Need guidance, combo traditional and tests possible?

[rebel100]

I used a consortium agreement between COSC and CSU-Pueblo. There are some finer points to it, but it can be made to work. COSC can grant both the AA you seek and take you right into a Bachelors program.

[Catalytic]

Here is a spreadsheet that should help (it's 3 pages).

At TESU, you are completely done with Gen Ed Electives & Free Electives - you're now at the point where you have very specific courses that you have to take to get the ASBA or BSBA. There is 100% overlap there, so it's very easy to go on from the ASBA to your BSBA.

The main issue with getting an ASBA at TESU (or any AA) is the $2000 residency waiver. I don't think it's worth the cost to do - unless you take a lot more classes, and then are much closer to your BSBA and can get it within a year. I'm still unsure whether or not the waiver will last longer than a year.

If instead you want to get your AA at COSC, it's cheaper and easier to do. Others here can help you with that, but I think I did the spreadsheet correctly. You only need 12cr, and 9 of them will overlap with TESU.
- Oral communication requirement
- Ethics course (free)
- Global Understanding (take World Religions so that it will work as TESU's Diversity or Info Lit Requirements)

I suggest doing the DSST's, or SL. SL's proctoring is done online from your home, and is available 24 hours per day. No need to go to a testing center or find a proctor.

Then, you apply at COSC, transfer all of your credits, register for and take the Cornerstone, and bam, you have an AA. I think you could be done with these courses within a couple of weeks, and done with your AA a couple of months after that.

Then, come back here and we can help you get your BSBA at either COSC or TESU.

The only question I have is whether COSC will give you a waiver for the 2cr Ethics course. Maybe someone from COSC can help. If they won't, then you'll need another ethics credit, which means a whole course - you can do a DSST or SL or Study.com.

Good luck!

Thank you! The only thing is I think my Intermediate Algebra won't count as the required Algebra, as it's a remedial level course at the community college? For the TESC residency thing, is that to waive taking X number of actual class credits with them?

welcome to the boards!

Dfrecore is giving you excellent advice, and she is excellent at degree planning.

I completely 100% understand you wanting an AA. I did too. In my case, my AOS didn't transfer into a bachelor's program, so I burned a lot of fuel trying to find a program that would take it- well, in the end, it was exceptionally faster and cheaper for me to start from scratch. When I did that, I felt like I wanted the AA since it was "extra" work than just going from the AA --> BA. It only mattered to me, I don't even list it on my resume But, in the end, I had 220-something credits, so I wanted all the pieces of paper that reflected that!!

I all add something else to consider, and that is to consider you *may* end up wanting a master's degree. I know you're thinking "no way in heck, if I just get this AA I'll be happy" but I promise you that you'll be changed by this process, and I guarantee that you'll at least consider it. I don't have stats, but I would estimate the number of members here that start out wanting "any' degree and end up powering through a masters is astonishingly high. When you remove a lot of the ridiculous barriers, lower the cost, and add in distance learning, adults kick butt and can complete entire degrees here in months. It's true. That kind of momentum takes you forward!

So, with that in mind (even if you don't believe me, just humor me) a master's degree is hard to find good discounts for. There are cheaper programs of course, but in general, there are no shortcuts- you're going to have to do the time and pay. As such, if you think you would take a loan for that, you'll want to plan your undergraduate work (AA and BA) as cheaply as possible. You can do an entire AA -and- BA for under $10,000 and in under 2 years. Just something to think about.

I positively despise school, so I don't really see a Master's in my future, but I can activate my husband's GI Bill for my use after he retires. (I could do it before but it would be wasted in its current form.) If I can't successfully take a bunch of alternative credits, it will probably take me another 20 years for the Bachelor's (it's only been 25 years since I started my Associate's!) I did come across a Coursera course tonight that I enrolled in, called Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects. I've never used Coursera, I did the free class, going to search the forums to find out if Coursera courses qualify for any credits LOL. Anyway, it was well spoken of in the homeschool group, so I figured it wouldn't hurt. (As a side note, I wish I'd come across you and your book/FB page many years ago! I did enroll myself and my 2 hs seniors in ALEKS tonight, and I plan to go through your FB page and read your book soon!)

I definitely should have explained my post a bit more. Sorry about that!

