TESC - BS in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness

[cakester]

Hello!

Really glad to have found this forum and was wondering if anyone has any experience or a class plan for the BS in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness from TESC?

My boyfriend and I looking to enroll into TESC to complete our degrees (business for me and hopefully homeland security for him) and while I've found a plethora of information for business degrees, I can't seem to get any reviews regarding Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and we want to make sure we're going into this knowing the expectations and outcome.

Thank you in advance for your help!

[rebel100]

There are two problems with HS degree at TESC, one is they no longer accept the free and easy FEMA for lower level credit. The other problem, and this is true of each Big 3 school, is that there just aren't that many upper level Homeland Security/Emergency Management options out there. He will need 18 - 30 UL credits depending on the program and the school.

[cakester]

Thanks so much! So basically, for someone who is doing HS, they wouldn't be able to test out as much as someone doing business would be able to. He left school after his junior year so he does have a UL credits in political science that I feel would transfer over.

Do you know if there are any people who did end up doing HS at TESC? I think he'd benefit from reading about their experience. Another option he's interested in is BSBA-HR which may end up being the route he's going to take. I'll have to get him signed onto the forum so he can learn more firsthand. :p

[rebel100]

General Business (BSBA) is probably the easiest degree to test out of among any of the schools period. There is even a provision for the capstone to be taken somewhere other than TESC.

With HS it isn't just that there are no UL exams specific to the major...there isn't even another affordable school to take HS/EM courses at and transfer them back over.

BSBA general or HR are much more doable. Of course all the lower level gen eds can be tested out of, but if he exited as a junior there may not be much that he doesn't already have.

If he already has 90 ish credits from a regionally accredited school and he really wants HS/EM he might look at places other than the Big 3. There are plenty of programs out there that should take everything he has and only require the completion of that final year or so via online courses. AMU/APU comes to mind Online Bachelor's Degree in Homeland Security | American Military University won't be as cheap as the Big 3 option though.

[sanantone]

What does your husband plan to do with a homeland security degree?

[rebel100]

What does your husband plan to do with a homeland security degree?

That's actually a great question. EM/HS specific jobs are hard to come by and in my experience they go to folks already in the business. Cops and Medics and ex military seem to find their way into the plum jobs. And for every decent focused job out there there are like 100 candidates it seems. I think the Business degree has a lot more utility. I say that as someone who has one of those "coveted" EM jobs by the way.

[dfrecore]

The HS degree at TESC would require 5 courses that would be difficult to get elsewhere; so he could either enroll under the Comprehensive Tuition Plan Option ($9000 and includes 36 credits in a year); or the Enrolled Options Tuition Plan ($3300 and gives you discounted rate on any courses you take at TESC - $1230/course rather than $1560/course).

He could test out of the rest of the courses he needed, including the HS Electives.

Here are the courses he can't test out of easily:
Counterterrorism: Constitutional and Legislative Issues (HLS-410)
Homeland Security: Preparedness, Prevention and Deterrence (HLS-420)
Protecting the Homeland, Response & Recovery (HLS-429)
Research Methods in the Social Sciences (SOS-492)
Capstone in Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (HLS-498)

If he can find them somewhere else, then he might want to reconsider.

The HR Degree (what I'm getting) was actually easier for me due to the fact that I did not want to take UL Acct or Fin courses. But, all of his UL PoliSci courses won't help at all. The BSBA has some very specific requirements to fulfill, and so those courses won't do much for him.

If he wants to post a list of his courses he's taken (including course number, number of units, and where he's gotten them from - it's important to know if it was a CC or 4-year college) - people here can help him determine which would be the easiest degree to get, or what courses he would still need to take to get the BSBA-HR or HS degrees.

[sanantone]

That's actually a great question. EM/HS specific jobs are hard to come by and in my experience they go to folks already in the business. Cops and Medics and ex military seem to find their way into the plum jobs. And for every decent focused job out there there are like 100 candidates it seems. I think the Business degree has a lot more utility. I say that as someone who has one of those "coveted" EM jobs by the way.

The emergency management part is more valuable than the homeland security part, though. I know it's hard to break into the field, but at least emergency management is an actual job. :p By the way, APUS also offers an Emergency and Disaster Management program.

Bachelor of Arts in Emergency and Disaster Management

Firefighting seems like a good way to break into the field.

[rebel100]

Police, Fire, EMS and Military are definitely what I see most of. One way fro some could be a Volunteer Firefighter which could then slip into FEMA and DHS and CDP courses without any real cost. Pick up all that experience and training over a couple years while knocking out a cheap BSBA from the Big 3 and I think you would have a decent resume and something to talk about with potential employers.

[cakester]

What does your husband plan to do with a homeland security degree?

He's actually on the career path that he wants to be on--he works in administration for a Global 500 company and has a really amazing job. The degree is less about what he'd use it for but more so that he can move further up the ladder. HS just seemed to be the one that interested him the most. I agree though that business does have more flexibility than HS.

I'll have him list out all of the classes he's taken so people can help determine which degree would be the easiest for him to accomplish. All of his classes were taken from a 4 year university.