Inexpensive TESC Natural Science/Mathematics Uppler Level Credit Ideas

[brajalle]

ESC is $2807.50 for 16 credits (1 semester) - altho one-time fees are not included (about $400 if I recall). TESC charges $3243 to graduate last I checked if you transfer in everything, so if you want to complete your last year at ESC, it's worth it to do some math on the costs. The cost for just graduating from TESC is equal to the cost for 16 UL credits from ESC. Essentially, for the cost of the next semester ($2807) of 16 credits & meeting your residency requirement, you get 32 credits vs TESC. This works out to be about $87/hr. It's unlikely to be quite this simple, but now you get an idea of where I'm coming from.

If you can fulfill your degree requirements with super low cost options (CLEP, DSST, ECE, ACE, AP, etc), or perhaps even with community college level tuitions - then the big three may be cheaper. However, if you're wanting to include any sort of math, sciences, or fairly STEM-type stuff in general, then you'll most likely need to enroll somewhere (if cost is a concern). At this point, ESC is one of the better options out there. I priced the total cost of a fairly hardcore (ie something that you could get into grad school with) Mathematics B.A. from there last year, including the cost of all credits necessary (LSU, ALEKS, SL, CLEP, DSST), it was a bit over $8k.

[Yenisei]

I took 8 credits worth of UL biology and math courses at ESC last summer, and while the courses were very good, they were pretty time consuming. Under no circumstances would I recommend that anyone take 16 credits worth of UL Nat Sci and Math courses at ESC in a single semester.

[dcan]

I think if someone is serious about earning a math degree then they are also smart enough to realize that $8K is a ridiculously low barrier to entry, especially when a state college will run that much at a minimum each year. Years ago I worked with a programmer who had a math degree. He was our resident SQL tuner. Guy was a friggin' genius who ran circles around the rest of the team.

[Yenisei]

Rather than trying to cram 32 credits into two semesters, I'd look at whether 12-12-8 was possible. ESC is more opaque than TESC, so it's hard to say just how it would all turn out. IIRC, 32 credits are required for residency and they do accept subject GREs, but as to specifics on the latter, I have no idea.

BTW, the highest math course offered at ESC is Real Analysis, and you'd need to find some more UL math courses to get a ready-for-grad school BS in Mathematics.

[brajalle]

Good points. Opaque yea, they just allow for more customization, but the info is all there. I originally found ESC because of their subject GRE's, but upon further research, just didn't seem to be super viable/efficient.

You're probably right for a real math grad school, I should be specific, I was looking at a more blended grad approach than a straight math grad school. Political Methodology, Economics, Statistical Analysis sorta stuff. Honestly though, their stuff is good enough to probably get you in quite a few math grad programs- the ones that aren't serious research/theory, and more focus on spitting out assoc professors and job seekers. Really serious programs, you aren't even considering online or distance stuff, because if you were that much of a rain man, you'd not be on a forum discussing it or you'd be Dr. Math Guy with 10 published papers and tenure.

[cookderosa]

Good points. Opaque yea, they just allow for more customization, but the info is all there. I originally found ESC because of their subject GRE's, but upon further research, just didn't seem to be super viable/efficient.

You're probably right for a real math grad school, I should be specific, I was looking at a more blended grad approach than a straight math grad school. Political Methodology, Economics, Statistical Analysis sorta stuff. Honestly though, their stuff is good enough to probably get you in quite a few math grad programs- the ones that aren't serious research/theory, and more focus on spitting out assoc professors and job seekers. Really serious programs, you aren't even considering online or distance stuff, because if you were that much of a rain man, you'd not be on a forum discussing it or you'd be Dr. Math Guy with 10 published papers and tenure.

I'm trying to decide if this was just poorly written or incredibly rude? Yenise is one of the most helpful contributors to the math/science topics on our forum, and I like to think we have more than a few Rainmen hanging around.

[Yenisei]

Jennifer, thanks for the compliment, but I think "you" was used in the sense of "one", so I didn't interpret it as an insult.

ESC's great if you want an applied math degree, that's for sure. If you want grad study via distance learning in applied math at the graduate level, I'd recommend looking at the University of South Africa. The University of Washington also has an excellent DL applied math grad program.

[brajalle]

Jennifer, Yenisei is someone whom I feel contributes valuable information, I have nothing but respect for him. As to the general rain man comment, I meant no offense, I picked my wordings poorly.

Wasn't aware of the University of Washington, thanks for the heads up. I'd been resigned to U of SE or on-site if I go that route.

Honestly, it might be an interesting concept to pool the knowledge here of degree plans and options to sort of create a menu.

[Yenisei]

That UW program is expensive (something like 24K when I looked at it in 2010), but from what I understand the department is one of the better ones in the entire US.

Besides the heavy workload, an additional problem with getting all of the ESC math courses knocked out in two semesters is that they are not offered every semester (Real Analysis is only offered once a year). That shouldn't keep someone from pursuing a math degree with them, but it would raise the overall cost of the degree.

[bsbastudent]

Thank you all for your suggestions!