TESU 100% Test Out Degree Plan Check (BA Social Sciences)

[dropout2PE2BSBA]

Hi everyone,

I've attached my degree plan as an Excel spreadsheet
  Less than 1 minute ago">TESU Test List.xlsx (Size: 12.54 KB / Downloads: 42) . I would appreciate it if anyone could look over to make sure it meets all of the requirements (General education, Area of study, 12 credits in at least one area, but no more than 18, etc). This is for a BA in Social Sciences.

In the spreadsheet it contains a list of how I see the best order to take the exams based on overlapping information. Please critique my approach if you see any way to make it more efficient and easier. (whether that is by taking a CLEP vs. a DSST, or you see where I can take a 6 credit course...etc)

Also, I have a few questions that are in red.



Much appreciated,

[jsd]

Your plan is missing the capstone which can not be tested out of, and will cost you $1500 outside of NJ.

Because of the capstone, no bachelor of arts degree will be 100% test-outable at TESU.

BSBA are 100% because the business capstone is offered as a TECEP. The arts degrees will likely never have anything similar to that option.

[dropout2PE2BSBA]

Your plan is missing the capstone which can not be tested out of, and will cost you $1500 outside of NJ.

Because of the capstone, no bachelor of arts degree will be 100% test-outable at TESU.

BSBA are 100% because the business capstone is offered as a TECEP. The arts degrees will likely never have anything similar to that option.

thank you. Noted and added.

Content and efficiency wise do you believe the BSBA in General Management to be better than the plan i've outlined?

[jsd]

I'm the wrong person to ask, to be honest.

My first love is sociology and I'm currently wrapping up a BA in psychology, so I'm a fan of the social science route.

However, because of the capstone, it's cheaper and faster to go the BSBA route.

But for me, nothing about a business degree would hold my interest, it'd likely bore or frustrate me so much that I'd put off the work for long periods of time, making it take longer than it should, or just quit all together.

For that reason, paying the extra $1500 is worth it for me personally. Your mileage may vary. Always pick the best option for your personal situation, and the one that fits your future goals and what you plan to do with the degree

[sanantone]

What is your goal? The BSBA will apply to a wide variety of jobs, but not all. A business degree would have no use in what I'm doing now, which is substance abuse counseling. My BA in Social Science has gotten me interviews for various social services jobs. Social science covers sociology, anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, and some criminal justice subjects. If you're not looking to work in a job related to any of those fields, then a social science degree may not have much value outside of jobs that will accept any major.

[dropout2PE2BSBA]

I'm the wrong person to ask, to be honest.

My first love is sociology and I'm currently wrapping up a BA in psychology, so I'm a fan of the social science route.

However, because of the capstone, it's cheaper and faster to go the BSBA route.

But for me, nothing about a business degree would hold my interest, it'd likely bore or frustrate me so much that I'd put off the work for long periods of time, making it take longer than it should, or just quit all together.

For that reason, paying the extra $1500 is worth it for me personally. Your mileage may vary. Always pick the best option for your personal situation, and the one that fits your future goals and what you plan to do with the degree

I agree with you for the most part on that.. Looking at the business core courses and they do not perk my ears up. My goal is to get into the best MPA, Masters in international affairs, or law school program I can get into.

In your opinion, have I done a good job picking out the courses and the order that i've laid out to take them? (based on least amount of study time)

[jsd]

I'm pretty sure human growth and lifespan development are going to duplicate. At a glance, it looks like a solid plan. But I'd use some of the free-of-cost credits options to fill out your free electives and save money. Same thing with the ethics requirement. There's a free version we talk about on this forum, it's only 2 cr but you can make up the missing credit with a gen ed elective (the cornerstone counts as a gen elective for some reason, btw). That removes the need for ethics in America.

Other than that it looks good at a glance, but I didn't spend too much time going over it, I have a 3 day old baby here keeping me busy

[dropout2PE2BSBA]

I'm pretty sure human growth and lifespan development are going to duplicate. At a glance, it looks like a solid plan. But I'd use some of the free-of-cost credits options to fill out your free electives and save money. Same thing with the ethics requirement. There's a free version we talk about on this forum, it's only 2 cr but you can make up the missing credit with a gen ed elective (the cornerstone counts as a gen elective for some reason, btw). That removes the need for ethics in America.

