TESC - Which BA/BS degrees can you accomplish testing only ??

[Westerner]

My goal would be to clep/dsst/fema nearly everything while leaving a couple courses for GPA purposes.

That's what I'm doing for my History degree. Regarding the TESC courses, the Capstone is now required for a BA.

[Gawyn210]

Sanatone,

Ouch! The truth hurts. I am starting to think you are right and I am about $2500.00 wrong. I wish I had found this site before spending the money.

[walternc3]

You can test completely out of the TESC BSBA. Even the Capstone can be transfered in from Penn Foster or taken as a TECEP. The only problem with tranfering or testing out of all your courses is you won't have a GPA. You need to take at least one course through TESC to get a GPA. Trying to get into a Masters program without a GPA is not the easiest of things, I've been told.

[AlbaTiVo]

Any school you look to for a masters will calculate your GPA based on everything you have taken, not just one class.

[Daithi]

I'm currently going through the process to do this right now. I'm working on a BA in Liberal Science (BALS) and when I get home tonight I will post the courses I'm testing out of to complete the degree. I'm trying to do it quick and cheap so I'm taking advantage of FEMA courses and as many CLEP courses worth 6 credits as possible. I'll post the details when I get home tonight.

[Publius]

You don't need to pay CollegePlus to help you complete a degree. What a ripoff! The company only has 3 ACE-approved courses, so you're basically paying them thousands of dollars for information you can get for free here or directly from TESC.

I agree. IMO, what should be done is someone needs to create a website that would be able to teach and compile a bunch of this info. This place is great, but the info is so vast and scattered it makes it tough and unappealing to outsiders (though being able to ask questions is a huge plus). Directly contacting TESC is fine, but most people don't know anything about them to begin with. Let alone any of the Big 3. A big problem is that people just aren't aware of this alternative. People that are, are aware of it because of CollegePlus's efforts. So, they're taking someone who would of spent anywhere from 40K - 120K on a degree and bringing it down to around 13-15K. They think they're getting a great deal, and in that regard they are. They don't realize, till it's to late, that they just spent an extra 3K they didn't need to. That could of covered most of the exams, or their entire enrollment fee, etc. I say beat CollegePlus to it, and create something like a website or such that will help increase the awareness.

As far as websites go, I love FCP, but it mainly focuses on CLEP preperation with stuff "on the side". The degree forum wiki is excellent. Taking something like that, but a step further would be awesome .
I mean, how great would it be for people who know next to nothing or everything to have an additional something with the website (not just compile and present the info). Say allow people to create accounts and create degree templates. Start off with one of the Big 3 or 'custom', then pick a program, then proceed to fill it out from there w/ maybe drop down boxes of what CLEPs, DSSTs, TECEPs, ECEs, etc. would fit where. Which courses would be needed. Be able to then export that. A whole bunch of stuff could be done. If a bunch is done, I'm sure people wouldn't mind paying a nominal fee (the info should be fee, I'm talking to create an account and be able to do a bunch of things). That nominal fee sure would add up with how large of a field this is. Just surprised something like this isn't done already, it could be a win win for everyone. I guess most people are like me though, lacking in time, knowledge, and resources. Oh well, maybe one day.

[Snickerdoodle]

Some ppl do need a resource like CollegePlus to "hold their hands," so to speak, for maybe a year or so in the beginning. I know folks who got started with CollegePlus & then took off on their own. That said, it would be great to have a central, consolidated website like what Publius described. The template thing...oooh how I wish. O_o Computer majors...is that JS or something else???

[Daithi]

Below are the requirements for a BA in Liberal Studies (BALS) at Thomas Edison State College (TESC) and the actual CLEP/DSST tests I am taking to meet the requirements. The only actual class I am taking is the Capstone, which can be taken online as a "guided study" course (basically at your own pace). The BALS General Education Requirements can all be done through CLEP testing. The Area of Study Requirements has to use some DANTES DSST testing because TESC's BALS requires 18 credits to be from Upper Level (UL) courses, and none of the CLEP courses are UL courses. However, the Capstone course is a UL course, so that leaves just 15 credits, or 5 UL courses.

Here are some of the links I used to plan out my degree.

List of the Requirements for the TESC BALS degree.
List of CLEP Exams and Their TESC Names and Credit Values.
List of DANTES/DSST Exams and Their TESC Names and Credit Values.
The TESC Course Catalog.

You have a lot of leeway with a BALS degree. Starting on page 68 of the TESC Catalog is a list of all the courses under General Education and its subcategories (Humanities, Social Sciences, etc.). In other words, you definitely don't have to go with the courses I've decided on, but you can make your own choices. Just use the Catalog and other links to plan out your own degree.

One of the things I did was concentrate on using as many CLEP tests worth 6 credits as possible. However, after reading some of the feedback in the Exam Specific section of this forum, I replaced the 6 credit Chemistry test with two easier 3 credit tests. I also had planned on taking the Calculus CLEP and the Middle East History tests, but changed my mind after reading the feedback in the Exam Specific forum. So, don't forget to review that section if you have access to it.

