TESC BA Social Science degree plan

[dmjacobsen]

Hey everyone. Just wanted to see if this degree plan looks okay for a BA in Social Science at TESC. I'm pretty sure it should work okay, but not 100% sure about the application of social science credits.

Green = Done
Red = Pending
Uni = University course
SL = Straighterline

English Composition 6cr
[COLOR="#008000"] English Comp I (Uni) 3cr
English Comp II (Uni) 3cr[/COLOR]

Humanities 12cr
[COLOR="#008000"] SL Business Communications 3cr
Oral Communications (Uni) 3cr
DSST Technical Writing 3cr[/COLOR]
DSST Intro to World Religions 3cr

Social Sciences 12cr
[COLOR="#008000"] Intro to Criminal Justice (Uni) 3cr
Police in America (Uni) 3cr
UExcel Political Science 3cr
Intro to Business (Uni) 3cr[/COLOR]

Natural Sciences and Math 12cr
[COLOR="#008000"] Foundations of Math (Uni) 3cr
A&P I with Lab (Uni) 4cr
A&P II with Lab (Uni) 4cr[/COLOR]
DSST Intro to Computing 3cr

General Education Electives 18cr
[COLOR="#008000"] ALEKS Intermediate Algebra 3cr
ALEKS Intro to Statistics 3cr
Literary Heritage (Uni) 3cr
Microbiology with Lab (Uni) 4cr
Principles of Nutrition (Uni) 3cr
Ethics (Uni) 3cr[/COLOR]


Area of Study: Social Sciences 33cr

Psychology:
[COLOR="#008000"] DSST Lifespan Dev Psych 3cr
CLEP Intro Psychology 3cr[/COLOR]
[COLOR="#FF0000"] DSST Fundamentals of Counseling 3cr
DSST Organizational Behavior 3cr (UL)
ECE Abnormal Psychology 3cr (UL)[/COLOR]

Social Science:
DSST Substance Abuse 3cr (UL)

Sociology:
Intro Sociology (Uni) 3cr
[COLOR="#FF0000"] ECE World Population 3cr (UL)
ECE Foundations of Gerontology 3cr (UL)
ECE Juvenile Delinquency 3cr (UL)[/COLOR]

Capstone:
LIB-495 Lib Arts Capstone 3cr

[cooperalex2004]

It looks good with a few notes for you to consider:

-You get to use the capstone as UL credit so you can take one less UL course if you want (but then need another LL course). You should also note that TESC might not give you credit for Counseling as part of your degree without you asking for it. Once you take it I'd have them plan it into the degree and make sure you get them to code it for a PSY course instead of COU. See this link:
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...t-psy.html

-I also would warn about your math course (Foundations of Math), based on the name alone I'd caution you about whether it will work. TESC requires Intermediate Algebra or above and a course called "Foundations of Math" sounds like Elementary Algebra or even something lower. If the course is coded from your original school as college level (i.e. 100+ when three digits or 1000+ when four digits) then you should be good, if it is numbered lower than that then you might have trouble and they may code it as a DEV (developmental) course which would count for no credit. If all else fails you've got ALEKS as you've shown for other courses. You have Intermediate Algebra and Stats listed but might have to add in the regular Algebra course if this one you have falls through.

-You have Criminal Justice as a Social Sciences course. The DSST exam is given credit for AOJ-102 which is a Human Services area (not valid for Soc Sci or any other general education area). Since yours is listed as a normal course it may be given different credit but you'll want to watch for that. AOJ courses do not work for your degree and become free electives or simply extra credits.

-You have Police in America as a Social Sciences course. This will most likely be a similar issue to the criminal justice course where it will probably get coded as an AOJ (Administration of Justice) course which will not work on your degree. Using the TESC site I see a lot of courses about police but none of them appear outside of the AOJ category. You can search for course code matches at Thomas Edison State College: Course Offerings

-With the four credit courses you have mixed in you'll have extra credits, note that they do float around and having as an example three four-credit courses will mean that one of your three credit courses isn't used any longer. In this case I'd expect your nutrition course to be one that might not work. NUT (Nutrition) is not a general education elective area, see this link for the complete list: http://www.tesc.edu/documents/Degree_Pla..._12.09.pdf

Since you have quite a few things left you are probably pretty safe to wait before you get an evaluation done while you are finishing some exams first, just note that some or all of the things above will take time to either fix or replace in your degree once TESC evaluates your credits.

Good luck.

[dmjacobsen]

It looks good with a few notes for you to consider:

-You get to use the capstone as UL credit so you can take one less UL course if you want (but then need another LL course). You should also note that TESC might not give you credit for Counseling as part of your degree without you asking for it. Once you take it I'd have them plan it into the degree and make sure you get them to code it for a PSY course instead of COU. See this link:
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...t-psy.html

Thanks! I'd completely ignored the fact that the capstone was upper level. And the thread you linked to mentions that the counseling DSST can be transcribed as an upper division psych course, which means I can possibly switch out two of those ECE's for a less-expensive CLEP or DSST.

