TESC International Studies plan

[inkleind]

Heyo! So I've decided this is the route I want to go and I couldn't find anything about this degree route/plan on the forum.
Has anyone done this? If so, what was your plan?
If not and you're interested, follow this thread as I work my way through developing and completing it!

Any tips or thoughts? Let me know!

[dfrecore]

This is going to be a more difficult degree, because there are no free electives at all, and you are very limited on the number of 100-Level courses/exams you can take to fill the Area of Study. Once you get the Western Civ courses (which are 100-level and required), that leaves absolutely ZERO courses allowed at the 100-level. Which means I guess that your foreign language requirement is intermediate level, because those are required, and the first 2 semesters are considered 100-level. I would double-check with TESC on that when you get closer to that point.

It also means that if you want to take any International Studies classes at a CC, you will have to run each one past a TESC advisor, because you want it in writing that they will consider a course taken as 200-level BEFORE you take it.

You haven't said how you're going to take your non-GE courses (exam, classes online, or another way), but I can give you some places to start looking:

CollegePlus.org has a couple of courses that will probably fit
TorahCollegeCredits.com has a few that may work
UofIdaho-IS has some History & Lit courses
UofArkansas-SP has some Anthropology & Geography courses
CSU-Pueblo IS has some Anthropology, Geography & PoliSci courses
BYU-IS has Anthropology, Literature, Geography, History & PoliSci courses

Between all of those, you may be able to find enough 200-level and UL courses to get the degree without having to take really expensive courses at a regular 4-yr college or online university.

[inkleind]

Oh. Well there goes my bubble. So all those electives they have listed aren't classes I can take locally because they will be considered ll credits and they need to be ul?

[inkleind]

I'm also confused. Looking at the credit distribution on tesc, the gen ed stuff doesn't look any different except bsba has a mathematics requirement. So I should still be able to knock out all the gen eds via testing and cc classes. So then the issues come with the upper level courses, right?

[inkleind]

OK, I'm slowly beginning to understand how all this works. So instead of International Studies, a BSBA in International Business would be slightly faster. Still quite a few classes I'll have to take but not as many as the International Studies program, right?

[swalke321]

For international studies BA there are specific requirements that must be fulfilled. The Gen Ed is fairly standard and would be easy to do. It is the 48 credits in the area of study that would be challenging. It would take some planning and research but would be possible just not as easy, cheap or fast as some of the other degree options. The BA does have some course alternatives, just not as many options as other programs and might take some research to find them. The courses can also be taken from a CC or 4 year college but would want to be planned with TESC ahead of time to ensure that there are no surprises when you transfer the courses. This may be one of the degree programs TESC updated in July so there might not be as much information available.

[dfrecore]

Oh. Well there goes my bubble. So all those electives they have listed aren't classes I can take locally because they will be considered ll credits and they need to be ul?

You can still take classes locally, you just have to make sure they aren't 100-level courses. Many CC classes are considered 200-level courses, which would be ok. You would just need to plan those out with TESC ahead of time.

[dfrecore]

OK, I'm slowly beginning to understand how all this works. So instead of International Studies, a BSBA in International Business would be slightly faster. Still quite a few classes I'll have to take but not as many as the International Studies program, right?

The programs both have the words "International" in them, but they are about as far apart as you can get. The GenEd is the same (roughly), but the rest is completely different.

The Professional Business requirements for the BSBA are all test-out-able. The issue is going to come when you get to the Area of Study. International Business is available at TorahCC, Interational Econ is available at TESC Online. It's the other courses that will be difficult to find. You need 12 UL units in there, so only 2 can come from a CC if you can find them. You will have to do some research to figure out where to get those classes.

Colorado Tech has some $1300/course
SNHU has some for $960/course
Liberty has some for $1125/course

I'm sure there are more out there, just google International Business degree online and see what you can come up with. The good news is that you only have to take 4 of the expensive classes, and the rest can be gotten more easily per this forum.

[inkleind]

Thank you so much for helping figure this out. It also seems that the more I read the more everyone says just take the fastest route to get the undergrad out of the way and then focus on a Masters in what you want to do, like international studies. Which the more I sit on that idea, the more sense it makes.

Now I just need to figure out what classes I should take at my local cc for the spring semester. I don't think I want to waste the time and money on gen ed's since I can clep out of all of them. What to do, what to do.

[dfrecore]

If you decide to do the BSBA in General Management instead (and then get your Master's), then you can test out of everything. There are exams or online courses for every single option.

First, you need to decide if you're going to pay the $3000 enrollment fee, or take 8 TECEP's to meet your residency requirements. If you need 8 TECEP's, plan those in first.

Second, do Kaplan PLA (free)/TEEX (free)/NFA (cree)/ALEKS ($20/mo)/Saylor ($25/course)/edX Global Freshman Academy ($49/course)

Third, if you're going to do Straighterline, then do as many of those as you can in as short a time as possible. That will cut your costs per credit a lot.

After that, CLEP/DSST/UExcel/Jumpcourse.

Good luck!