Thomas Edison Rocks!

[alissaroot]

I feel bad for TESC, with the other thread going on with a bit of dubious information and heavy on the personal opinions. So I thought I would ask some TESC students to share why you chose TESC, some of the benefits, and share some of your good experiences.

I'm not a TESC student, but I'll start:

1) Before I made my decision, I requested a catalog from all three schools. TESC was all out, but they were kind enough to send me a note saying they were all out, and I received one a few weeks later. I appreciated the fact that they did this rather than leave me hanging.

2) The fact that they accept so many FEMA and Aleks courses is a big benefit to persons who need to do as much of their coursework as possible from home. If a person is responsible for the primary care of many children, or is disabled or homebound for any reason, TESC would be a very good choice since you can complete a degree from them with the least amount of proctored exams, so you would not have to leave your house. I would also recommend them for people who have extreme test-taking anxiety for this reason.

3) I am not sure on this one, but the way I understand it, TESC has a much easier to navigate PLA process than other schools, and if you have an extraordinary amount of life experience that could transfer into credit, TESC could be a better choice.

4) Accepting 200+ level courses as upper level. This is a drawback for some people who would prefer the more traditional 300-level or above standards. But, just because 200+ is a minimum does not mean any TESC student has to stop there, and I see several TESC students doing a lot of 300+ level courses. The fact that the upper level requirements can be more easily met can be a bonus if you are in a hurry or if you dread the idea of some of the upper level DSSTs or ECEs.

5) Accepting the CLEP English Comp. exam. COSC also accepts it, but EC does not.

6) No Information Literacy requirement. COSC and EC both require this one-credit course that does nothing but tell you how to use a search engine and determine reliable sources. This is important, but it seems to be nothing but a way to churn more money out of EC and COSC students for those of us who already know how to do a simple search.

7) No matter which one you choose, you are earning a legitimate degree.

Keep it positive!

[jonasling]

Keeping the comparison apples-to-apples:

8) They have "majors" unlike Charter Oak which have "concentrations".

9) It's a public State College unlike Excelsior.

[brothermike]

1. Great name for a school
2. Very well designed website (and professional looking), which offers a wealth of information. You can find the majority of information you will need to graduate.
3. I always get someone on the phone within a few minutes and if I need more detailed questions answered I can talk to an advisor right away (I have paid tuition).
4. Liberal with regards to applying past earned credit.
5. Cost effective way to earn a bachelors degree.
6. Variety of options for earning credit, standardized tests, online classes, tcep, pla.
7. Oh yeah...regionally accredited.

[MadMax396]

Problems aside, the reason I chose Thomas Edison is because they had many options to choose from with which to pursue a degree.

1) Specifically I like the fact that my transcripts were looked at an evaluated from my previous schools and actually considered against an available program. They did that over the phone with me once my initial transcripts were in hand and i was able to do some of it without even having to call online.

When I was at my prior school Columbia, they made no effort at all to distinguish between programs and actually were quite ready to assign me to programs that would not only take longer, but would also squander many of my ACE and prior in seat credits. Believe me, talking to a bad advisor in person is alot worse than talking to one over the phone. When I would bring this up they would simply say, oh we would accept a clep. Well why didnt you mention it when we were talking about CLEPS 20 minutes ago or that or we arent going to pursue that degree program at this location.

2) 9 Semester hours are required for associates and 18 for bachelors, some of which can be tested out of with TECEP or done of course at pace with an EPACK, so it fits my busy schedule. I can also take in seat courses at other schools or online courses and have the transcripts sent over.

3) The good advisors do care. I have heard the horror stories about bad advisors at Edison. You are right. I have also talk the good advisors. I am also right. They have been poignant, on target, and of service. It was cool even when I inquired about a Technical Writing course Donna immediately pointed out 3 different ways I could it and also said don't forget you can take that DSST if you are capable. Also when I failed chemistry and needed an opportunity to do physics she pointed out Courses that I could do to fill the requirement at edison and elsewhere depending on my time constraints. I was the last person to enroll before they closed enrollment for the class. That was real time information. Outstanding!

4) I respect the history of the school the person after which its named and the success of the alumni. If you have attended you know its not easy to get a degree at Thomas Edison. I have been to other colleges where you can be lazy, walk into an advisors office and they will fill up your class schedule with what you need to take. Not at edison. You have to be an active person educated about how your credits will fit into your degree and then you have to stay on top of it yourself. A dilligent person can make it through succesfully.

[cookderosa]

1. They award credit for courses taught. As a community college teacher, this meant that the 100+ credits I taught over the years could be added to my transcript. (restrictions apply LOL)The BEST part, is that (unlike Prior Learning Assessments which cost $$$) this was FREE. So, I took 27 of these credits for no charge at all. A $5000 gift.

For the rest of the world, you can get the same benefit through the use of FEMA credits - also for free- also a $5000 gift, but do require completion of the free online courses.

