TESU BSBA CIS, law school, and GPA

[ssorj]

The main reason for me going back to finish a degree is to get into law school.  I read on here and confirmed on the LSAC website that unless 60 of my credits have a letter grade, the LSAC won't generate a GPA for law school applications.  I've already done most of my degree on sophia.org and study.com. To get a GPA for law school applications, I would have to go back and re-take something like 45 credits at a community college which would double the cost and triple the time to graduation.  

I'm currently still cruising through sophia.org courses.  Here's my question and how I see the options:

1) I could go back to community college, re-take lots of courses in triple the time for double the cost to get enough graded credits to have a GPA appear.  This is my least favorite option.

2) I could find another way to get graded credits that would transfer into TESU for BSBA CIS.  I'd need the course to be online.  Unfortunately, the ones I've found where this is possible are price prohibitive.  Does anyone have an ideas here?

3) I could continue with my plan laid out in mostly sophia.org and study.com courses and apply to law school without a GPA and only an LSAT score.  Does anyone have any insight into my chances?  I'd be looking at UNT-Dallas College of Law.  I'll spare you the reasoning.  Does anyone have any insight into this particular school's requirements beyond what's posted on their website about general admissions requirements?  Have they ever taken someone with LSAT only?  I'm aware of the LSAT+GPA acceptance estimation tools.  Is there any data out there that would show the chances of LSAT only applications?

Thanks in advance to the folks in this forum who helped me believe once again that I could finish this.

[bjcheung77]

Hmm, yes, it's interesting - For professional programs that require credentialing, licensing, etc, it's always recommended to follow the requirements - be it 30 or 60 graded credits, - the respective requirement will be looked into. Having said that, they'll not just look at the GPA, they'll look at the overall applicant info provided to them, character, references...

The info above is only showing a partial picture, we need more details of what you have currently taken and are working on... so, in order to provide you another option than the 3 posted above, I highly suggest you list all your previous courses taken and the ones you have completed with alternative credit - such as the CLEP, ACE/NCCRS providers as well...

[rachel83az]

Redoing your credits definitely doesn't sound like fun but it may be the only option. As bjcheung77 said, please list out what you already have so that we can make better recommendations. 60 credits with a letter grade would cost somewhere around $3000-4000. A bit more if you use ASU instead of TEL and/or ONU.

[withrown]

I think StraighterLine could work for you. LSAC required a StraighterLine transcript which has letter grades. Davar has an LSAC logo on their transfer list page so maybe you could take some of those tests and get one of their transcripts.

Sophia may work for you though, LSAC required a transcript from them for me. I'd say go ahead and purchase the CAS service and see what they give you for your GPA report.

[dfrecore]

I'd just go to UMPI or another competenncy-based school/program and take 60cr. There's no reason to go to TESU of if you need but don't have 60 graded credits, it won't get you what you want.

[natshar]

I'd just go to UMPI or another competenncy-based school/program and take 60cr.  There's no reason to go to TESU of if you need but don't have 60 graded credits, it won't get you what you want.

UMPI could work because their competency credits are graded. Whereas WGU doesn't do letter grades. So I think competency-based could work in this situation as long you check and the school offers letter grades.

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Also here is some info: https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/la...ege-of-law#

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https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/edito...ve-itself/

[ssorj]

Here's the read-only link to my degree progress tracker on google docs.

The green items are completed and transferred into TESU from old community college stuff.  They may be too old to transfer again.

Purple items are completed.  Yellow highlight on the course name are currently enrolled courses with the purple provider indicating that I'm committed to that provider.  

You might notice that I tried to run some scenarios about community college courses with the "Y" in column G.  If they were done at via sophia/ace and have a Y in that column, it was a course that I found a likely equivalency at my local community college and I was considering retaking it there.  Cost is $79/credit hour or $237 per course.  I'm also assuming about $60 in books/licensing/fees, etc. per class.  That seems to be the average from historical data.

This is a live sheet and may change significantly in the future. 

I had not looked into ASU before.  I see that they have some EDx programs where you earn a grade and if you like it, pay $400 to add it to your transcript. That's definitely an option, but the cost will slow me down.

I was not aware that straigherline gave letter grades.  I assumed that ACE transfer came across as pass/fail.  I'm almost certain I read that before.  Maybe both are true and straighter line gives letter grades but ace sends it to tesu as pass/fail.  Is there another way to transfer?  

I hear flexibility as a recurring theme.  I'm not tied to the BSBA CIS or TESU beyond the aging community college credits that already exist.  The goal is to end up with a regionally accredited bachelor's degree of any sort with a GPA listed so that I can have a real chance of getting into law school.

[ss20ts]

I'd seriously consider looking at UMPI. They offer a BA in history & politics, business administration, and criminal justice in addition to their BLS which a liberal studies degree. All courses at UMPI have letter grades. You'd earn a degree from a state university. You may actually be able to finish their degree faster than a TESU degree. UMPI also offers every course you'd need to complete the degree so you wouldn't have to worry about completing enough credits with a letter grade. 

I've run into similar issues with many grad schools. They want to see that you have a 3.0 in your last 60 credits. ACE credits aren't included for many grad schools. So glad I went to CSU Global and UMPI where I completed 69 credits and I'm well above a 3.0. I don't have to worry about my Sophia courses or community college courses anymore.

ETA: Would a law school actually look at the community college grades? Would they want the grades and credits to be at the end of a bachelor's degree? 

[withrown]

@ssorj - for undergrad at the big 3 (or any other school that will except them) I believe for the most part ACE credits will come in as p/f. The outlier I personally know of is COSC transcribing letter grades if you have a transcript sent to them direct from Straighterline. Once, I get my CAS report in from LSAC I'll report whether they averaged in letter grades from Straighterline and sophia learning with all my other grades to come up with an LSAC GPA.

@ss20ts - with the law schools I'm looking at the non-ABA accredited just wanted a transcript that showed I have a BS/BA degree. For the accredited law schools I have to go through there credentialing service ($200ish) and they want everything. They even wanted an official transcript from the "Insurance Ethics" course I took when I first started utilizing this forum.

[dfrecore]

@ssorj - for undergrad at the big 3 (or any other school that will except them) I believe for the most part ACE credits will come in as p/f. The outlier I personally know of is COSC transcribing letter grades if you have a transcript sent to them direct from Straighterline. Once, I get my CAS report in from LSAC I'll report whether they averaged in letter grades from Straighterline and sophia learning with all my other grades to come up with an LSAC GPA.

@ss20ts - with the law schools I'm looking at the non-ABA accredited just wanted a transcript that showed I have a BS/BA degree. For the accredited law schools I have to go through there credentialing service ($200ish) and they want everything. They even wanted an official transcript from the "Insurance Ethics" course I took when I first started utilizing this forum.

I don't think COSC brings in grades for SL any longer - I've heard that went away quite a while ago.