Attaining Masters Degree after Bachelors from TESC

[City_Being]

Hello Everyone,

First I would like to thank all of you who have contributed to this forum. There is so much helpful information for those of us who do not know where to begin.

I am very new here and trying to gather information on how to achieve a BA degree the fastest and cheapest way possible. From what I gather so far, TESC is the way to go if you test out on most of your credits and go the route of their Pay Per Credit plan by way of utilizing their 8 TECEP exams for residency. Since you do not receive actual grades for the TECEP exams, my question is "Are there any schools I would still be able to acquire my Masters degree once I have completed my Bachelors?" Besides attaining my Masters from TESC, I wanted to know other school options out there. I will be starting from scratch and plan to test out on most of credits needed along with the TECEP exams. If anyone have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it!~

[rebel100]

There will be hundreds if not thousands of options for you. It would be far easier to start a list on schools that might exclude you. The mAjority will be fine with your test out TESC degree.

[City_Being]

Thank you very much Rebel100! The reason why I made the post was that I read about the GPA requirements for most Master programs. Since TESC do not provide letter grades for the TECEP exams, I am concerned my plan would backfire once I am ready to go for my Masters.

It would be great to hear from someone who took the PPC route from TESC and still able to gain a Masters degree from another school.

[soliloquy]

Thank you very much Rebel100! The reason why I made the post was that I read about the GPA requirements for most Master programs. Since TESC do not provide letter grades for the TECEP exams, I am concerned my plan would backfire once I am ready to go for my Masters.

It would be great to hear from someone who took the PPC route from TESC and still able to gain a Masters degree from another school.

Totally testing out of your degree "might" preclude you from some extremely competitive programs but there are plenty of other wonderful schools that would love to have you. In general, I assume acceptance will be based upon a combination of factors including scores on graduate level exams like the GRE or GMAT, the level of difficulty of the courses you took/tested out of, your own personal statement and resume, and your work experience.

Don't feel as though there won't be options for you. There will be plenty!

[Yanji]

If you want to apply for a competitive program, I would recommend taking at least 30 (preferably senior) credits with letter grades, or to build an alternate transcript after graduation. Some programs might also have prerequisites which cannot be satisfied by CLEP/DSST, in which case you'll have to take the course. Otherwise, it doesn't matter too much where/how you got your degree.

[Saharapost]

I took the ppc route and completed my TESC BSBA General management degree without any GPA. I applied to ENMU and got admitted. Though I'll have to provide a final transcript that States I have been conferred a degree, but the GPA was not an issue as my gp was calculated from my Penn foster, StraighterLine, and foreign university transcripts.

[rebel100]

I would recommend you take some time to look over the specific requirements of the Masters your considering. Pick say your top three choices and figure out what you need to qualify. Is any of your lower level work graded? That will count in the final tabulation. You can also pick up a few courses from one of the self paced schools to provide you a quality GPA metric. CSU-Pueblo, BYU, LSU, and Arkansas State all offer very affordable, self paced,start anytime, individual classes that come with a letter grade. I like Yanji's idea of shooting for 30 graded credits, though I would argue this is a guideline, it wouldn't have to be 30 to provide a GPA.

How does TESC record Straighterline? that might be an option as well.

What sort of Masters are you thinking of? What are your schools of interest?

[cookderosa]

Thank you very much Rebel100! The reason why I made the post was that I read about the GPA requirements for most Master programs. Since TESC do not provide letter grades for the TECEP exams, I am concerned my plan would backfire once I am ready to go for my Masters.

It would be great to hear from someone who took the PPC route from TESC and still able to gain a Masters degree from another school.

Make a small list of 10 schools you'd consider. Within that list, look for requirements and prerequisites. For example, if 8 of the 10 require a GPA, then you can either exclude those 8 or build earning a GPA into your TESC degree. I opted to take classes at TESC for several reasons- I wanted to develop the writing skills I'd need in grad school, I wanted to take classes online (was getting burnt out on just testing), I wanted to use my Pell Grant, I wanted a GPA, I wanted to get a feel for how I'd manage school+family in my life. I finished 120 credits in 1 1/2 years, 6 months of testing and 1 year of taking classes. In the real world, that's lightning fast.

[sanantone]

I took the ppc route and completed my TESC BSBA General management degree without any GPA. I applied to ENMU and got admitted. Though I'll have to provide a final transcript that States I have been conferred a degree, but the GPA was not an issue as my gp was calculated from my Penn foster, StraighterLine, and foreign university transcripts.

Your situation is different in that you have graded credits from other schools. If someone completely tests out, then he/she will have no courses with which to calculate a GPA.


If one is completing a BSAST, BA, or most of the non-business BS programs, then at least one course at TESC will be required. You will have a GPA, but I don't think one graded course will be enough for highly competitive programs unless you knock the graduate admissions test out the park.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Your situation is different in that you have graded credits from other schools. If someone completely tests out, then he/she will have no courses with which to calculate a GPA.

Though remember that the Excelsior College transcript on which ECE/UExcels are recorded does assign letter grades to these.