January 2016 TESC to TESU and my struggle to choose between TESC and COSC

[RobertBSBA]

Hello all. I am new here. I recently found this forum and I am trying to digest everything. I am struggling to choose between the new COSC BSBA and the TESC BSBA. I am starting from zero credit. I have been business (sales and marketing) in senior positions for the last 15 years so I am basically looking to check off the box and for the fastest and easiest route to a BSBA or similar. It is true, my lack of a 4-yr accredited degree is has blocked me from several recent job opportunities.

I saw a recent post http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...rning.html that alluded to the fact that TESC may become TESU in January 2016. For some reason, the idea of getting the degree from state university has some appeal to me.

Question: I learned from some forum posts last night that TESC changed a lot of their requirements in July 2015. Since they are potentially making a change to a University status, I was concerned they may make more changes. I need to decide between COSC or TESC but I am nervous if I finally decide on TESC AND if I don't lock in a degree track with TESC now, they may change more requirements after they become a university. I am wondering if I should go ahead and lock in with TESC before their change to University status? I read where TESC has a pay per credit option where someone could do this?

Since I am starting from zero credits, it seems COSC and TESC are the better of the 3 choices, I think. At this point I wondering which path would offer the easiest path on math and essay writing. I suspect I will end up a better multiple choice tester.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I thought I would try posting as it seems everyone seems eager to help.

Robert

[rebel100]

As a charter oak grad, I think TESC has the best business degree offering by far. They offer more upper level credit for exams than COSC and through the use of TECEP you keep doing multiple choice exams and you drop the cost by a couple thousand dollars at least. It's really not even close. TESC/TESU for a BSBA all the way...

[dfrecore]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know a lot about COSC, so I will just tell you what I know about TESC. First, TESC changes their catalog and any requirements once a year on July 1. So, you have until then to make your decision. Second, TESC is the only one of the Big 3 that allows complete test out of all BSBA requirements. Both COSC and EC have Capstone requirements, while COSC also has a Cornerstone. TESC's Strategic Management Capstone can be taken via TECEP or a PennFoster course. So TESC is definitely the cheapest from that standpoint. This could change on July 1, so be prepared for that.

The requirements for all 3 degrees, including General Ed, are VERY similar. I would say that they are probably 90% the same, or at least you can use most of the courses you take in any of the 3 degrees. They all require Statistics and College Algebra. COSC requires a science with a lab, TESC & EC do not. EC requires Precalculus, TESC & COSC don't. They all require a certain amount of UL credits, which are doable from a testing standpoint.

If you looked at the price right now for everything at each school from start to finish in order to graduate - NOT including any exams you would need to take - your price woud be:
- EC would be $5095 (application, enrollment, 6cr capstone, annual fee, & graduation fee)
- COSC would be $2703 (application, cornerstone, capstone, student services fee (per semester), technology fees, & graduation fee)
- TESC would be $518 (application, technology services fee, & graduation fee). TESC would have an additional $888 for TECEP's to establish residency, but those would be offset by the fact that you would be getting credits for courses you would have to take anyway. You would have 96 units to get in other ways rather than 120. So that's totally not in the equation of cost in my opinion.

I think the biggest impediment at this point in time is not figuring out which school, but actually STARTING. Here are all of the free/cheap things you could start on:
1) create an ACE account: https://www2.acenet.edu/credit/?fuseacti...ripts.main
2) Do the Kaplan PLA free course (3cr GenEd): https://opencollege.kaplan.com/opencollege/LRC100/
3) Do the free Ethics course (2cr GenEd): Preserve the trust on which insurance transactions are based with an understanding of ethics
4) Do the free TEEX courses (6cr GenEd or Free Electives): https://teex.org/Pages/Program.aspx?catI...ersecurity
5) Do the free NFA courses (3cr Free Electives or Business): https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/nfacourses/ca...urseCode=Q
6) Sign up with Dream Degree and get 30 free credits (mostly GenEd or Business): https://www.dreamdegree.org/
7) Sign up with ALEKS and get through Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, and Intro to Statistics (9cr GenEd, 12cr if you take precalc): https://www.aleks.com/
8) Do Saylor as many Saylor courses as you can (up to 42cr): Earn College Credit | Saylor Academy

You haven't even gotten to anything that costs more than $25 yet, and you could have 92cr!!! Search this forum for details about each of these methods (for instance, DreamDegree is dubious at this point).

You don't have to do all of those of course, but by getting started on SOME of them, you knock out a bunch of credits; for someone starting at 0, 120cr can be daunting, so getting some under your belt is a huge motivator.

Go take a bunch of these, take some CLEP/DSST's, start on a few SL courses, however you want to do it, and then come back and plan out your degree!!