So, for me, filling the free elective slot was a great benefit, and the #1 reason I picked TESC.

2. 200 level is upper level credit. HELLO, this is huge. This means ALL CREDITS can be earned through CLEP, DSST, and your community college. Every single one.

TESC has it's problems, but for me, I figured that if I couldn't deal with minor customer service annoyances and a few technical road blocks, I didn't deserve to say I was a college graduate.
Brick wall smashed.....degree earned. Next.

[a mom]

I picked TESC for my son for all the reasons stated above.

1. Because his tuition was paid through the Fl. Bright Futures program, he needed to take classes from Fl. colleges. The credits have been able to come from a mix of CC's and universities.

2. Not requiring 300-400 level classes per se gave him more flexibility in choosing courses he was interested in although I think some of his intro courses needed an intro class. I also agree with a previous poster, on a previous thread, that you can't go by the numbers. Universities will offer 300-400 level courses that match 200 level descriptions at some CC's.

3. No residency required and no minimum credits required from TESC. To get a degree from a B & M school (at the time we were looking)would have required another year to meet 'their' requirements.

4. Their liberal arts degree worked the best for him with the credits he had completed.

5. All things equal, he would have chosen TESC because of the name when compared to EC.

6. And did I mention cost? I know some of the things I mentioned would have been applicable for ANY of the big three but...

As far as the problems, that can be anywhere. You have to work through the system and check things out for yourself. Even when he went to a B&M school, he was given wrong advice and there were issues with customer service. And guess what, even a private university that he considered didn't want to answer questions about credit transfer and acceptance if he wasn't enrolled.

[wangoZtango]

I'll graduate this fall with a BA in History from TESC. They have their drawbacks, lousy software for classroom and email is my biggest gripe, but overall I'm happy. I'm entering an alternative teaching certification program and TESC allowed me to finish my degree fast. I've been to 7 schools over the last 20 years but my academic evaluation was easy to follow and transfer courses into.
I looked into all the accredited programs I could find for online degrees. In my opinion, APUS has the toughest classes and most rigorous standards for History and some other degrees. Any accredited college would work for me, but TESC was the fastest route.

[Triangle Squared]

I just finished my Liberal Studies Degree with Thomas Edison, my biggest gripe with them is the amount of time it takes for them to post incoming transcripts, about 4 to 5 weeks after it arrives. Only than that great school, online classes, guided study and they accept a wide variety of non-traditional educational credits.

I'm not planning on doing my Master's with them just because I won't to diversify my education, meaning BA and MA from different schools, but they have a great program to where the last 9 hours of your BA count towards your Master degree.

[mongoose65]

Great, after all the TESC bashing, NOW I finally read some good things! I originally went with EC just to save a few bucks (as a NY resident) but I find them becoming more and more rigid over what they will accept, transfer, etc (won't accept FEMA's, won't accept the new ACE UL DSST's, etc). Seems like they are getting money hungry to me which is what turned me off to school in the 1st place. Money and red tape. Anyway, enough of my venting. I'm thinking about TESC for a few reasons. It will cost me about $1000 more but I think I will save some of that in time and money because they will accept more credits (they take D's supposedly from my B&M transcript), they take FEMA's, they count CLEPS which means I can bang out the easier ones instead of busting my butt on UL's like Soviet Union and Money and Banking DSST's.

Any opinions? It definitely will cost a little more but I counted too much on doing well on the Psych GRE for EC credits and that isn't looking so hot. Wouldn't matter at TESC since they don't accept it anyway. Could I conceiveably replace that with FEMAs?

I appreciate any opinions anyone might have. I am glad I went with EC and got the process started but maybe TESC was actually a better alternative for me. I do like that it's a state school, even if that state is New Jersey! hahaha, j/k, it's a New York thing.

Thanks and best.
Mike

[malcs]

Great, after all the TESC bashing, NOW I finally read some good things! I originally went with EC just to save a few bucks (as a NY resident) but I find them becoming more and more rigid over what they will accept, transfer, etc (won't accept FEMA's, won't accept the new ACE UL DSST's, etc). Seems like they are getting money hungry to me which is what turned me off to school in the 1st place. Money and red tape. Anyway, enough of my venting. I'm thinking about TESC for a few reasons. It will cost me about $1000 more but I think I will save some of that in time and money because they will accept more credits (they take D's supposedly from my B&M transcript), they take FEMA's, they count CLEPS which means I can bang out the easier ones instead of busting my butt on UL's like Soviet Union and Money and Banking DSST's.

To me it looks like EC is setting the bar much higher than the others. Requiring upper level courses, and not taking FEMA or D grades sets them clearly apart from some of the schools that give distance learning a bad name. Not taking D grades is not such a bad thing since it will raise your average. EC has the same degree criteria that most brick and mortar schools have.