Taking courses at WGU not part of my degree program? And credit by examination

[Merlin]

There are other competency-based options for these math classes but financially, the cost is an issue. As far as I know, I couldn't find competency-based or self-study options for the science courses, but if there were any available I would want to take them. I am interested physics and chemistry science courses.

Math wise, Straighterline offers up through Calculus I and II, and Study.com offers up to Calculus I, but it sounds like you may not need those.

As for science courses, Straighterline also offers both General Physics I and General Chemistry I along with labs for both. Alternatively, you can look at Study.com's Chemistry 101, Physics 101, Physics 111 (Physics I), Chemstry 111L (Chemistry I with lab), and Chemistry 112L (Chemistry II with lab).

I am considering going to graduate school, possibly in computer science. I am not doing this only to satisfy graduate school requirements, but I could possibly use it for that.
I am just trying to take classes that I can incorporate into a degree plan at another college such as TESU. I was looking at their BA in mathematics. I have a way to incorporate these classes into a degree plan. I could also incorporate the science ones into natural sciences major at excelsior, or liberal arts major at TESU.

If you're interested in a CS degree, why not just complete the WGU CS degree program? It is arguably better (certainly faster and cheaper) than one you can cobble together via TESU, plus the WGU CS degree is pretty well regarded in the IT community.

If your goal is to pursue a master's degree, we know that the WGU degree meets the requirements for admission into a top-10 CS school like Georga Tech's OMSCS. In theory a CS degree from TESU should meet it as well, but we don't have any evidence of that yet. Plus, you have to jump through more hoops to build the TESU degree.

I guess I am a bit confused as to why you're looking to take these extra courses. If the goal is to learn the material then there are free ways to do that. If you want them for your college transcript, then I am wondering why since none of the schools you've mentioned require them. Nor are they required to meet the entrance requirements for most CS graduate degrees.

Now, if you were aiming to try to earn a dual major in math and CS via TESU, then this would make more sense, but is still a bit overkill on the math side.

I know that I can't skip courses in their degree program if I want to graduate from that program, but I can still have flexibility in the order of courses and only take a single term to take those courses.

From talking to them, they have told me differently about the flexibility order I can take courses in. When I talked to them they did tell me that there is flexibility in my degree plan as to which courses I could take first, but I am just not sure as to how much. I would have to talk to the college more about those specific programs to ask them about what order I would be able to take the courses in to determine if I would be able to or not, but now I not completely sure.

I am wondering about how much your order of courses is planned out. When you start to register for classes in their first term, do they plan beyond the first term? I heard that you can register for more courses after the courses you registered for in the first term.

This is a bit of a sticky subject. You always have to be careful when speaking with admissions as their job is to get you to sign up, they don't really know how things work once you start your courses. It used to be much more flexible, but they have locked a lot down over the last few years. I assume to improve their graduation rates.

The truth is, WGU has a fixed course order for every degree program. That course plan specifies which courses a student must take, and the order they must take them, from the first to the last course. They want every student to follow that plan exactly. Though they skip courses you've already met the requirements for, of course.

Now, that doesn't mean that you have to follow that plan. It is the responsibility of your program mentor (PM) to sign you up for each course once you've completed the last one. If you have a good relationship with your PM, you can work with them to adjust the course order to meet your needs. However, they can get in trouble for making too many changes to the course order... especially if the students don't meet their agreed course completion dates or fail to meet OTP (on-time progress). So mentors are reluctant to stick their neck out to do so... especially the newer program mentors or ones that have been burned before by students who didn't follow through. The ones that have been there longer are more established and are given a bit more latitude.

If your goal is to pick your own course order, you may need to convince your PM that you're capable of doing what you say and moving through the courses quickly. Some mentors will test this, and if you can complete the first few courses in the required degree plan quickly and with high scores, they are more likely to let you do your own thing. This is what my mentor did... once he saw that I was an accelerator and was achieving exemplary results in all my early courses, he was convinced of my ability to follow through. After that, he gave me a lot more flexibility to do my own thing. From then on, our meetings were much more streamlined since we followed my plan and course order.

So yes, it is possible to set your own course order, but you may need to prove yourself first so your mentor feels comfortable in breaking the rules for you. Unless you luck out and get assigned one of the more well-established PM's who are more flexible––they also tend to be more accelerator-friendly. Speaking of, many of the mentors are not accelerator-friendly since most people who try to accelerate fail to do so. This is usually because they underestimate the difficulty level of the coursework and it is worse in the more technical programs like CS.

