Where do Paralegal courses fit at TESC

[UptonSinclair]

Just out of curiosity. Does anyone know how TESC categorizes paralegal college courses? I am assuming they are considered social science, but thought it would be good to pose the question.

[AkaiOkami]

Yes, social science. Pulling off TESC's website Thomas Edison State College: Social Sciences,
"Any of the following areas are considered social sciences and may be used as a subject area in the concentration: anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, labor studies, political science, psychology, sociology."

Law falls under sociology.

[sanantone]

Law does not fall under sociology. Technically, law is a humanity, but I'm assuming that TESC treats law courses much like it treats education courses. They are usually free electives in undergraduate programs. The only course TESC offers with a LAW prefix is business law; that is usually used for the business law requirement for the BSBA programs. Criminal justice courses related to law can be counted as social sciences, but not because they are coded as sociology. Some courses with an AOJ (administration of justice) prefix are considered social science in content. The same is also true for some HLS (homeland security) courses. My guess is that only paralegal courses that are social science in content might be classified as social sciences. A paralegal course in real estate law or contracts will most likely not be social science.

Examples of law courses that could possibly count as social science are sociology of law (this usually just a sociology course with an SOC prefix), constitutional law (this is a political science course with a POS prefix), and criminal law (this is an AOJ course). The thing is is that none of these are coded with the LAW or LES prefix (maybe they are cross coded somewhere if you dig deep in the PLA database) because these are courses that are often offered to sociology, political science, and criminal justice majors. Paralegal students also take courses like criminal law, but I don't know if TESC will give them the LAW/LES or AOJ prefix. An example of a course with the law prefix in TESC's PLA database is entertainment law. Being much like business law, I could not see this counted as a social science.

[UptonSinclair]

Thanks Sanantone

[sanantone]

You might want to read my post again. I made a lot of edits to my post because of grammatical errors and missing info. My brain is fried after this mid-term exam. By the way, the AOJ Criminal Law course was used as a social science for my BA, but my LAW-201 Business Law course was a free elective.

[LaterBloomer]

If I get my act together (that's a big "if"), I'll go to my TESC evaluation and see where they put my prior paralegal courses.

[sanantone]

Please do. That'll be interesting to see.

[cookderosa]

Law does not fall under sociology. Technically, law is a humanity, but I'm assuming that TESC treats law courses much like it treats education courses. They are usually free electives in undergraduate programs. The only course TESC offers with a LAW prefix is business law; that is usually used for the business law requirement for the BSBA programs. Criminal justice courses related to law can be counted as social sciences, but not because they are coded as sociology. Some courses with an AOJ (administration of justice) prefix are considered social science in content. The same is also true for some HLS (homeland security) courses. My guess is that only paralegal courses that are social science in content might be classified as social sciences. A paralegal course in real estate law or contracts will most likely not be social science.

Examples of law courses that could possibly count as social science are sociology of law (this usually just a sociology course with an SOC prefix), constitutional law (this is a political science course with a POS prefix), and criminal law (this is an AOJ course). The thing is is that none of these are coded with the LAW or LES prefix (maybe they are cross coded somewhere if you dig deep in the PLA database) because these are courses that are often offered to sociology, political science, and criminal justice majors. Paralegal students also take courses like criminal law, but I don't know if TESC will give them the LAW/LES or AOJ prefix. An example of a course with the law prefix in TESC's PLA database is entertainment law. Being much like business law, I could not see this counted as a social science.

I'm with Sanantone on this. Paralegal programs in my state (NC) that are American Bar Association approved are all AAS degrees. They have their own department prefix, clearly planting them as free elective/applied technology.

Though I'm not totally familiar with the law profession, I believe that at the undergraduate level, law isn't a stand-alone liberal art. In other words, even lawyers' undergraduate work isn't in "law."
At the undergrad level, people in an assortment of majors can take law for their field. I took a restaurant law class in culinary school, we are all familiar with business law, criminal law, etc.

[LaterBloomer]

Okay, my Legal Writing class was taken as a Humanities Elective, my Criminal Law class was taken as a Social Sciences elective, and Legal Research and Into to Law & Legal Assisting were taken as business electives.

Now, for a question. After I get my BSBA, I plan to get an associates degree in paralegal studies from a local community college. (While I know I should check with the CC), Do any of you think I'll have a problem if some of my paralegal courses were used for the BS? I think with all of my other credits, I could have these 3 courses moved out, and still not need to take any other courses or tests.

[sanantone]

Basically, they are looking at the content of the courses.

For your community college question, it really does depend on the school, but so far, I've only seen graduate programs exclude transfer credits that have been used in previous degrees.