Don't underestimate your ability. Aleks, straighterline, schmoop and many other sources are open book! This helps alot for those of us that hate memorization.

Most of the Big 3 have extremely high (or just normally high) cost per credit hours on their traditional classes. Most of us only take what's absolutely required from these schools. Usually this will be a cornerstone and/or capstone. Sometimes a degree plan will have a particular class that is required but not offered anywhere else. The key is, as a norm, we don't take classes at the schools we graduate from. Pretty strange right?

We have alot of reasons for doing it this way. The most obvious is cost. If we can shop around, we can almost always find a class to fullfill a requirement much cheaper than offered at our host school. Second, would be we prefer the material/teacher from a specific source. Maybe you found a class in a specific subject that fits in your plan that is taught by a harvard professor at harvard extension and want to pay the cost to take it.

With all that said, most of us take an enormous amount of non-class non-traditional credits (CLEP/ACE/DSST/etc). This is the reason we choose schools from teh big 3. Even at the extremely high rates per credit hour for the classes we must take at our schools, our total per hour rate is REALLY low when we use non-traditional credits!

Back to my recommendation of COSC specifically. Alot of students have some sort of financial aid (pell, or whatnot). COSC is the only school in the big3 (that i know of) that has setup consortium agreements with other schools specifically for students. What the heck is a consortium agreement? It basically allows you to take a class at another school and use your financial aid funds that have been awarded to COSC. So the basic idea is COSC gets your Pell/fafsa money, they send it to the cheaper school you found classes at.

This is a much different way to look at and shop for school when compared to your average student, and I should have explained better when I threw out my suggestion. Hopefully this clears it up a bit, if not let me know!

If you don't have FAFSA funds to use (or will need to take a loan), I'd suggest giving TESU a harder look, they tend to be more accepting of non-traditional sources of credit for upper level requirements (basically it's easier to fullfill the requirements with non-class credits).

I used a consortium agreement between COSC and CSU-Pueblo. There are some finer points to it, but it can be made to work. COSC can grant both the AA you seek and take you right into a Bachelors program.

Open book exams (except Algebra, and I've never even looked at anything higher math) are fine, I'm pretty good at taking tests in general, and I can find information quickly in a book. I'm scared of CLEP/DSSTs where there is no book, right? Are they multiple choice at least? Haha, those scare me to death, for any subject!

I figured most don't take classes at those 3 schools unless absolutely necessary. After talking to COSC today, before I do anything with them, I want to at least get the ALEKS Algebra on my ACE transcript. I've already requested the transcript for the Institutes Ethics class. Disappointed that the darn business speech from CTC doesn't seem to fit the speech requirement anywhere else.

[dfrecore]

Thank you! The only thing is I think my Intermediate Algebra won't count as the required Algebra, as it's a remedial level course at the community college? For the TESC residency thing, is that to waive taking X number of actual class credits with them?

Both COSC and TESU will accept Intermediate Algebra, just because one school will or won't accept a course doesn't mean that a different school will do the same. COSC will also take Beginning Algebra as an elective, while TESU won't at all. Every school is different this way.

going to search the forums to find out if Coursera courses qualify for any credits LOL. No Coursera courses are ACE- or NCCRS-recommended at this time, so they won't count for credit.

I did enroll myself and my 2 hs seniors in ALEKS tonight - just be ok with your kids not getting credit at traditional schools for these courses. They are ACE-recommended, so some schools will accept them, but most won't. That's ok though - they're cheap!

I'm scared of CLEP/DSSTs where there is no book, right? Are they multiple choice at least? Yes! Haha, those scare me to death, for any subject! These should not scare you, some of the exams are pretty easy. BUT, if you don't want to test out, that's ok. There are plenty of other ways to get the credits (SL, Study.com, Shmoop, Saylor, etc.).

I figured most don't take classes at those 3 schools unless absolutely necessary. Most don't because it's expensive. But some do - depending on financial aid and other things. After talking to COSC today, before I do anything with them, I want to at least get the ALEKS Algebra on my ACE transcript. I've already requested the transcript for the Institutes Ethics class. Not sure what you mean by this - did you actually order the ACE transcript to be sent to COSC? Or for the course to be added to your ACE transcript? You have to pay for each ACE transcript to be sent, so I would wait until you get some courses on it before sending.

