Strategy Eval: Load up flat fee, then withdraw for no additional cost.

[LevelUP]

In terms of course length, I usually tell people the capstone is 80hrs +/- 20hrs. So that is why if you can write the capstone paper ahead of time, that's 20hrs of savings right there.

The Cornerstone is around 40hrs. If you can't test out of most of the MyLab stuff, then you might end up adding more hours.

Looking at the syllabus, I would guess your math history course would be 30hrs +/- 10hrs since it's all papers.

PLA course is 10hrs +/- 5hrs (All my papers were less than 300 words each)

The math courses are very dependent on the individual. One calculus course might be 40hrs for one person and 200 hours for another person. I saw that TESU lets you use graphing calculators, so that should help some.

If you can cherry-pick courses at TESU and find ones with either no exams or exams where it equals a small percentage of your total grade, then you can find courses that can be as little as 20 hours. Otherwise, most courses that are not math/science should range from 20-40hrs.

Also, one trick is to only do a 2 sentence response to all forum posts except for the capstone, which I would do more. This should be free 100% scores, so don't sweat forum postings. 

bjcheung77 mentions a typical butt-in-seat college course is 100-130 hours. When I did CC courses, they were around 80 hours each. Students who only study right before tests can get by with fewer hours though the recommended study time for non-math/science courses is around 2hr per credit hour,  which is about 100 hours exactly as bjcheung77 stated. For math/science courses, the most challenging courses could be 144 hours or more. So you are saving lots of time with TESU vs regular butt-in-seat college courses.

https://learning.humboldt.edu/sites/defa...ations.pdf

Withdrawing shouldn't affect your GPA. I don't know if that is shown on the transcript, though that shouldn't matter since people withdraw all the time.

You will need to have the capstone unlocked before you can register for it.

You seem to have a good plan since you are freerolling since really you won't lose money if you withdraw since you plan on taking 3 courses anyway.

[StudentOLife]

Thank you all!
@thecarrynothing, I see so withdrawals are fair game up till end of term with no impact?..
@Bjcheung77, in which case I don't even need to withdraw by 21 days, and not have to worry about later courses since I'm not getting my money back anyways is that right?
@LevelUp, wow really good information here regarding hours and 2 sentence post tip. I can see capstone already but I guess I need to register before I find out if I'm blocked from it.

I suppose in TESU there isn't a W grade as some universities do, this link was really helpful!(https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/Current/...Definition)
I guess I'd be biting the bullet and crossing my fingers. Wish me luck and if there's any tip you think about pls don't hesitate to drop it in the thread. 


Hope this can be helpful for people who have never experienced a TESU course but were going to dive into anything >12 credits, I know it gives me a bit of relief knowing I can withdraw 1-2 courses without consequences if life gets in the way.

[StudentOLife]

In terms of course length, I usually tell people the capstone is 80hrs +/- 20hrs. So that is why if you can write the capstone paper ahead of time, that's 20hrs of savings right there.

The Cornerstone is around 40hrs. If you can't test out of most of the MyLab stuff, then you might end up adding more hours.

Looking at the syllabus, I would guess your math history course would be 30hrs +/- 10hrs since it's all papers.

PLA course is 10hrs +/- 5hrs (All my papers were less than 300 words each)

The math courses are very dependent on the individual. One calculus course might be 40hrs for one person and 200 hours for another person. I saw that TESU lets you use graphing calculators, so that should help some.

If you can cherry-pick courses at TESU and find ones with either no exams or exams where it equals a small percentage of your total grade, then you can find courses that can be as little as 20 hours. Otherwise, most courses that are not math/science should range from 20-40hrs.