[sciencemathematics1]

I was looking to get a math major for TESU by taking these courses.
Now, I am thinking that I could just take them with TESU instead, as I am a new jersey resident. I need to choose between starting at TESU with math or starting at WGU with computer science. I want to have more time to study the CS material before enrolling with WGU because if I do, I can go theough their competency based program faster.
I don't necessarily need these math courses or major for my CS path, but I would think that a math major would go well with CS in general and can be incorporated with it, especially when working in more advanced fields of CS. I may even consider mathematics graduate school.
I'm also considering getting a bachelors or a master in data analytics from WGU after my CS degree because of data analytic'a applicability and its relevance to the study of AI/machine learning.

[Merlin]

I was looking to get a math major for TESU by taking these courses.
Now, I am thinking that I could just take them with TESU instead, as I am a new jersey resident. I need to choose between starting at TESU with math or starting at WGU with computer science. I want to have more time to study the CS material before enrolling with WGU because if I do, I can go theough their competency based program faster.
I don't necessarily need these math courses or major for my CS path, but I would think that a math major would go well with CS in general and can be incorporated with it, especially when working in more advanced fields of CS. I may even consider mathematics graduate school.
I'm also considering getting a bachelors or a master in data analytics from WGU after my CS degree because of data analytic'a applicability and its relevance to the study of AI/machine learning.

So are you aiming to get a math degree or a computer science degree? In the first line you mention a TESU BA Math, but then you talk about CS. So is your goal to get a BA from TESU with a dual AoS in Math and CS, or is it one or the other?

If your goal is to get a CS degree and your plan is to use WGU courses to get it, you might as well just earn the CS degree at WGU. It will be far less work and the degree will generally be better regarded than one from TESU.

If you want a dual AoS degree, then your only option is TESU. However, I'd suggest that you might be better off getting the CS degree from WGU first and once awarded, head to TESU for a second bachelor's degree in math. You only need 33 credits in the major for the BA Math degree, which is 11 courses. You'd complete 3 of those courses (Calculus I, Discrete Math I, and Discrete Math II) as part of your WGU BSCS, so you'd only have 24 credits (8 courses) left to complete the degree, which as luck would have it, is the same number of new credits you'd need to complete anyway. As an additional benefit, coming into TESU with an existing BS means you also avoid having to take the cornerstone course at TESU... you'd just need to complete the capstone to graduate. Alternatively, you could complete the CS degree from WGU, then enroll in their education program to get your math credits, and then drop out of WGU and head to TESU to start the BA Math, completing the balance of courses from ACE providers, other colleges, or from TESU directly.

As for taking courses at TESU directly, I don't recommend it. If you are open to taking courses via traditional online courses rather than competency-based, there are far better (cheaper) options than TESU. I wouldn't take courses directly from them unless someone else is paying your way. Luckily since you're in NJ you're only paying $399 per credit rather than $519/cr. However, you'd be better off finding a community college (local or online) or doing some research to find RA schools that offer online courses that are priced well below that rate. I'm sure there are folks on the forum who can help provide some places to start looking. Unfortunately, that isn't my area of expertise.

If you really want to do TESU, at least plan to register for 9 or more credits per term so you can go with the full-time flat-rate tuition plan ($3,579 per term). With the flat-rate plan, you break even with the per-credit rate at 9 credits per term, but it gets progressively cheaper per credit the more classes you can complete in a single term.

[sciencemathematics1]

I was looking to get a math major for TESU by taking these courses.
Now, I am thinking that I could just take them with TESU instead, as I am a new jersey resident. I need to choose between starting at TESU with math or starting at WGU with computer science. I want to have more time to study the CS material before enrolling with WGU because if I do, I can go theough their competency based program faster.
I don't necessarily need these math courses or major for my CS path, but I would think that a math major would go well with CS in general and can be incorporated with it, especially when working in more advanced fields of CS. I may even consider mathematics graduate school.
I'm also considering getting a bachelors or a master in data analytics from WGU after my CS degree because of data analytic'a applicability and its relevance to the study of AI/machine learning.

So are you aiming to get a math degree or a computer science degree? In the first line you mention a TESU BA Math, but then you talk about CS. So is your goal to get a BA from TESU with a dual AoS in Math and CS, or is it one or the other?