Disappointed that the darn business speech from CTC doesn't seem to fit the speech requirement anywhere else. If you have a syllabus stating that this course is a speech class, then you can probably get it accepted at either school as speech. After you send the transcript and have it evaluated (and this is assuming that they don't put it as speech), then you can request that they review it, along with the syllabus you sent. TESU is fairly quick to review and make a decision. Hopefully they'll see it your way.

Hope that all helps.

[cookderosa]

I positively despise school, so I don't really see a Master's in my future, but I can activate my husband's GI Bill for my use after he retires. (I could do it before but it would be wasted in its current form.) If I can't successfully take a bunch of alternative credits, it will probably take me another 20 years for the Bachelor's (it's only been 25 years since I started my Associate's!) I did come across a Coursera course tonight that I enrolled in, called Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects. I've never used Coursera, I did the free class, going to search the forums to find out if Coursera courses qualify for any credits LOL. Anyway, it was well spoken of in the homeschool group, so I figured it wouldn't hurt. (As a side note, I wish I'd come across you and your book/FB page many years ago! I did enroll myself and my 2 hs seniors in ALEKS tonight, and I plan to go through your FB page and read your book soon!)

[/QUOTE]


Thanks for the complement, I always appreciate kind words . I hear you, my comments were more toward making a case for keeping costs as low as possible, now that I know you have teens, that's REALLY a good reason LOL! I have teens too, and my grocery bill is astronomical ha ha.

[Catalytic]

Both COSC and TESU will accept Intermediate Algebra, just because one school will or won't accept a course doesn't mean that a different school will do the same. COSC will also take Beginning Algebra as an elective, while TESU won't at all. Every school is different this way.

Ah ok, hmmm, I'll think about sending COSC my transcripts as they are and see what they do with my math.

going to search the forums to find out if Coursera courses qualify for any credits LOL. No Coursera courses are ACE- or NCCRS-recommended at this time, so they won't count for credit.


I did enroll myself and my 2 hs seniors in ALEKS tonight - just be ok with your kids not getting credit at traditional schools for these courses. They are ACE-recommended, so some schools will accept them, but most won't. That's ok though - they're cheap!

Yes, I'm ok with the ACE "credits" for now. I know our local college where we plan to retire is on the ACE list, I just don't know if they accept everything or just some things. (Glad I signed up for the free Coursera then!)

I'm scared of CLEP/DSSTs where there is no book, right? Are they multiple choice at least? Yes! Haha, those scare me to death, for any subject! These should not scare you, some of the exams are pretty easy. BUT, if you don't want to test out, that's ok. There are plenty of other ways to get the credits (SL, Study.com, Shmoop, Saylor, etc.).

I'll see how I feel about them after this Coursera course, if I feel more confident. I DO have "easy access" to a test center for CLEP/DSST, its hours just stink for my schedule. Would be a bit easier for a test I didn't have to take during a specific window of time, though.

I figured most don't take classes at those 3 schools unless absolutely necessary. Most don't because it's expensive. But some do - depending on financial aid and other things. After talking to COSC today, before I do anything with them, I want to at least get the ALEKS Algebra on my ACE transcript. I've already requested the transcript for the Institutes Ethics class. Not sure what you mean by this - did you actually order the ACE transcript to be sent to COSC? Or for the course to be added to your ACE transcript? You have to pay for each ACE transcript to be sent, so I would wait until you get some courses on it before sending.

Sorry, requested for it to be added to ACE. I want to get a few courses on my ACE transcript before I send it anywhere.

Disappointed that the darn business speech from CTC doesn't seem to fit the speech requirement anywhere else. If you have a syllabus stating that this course is a speech class, then you can probably get it accepted at either school as speech. After you send the transcript and have it evaluated (and this is assuming that they don't put it as speech), then you can request that they review it, along with the syllabus you sent. TESU is fairly quick to review and make a decision. Hopefully they'll see it your way.

Oh, I will see about getting the syllabus!

Thanks for the complement, I always appreciate kind words . I hear you, my comments were more toward making a case for keeping costs as low as possible, now that I know you have teens, that's REALLY a good reason LOL! I have teens too, and my grocery bill is astronomical ha ha.

Our grocery bill is crazy, but thankfully isn't as bad as when we had 4 teens in the house!