Typically newbie: Heres my transcript! What should I do?

[zebra cow]

Hello everyone,

So I suppose I'm posting about a very typical question here but bare with me as this is my first post after becoming aware of the big three. Which has been for me a breath of fresh air seeing as how I can finish my degree without starting from scratch. Anyway, I'm a 28 year old male that has completed 110 credit hours at Utica College which is located in Utica, NY. My degree was to be in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance. However, after roughly 3.5 years I decided to drop out based upon several personal/medical issues. Throughout, last six years I've been on a quasi soul searching journey which has involved trying a whole bunch of things, working a whole bunch of jobs including a couple entrepreneurial ventures, and figuring out what I like and what I don't. Needless to say I have pinpointed what I want to do with my life. That focus has brought me here to this forum.

Clearly, with having so much course work completed I would like to graduate as soon as possible and start working in a professional setting as soon as possible. I've come to understand that The Big 3 would best suit my needs. Of the three I'm tentatively favoring TESU or Excelsior because I've heard that they do not require a science and lab to graduate. Can any one confirm this? While having interest in the subject I've always found the classes to be rather lifeless. So I'm going to attach my transcript in the hopes that you guys can give me some direction. Basically what I would like to know is:

1) What credits will transfer, what credits will not? 
2) For credits that don't transfer should I test out (can I?). Or more generally, what is the most appropriate course of action?
3) What school will best suit my needs?*****
4) What is the estimated time frame for graduation?
5) Is their a science requirement at TESU or excelsior?

*** My main priority is that I want to finish as soon as possible. I'm sure it sounds repetitive if you're a veteran of the forums but is the truth. I really have a desire to get out into the real world and start working my butt off.****

I have not contacted any of the schools yet because I wanted to come to the forums first to get a better understanding of what needs to be done. I've attached a copy of my transcript. Thank you guys in advance!

ZebraCow

[mysonx3]

There is a science requirement at TESU, but it does not require a lab. You need to take two science classes, but computer science counts if that's more your speed. Can't speak for Excelsior, but I would be shocked if they don't.

What do you want your degree to be in?

[zebra cow]

I would like my degree to be in a business related field. It does not need to be in finance if a different curriculum better suits me.

[davewill]

I would suggest that you go ahead and apply to each of the Big3 and send in your transcripts. It will not cost a lot of money or obligate you to go forward at that school, but it will get your credits evaluated so that you can see exactly where you stand on needed credits.

Meanwhile, you can post your current credits here (list school, course number and title, # of credits, and grade if you got less than a C in the course. C- and D grades can be used, but not in all cases. Also indicate whether the credits are semester or quarter based.

[zebra cow]

I would suggest that you go ahead and apply to each of the Big3 and send in your transcripts. It will not cost a lot of money or obligate you to go forward at that school, but it will get your credits evaluated so that you can see exactly where you stand on needed credits.

Meanwhile, you can post your current credits here (list school, course number and title, # of credits, and grade if you got less than a C in the course. C- and D grades can be used, but not in all cases. Also indicate whether the credits are semester or quarter based.

 Hi, I attached my transcript from UC which has all the courses, courses number, credit hours, and grades. All credits were semester based. Thanks!

[bjcheung77]

Yes, I would apply to the Big 3 and who gives you the most transfer, it's going to be very close, but I would recommend TESU for speed.  I would recommend you take your BSBA General Management or another AOS because of the 3 reasons I chose them over COSC and Excelsior

1) They got upgraded to University 2) Received programmatic accreditation - ACBSP 3) Courses are easier to find at the UL and for cheaper.  If you read my Beginners Guide sticky link in my signature, I have the BALS/BSBA templates in a spreadsheet view and mainly using ACE recommended credits from StraighterLine/Study.com

In fact, since you're such a smarty pants (mainly A/B grades), you may want to go for a Masters at WGU.  For undergrad, I recommend the Big 3 and I would usually recommend WGU for grad school.  Undergrad is better at the Big 3 as they are true B&M state universities or private non-profit colleges, WGU is exclusively online.

TLDR: Apply to all of the Big3, including WGU since it's free.  Get that BSBA from whoever gives you the most transfer.  Finish the Masters at WGU!  Good luck, if you have further questions, you can post them in this thread.

[dfrecore]

I can tell you that for TESU, you have all of the UL AOS coursework you need and it's recent enough not to get kicked back (7 years or less), so at this point, you only need 36cr:
Oral Comm
College Algebra (unless they will count your Math Analysis for Business as meeting that requirement)
Ethics
American Government
Science/CompSci (4cr min)
Intro to Computers
Prin of Marketing
International Business
Business Comm

and the cornerstone/capstone.

All of the required courses are LL, and you could probably do them pretty fast. I'd either do Study.com for the whole shebang, or do Davar for as much as possible with the "Business Class" deal, and the rest through Study.com or SL or whatever. Someone who has speech.

If you opt for Study.com with or w/o and Davar, then all transcripts would go straight from the course provider to TESU, meaning no cost for a transcript and no need to set up an ACE account/transcript if you didn't want to.

Excelsior doesn't have the ACBSP accreditation, and the cost is similar to TESU, so I wouldn't bother. COSC maybe if you were only looking at cost, but they do have the science w/lab plus another science requirement. (TESU & COSC require science but no lab, and TESU will allow CompSci instead).

[zebra cow]

I can tell you that for TESU, you have all of the UL AOS coursework you need and it's recent enough not to get kicked back (7 years or less), so at this point, you only need 36cr:
Oral Comm
College Algebra (unless they will count your Math Analysis for Business as meeting that requirement)
Ethics
American Government
Science/CompSci (4cr min)
Intro to Computers
Prin of Marketing
International Business
Business Comm

and the cornerstone/capstone.