[rebel100]

I think your cost projection is low for COSC. I suspect one would spend an additional $500-$1000 at least. Which is a screening great deal, but not nearly as cheap nor test friendly as TESC.

[dfrecore]

I think your cost projection is low for COSC. I suspect one would spend an additional $500-$1000 at least. Which is a screening great deal, but not nearly as cheap nor test friendly as TESC.

Yes, I think it might be low as well - that's if you did everything start-to-finish in 1 semester. It would be an additional $309/semester if you needed it to finish your courses (the cornerstore or capstone). And since I'm not sure if it's even possible to do both courses in 1 semester, then it's probable you'll be paying an additional $309. At least $2700 and probably $3000 just in fees at COSC (including cornerstone and capstone). Plus an additional $2500 or so in testing fees.

With TESC, if you utilized all the free courses on this forum, added all 4 ALEKS courses in a single month, used Saylor, and SL for at least 2 courses per month, and TECEP's for everything you could, plus 4 DSST exams, you could get a TESC BSBA in General Management for less than $3000!!!

[RobertBSBA]

thank you! which of the 8 items you suggested are accepted by TESC BSBA? I would hate to take the time to build credits and then it turn out a portion of them might not be accepted?

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know a lot about COSC, so I will just tell you what I know about TESC. First, TESC changes their catalog and any requirements once a year on July 1. So, you have until then to make your decision. Second, TESC is the only one of the Big 3 that allows complete test out of all BSBA requirements. Both COSC and EC have Capstone requirements, while COSC also has a Cornerstone. TESC's Strategic Management Capstone can be taken via TECEP or a PennFoster course. So TESC is definitely the cheapest from that standpoint. This could change on July 1, so be prepared for that.

The requirements for all 3 degrees, including General Ed, are VERY similar. I would say that they are probably 90% the same, or at least you can use most of the courses you take in any of the 3 degrees. They all require Statistics and College Algebra. COSC requires a science with a lab, TESC & EC do not. EC requires Precalculus, TESC & COSC don't. They all require a certain amount of UL credits, which are doable from a testing standpoint.

If you looked at the price right now for everything at each school from start to finish in order to graduate - NOT including any exams you would need to take - your price woud be:
- EC would be $5095 (application, enrollment, 6cr capstone, annual fee, & graduation fee)
- COSC would be $2703 (application, cornerstone, capstone, student services fee (per semester), technology fees, & graduation fee)
- TESC would be $518 (application, technology services fee, & graduation fee). TESC would have an additional $888 for TECEP's to establish residency, but those would be offset by the fact that you would be getting credits for courses you would have to take anyway. You would have 96 units to get in other ways rather than 120. So that's totally not in the equation of cost in my opinion.

I think the biggest impediment at this point in time is not figuring out which school, but actually STARTING. Here are all of the free/cheap things you could start on:
1) create an ACE account: https://www2.acenet.edu/credit/?fuseacti...ripts.main
2) Do the Kaplan PLA free course (3cr GenEd): https://opencollege.kaplan.com/opencollege/LRC100/
3) Do the free Ethics course (2cr GenEd): Preserve the trust on which insurance transactions are based with an understanding of ethics
4) Do the free TEEX courses (6cr GenEd or Free Electives): https://teex.org/Pages/Program.aspx?catI...ersecurity
5) Do the free NFA courses (3cr Free Electives or Business): https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/nfacourses/ca...urseCode=Q
6) Sign up with Dream Degree and get 30 free credits (mostly GenEd or Business): https://www.dreamdegree.org/
7) Sign up with ALEKS and get through Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, and Intro to Statistics (9cr GenEd, 12cr if you take precalc): https://www.aleks.com/
8) Do Saylor as many Saylor courses as you can (up to 42cr): Earn College Credit | Saylor Academy

You haven't even gotten to anything that costs more than $25 yet, and you could have 92cr!!! Search this forum for details about each of these methods (for instance, DreamDegree is dubious at this point).

You don't have to do all of those of course, but by getting started on SOME of them, you knock out a bunch of credits; for someone starting at 0, 120cr can be daunting, so getting some under your belt is a huge motivator.

Go take a bunch of these, take some CLEP/DSST's, start on a few SL courses, however you want to do it, and then come back and plan out your degree!!

[dfrecore]

thank you! which of the 8 items you suggested are accepted by TESC BSBA? I would hate to take the time to build credits and then it turn out a portion of them might not be accepted?

All of them!!!

If you PM me with your email address, I can send you a Numbers spreadsheet that shows how they will fit in.

[smrt]

All of them!!!

If you PM me with your email address, I can send you a Numbers spreadsheet that shows how they will fit in.

Could you send me the same as well? I'll PM you. Thanks in advance for your endless awesomeness.