TESU Psychology Degree Plan, PLEASE HELP!

[AmenSandhu]

So here's my story, I'm currently 19 and I've wasted 1 year working at a mediocre minimum wage job and I've realized now that, It wasn't worth It.  I'd like to start my college journey and finish my degree as fast as possible but I don't know where to to begin... I'd like to major In psychology through TESU but I know they changed their credit transfer policy so I don't know what other college I should utilize now.. I need a degree plan through either TESU or COSU or Excelsior College.. (For psychology). I have no previous credit or anything like that so I'll be a novice, basically a freshmen straight out of High School. I don't really know what TESU's credit policy means for me because I am new to this and just don't understand It, so I was hoping someone could explain and map out a plan for me<3. I need a degree plan for Psychology through TESU with the credit transfer policy taken Into consideration. I'd like to finish within a year, I don't know If that's possible but If it Is I'd like an outlined plan of action of exactly what classes I would need Including upper level and lower level courses (basically entire degree). I plan to start my degree journey on 1/1/21 and have hopes of finishing on 12/30/21. 

I've found this degree plan --> https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan  But I'm not sure If It takes the credit policy Into account. If It does then, should I flow this plan EXACTLY like It's outlined In the wiki plan? 

A few questions: 
Can I finish within 1 year?   
Should I enroll first and then start testing out of all my classes through Sophia, Study.com, InstantCert, Modern States, CLEP etc..? 
Where do I begin? What should be my first steps? 


If someone Is able to verify and let me know that the degree plan I posted Is a go then I can start testing out of classes but I need to be sure first... 
Thank you for your help, I really appreciate It<3 

[rachel83az]

That plan does not take the new policy into account. But it is a good place to start. Since you are starting from scratch, I would suggest:

1. Apply to and enroll at TESU right away to lock in the current catalog year and get full student privileges.
2. Sign up for Sophia for $149 for the year. This is a STEAL. The price is only good until the end of December so you want to snag that first. Then you'll have 12 months to work on that.
3. Plan to take 8 courses from TEL Learning. It doesn't matter which, but you may want to avoid the communications/public speaking one due to the sheer amount of work involved. You could also take some from ASU Earned Admissions or similar but TEL Learning is the cheapest.
4. Take everything at Sophia that fills out your general eds and doesn't overlap with the courses you've chosen at TEL Learning.
5. Take the AOS requirements at Study.com/Coopersmith.

You might want to move the AOS to the top of the list, at least the UL requirements, but that's essentially what you need to do. Whether or not you can do this in a year will depend upon how much time you have to devote to your studies. It's certainly possible that you'll have your degree by next Christmas but it's not guaranteed.

[AmenSandhu]

That plan does not take the new policy into account. But it is a good place to start. Since you are starting from scratch, I would suggest:

1. Apply to and enroll at TESU right away to lock in the current catalog year and get full student privileges.
2. Sign up for Sophia for $149 for the year. This is a STEAL. The price is only good until the end of December so you want to snag that first. Then you'll have 12 months to work on that.
3. Plan to take 8 courses from TEL Learning. It doesn't matter which, but you may want to avoid the communications/public speaking one due to the sheer amount of work involved. You could also take some from ASU Earned Admissions or similar but TEL Learning is the cheapest.
4. Take everything at Sophia that fills out your general eds and doesn't overlap with the courses you've chosen at TEL Learning.
5. Take the AOS requirements at Study.com/Coopersmith.

You might want to move the AOS to the top of the list, at least the UL requirements, but that's essentially what you need to do. Whether or not you can do this in a year will depend upon how much time you have to devote to your studies. It's certainly possible that you'll have your degree by next Christmas but it's not guaranteed.

How would I know what courses I need to take from and from which 3rd party providers?  The wiki degree plan has a recommended platform on which I should complete that course on.. 

Do I just follow the courses listed on the wiki plan and take them exactly as their listed but Instead take the upper level courses first?

[rachel83az]

Yes. Start with the ULs and the other AOS courses; those will remain the same. You could take Intro to Psychology from TEL Learning ($200) or Outlier.org ($400) to get that RA credit but that would be the only change to the AOS as of right now.

A new plan is being worked on for the general education portion of the degree that should be more helpful in choosing what to take where. The gen eds should be available within the next few days; Sophia will still play a major part.

[AmenSandhu]

Yes. Start with the ULs and the other AOS courses; those will remain the same. You could take Intro to Psychology from TEL Learning ($200) or Outlier.org ($400) to get that RA credit but that would be the only change to the AOS as of right now.

A new plan is being worked on for the general education portion of the degree that should be more helpful in choosing what to take where. The gen eds should be available within the next few days; Sophia will still play a major part.

So I should go about everything like this:  


1. Enroll Into TESU 

2. Sign up for Sophia's $120 Deal 

3. Knock out all of my Upper Level courses first, which are these: 

UL Psychology
Psychology 310: Psychology of Personality (UL)
Study.com 

UL Psychology
Psychology 301: Industrial/Organizational Psychology (UL)
Study.com

UL Psychology
Family Therapy (PSY-306)
Coopersmith
[/url]
UL Psychology
Drugs, Society, and Human Behavior (PSY-305)
[url=https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Coopersmith_Career_Consulting]Coopersmith

UL Psychology
Substance Abuse Counseling (PSY-320)
Coopersmith 

4. Finish all of my General Ed and Electives At Sophia's, second.  

5.  What courses do I need to take on TEL? Doesn't Sophia's have everything? 

6. Wait for the new plan 

Am I right? 

