TESU Cornerstone Deadline

[ISKBizz15]

I'm posting this in case some of you haven't seen or received this message from TESU:

Dear Students,

Thomas Edison State University requires all students to take the TES-100 Cornerstone: Lifelong Learning Strategies course in their first term of courses. We encourage you to register for this course right away so you can move forward in pursuit of your degree. To ensure maximum flexibility and convenience for you, we request that you complete TES-100 by June 30, 2019 as this course will not be offered each term after that date. 

Beginning July 1, 2019 all students who have not completed TES-100 by June 30, 2019 will be required to take SOS-110 (3 credits), in lieu of TES-100. SOS-100 may be used to fulfill the required Information Literacy requirement or as an elective in all undergraduate degree programs.

[Supermind]

Thanks for posting.

[Merlin]

I'm posting this in case some of you haven't seen or received this message from TESU:

Dear Students,

Thomas Edison State University requires all students to take the TES-100 Cornerstone: Lifelong Learning Strategies course in their first term of courses. We encourage you to register for this course right away so you can move forward in pursuit of your degree. To ensure maximum flexibility and convenience for you, we request that you complete TES-100 by June 30, 2019 as this course will not be offered each term after that date. 

Beginning July 1, 2019 all students who have not completed TES-100 by June 30, 2019 will be required to take SOS-110 (3 credits), in lieu of TES-100. SOS-100 may be used to fulfill the required Information Literacy requirement or as an elective in all undergraduate degree programs.

Well, that blows. Luckily I'll be graduated by then, but it means alt. education folks will need to plan on 6 credits at TESU instead of 4 (or 3). It will also raise the degree cost by roughly $800 ($1098 using Study.com discount rather than $300 for TES-100). Plus it will introduce more timing issues on graduation planning since SOS-110 (Living in the Information Age) is a standard 3-month course like the capstone rather than an easy 30-60 minute review that can be done any time, like TES-100.

At least SOS-110 will come in as a useable Gen Ed (Info Lit) so it is actually useful in a degree plan rather than just taking up one of the GenEd elective credits like TES-100.

[Aligirl577]

So this brings up a question that I have been pondering. I am planning out my BALS right now. I am starting from scratch with no credits. I was planning on working on CLEP testing first, then moving on to Study.com or similar. At what point do I need to officially apply to TESU? I was planning on just waiting until I had most of the credits but should I go ahead and do it earlier so that I can do the cornerstone before it goes away?

[dfrecore]

So this brings up a question that I have been pondering. I am planning out my BALS right now. I am starting from scratch with no credits. I was planning on working on CLEP testing first, then moving on to Study.com or similar. At what point do I need to officially apply to TESU? I was planning on just waiting until I had most of the credits but should I go ahead and do it earlier so that I can do the cornerstone before it goes away?

Yes, you should do that.

This is one of those things that isn't locked in because of your catalog.

---

It is getting to the point where TESU is going to make themselves the #2 or #3 (or maybe even #4) school on this forum. They are already more expensive than EC & COSC, and this just makes it even more expensive. COSC's cornerstone course is only 8 weeks, this is 12, so it will make the degree longer.

WGU is a better deal even if it takes 2 terms rather than 1, and after this taking 3 terms at WGU will only be slightly higher than TESU (about $1000).

The only benefits to TESU after this: no lab science required (unlike COSC), and a lower level math for most degrees (COSC requires College Algebra or Stats even for a BALS, for instance; EC requires Precalc for a business degree). And the fact that COSC and EC require 30cr of UL rather than TESU's 15/18cr of UL.

But I think that this will make it so that it's worth the hassle to make the switch to EC, COSC or WGU for most forum members on July 1, 2019. I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to get a TESU degree for the price ($8300 or so). It's really a bummer they've decided to do this.

[ISKBizz15]

So this brings up a question that I have been pondering. I am planning out my BALS right now. I am starting from scratch with no credits. I was planning on working on CLEP testing first, then moving on to Study.com or similar. At what point do I need to officially apply to TESU? I was planning on just waiting until I had most of the credits but should I go ahead and do it earlier so that I can do the cornerstone before it goes away?

Yes, you should do that.

This is one of those things that isn't locked in because of your catalog.

---

It is getting to the point where TESU is going to make themselves the #2 or #3 (or maybe even #4) school on this forum. They are already more expensive than EC & COSC, and this just makes it even more expensive. COSC's cornerstone course is only 8 weeks, this is 12, so it will make the degree longer.

WGU is a better deal even if it takes 2 terms rather than 1, and after this taking 3 terms at WGU will only be slightly higher than TESU (about $1000).

The only benefits to TESU after this: no lab science required (unlike COSC), and a lower level math for most degrees (COSC requires College Algebra or Stats even for a BALS, for instance; EC requires Precalc for a business degree). And the fact that COSC and EC require 30cr of UL rather than TESU's 15/18cr of UL.

But I think that this will make it so that it's worth the hassle to make the switch to EC, COSC or WGU for most forum members on July 1, 2019. I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to get a TESU degree for the price ($8300 or so). It's really a bummer they've decided to do this.

