Upper Level courses for Liberal Arts degree

[smthmn89]

Hi!
I've been following this forum for a little while and I need some help!

I am two courses shy of completing my upper level course requirement for the Liberal Arts degree.

I have taken both Organizational Behavior and Business Ethics through Straighterline
I have also taken the CPCU ethics course ( which may count as an upper level course as well)

What 2 courses or *easy* exams can I take?

[Iamtehking]

I'd also like to know! I'm using mostly Straighter line and and coming down to just needing these fast!

[shall]

I would recommend some DSST exams but they are not easy. If you are willing to put in the effort, it can be done. I did History of the Vietnam War and History of the Soviet Union this week. Substance Abuse is another good one if you are not into history.

History of the Soviet Union - 434 (7/01/2017)
A History of the Vietnam War - 462 (6/24/2017)
Introduction to Sociology - 59 (6/19/2017)
Analyzing and Interpreting Literature - 58 (6/12/2017)
Substance Abuse - 445 (6/18/2017)
Introduction to Law Enforcement - 460 (6/03/17)
Criminal Justice - 470 (5/30/17)
TEEX
Sophia Team Building
The Institutes Ethics Course

[Iamtehking]

Thank you for the reply Shall

When you put Teex and Ethics does that not go in the Ethics category? Does Straighterline offer any UL? I'm paying for the month membership and want to get the most out of them.

[Thorne]

Atop the DSST suggestion, check out Shmoop. $90 a month and they offer a few UL courses. I don't have the list on hand (some people here do), but a few of their LIT courses fit the bill. They are hardly easy, and Shmoop can be convoluted, but may be worth checking out if you think you can pull at least one class per month.

[Iamtehking]

I'm going to attempt all the courses I can in SL first. I have finished the courses very fast. It's my first week and I've completed 3 and working on Intro to Religion.

Speed is my highest priority really.

[rlw74]

SL doesn't have any UL that I know of. Study.com has the Vietnam course- 308 I believe, not the 108 as that was recently downgraded. If you use the Institutes ethics course you'll be one credit shy and they won't give a waiver for UL credit - the waiver is only for the Gen Ed section because you can easily make it up in other courses. You'll still need at least one other UL course. The DSSTs and study.com might be good options. There are also TECEPS and a few UExcel courses. I hate recommending shmoop at all because I have a love/hate relationship with them. It's cheap. It can be fast. You might have to try a few courses. But, they do offer a lot of UL and I'm sure anyone can get through at least one or two of their courses. Some can get through all of them in a month or two. I just really, really hate their format. But I would still give it a go. I hope the other study.com courses don't get downgraded but there has been no news on them yet so I would hold off.

[Notgodot]

Of the Shmoop UL courses, Shakespeare's plays is probably the least annoying/most straightforward. Most of the test answers can be found in the summary and symbolism pages, rather than hidden in some obscure link.

[Iamtehking]

Maybe Study.com would be a good course since you get the discount correct? I can do multiple avenues and have about 500 dollars to put towards finishing.

I'll do some research on Smoop, since I just need the 18 UL units. The others I am filling in and will be done in a week or so. Anymore recommendations or if you have a spreadsheet please share! Most just say you can take them anywhere but if you choose a specific path I'd like to see and I'm sure it'll help others.

[Thorne]

Maybe Study.com would be a good course since you get the discount correct? I can do multiple avenues and have about 500 dollars to put towards finishing.

I'll do some research on Smoop, since I just need the 18 UL units. The others I am filling in and will be done in a week or so. Anymore recommendations or if you have a spreadsheet please share! Most just say you can take them anywhere but if you choose a specific path I'd like to see and I'm sure it'll help others.

Not a spreadsheet, but I'll repost the information I got from another forum member (Thanks dfrecore!). Not sure how this all fits into the BALS, as I'm not the resident TESU expert, but you can probably ask the more knowledgeable people when they pop back up.

[table="width: 500"]
[tr]
[td]Shmoop Course[/td]
[td]TESU Equivalency[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Geometry[/td]
[td]MAT-361[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Holocaust Literature[/td]
[td]ENG-301[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Literature in the Media[/td]
[td]LIT-430[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Modernist Literature[/td]
[td]LIT-399[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Shakespeare's Plays[/td]
[td]LIT-320[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Women's Literature[/td]
[td]LIT-323[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

The LIT and ENG courses alone are 15 UL credits.

bjcheung77 has a spreadsheet with options for the BALS AOS courses [link]. Not sure if it is up to date, but the suggestion is to go with two or three PSY courses through Study.com. The capstone counts for 3 UL credits, so 2 through Study.com (PSY) + 4 through Shmoop (LIT) + the capstone = 18UL credits in two areas of study, meeting your requirements.

Anyone who knows better, feel free to correct me, but this was my backup plan if WGU fell through.