If you want a dual AoS degree, then your only option is TESU. However, I'd suggest that you might be better off getting the CS degree from WGU first and once awarded, head to TESU for a second bachelor's degree in math. You only need 33 credits in the major for the BA Math degree, which is 11 courses. You'd complete 3 of those courses (Calculus I, Discrete Math I, and Discrete Math II) as part of your WGU BSCS, so you'd only have 24 credits (8 courses) left to complete the degree, which as luck would have it, is the same number of new credits you'd need to complete anyway. As an additional benefit, coming into TESU with an existing BS means you also avoid having to take the cornerstone course at TESU... you'd just need to complete the capstone to graduate. Alternatively, you could complete the CS degree from WGU, then enroll in their education program to get your math credits, and then drop out of WGU and head to TESU to start the BA Math, completing the balance of courses from ACE providers, other colleges, or from TESU directly.

I'm aiming to get two seperate degrees in both fields, a BS in computer science and a seperate BA in math.
I realized that it makes more sense for me to just get the CS degree from WGU.
When it comes to getting credits from the education program, I also have thought about if I could take the pre-assessment for those math courses to show my program advisor that I would be ready to take the assessment for those courses, and to come in with the program having studied the material for the math courses thoroughly before I enrolled. Do they require you to register for courses before you take the pre-assessment?
When it comes to the education courses, if I did study that material beforehand, I could also be able to complete them quickly if I took the pre-assessment.
When it comes to discrete math 1 and 2, is the material for them the same as the TESU discrete math course but separated into two courses, or is that course just equivalent to just discrete math 2? I have seen colleges just offering a discrete math course without being seperated into 1 and 2.

[ss20ts]

I was looking to get a math major for TESU by taking these courses.
Now, I am thinking that I could just take them with TESU instead, as I am a new jersey resident. I need to choose between starting at TESU with math or starting at WGU with computer science. I want to have more time to study the CS material before enrolling with WGU because if I do, I can go theough their competency based program faster.
I don't necessarily need these math courses or major for my CS path, but I would think that a math major would go well with CS in general and can be incorporated with it, especially when working in more advanced fields of CS. I may even consider mathematics graduate school.
I'm also considering getting a bachelors or a master in data analytics from WGU after my CS degree because of data analytic'a applicability and its relevance to the study of AI/machine learning.

So are you aiming to get a math degree or a computer science degree? In the first line you mention a TESU BA Math, but then you talk about CS. So is your goal to get a BA from TESU with a dual AoS in Math and CS, or is it one or the other?

If you want a dual AoS degree, then your only option is TESU. However, I'd suggest that you might be better off getting the CS degree from WGU first and once awarded, head to TESU for a second bachelor's degree in math. You only need 33 credits in the major for the BA Math degree, which is 11 courses. You'd complete 3 of those courses (Calculus I, Discrete Math I, and Discrete Math II) as part of your WGU BSCS, so you'd only have 24 credits (8 courses) left to complete the degree, which as luck would have it, is the same number of new credits you'd need to complete anyway. As an additional benefit, coming into TESU with an existing BS means you also avoid having to take the cornerstone course at TESU... you'd just need to complete the capstone to graduate. Alternatively, you could complete the CS degree from WGU, then enroll in their education program to get your math credits, and then drop out of WGU and head to TESU to start the BA Math, completing the balance of courses from ACE providers, other colleges, or from TESU directly.

I'm aiming to get two seperate degrees in both fields, a BS in computer science and a seperate BA in math.
I realized that it makes more sense for me to just get the CS degree from WGU.
When it comes to getting credits from the education program, I also have thought about if I could take the pre-assessment for those math courses to show my program advisor that I would be ready to take the assessment for those courses, and to come in with the program having studied the material for the math courses thoroughly before I enrolled. Do they require you to register for courses before you take the pre-assessment?
When it comes to the education courses, if I did study that material beforehand, I could also be able to complete them quickly if I took the pre-assessment.
When it comes to discrete math 1 and 2, is the material for them the same as the TESU discrete math course but separated into two courses, or is that course just equivalent to just discrete math 2? I have seen colleges just offering a discrete math course without being seperated into 1 and 2.

You cannot access WGU courses early. You must be in the course to take the pre-assessment. I'm watching people on a Facebook group count down until the 1st right now. Many are freaking out because they want to get started, but they can't.

[Merlin]

When it comes to getting credits from the education program, I also have thought about if I could take the pre-assessment for those math courses to show my program advisor that I would be ready to take the assessment for those courses, and to come in with the program having studied the material for the math courses thoroughly before I enrolled. Do they require you to register for courses before you take the pre-assessment?
When it comes to the education courses, if I did study that material beforehand, I could also be able to complete them quickly if I took the pre-assessment.

You have to have completed orientation and hit the first day of your term before you can look at any of the course material or take any of the pre-assessments. At that point, you can take the pre-assessments for any of the courses in your program even if they are not your current active course.