Well in that case I guess that it's better to make sure I complete my degree before next summer. I was in no rush to complete my degree and was actually planning on completing it by the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020.
Who knows what other changes they'll be making between now and then. They've already gone up on the residency waiver fee, who's to say that they won't go even higher than that sometime next year. Time to buckle down I guess and speed through these exams.

[Merlin]

So this brings up a question that I have been pondering. I am planning out my BALS right now. I am starting from scratch with no credits. I was planning on working on CLEP testing first, then moving on to Study.com or similar. At what point do I need to officially apply to TESU? I was planning on just waiting until I had most of the credits but should I go ahead and do it earlier so that I can do the cornerstone before it goes away?

Yes, you should do that.

This is one of those things that isn't locked in because of your catalog.

---

It is getting to the point where TESU is going to make themselves the #2 or #3 (or maybe even #4) school on this forum.  They are already more expensive than EC & COSC, and this just makes it even more expensive.  COSC's cornerstone course is only 8 weeks, this is 12, so it will make the degree longer.

WGU is a better deal even if it takes 2 terms rather than 1, and after this taking 3 terms at WGU will only be slightly higher than TESU (about $1000).

The only benefits to TESU after this: no lab science required (unlike COSC), and a lower level math for most degrees (COSC requires College Algebra or Stats even for a BALS, for instance; EC requires Precalc for a business degree).  And the fact that COSC and EC require 30cr of UL rather than TESU's 15/18cr of UL.

But I think that this will make it so that it's worth the hassle to make the switch to EC, COSC or WGU for most forum members on July 1, 2019.  I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to get a TESU degree for the price ($8300 or so).  It's really a bummer they've decided to do this.

Well in that case I guess that it's better to make sure I complete my degree before next summer. I was in no rush to complete my degree and was actually planning on completing it by the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020.
Who knows what other changes they'll be making between now and then. They've already gone up on the residency waiver fee, who's to say that they won't go even higher than that sometime next year. Time to buckle down I guess and speed through these exams.

You sound like me. When I came back again in February 2018 (after a 7-year educational hiatus) my plan was to take it easy and just get things done casually as I felt like it, but after seeing some of the changes that came down in the spring I decided that I needed to buckle down and just get it done. I had like 20 credits in March/April and have more than 100 now. That has come at the cost of most of my free time over the last 6 months, but I'm only a handful of courses away from graduation now, so I'm mostly good with it.

The accelerated pace has also got me locked into an academic mentality so I'm not planning to stop with the BSBA now, but move onto a master's degree next. So for me, that has been an interesting side effect to the more focused approach I guess.

[Supermind]

I got an email from an admissions expert at TESU asking if I would like to enroll soon, so changes that happen do not affect my studies/credits earned. I currently have only 21 credits. I was thinking of approaching them once I have like 45-50 credits. But going by your suggestions, I should probably enroll right away?
How much more expensive will a 12-week SOS course be in comparison to the Cornerstone?

[Merlin]

I got an email from an admissions expert at TESU asking if I would like to enroll soon, so changes that happen do not affect my studies/credits earned. I currently have only 21 credits. I was thinking of approaching them once I have like 45-50 credits. But going by your suggestions, I should probably enroll right away?
How much more expensive will a 12-week SOS course be in comparison to the Cornerstone?

There are pros and cons to enrolling early. But neither option is really better or worse, it depends on your approach to earning a degree.

The pros are:

• You gain access to advising to help plan your degree and pre-plan courses when needed
  
• You are no longer limited to two free evaluations transcripts you send to TESU
  
• You lock in your academic calendar for one year, which limits the impact of changes to the TESU curriculum and degree requirements
  

The cons are:

• It costs money. You have to either pay for an online course via TESU or a 3-credit TECEP to earn enrollment. This can be the cornerstone course though.
  
• It takes a bit of time. Your enrollment doesn't kick in until 10 days after the start of the term you paid for.
  
• A one year clock starts ticking before you either need to graduate or pay for another course to extend your enrollment date.
  

Given the upcoming changes on the cornerstone, you still have some time. They don't kick in until July of 2019, so you could earn your entire degree and graduate before they kick in. Either way, as long as you take your cornerstone course by the end of June you should be fine. Doing so will enroll you if you haven't already enrolled before then.

As far as pricing goes. The current capstone (TES-100) is a 1-credit course that costs $300. The new course (SOS-110) is a 3-credit course that costs full price tuition ($525 per credit normally, or $366 per credit with the Study.com affiliate discount), so either $1,575 or $1,098. This means the new course is roughly $800-$1300 more expensive. Additionally, TES-100 can be done in an hour and at any time you want, where SOS-110 requires registering for a specific term and takes 12-weeks to complete. SOS-110 will meet the Information Literacy GE requirement, so there is one small bonus if you have to take it anyway.

So, I'd make sure to take the cornerstone before the end of June instead of waiting until July 1st or later, and getting stuck with the new required course.

[Supermind]

Thank you Merlin. I was anyway planning to register in January 2019. I feel I would have completed a good number of courses by then and earned credits. I definitely want to avail of the advantages of this cornerstone course, even if it results in only 1 credit. GE requirements can always be met through other self-paced courses.