Other than that it looks good at a glance, but I didn't spend too much time going over it, I have a 3 day old baby here keeping me busy

I was afraid of that. I will replace human growth with another course.

I'm not too familiar with the free of cost courses, but do you think graduate programs will "look down", for lack of a better term, on those credits?


Sanantone,

Being that I was following your guide whilst assembling my list, do you have any words of wisdom?

[dfrecore]

I agree with you for the most part on that.. Looking at the business core courses and they do not perk my ears up. My goal is to get into the best MPA, Masters in international affairs, or law school program I can get into.

In your opinion, have I done a good job picking out the courses and the order that i've laid out to take them? (based on least amount of study time)

First, it's almost impossible for someone else to tell you if the courses you've picked are "good" or not - it is entirely dependent upon what YOU are good at. If you picked a bunch of history courses (which I personally enjoy), but you don't really like them, then I might say your plan is good, but it might not actually be good FOR YOU. Therefore, you need to decide which courses/exams will work best for you.

That being said, I would not do all of those business courses if you enjoy Social Sciences (except maybe Microecon, just on the theory that it's interesting to see why people do the things they do, but even then, it's a stretch). I wouldn't take Financial or Managerial Accounting, or Microeconomics, or Business Law, unless it was absolutely forced on me by my degree (it was by the way, and I still didn't enjoy them, or are not enjoying them currently). Take some courses you will enjoy more, or you will never finish your degree!

Also, I noticed that almost all of your credits will be done through CLEP/DSST. I'm not sure if you know all of the other ways to get credits, but there are a TON out there, and many of them are cheaper than the exams you list. For instance, you can take the Intermediate Algebra ALEKS course for $20. And if you can pass College Algebra, Precalc and Stats in that same month (or even in the next couple of months), that's certainly cheaper than taking the CLEP exams. If you're military and just want to do DSST/CLEP, then by all means do it, but there are certainly better options to take other types of courses if you're open to other ways of doing them.

Also, Shmoop has some history courses that are currently $25 for a subscription for this month. Which means if you could complete all 3 courses, it would cost you a whopping $25 for 9cr. That's a great deal. US History I, II, and Modern European History - and the last 2 have a lot of duplication, meaning European History course is easier to take because of that.

There's also SL, Study.com (with a 20% off coupon), Saylor ($25/course), NFA (free), Insurance Ethics (free), TEEX (free), etc. Lots of ways to get your credits for less. If you enjoy history, Study.com has The Civil War & Reconstruction and The American Civil War Era (both LL, but don't duplicate) - this sounds much easier to me, as you're killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

--------------------------------

In looking at your courses/exams, I can answer some of your questions:

1) College Algebra is not needed, College Math is fine

2) Intro to Computing DSST/INfo Systems CLEP duplicate each other. But the Comp Sci course at Saylor or the Computer TECEP do not overlap any of those and can all be used. You can also take the Intro to Computing or Info Systems course at Study.com

3) Rise & Fall of the Soviet Union has been changed to History of the Soviet Union, and content has changed fairly recently

4) MIS DSST is UL (but doesn't matter since you need 18cr of UL in the AOS, and no other UL courses matter at TESU)

5) Fundamentals of Counseling DSST is LL

6) History of the Vietnam War is UL

7) You won't need to do the Cornerstone since you're transferring in all of your credits except the Capstone

8) Lifespan duplicates Human Growth & Dev

9) Order of first business courses: Intro to Business, Supervision, Management, Marketing

[bjcheung77]

Dfrecore beat me to the punch. Anyways, since you're using ALEKS and also using Straighterline, you can take more courses so you maximize the month membership.
The same in regard to the Shmoop courses, I just registered for Shmoop, in 10 days to a couple of weeks, they'll bump the pricing up for the membership in regards to the ACE Credit recommended courses.

They'll have 10 more math courses when that price comes up, so if you have a few math courses you'll use for electives, you'll be good. Note: In addition to the 10 math courses, they'll be coming up with 12 Literature courses also included in the monthly fee. So, for example, people going for a BALS would love this shmoop membership, as 3 months or so will get them 25 courses, or 75 credits!!