorlock (no webcams on work computers) they've been OK with sending to my Education Services Officer and letting him proctor, but if honorlock works for you you'll be fine; that's mostly in the (extremely challenging but very highly rated nationally) IST and computer science type programs.
They used to cap tuition, but now if you take over 19 credits you pay extra. They waive a lot of the tuition for military, but it's not enough to match TA. Financial aid has been great though - Pell grant, TA, the military grant in aid, a scholarship I applied for, and merit based departmental grants have left me with tuition mostly paid for, and occasionally some extra.
Sent your SOPHIA transcript with parchment, getting them to look the courses up with the Credly transcript without course number is a pain. Definitely engage with your advisor and "transfer specialist," you can get things changed if you push it. You only have one semester to submit syllabi before they'll award general credit.
Tl;dr, name brand degree (again, same diploma as UP and mostly UP students) from a name brand school, but you put in the work for it, and have to jump through the same hoops another PSU student would have to. Advising, the financial aid office, the military affairs and pre-law advising people, and the amazing professors help a lot.
- I'm in the BA of political science program but started in the BS in poly sci program. Will probably get a minor in History. The BS is a huge pain and more of a research/data analytics course than anything, and the BA requires the 12th credit level of foreign language. The foreign language courses are difficult, and they only offer Spanish, French, and I think Italian online - no latin, sign language, or the like.
- How many courses are you taking per term? Five or six, but all upper division, and with work that's really all I can handle. Workload really depends on courses.
- How many hours a week do you spend studying? 0. I'm really into political science lol; outside of maybe an hour of reading/course/week max, I haven't had to study at all.
- How many papers and/or exams must you do per course? Paper length? For a 400 level course, you'll probably have two or three 5-6 page big research papers, an 8 page final paper, and then a weekly or biweekly type paper/assignment/journal/etc. Then there's usually a weekly discussion board and other misc. stuff.
Quizzes tend to be every couple of weeks with some classes having a midterm and final, but those are mostly in the lower division courses.
- How are the quality of the courses? Very high, genuinely I think better than any other online program out there. It's not flashy, but it really feels like a Canvas based course at your average state school, which, being honest, is better than you're going to get at a lot of the schools talked about here. That can mean they're a lot of work, and they almost universally have a lot of reading, but it's great. Except intro to musical theatre, that class was amazing but all lectures, quizzes, and reading score.
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