One more point that may help others, you should not enroll in TESC right away. Use the above links and this site to plan out what testing you'll need to complete to earn your degree. Once you have completed more than 75% of your testing then go ahead and enroll. This way you only need to pay a single annual enrollment tuition fee. If you enroll right away and don't finish your degree in a year then you would have to pay an additional yearly enrollment fee. So one other link you may want is the Tuition Fee page.

Between the tuition, my Capstone class fee, and the graduation fee I'm looking at $4,000. Plus I'll need to pay testing fees for 20 tests at around $100 ($80 for the test and $20 sitting fee at the testing center near me). I'll also probably spend around $500 on study material, so around $6,500 for my degree. This is also one of the reasons I selected the BALS degree, as it provides 27 Free Electives, and I can apply FEMA tests to these electives. That is nearly an entire year of courses for which I don't have to pay. Even if I had taken CLEP tests in place of the FEMA tests it would have cost me around $1,000 in testing fees. Plus, I was able to do 30 FEMA courses in just 2 weekends and a few evenings. TESC is a little more expensive than the other two in the Big 3, but these FEMA courses knock down the total cost by around $1,000.


I. General Education Requirements___________________________________60
___A. English Composition____________________________________________6
______CLEP ENC101/102-CE College Composition General........... (6)
___B. Humanities___________________________________________________12
______CLEP HUM101/102 Humanities............................... (6)
______CLEP LIT111/112-CE American Literature................... (6)
___C. Social Sciences (2 subject areas)_____________________________12
______CLEP SOS101/102-CE Social Sciences and History........... (6)
______CLEP PSY101-CE Introductory Psychology................... (3)
______CLEP HIS-113-CE History of the United States I........... (3)
___D. Natural Sciences and Mathematics______________________________12
______CLEP MAT101/102-CE College Mathematics................... (6)
______CLEP COS101-CE IS and Computer Applications.............. (3)
______CLEP MAT-121-CE College Algebra.......................... (3)
___E. General Education Electives___________________________________18
______CLEP NAS101/102-CE Natural Sciences...................... (6)
______CLEP BIO111/112-CE Biology............................... (6)
______CLEP SOC-101-CE Introductory Sociology................... (3)
______CLEP HIS-114-CE History of the United States II.......... (3)

II. Area of Study: Liberal Studies__________________________________33
___A. Maximum 6 credits at 100 level
______DSST ART166-DE Art of the Western World.................. (3)
___B. Between 9 and 15 credits at 200 level
______CLEP LIT291/292-CE Analyzing and Interpreting Literature. (6)
______CLEP LIT208/209-CE English Literature.................... (6)
___C. Minimum 18 credits at 300 & 400 level
______DSST REL405-DE Introduction to World Religions........... (3)
______DSST CIS301-DE Management Information Systems............ (3)
______DSST HIS351-DE A History of the Vietnam War.............. (3)
______DSST HIS386-DE Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union......... (3)
______DSST SOS305-DE Drug & Alcohol / Substance Abuse.......... (3)
______LIB-495 Liberal Arts Capstone............................ (3)

III. Free Electives__________________________________________________27
___A. FEMA courses............................................ (27)

TOTAL CREDITS: 120

[sanantone]

I agree. IMO, what should be done is someone needs to create a website that would be able to teach and compile a bunch of this info. This place is great, but the info is so vast and scattered it makes it tough and unappealing to outsiders (though being able to ask questions is a huge plus). Directly contacting TESC is fine, but most people don't know anything about them to begin with. Let alone any of the Big 3. A big problem is that people just aren't aware of this alternative. People that are, are aware of it because of CollegePlus's efforts. So, they're taking someone who would of spent anywhere from 40K - 120K on a degree and bringing it down to around 13-15K. They think they're getting a great deal, and in that regard they are. They don't realize, till it's to late, that they just spent an extra 3K they didn't need to. That could of covered most of the exams, or their entire enrollment fee, etc. I say beat CollegePlus to it, and create something like a website or such that will help increase the awareness.

As far as websites go, I love FCP, but it mainly focuses on CLEP preperation with stuff "on the side". The degree forum wiki is excellent. Taking something like that, but a step further would be awesome .
I mean, how great would it be for people who know next to nothing or everything to have an additional something with the website (not just compile and present the info). Say allow people to create accounts and create degree templates. Start off with one of the Big 3 or 'custom', then pick a program, then proceed to fill it out from there w/ maybe drop down boxes of what CLEPs, DSSTs, TECEPs, ECEs, etc. would fit where. Which courses would be needed. Be able to then export that. A whole bunch of stuff could be done. If a bunch is done, I'm sure people wouldn't mind paying a nominal fee (the info should be fee, I'm talking to create an account and be able to do a bunch of things). That nominal fee sure would add up with how large of a field this is. Just surprised something like this isn't done already, it could be a win win for everyone. I guess most people are like me though, lacking in time, knowledge, and resources. Oh well, maybe one day.

It doesn't seem as if CollegePlus has done a very good job with providing its customers with accurate information. I found out about the Big 3 by searching for online colleges. I hadn't even heard of CollegePlus before this thread. I just kind of glanced over the company when looking at the ACE National Guide.