All of the required courses are LL, and you could probably do them pretty fast.  I'd either do Study.com for the whole shebang, or do Davar for as much as possible with the "Business Class" deal, and the rest through Study.com or SL or whatever.  Someone who has speech.

If you opt for Study.com with or w/o and Davar, then all transcripts would go straight from the course provider to TESU, meaning no cost for a transcript and no need to set up an ACE account/transcript if you didn't want to.

Excelsior doesn't have the ACBSP accreditation, and the cost is similar to TESU, so I wouldn't bother.  COSC maybe if you were only looking at cost, but they do have the science w/lab plus another science requirement. (TESU & COSC require science but no lab, and TESU will allow CompSci instead).

Can you elaborate on why those classes you have listed would not be satisfied by some of my previous course work. It's not that I don't trust your analysis I'm just naive to this whole thing. Why wouldn't intro to computers be satisfied by CSC 118 which was a intro computer science class? Or International business be satisfied by ECON 443 which was a class that was entirely based on International trade. 

Any info helps. Thanks!

---

Yes, I would apply to the Big 3 and who gives you the most transfer, it's going to be very close, but I would recommend TESU for speed.  I would recommend you take your BSBA General Management or another AOS because of the 3 reasons I chose them over COSC and Excelsior

1) They got upgraded to University 2) Received programmatic accreditation - ACBSP 3) Courses are easier to find at the UL and for cheaper.  If you read my Beginners Guide sticky link in my signature, I have the BALS/BSBA templates in a spreadsheet view and mainly using ACE recommended credits from StraighterLine/Study.com

In fact, since you're such a smarty pants (mainly A/B grades), you may want to go for a Masters at WGU.  For undergrad, I recommend the Big 3 and I would usually recommend WGU for grad school.  Undergrad is better at the Big 3 as they are true B&M state universities or private non-profit colleges, WGU is exclusively online.

TLDR: Apply to all of the Big3, including WGU since it's free.  Get that BSBA from whoever gives you the most transfer.  Finish the Masters at WGU!  Good luck, if you have further questions, you can post them in this thread.

Okay so I guess Im in a decent spot. I'm going to pose a hypothetical situation so I can better understand your response. If let's say I get accepted to TESU and have to accumulated 29 credit hours to graduate how many of those can I test out of? The vibe I'm getting from the sticky is that I can test out of nearly all of them. Is this correct?

Also, If I were to do a combination of testing out of classes and taken certain other classes to qualify for graduation do you have any idea how long it has taken others in the past to do so? I'm trying to put a timeline together for this whole thing. Thanks!

[davewill]

Okay so I guess Im in a decent spot. I'm going to pose a hypothetical situation so I can better understand your response. If let's say I get accepted to TESU and have to accumulated 29 credit hours to graduate how many of those can I test out of? The vibe I'm getting from the sticky is that I can test out of nearly all of them. Is this correct?

Also, If I were to do a combination of testing out of classes and taken certain other classes to qualify for graduation do you have any idea how long it has taken others in the past to do so? I'm trying to put a timeline together for this whole thing. Thanks!

You would be able to use alternate credit (AKA "test out") for all of them except for the cornerstone and capstone, which must be taken at TESU. How fast depends on how quickly you move and how fast you can finish the alternate credit. It is theoretically possible to graduate in June if you can finish all (or almost all) the alternative courses by the end of Jan and start the cornerstone/capstone in the Feb term. You would want to start literally today on the courses that dfrecore outlined above. Sep graduation should be fairly easily doable if you can't quite move that fast.

https://www.tesu.edu/current-students/gr...nformation

[dfrecore]

I can tell you that for TESU, you have all of the UL AOS coursework you need and it's recent enough not to get kicked back (7 years or less), so at this point, you only need 36cr:
Oral Comm
College Algebra (unless they will count your Math Analysis for Business as meeting that requirement)
Ethics
American Government
Science/CompSci (4cr min)
Intro to Computers
Prin of Marketing
International Business
Business Comm

and the cornerstone/capstone.

All of the required courses are LL, and you could probably do them pretty fast.  I'd either do Study.com for the whole shebang, or do Davar for as much as possible with the "Business Class" deal, and the rest through Study.com or SL or whatever.  Someone who has speech.

If you opt for Study.com with or w/o and Davar, then all transcripts would go straight from the course provider to TESU, meaning no cost for a transcript and no need to set up an ACE account/transcript if you didn't want to.

Excelsior doesn't have the ACBSP accreditation, and the cost is similar to TESU, so I wouldn't bother.  COSC maybe if you were only looking at cost, but they do have the science w/lab plus another science requirement. (TESU & COSC require science but no lab, and TESU will allow CompSci instead).

Can you elaborate on why those classes you have listed would not be satisfied by some of my previous course work. It's not that I don't trust your analysis I'm just naive to this whole thing. Why wouldn't intro to computers be satisfied by CSC 118 which was a intro computer science class? Or International business be satisfied by ECON 443 which was a class that was entirely based on International trade. 

Any info helps. Thanks!

---

I put courses where I thought they would stick them based on years of experience creating degree plans - I think I've done over 1,000 degree plans by now, the majority for TESU.

So CSC118: The Internet: Inform Ret & Org didn't look like Intro to Computer Science, which is why I didn't put it there.  If TESU will take it as such, great.  With the name of it though, they may not.  They can be picky.  Anything I've ever seen that's about the internet, they've put in Free Electives.

For Int'l Trade, it was UL so I stuck it in your AOS.  But if TESU will take it as meeting the Int'l Business requirement, then great.  Normally they want a "general" type course in the core, and this may be to "applied" to meet the requirement.  But if they'll take it, awesome, since you have enough UL credits, you can swap it out with another course.