Also, one trick is to only do a 2 sentence response to all forum posts except for the capstone, which I would do more. This should be free 100% scores, so don't sweat forum postings. 

bjcheung77 mentions a typical butt-in-seat college course is 100-130 hours. When I did CC courses, they were around 80 hours each. Students who only study right before tests can get by with fewer hours though the recommended study time for non-math/science courses is around 2hr per credit hour,  which is about 100 hours exactly as bjcheung77 stated. For math/science courses, the most challenging courses could be 144 hours or more. So you are saving lots of time with TESU vs regular butt-in-seat college courses.

https://learning.humboldt.edu/sites/defa...ations.pdf

Withdrawing shouldn't affect your GPA. I don't know if that is shown on the transcript, though that shouldn't matter since people withdraw all the time.

You will need to have the capstone unlocked before you can register for it.

You seem to have a good plan since you are freerolling since really you won't lose money if you withdraw since you plan on taking 3 courses anyway.

Really good verified tips here for anyone looking, I'm in the deep now and this is all true so far.

Re: SOS-110 cornerstone: I know you said don't sweat it on the forum posting but does this apply to original posts too? I'm trying to figure out how long original discussion posts need to be when unspecified.  What is your experience, is it also quite short and most people usually get a 100% as long as you're active and on time?

Re: LIB 495 Capstone: I like the guide of it being something not solveable but there'd be a way to solve it in the far future. But I was under the impression it had to be something controversial for a thesis. But it seems like most of your classmates topics are around what you've mentioned.

Here's what's in the recommended reading book and I suppose we'd need to pick one of them to write:

• A thesis statement advances a conclusion the writer will defend: Contrary to what some philosophers have advanced, human beings have always participated in wars.
  
• An enthymeme uses a because clause to make a claim the writer will defend: There has never been a “noble savage,” as such, because even prehistoric human beings fought frequent wars for numerous reasons.
  
• A hypothesis is a theory that must be tested in the lab, in the literature, and/ or by field research to prove its validity: Human beings are motivated by biologi- cal instincts toward the physical overthrow of perceived enemies. 
  

[LevelUP]

Really good verified tips here for anyone looking, I'm in the deep now and this is all true so far.

Re: SOS-110 cornerstone: I know you said don't sweat it on the forum posting but does this apply to original posts too? I'm trying to figure out how long original discussion posts need to be when unspecified.  What is your experience, is it also quite short and most people usually get a 100% as long as you're active and on time?

Re: LIB 495 Capstone: I like the guide of it being something not solveable but there'd be a way to solve it in the far future. But I was under the impression it had to be something controversial for a thesis. But it seems like most of your classmates topics are around what you've mentioned.

Here's what's in the recommended reading book and I suppose we'd need to pick one of them to write:

• A thesis statement advances a conclusion the writer will defend: Contrary to what some philosophers have advanced, human beings have always participated in wars.
  
• An enthymeme uses a because clause to make a claim the writer will defend: There has never been a “noble savage,” as such, because even prehistoric human beings fought frequent wars for numerous reasons.
  
• A hypothesis is a theory that must be tested in the lab, in the literature, and/ or by field research to prove its validity: Human beings are motivated by biologi- cal instincts toward the physical overthrow of perceived enemies. 
  

I did around 200 words for the forum posts. That was enough to follow the directions.

You will need a thesis statement for sure.

You won't be testing anything in a lab or doing your own original research, such as conducting a survey.

[davewill]

I would suggest that dropping the capstone as a "strategy" doesn't make a ton of sense, since you'll just have to come back and pay the full tuition for it later. Better to plan on extending the capstone if you think you might be overwhelmed. As long as you can get at least 50% of the work done before the end of the term, you'd be good to go. If you go that route, be sure to inform the mentor, before the due date, every time you need to turn in an assignment late.

As far as your topic goes, as long as you can formulate 3-5 decent research questions, and use that research to support a thesis, you'll get a good grade. No need for anything "controversial" or groundbreaking. Length also turned out to not be of much concern as the prescribed format requires a lot of repetition. I started out with 5 questions, and about halfway through dropped two of them when I had trouble finding relevant research for them. I also went the extension route when I started a new job with travel requirements part way through the term and started to fall behind. I only needed a couple of extra weeks, basically just the last merge, edit and polish passes before turning it in.