That said, I do not recommend taking pre-assessments until you're sure you're ready to take the final exam. You only get one pre-assessment (well you can take it more than once but it is always the same) so once it has been taken, you won't have anything to use as a gauge to tell if you're ready to take the final exam (OA).

Some people suggest that you should take the pre-A and then use the results of that to study for the OA, but I find that to be terrible advice. You should always skim the course material to find knowledge gaps and study those first. Once you think you're ready to take the OA, then take the Pre-A to validate that belief. If you earn a high score on the Pre-A, then you should schedule to take the OA.

Another good reason to study first is that the Pre-A and OA may not always align. So by only studying the things you miss on the Pre-A, you may miss large chunks of the study material and fail the exam. If you fail the exam, it is a huge pain in the butt to get a chance to take it again. It usually requires meeting with a course instructor to do a formal study plan with assigned readings, quizzes, etc. This takes a long time and ends any chance at acceleration.

So it really is not faster to take the pre-A first and then study, especially if you fail the exam. If you are sure you know the material coming into the course, then, by all means, take the pre-A first. But if you're not sure... wait until you're officially active in the course and skim through the lessons and watch a few cohorts on high speed first to be safe.

When it comes to discrete math 1 and 2, is the material for them the same as the TESU discrete math course but separated into two courses, or is that course just equivalent to just discrete math 2? I have seen colleges just offering a discrete math course without being seperated into 1 and 2.

I haven't taken those courses, but it is my understanding that the Discrete Math I is a traditional Discrete Math course, while Discrete Math II is a more advanced version of the course that combines concepts from Discrete Math I and layers on some Statistics, DS&A, and requires basic programming knowledge.

In terms of transferability to TESU, my guess is that Discrete Math I will come in as MAT-270 (DIscrete Mathematics) at TESU and Discrete Math II will come in as something else. Probably MAT-299 since it doesn't look like TESU offers a Discrete Math II course. If you're lucky, it will come in as an upper-level course (MAT-399 maybe?)

You cannot access WGU courses early. You must be in the course to take the pre-assessment. I'm watching people on a Facebook group count down until the 1st right now. Many are freaking out because they want to get started, but they can't.

This only applies to people before the start of their first term. Once you're in the program you can look at all the courses in your program. You won't have access to everything unless the course has been activated, but you can scan through any non-licensed course materials and take pre-assessments if you like. Though, as I said above, I don't recommend it.

Prior to the summer of 2019, WGU students had full access to all their course materials, including licensed materials, as soon as they finished their orientation course (which started on the 15th of the month prior to the start of their first term). But WGU locked that down last year to avoid paying additional license fees and reduce costs, etc.

[sciencemathematics1]

They have a masters degree program for the math education. They have less of the educational courses and all of the math courses that I want from the undergraduate program, so it would be easier to get the math credits without taking the educational courses.
https://www.wgu.edu/online-teaching-degr...ogram.html
The question I have is if I would be able to transfer graduate credits to be used in the TESU BA in math undergraduate program. I'm not sure how graduate credits transfer to undergraduate programs.

[Merlin]

The question I have is if I would be able to transfer graduate credits to be used in the TESU BA in math undergraduate program. I'm not sure how graduate credits transfer to undergraduate programs.

In most cases graduate credit should come just fine in an undergrad degree program. If TESU doesn't have a comparable course equivalency available, a grad-level math course will probably come in as upper-level general math credit (399/499/599). Those won't meet any of the core AoS course requirements but should be usable in the AoS electives section.

As an example, WGU evaluated my graduate-level project management and statistics course to meet the requirements of their BSCS degree.

[ss20ts]

Remember you need a bachelor's degree to get into a master's program at WGU and most colleges.

[sciencemathematics1]

https://www.wgu.edu/online-teaching-degr...ogram.html

If you enroll in a program that also includes a special endorsement, (such as the M.A. Mathematics Education, with an endorsement to teach secondary mathematics) and you plan to eventually apply for the endorsement, the following is required of you:

• A copy of a valid teaching license.
  
  
• Official transcripts that demonstrate you have earned a bachelor’s degree from a recognized accredited university.
  

They say that you would need a teaching license and a bachelor's degree if you enroll in a program with a special endorsement and plan to apply for an endorsement. Does that mean that if you do not plan to apply for an endorsement and never do that you would not need a teaching license? It doesn't say that it is required to enroll in the program though.

Also, what would the data structures and algorithms 2 course transfer in as if it was transferred to another college? Not every college has a DS&A 2 course, although there are some which have algorithms courses in addition to the first data structures course.

Additionally, has anybody else checked out the discord for WGU? I joined it. It could be helpful. https://discord.com/invite/t6K2vDT