thomas edison semesters

[gremlin777]

I am looking into tesc for computer science. I understand that that semesters are 12 weeks. How many semesters are in a year at this school? Also, what would be considered full time concerning fafsa?

[cookderosa]

I am looking into tesc for computer science. I understand that that semesters are 12 weeks. How many semesters are in a year at this school? Also, what would be considered full time concerning fafsa?

4 semesters. Full time is 12 credits, and 6 credits is the minimum to get financial aid. (FAFSA) Your $ will be split by 1/4 per quarter. So, if you were awarded $8000, TESC would get 4 payments of $2000 each for each quarter you took 6 or more credits. If the tuition and fees is less than that, you get the difference back in a check to you. You can then use it to pay for CLEP/books, etc.

[dcan]

4 semesters. Full time is 12 credits, and 6 credits is the minimum to get financial aid. (FAFSA) Your $ will be split by 1/4 per quarter. So, if you were awarded $8000, TESC would get 4 payments of $2000 each for each quarter you took 6 or more credits. If the tuition and fees is less than that, you get the difference back in a check to you. You can then use it to pay for CLEP/books, etc.

4 semesters per year, but they still use semester hours, not quarter hours? That's interesting...

[sanantone]

Keep in mind though that courses start monthly, so you don't have to wait until the beginning of a semester to start classes. Thank goodness they aren't on the quarter hour system. With most schools offering 8-week and shorter courses now, I think the quarter hour system is a rip-off. It's more expensive and you lose credits when you transfer to some semester schools. I really wish TESC would round the 2.67 credits up to 3.

[dcan]

Keep in mind though that courses start monthly, so you don't have to wait until the beginning of a semester to start classes. Thank goodness they aren't on the quarter hour system. With most schools offering 8-week and shorter courses now, I think the quarter hour system is a rip-off. It's more expensive and you lose credits when you transfer to some semester schools. I really wish TESC would round the 2.67 credits up to 3.

You're talking about TESC rounding up quarter hours they accept for transfer, not rounding up 2.67 TESC credits to 3, right? Just want to make sure I followed you on that.

[cookderosa]

Keep in mind though that courses start monthly, so you don't have to wait until the beginning of a semester to start classes. Thank goodness they aren't on the quarter hour system. With most schools offering 8-week and shorter courses now, I think the quarter hour system is a rip-off. It's more expensive and you lose credits when you transfer to some semester schools. I really wish TESC would round the 2.67 credits up to 3.

They can't. The regional accreditation rules mandate the contact hours (lecture / lab) which make up a credit hour- it's not open to interpretation by the college -unfortunately or not depending on your situation lol.

[sanantone]

I see. Thanks. Then I'm mad at the regional accrediting body because schools on the quarter system pack the same amount of work into smaller units. Things get fuzzy when schools start offering 8-week, 6-week, and 5-week courses. I just finished a 3-week course at a school on the semester system.

@Dcan, yes, I'm talking about 2.67 credits not being rounded up to 3.

[Lindagerr]

TESC does not have 4 semesters a year they really have 12.Classes start every month. I was not on FAFSA but as I understand it you need to take 6 or 12 credits (part or full time) within a year. So if you start a new 3 credit course every 2 months you are only over lapping for 1 month and you could have 6 credits done in 5 months or 12 credits done in 10 months. You would not have a break but except for every 3rd month you are only doing 1 course at a time.

[cookderosa]

TESC does not have 4 semesters a year they really have 12.Classes start every month. I was not on FAFSA but as I understand it you need to take 6 or 12 credits (part or full time) within a year. So if you start a new 3 credit course every 2 months you are only over lapping for 1 month and you could have 6 credits done in 5 months or 12 credits done in 10 months. You would not have a break but except for every 3rd month you are only doing 1 course at a time.

Linda, you can only do that if you are paying cash. The FAFSA people lock you into a track (of 4 semesters) and their ain't no movin' outta it! banghead

[sanantone]

For schools that do not follow the semester system, financial aid requires that you complete 24 credits within a year or 12 credits every 6 months to be considered full-time. It really just depends on whether or not TESC has set itself up to have a semester system because there are colleges that have not. I believe University of Phoenix and Western International University still run that way; but even if they still don't, they did when I attended.