COSC and FEMA, a game changer.

[rebel100]

I was recently shown this posting on the COSC website on another forum. Non-traditional Transcripts are Accepted at Charter Oak State College It seems Charter Oak is now accepting FEMA credit direct from the source, no more middle man at FCC. I sent my Adviser a note to confirm this and received the following e-mail:

"According to the information on the Charter Oak Web site, a prospective student can submit the FEMA transcript directly to COSC. COSC Registrar’s Office will evaluate the credits using FCC criteria. In other words, the evaluation will not be done by COSC. Regarding credits from non-traditional sources, COSC uses evaluations from acceptable organizations such as the American Council on Education. FEMA credits are not evaluated by the American Council on Education, but the FCC evaluation has been acceptable to the COSC faculty."

As I understand the above COSC is going to use the FCC guidelines, but accept the credit direct from FEMA! This means the significant savings of using FEMA is now available at Charter Oak.

Big news indeed!!!



Edited to add a link for the FCC FEMA conversions (at least partial) http://www.frederick.edu/download/programs/EMAAS.pdf

[BrandeX]

As I mentioned on the other forum:

COSC uses evaluations from acceptable organizations such as the American Council on Education. FEMA credits are not evaluated by the American Council on Education, but the FCC evaluation has been acceptable to the COSC faculty.

Reads as a "no, only from FCC" to me.

[rebel100]

"According to the information on the Charter Oak Web site, a prospective student can submit the FEMA transcript directly to COSC. COSC Registrar’s Office will evaluate the credits using FCC criteria. [/url]

This is the important part....I to would like to see it in practice though.

[rebel100]

Just received a clarification e-mail from the Registrar's office;

"Thank you for your message. For our students, we will honor the Frederick CC evaluation of the FEMA work. So what this now means is that we will accept the FEMA transcript directly and apply the possible credit evaluation attached to those courses that had been done by Frederick.

As our student you will not be required to pay Frederick CC to transcribe these possible credits; simply have the FEMA transcript sent to our registrar’s office."

So there ya go!

[cookderosa]

Just received a clarification e-mail from the Registrar's office;

"Thank you for your message. For our students, we will honor the Frederick CC evaluation of the FEMA work. So what this now means is that we will accept the FEMA transcript directly and apply the possible credit evaluation attached to those courses that had been done by Frederick.

As our student you will not be required to pay Frederick CC to transcribe these possible credits; simply have the FEMA transcript sent to our registrar’s office."

So there ya go!

Humm. This is very confusing to me. I understand what they're doing, I don't understand why or how they justify it. To this day, I don't fully understand how or why TESC accepts non-ACE evaluated FEMAS. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about free credit, but this has always raised my eyebrows a bit.

[rebel100]

Actually if you cull through the older ACE list, some very familiar numbers and titles pop. I think that back in the early 90's many of these courses were ACE reviewed. I do not know for sure, but suspect that TESC simply kept on accepting them. The reason Frederick is involved is that they are right down the street from the FEMA EMI campus.

End of the day, within certain parameters, it seems a school can accept or refuse any outside credit it chooses ( I am sure there are standards to meet and committee's to conquer).

[cookderosa]

Actually if you cull through the older ACE list, some very familiar numbers and titles pop. I think that back in the early 90's many of these courses were ACE reviewed. I do not know for sure, but suspect that TESC simply kept on accepting them. The reason Frederick is involved is that they are right down the street from the FEMA EMI campus.

End of the day, within certain parameters, it seems a school can accept or refuse any outside credit it chooses ( I am sure there are standards to meet and committee's to conquer).

Well, the school accepts RA transfer, in-house RA and ACE credits. FEMA isn't RA, ACE or even NA for that matter- but TESC doesn't accept NA credit, just throwing that out there. I actually don't think that they can accept whaterver they want, but I'm not up on my RA policy to stand behind that opinion, I just seem to remember encountering massive amounts of red tape at my own RA CC when I set up the culinary program- details insignificant. Anyway, my own transcript has FEMA credit on it lol, I'm just wondering out loud.

[cookderosa]

fwiw, here's the policy. Too vague. Oh well, carry on.

http://www.msche.org/documents/Transfer,...--1110.pdf

[rebel100]

I have also noted that schools have varying levels of courses. Undergrad courses through a Bachelors must be taught (typically) by a professor with a Masters and 18 hours in the subject matter. LL courses can be taught by an instructor with a Bachelors. AS or "industry" courses like Paramedic might only require the instructor to be certified. note that it breaks down differently at different colleges...but schools nonetheless seem to have some autonomy in what they accept.

COSC also accepts credits from other agencies like the State Police and Fire Academy, and a group called "The Connecticut Writers Guild" there seems to be a mechanism for this somewhere that sanctions the process for the accreditor.

[dcan]

I love the FEMA acceptance too, but I've also wondered about how they do this. I guess its a "rule of thumb" type of approach: the RA committee(s) give the schools some leeway, but if the school starts to "smell bad" then they start really pitching a fit. If one school does something, then another will do something + 1, and another will do something +1 +1. Before you know it the whole idea of RA is reduced to life-experience diploma mill. Gotta rein it in sometime while still letting schools differentiate themselves.

Don't get me started on TESC's "portfolio" crap. I've actually seen TESC (favorably) described as a "life experience" school because of that. I wish they'd drop it, because I think it makes them look way worse than necessary to other institutions and students.