[StudentOLife]

Really good verified tips here for anyone looking, I'm in the deep now and this is all true so far.

Re: SOS-110 cornerstone: I know you said don't sweat it on the forum posting but does this apply to original posts too? I'm trying to figure out how long original discussion posts need to be when unspecified.  What is your experience, is it also quite short and most people usually get a 100% as long as you're active and on time?

Re: LIB 495 Capstone: I like the guide of it being something not solveable but there'd be a way to solve it in the far future. But I was under the impression it had to be something controversial for a thesis. But it seems like most of your classmates topics are around what you've mentioned.

Here's what's in the recommended reading book and I suppose we'd need to pick one of them to write:

• A thesis statement advances a conclusion the writer will defend: Contrary to what some philosophers have advanced, human beings have always participated in wars.
  
• An enthymeme uses a because clause to make a claim the writer will defend: There has never been a “noble savage,” as such, because even prehistoric human beings fought frequent wars for numerous reasons.
  
• A hypothesis is a theory that must be tested in the lab, in the literature, and/ or by field research to prove its validity: Human beings are motivated by biologi- cal instincts toward the physical overthrow of perceived enemies. 
  

I did around 200 words for the forum posts. That was enough to follow the directions.

You will need a thesis statement for sure.

You won't be testing anything in a lab or doing your own original research, such as conducting a survey.

Thank you! How about an Enthymeme? The example you gave didn't seem like a thesis statement at least based on the book...

[LevelUP]

Thank you! How about an Enthymeme? The example you gave didn't seem like a thesis statement at least based on the book...

The examples I gave were from the students in my class. First, I wrote down their thesis statements which they shared in forum posts. Then, I took their thesis statements and converted them into topics I posted on DF.

They give you some time to perfect your thesis statement in that course. They will ask what your thesis statement is in forum posts and the assignments, so I'm unsure how an enthymeme would fit. I would ask the professor about that.

This course is personalized to you as what topic you pick affects your ability to do research and how you go about creating your paper. A 30 min phone call to your professor can save you a lot of time if you are unsure about things. In addition, you can ask to redo an assignment if you get a low grade, such as C or B.

Do your classes start tomorrow?

[StudentOLife]

Thank you! How about an Enthymeme? The example you gave didn't seem like a thesis statement at least based on the book...

The examples I gave were from the students in my class. First, I wrote down their thesis statements which they shared in forum posts. Then, I took their thesis statements and converted them into topics I posted on DF.

They give you some time to perfect your thesis statement in that course. They will ask what your thesis statement is in forum posts and the assignments, so I'm unsure how an enthymeme would fit. I would ask the professor about that.

This course is personalized to you as what topic you pick affects your ability to do research and how you go about creating your paper. A 30 min phone call to your professor can save you a lot of time if you are unsure about things. In addition, you can ask to redo an assignment if you get a low grade, such as C or B.

Do your classes start tomorrow?

Yea it does, I'm wondering if I could do something similar to the examples you gave, but it doesn't fit as a thesis statement, enthymeme or hypothesis. Good tip on calling the prof.

Btw on Cornerstone SOS-110: do you know if we need to get 100% to get our GPA up? or will a 73% count as 100% on Mylabs

[LevelUP]

Yea it does, I'm wondering if I could do something similar to the examples you gave, but it doesn't fit as a thesis statement, enthymeme or hypothesis. Good tip on calling the prof.

Btw on Cornerstone SOS-110: do you know if we need to get 100% to get our GPA up? or will a 73% count as 100% on Mylabs

Once you finish MyLab, you get a 100% score.

[LevelUP]

So any updates on how things went?

Which classes are the easiest? Hardest?

How did SOS-110 go? Done with MyLab?

Still, enrolled in all classes?