TESU Liberal Arts BA degree Plan - Help ?

[helaurin]

Helping my teen develop and work a plan towards a Bachelor's degree... this is her info/summary/request for guidance.

Your Location:   Pennsylvania, USA
Your Age:           19 (turning 20 in February 2026 – mentioning that since some schools don’t deal with those under 20 years of age)     
What kind of degree do you want?:   Any Bachelor’s degree will do (the quicker/easier, the better); but career goals include high-level dog training (protection work, bite sports, service/therapy dogs) with possibility of managing a business location for my employer and possibly K9 Law Enforcement in the future. 
Current Regional Accredited Credits:  N/A
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:    Using SDC credit equivalencies for TESU below

Study.com Credits:  48

Biology 101:          Intro to Biology, 3, 93 or A
Business 100:        Intro to Business, 3, 84 or B
Business 108:        Business Ethics, 3, 88 or B
Economics 101:    Principles of Microeconomics, 3, 88 or B 
Finance 102:         Personal Finance, 3, 90 or A
Health 101:           Principles of Health, 3, 91 or A
History 101:          Western Civilization I, 3, 91 or A
History 102:          Western Civilization II, 3, 91 or A
History 104:          US History II, 3, 94 or A
Math 102:             College Mathematics, 3, 81 or B
Nutrition 101:      Science of Nutrition, 3, 95 or A
Philosophy 103:   Ethics - Theory & Practice, 3, 90 or A
Philosophy 301:   Principles of Philosophy, 6, 90 or A
Physics 111:          Physics I, 3, 90 or A
Psychology 101:   Intro to Psychology, 3, 96 or A
 
Any certifications or military experience?:    no
Budget:     Low-cost, nothing really saved up at this time. Cheap and fast would be good if possible. Mom will cover SDC monthly fee as long as I am making good use of the plan.
Commitments:   Currently working 2 PT jobs in the animal welfare/dog training field; caring for my ten dogs, including training multiple dogs in PSA/Bite Sports. Traveling to field trials/workshops. Prefer online programs that I can complete at my own schedule/pace.
Dedicated time to study: 3-15 hours/week, variable due to work/commitments.
Timeline:  Sooner is better; but would like to finish in 2026 if possible.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement:  none so far.
Other:  

I don’t do well on standardized closed-book tests. Currently liking the SDC format and flexibility to work whenever my schedule allows. 

Academically strong areas include English, History, Science - all four years of high school I was in the Honors courses for those areas.  Thinking that Liberal Arts would be the easiest path, but might consider a minor in either:  business, psychology, management, or criminal justice.  

Weakest areas are Math and Computer programming - I'm computer literate as a user but not into programming. 

So far strongly leaning on earning as many credits through SDC as possible and thinking I would likely transfer to TESU to do the final two required courses and pay the accelerate fee, if I can get all the necessary credits through SDC. 

Not sure if it matters, but I have extensive experience in animal welfare in a shelter environment (over 8,000 volunteer hours documented, received Lifetime Achievement Award through the Presidential Volunteer Service Program - and subsequently was hired part-time three years ago by the shelter while in 10th grade). That experience entails everything from basic animal care to assisting with surgeries and euthanasia, medication administration, assisting with humane law officer activities, rehabilitating dogs from fighting rings, subbing in for shelter manager shifts when they were not available, counseling and mentoring fellow employees, supervising volunteer groups and activities, adoption counseling, customer interfacing, securing and transporting animals, fostering animals, three summers as a children's camp counselor, etc.  I am uncertain if that experience might align to any experience-based portfolio activity for credit consideration or if that just make earning a degree more complicated.

Thank you for guidance in advance.

[bjcheung77]

Awesome write up! Create a degree plan that max the cost, ease, speed to finish. I believe a trifecta of certs, degree, experience would be beneficial for your teen... She can work towards the TESU BALS with or without a concentration or UMPI BLS with a minor or two/three, including classes that can go towards the MAOL or MSB. In addition to that, if she would want, she can get Coursera Certs that provide ACE credits for electives...

[helaurin]

Awesome write up! Create a degree plan that max the cost, ease, speed to finish.  I believe a trifecta of certs, degree, experience would be beneficial for your teen... She can work towards the TESU BALS with or without a concentration or UMPI BLS with a minor or two/three, including classes that can go towards the MAOL or MSB.  In addition to that, if she would want, she can get Coursera Certs that provide ACE credits for electives...

Thank you!

She is looking for help with developing a degree plan, and hoping to do the TESU Accelerate program where if she has nearly the full 120 credits (with the appropriate spread between disciplines, and lower/upper credits), that she can just finish up with the two required TESU courses. 

One area of concern was that there is a specific piece of information on SDC that is different than what she was told by a TESU admissions counselor. 

SDC states:   

""Once you enroll at TESU, you cannot transfer in additional credit. " 

The TESU admissions counselor stated:  

"That quote from Study.com on their website is not correct. Your daughter can be admitted at TESU and continue to take classes at study.com or Sophia."

The fact that there is a difference between the two sites regarding transferring additional credit once enrolled at TESU has us both concerned, and we'd rather err on the side of caution and delay enrolling at TESU as long as reasonably possible to avoid the possible risk of the TESU admissions counselor being incorrect.   At the same time, we want to make sure she is meeting all the course requirements towards a TESU BALS in terms of distribution of courses across disciplines and level - so guidance on that would be seriously helpful. 

I know she will slow down the rate of course completion on SDC, but as of today, she has gotten through the equivalent of 51 credits on SDC that should transfer to TESU, with another 6 credits in progress.  Those 51 credits at our local state-sponsored university would have cost her about $20,400.   

[jg_nuy]

You can still transfer in credits once enrolled at TESU, as my son continues to do so.

Just remember that you need a total of 30 RA credits.

[ss20ts]

Always go by the info from the college. The third party websites are almost always wrong about something. Colleges constantly make changes and updates. The third parties are rarely aware of them it seems.

[helaurin]

You can still transfer in credits once enrolled at TESU, as my son continues to do so.

Just remember that you need a total of 30 RA credits.

She is hoping to use their Accelerate program: 

"At Thomas Edison State University, we know that highly motivated students like you have already achieved great success in your educational journey. For those who bring a significant number of credits from prior college experiences, Edison Accelerate* provides a streamlined, cost-effective pathway to graduation.

For $3,400, Edison Accelerate allows students with substantial prior credits to reduce their Credit Hour Residency Requirement to just 6 required course credits (SOS-1100: Critical Information Literacy and Capstone). Instead of enrolling in additional credit hours, you pay this one-time fee, saving both time and money while leveraging your past academic achievements." 

[jg_nuy]

Yes, you can graduate with just 6 credits from TESU, but she will need 24 RA or NA credits from other sources or from TESU itself.

Up to 90 credits can be applied to the degree from sources such as Study, Sophia, etc (ACE/NCCRS): https://www.tesu.edu/admissions/faqs/aca...credit.php