-I also would warn about your math course (Foundations of Math), based on the name alone I'd caution you about whether it will work. TESC requires Intermediate Algebra or above and a course called "Foundations of Math" sounds like Elementary Algebra or even something lower. If the course is coded from your original school as college level (i.e. 100+ when three digits or 1000+ when four digits) then you should be good, if it is numbered lower than that then you might have trouble and they may code it as a DEV (developmental) course which would count for no credit. If all else fails you've got ALEKS as you've shown for other courses. You have Intermediate Algebra and Stats listed but might have to add in the regular Algebra course if this one you have falls through.

That class is a 1000-level class at the university I took it at. It wasn't developmental, and was appropriate to use for math requirements at that university, so hopefully it won't be an issue at TESC.

-You have Criminal Justice as a Social Sciences course. The DSST exam is given credit for AOJ-102 which is a Human Services area (not valid for Soc Sci or any other general education area). Since yours is listed as a normal course it may be given different credit but you'll want to watch for that. AOJ courses do not work for your degree and become free electives or simply extra credits.

-You have Police in America as a Social Sciences course. This will most likely be a similar issue to the criminal justice course where it will probably get coded as an AOJ (Administration of Justice) course which will not work on your degree. Using the TESC site I see a lot of courses about police but none of them appear outside of the AOJ category. You can search for course code matches at Thomas Edison State College: Course Offerings

I wish I could find the resource that I got this from, but I found a list of all CLEP/DSST/ECE exams that could be applied to the Social Sciences major. It listed AOJ as one of those areas. That may apply in the major and not in the general education section. If that's the case, then those AOJ courses would go into the major and some of the courses listed in the major would go into GenEd. That source was from another forum, so I'm not sure how valid the course listing is. I'll look out for that, though.

-With the four credit courses you have mixed in you'll have extra credits, note that they do float around and having as an example three four-credit courses will mean that one of your three credit courses isn't used any longer. In this case I'd expect your nutrition course to be one that might not work. NUT (Nutrition) is not a general education elective area, see this link for the complete list: http://www.tesc.edu/documents/Degree_Pla..._12.09.pdf

I wonder if the Nutrition course can't be transcribed in as BIO-208 "The Science of Nutrition" instead of an NUT course. If not, I'll have to consider a backup.

Since you have quite a few things left you are probably pretty safe to wait before you get an evaluation done while you are finishing some exams first, just note that some or all of the things above will take time to either fix or replace in your degree once TESC evaluates your credits.

Good luck.

Thanks for the insight! I'll definitely have to tweak this a little to get it working and will go ahead and put in for my evaluation while I'm knocking out some tests.

[sanantone]

You have to verify with TESC because things often change, but Intro to Criminal Justice is a social science course. Just like Fundamentals of Counseling which many have had transcribed as a psychology course (social science) even though TESC lists it as a human services course, Intro to CJ is incorrectly listed as a human services course too. I did not take the DSST, but I did have an Intro to CJ course transcribed as a social science along with Intro to LE (there's a DSST for this, but I took it as a course). AOJ-102 is listed here as a social science course.
Thomas Edison State College: General Education Electives
Police in America may or may not be a social science course. It depends on the course description. Nutrition is considered a natural science if it's taught out of a biology department. If your Nutrition course has a biology prefix, it will most likely count as a natural science. The link I posted above confirms this. Intro to Business is not a social science course and will go in free electives.

If you want some ideas on social science tests, check out this link.
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...grees.html

[dmjacobsen]

If you want some ideas on social science tests, check out this link.
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...grees.html

Ah.. *that* is the resource I was talking about in my last post that I couldn't find. Your second post in that thread with the Social Sciences exams listed. That document is actually what I used to map out most of my tests.

[sanantone]

There might have to be a correction on there. I'm not sure if TESC transcribes Foundations of Gerontology as an UL course. If I remember correctly, the PLA database says it's a LL course.

[cooperalex2004]

There might have to be a correction on there. I'm not sure if TESC transcribes Foundations of Gerontology as an UL course. If I remember correctly, the PLA database says it's a LL course.

Another great example of how things get moved around.

That course could be:
Foundations of Gerontology (SOC-216) 3.00 s.h.
Study of biological, physchological, and social aspects of aging and an understanding of issues, needs, and realities involved in the aging process. Includes theories, concepts, empirical patterns, and their implications for policy and practice.

Foundations of Gerontology (GER-216) 3.00 s.h.
Questions are based on material normally taught in a one-semester, introductory course in gerontology at the undergraduate level. The exam measures knowledge and understanding of the biological, psychological, and social aspects of aging as well as the ability to describe, understand, and analyze issues pertaining to the functioning and well-being of the elderly. Emphasis is placed on both normal aspects of and problems associated with aging.

While ACE recommends this: "Credit Recommendation: At the upper division baccalaureate degree level, 3 semester hours of credit are recommended for examinees with a letter grade of C or higher.(10/10)."

TESC doesn't always follow the ACE recommendation. In this case, TESC has courses that match so I'd expect LL credit as sanantone said

The bottom line is that credit transfers take time and sometimes hard work to get right. TESC will give you credit for everything, but the task then becomes working with them to re-evaluate credits in some cases. The more you have available to provide them (such as course descriptions, syllabi, or course codes you think are a better match), the easier it will be.

[sanantone]

Nothing got moved around; I just didn't think to check the PLA database for an equivalent course.