Questions regarding graduation and roadmap for TESC BA Natural Science and Math

[TyrantUT]

I have a few questions about the BA NS/M degree plan from TESC.
1. If you complete your graduation requirements in May when do you actually graduate?
2. Why is the Natural Science and Math a BA and not a BS?
3. Based on my below courses, will the Straighterline English Comp 2 and Calculus 1 complete my graduation requirements, and can those courses be completed within 2 weeks?

I have been in the Marine Corps for the past 8 years, in and out of deployments and was able to take advantage of ACE accredited MCI courses to fulfill just about all my free electives. Combined with a MOS school that was backed by the Community College of the Air Force for additional credits.

See below:
A: English Composition (One full year required)
English Comp 1 3 B
English Comp 2 (Want to take through Straighterline)

B: Humanities (12 semester hours required)
Design II 3 C
Page Design I 3 C
Music Appreciation 3 C
Philosophy: Logic In Practice 3 A

C: Social Sciences (12 semester hours required)
US History after 1945 3 A
Psych 1 3 A
Psych 11 3 A
History 11 3 A

D: Mathematics (3 semester hours required)
None so far, planning on Calc I from SL

E: Natural Sciences (9 semester hours completed)
Physics I 3 B
Physics II 3 A
Science of Disasters 3 A-


BA General Education (18 semester hours required)
Stellar Astronomy 3 C
Child Development 3 B
Speech 101 3 C
Environmental Science 2 3 B
Elements of Architecture 3 B
Basic Architectural Design 3 B


BA NAT Sci/Math
(This is the 27 credits for natural science in 3 subject areas and so on...)
Global Environmental Change 6 A-
Oceanography 2 CR
Meteorology I 3 CR
Meteorology II 3 CR
Synoptic Meteorology I 3 A
Physical Meteorology 3 A
Climatology 3 B
Severe Weatjer 3 B
Astronomy Lab 1 A

(All of those courses are 300/400 level courses except Met 1 and Met 2)

B: Concentration (6 semester hours required)
Weather Observation 10 CR

BA Free Electives (27 semester hours required)
!! Exception
Over in AOS

Intro to Tactics & Field 3 CR
Internship/ Co-Op Education 3 CR
Land Navig., Mountaineering 3 CR
Military Science 1 5 CR
Leadership 1 CR
Principles of Management 1 CR
Principles of Supervision 1 CR
Introduction to Methodology 1 CR
Spec. Stud. in Selected T 2 CR (ENG-199)
Outdoor/Survival Skills 1 CR
Spec. Stud. in Selected T 1 C (PEA-199)
Network Management 3 C

Any tips on arranging these courses better would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all for the very valuable information. I hope to graduate very very soon and submit my application to Mississippi State University for Grad School in the fall. From what I hear, I can send my application and start courses before graduating. Hopefully this is true as all the PMP graduate courses are only offered once a year during their respective semesters.

[cooperalex2004]

Your questions:
1. If you complete your graduation requirements in May when do you actually graduate?
2. Why is the Natural Science and Math a BA and not a BS?
3. Based on my below courses, will the Straighterline English Comp 2 and Calculus 1 complete my graduation requirements, and can those courses be completed within 2 weeks?

To answer your first two questions:
1. If you finish in May you can apply by July 1st to receive a September graduation. By July 1st all grades must be in whether they are transferred in or not.
2. The classification is based on how many non area of study courses are used in the degree. Since the BA includes so many general ed credits it is an "arts" degree, to be science it would have more degree specific credits. The same goes on an AA. An AS or AAS both have more area of study credits. Compare the BA in Economics to one of the BSBA degrees and you'll see what I mean. It is basically the difference between "arts" being general education focused with an area of study on it and "science" being further focused on the area of study with less of the general education electives. They are all degrees but some have more specific courses required.

[TyrantUT]

Thank you for the information. Hopefully the Academic Adviser reviews my courses correctly. One specific adviser approved two courses, and included them in my upper level area:
Climatology, Severe Weather and put as 100 level courses... which totally messes things up.
As for questions 3 though. Will the two Straighterline courses I mentioned (Calculus and English Comp II) satisfy the math and English requirement?

[cooperalex2004]

I'm not a user of straighterline but from past people it would appear that would work to fill the requirements. I went the CLEP and ALEKS direction to complete my English and Math so I can't be sure (others on here can address that).

As for the courses you are waiting to hear on or work with them on, you might find this link helpful:
Thomas Edison State College: Course Offerings

It is meant to look for PLA courses to take but also has pretty much the entire catalog of courses they have codes for (including the many many courses they don't offer at TESC). For Climatology and Severe Weather, I find climatology to equal to "Elements of Climatology" EAS-132, but the severe weather course doesn't come up with a direct match so you'd have to work that out with them (or they would probably put in as a made up number like 199. If you feel the courses should be upper level you may have to do some of the legwork and demonstrate how the course relates to a course in the PLA catalog or in the normal catalog. I've found them to be very fair on everything, they simply relate the courses to the one in their system which best matches.

[Lyanne]

apologies to TyrantUT for hopping on this thread, but I have a quick related question. What is the last possible date I can take a 12 week class to make graduation in December? It's superstitionally (<----made up word) important for me to grad in 2012.