Thank you for the help btw <3

---

Yes. Start with the ULs and the other AOS courses; those will remain the same. You could take Intro to Psychology from TEL Learning ($200) or Outlier.org ($400) to get that RA credit but that would be the only change to the AOS as of right now.

A new plan is being worked on for the general education portion of the degree that should be more helpful in choosing what to take where. The gen eds should be available within the next few days; Sophia will still play a major part.

Also, What does RA mean? and What does AOS mean?  and What's RA credit? 

Sorry I'm just dumb lol

[dfrecore]

First, I would say that you should see if you qualify for financial aid, because that will make a difference in which school you choose. There are many options that you could look at other than the Big 3 if you had aid.

For instance, if you could go to Snow College for their Accelerated Online AA competency-based degree ($1743 for 4 months), you might want to consider that - especially if it's fully paid for. Then you have 16 weeks to take as many courses as possible, and they will transfer to several other schools. You could actually do this in conjunction with Sophia if you wanted, but at $108/week, and with it fully paid for, it will probably get you at least 24cr of RA. They accept Sophia (and other ACE) so you could probably get an AA pretty quickly.

You could look at Capella's Flexpath program, which is also Competency-based ($2300 for 12 weeks). They have a BS in Psych and take ACE credit.

Or you can stick with one of the Big 3, and get a BA in Psych from TESU, a BS in Psych from EC, or a BS in Psych from COSC. I think TESU is the easiest one to get out of those 3 for the Psych major. You'd need 24cr of RA from somewhere, and this is where Snow or TEL or one of those would come in. Snow is eligible for Financial Aid but TEL is not, so that's why it makes a difference in making this choice.

All of the options are good, now it's just a matter of figuring out the different costs for all of them. If you aren't sure, apply for FAFSA. If you know for certain you won't qualify for aid, then no worries, that's when you narrow it down - and the best way to do that is to figure out a budget and make the most of your money.

[AmenSandhu]

First, I would say that you should see if you qualify for financial aid, because that will make a difference in which school you choose.  There are many options that you could look at other than the Big 3 if you had aid.

For instance, if you could go to Snow College for their Accelerated Online AA competency-based degree ($1743 for 4 months), you might want to consider that - especially if it's fully paid for.  Then you have 16 weeks to take as many courses as possible, and they will transfer to several other schools.  You could actually do this in conjunction with Sophia if you wanted, but at $108/week, and with it fully paid for, it will probably get you at least 24cr of RA.  They accept Sophia (and other ACE) so you could probably get an AA pretty quickly.

You could look at Capella's Flexpath program, which is also Competency-based ($2300 for 12 weeks).  They have a BS in Psych and take ACE credit.

Or you can stick with one of the Big 3, and get a BA in Psych from TESU, a BS in Psych from EC, or a BS in Psych from COSC.  I think TESU is the easiest one to get out of those 3 for the Psych major.  You'd need 24cr of RA from somewhere, and this is where Snow or TEL or one of those would come in.  Snow is eligible for Financial Aid but TEL is not, so that's why it makes a difference in making this choice.

All of the options are good, now it's just a matter of figuring out the different costs for all of them.  If you aren't sure, apply for FAFSA.  If you know for certain you won't qualify for aid, then no worries, that's when you narrow it down - and the best way to do that is to figure out a budget and make the most of your money.

I'd like to stick with TESU but I just need a list of courses/classes of what I need to take and who I need to take It with.. that's where I get confused as I'm new to this... Also, what's RA credit?  

The wiki plan would've worked great as it had everything outlined with all of the Info but since the new policy It Isn't entirely correct ..

[rachel83az]

RA credit essentially means credit that comes from a university source rather than an alternative provider like Sophia or SDC. TEL Learning courses are RA because they get added to a University transcript. As far as TESU is concerned, these courses come from the university itself.

TESU's new policy means that you need:
6 credits (2 classes) at TESU - capstone/cornerstone
24 credits (8 classes) of credit from RA sources
90 credits (30 classes) from ACE/NCCRS sources like Sophia, Study.com, and Coopersmith

I've made a start creating a plan for the updated policies. You can see (some) of the suggestions here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap

[AmenSandhu]

RA credit essentially means credit that comes from a university source rather than an alternative provider like Sophia or SDC. TEL Learning courses are RA because they get added to a University transcript. As far as TESU is concerned, these courses come from the university itself.

TESU's new policy means that you need:
6 credits (2 classes) at TESU - capstone/cornerstone
24 credits (8 classes) of credit from RA sources
90 credits (30 classes) from ACE/NCCRS sources like Sophia, Study.com, and Coopersmith

I've made a start creating a plan for the updated policies. You can see (some) of the suggestions here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap

Thank you so much! That was really helpful. Will you be making an updated Psychology plan for TESU? 

I think I'll start getting my upper level courses out of the way for now until I can find a new updated plan, after that I'll finish all of the Sophia courses and etc...

[rachel83az]

Yeah, I will be updating the psychology plan soon. It'll be slow going because I'm also going to TESU while dealing with the updated policies but I'm working on it.