TESU BALS using military TA

[hammerall]

Hello,
I've been lurking around this forum for about a year now on and off, and I got to say, I really appreciate the time you all put into this. I'm wanting to pull the trigger on starting a new degree, and I'm attaching the excel file for the plan I made. Any advice is welcome, I'm sure there is something I missed or I'm wrong about or maybe some other idea I haven't thought of.

Your Location: California, United States.

Your Age: 35

What kind of degree do you want?: I’m in the military, and I want to get the fastest and easiest Bachelor's degree I can get using TA. The least amount of actual college courses is ideal, but with TA budget is not a factor. I also don't really know what my plans are when I'm done in the military, but I don't want to sit around trying to figure that out when I could be working on a degree now.

I’ve applied at TESU, but they do have a 24SH residency requirement for using TA which seems reasonable. I’m looking at maybe a BA in Liberal Studies/Computer Science. I liked the idea of the Computer Science concentration since it’s something I’m interested in and I need to fill in some classes anyway to get to 24SH. 

I’m open to idea on any school or degree though if it’s faster, I’ve completed an AAS at Excelsior so maybe that would be a better option, but I feel like they are more selective about CLEP/DSST credits and I want to utilize those as much as possible because they are free for me and I’ve been pretty successful with passing them so far.

Current Regional Accredited Credits: 

Central Texas College: 3
ENGL 1301 Composition I, 3, B

Excelsior College/University: 18
CCS 120 EC Success Seminar, 3, A
NS 110 Science In Today’s World, 3, A
MAT 101 Mathematics for Everyday Life, 3, A
COMM 120 Foundations of Communication, 3, B
TECH 230 Technology and Society, 3, A
TECH 290 Integrated Technology Assessment, 3, A

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 

CLEP: 18
Introductory Sociology, 3, 76
American Government, 3, 67
Analyzing and Interpreting Literature, 6?, 74
Social Sciences and History, 6, 67

DSST: 30
Ethics in America, 3, 458
Computing & Information Technology, 3, 471
Management Information Systems, 3, 456
Technical Writing, 3, 447
Money and Banking, 3, 437
Principles of Advanced English Composition, 3, 445
Ethics in Technology, 3, 432
History of the Soviet Union, 3, 439
Lifespan Development Psychology, 3, 437
Fundamentals of Counseling, 3, 426



Any certifications or military experience?

Yes- tons of stuff on my JST that should cover my electives. Not sure what else to list here if there is anything else.

Personal Health, 1
Special Topics in Physical Ed, 1
Metals and Aircraft Structures, 3
Pneumatics & Hydraulics, 2
Basic Aviation Maint Proc I, 3
Helicopter Theory & Gen Maint, 4
Special Topics Aviation Maint, 1
Intro to Hydraulics, 2
Diagnosis & Troubleshooting, 2
Metals and Aircraft Structures, 6
Airframe Systems, Basic, 4
Pneumatics & Hydraulics, 3
Intro Nonmetallic Structures, 1
Basic Aviation Maint Proc I, 5
Supervision for Service, 1
Computer Concepts and Appl, 3
Metals and Aircraft Structures, 3
Pneumatics & Hydraulics, 4
Warfare Operations, 3
Human Factors, 3
Supervision for Service, 3
Airframe Sheet Metal, 3
Pneumatics & Hydraulics II, 3 
Special Topics Aviation Maint, 3
Intro to Statistical Qual Ctr, 3

Budget: Shouldn't be much of a factor, but not looking to spend much outside of what TA/DANTES/other benefits cover.

Commitments: Married with kids, I have weekend home improvement projects, family trips, etc. Unlikely to be deployed any time soon, but still possible.

Timeline: Finishing in the next 2 years would be nice.

[bjcheung77]

@hammerall, Great first post with most of the info we want to read... I would keep my options open to both Excelsior and UMPI in addition to TESU, because you may get the UMPI BAS unicorn as you may have sufficient "technical credits"!  Excelsior should be a good candidate as well, I read your previous post, https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid372815

Apply to all three if you prefer, get an evaluation, then put a plan in place to see which one would allow you to finish faster.  Excelsior BSLA and the UMPI BAS allows up to 60 credits of 'electives', whereas the TESU BALS only has 30 electives that can be anything undergraduate lower level college credit.  The Excelsior or UMPI option would be easier, it depends on what the student needs/wants...

[rachel83az]

Excelsior needs 30 credits of UL for a degree. They also charge $300 for every transcript evaluation after the first one. Excelsior is also hit or miss in regards to how helpful they actually are. Some students report great experiences with Excelsior and no problems whatever, others report having difficulty getting their advisor to answer even the most basic of questions.

UMPI has the BAS that you might qualify for (not guarantees), otherwise they have the BLS Management Information Systems or the BABA Project Management/Management Information Systems degrees. They allow up to 90 credits of transfer per degree. You'd need to make sure that you've hit all GEC requirements (see https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...quivalents ), especially the science and foreign language requirements. It costs $1500 per 8-week session and most students are able to complete the remaining approx. 30 credits (usually 10-12 classes) in 2 or 3 sessions. However, if you are active duty military and might be deployed on training, etc., they have no allowances for that. If you've got a desk job and can guarantee that you'll be in the same place for at least 6 months, they're a good choice. AFAIK, UMPI should probably be free for you after tuition assistance; not counting 1-2 months of Sophia classes?

TESU, as you know, does have the 24 credit residency for students on the military tuition plan. Unlike non-military students, TECEP exams can count for residency. If you took 6 LL TECEP exams for residency, plus the capstone and cornerstone, that'd be 18 credits of TECEPs x $52 = $936. $250 (per credit rate for classes) x 6 credits (capstone/cornerstone) = $1500. $1500 + 936 = $2436 total TESU tuition. I don't know how much of this would be covered by tuition assistance. You CANNOT get TESU's BALS Computer Science very quickly/easily because you must take multiple actual TESU classes. TESU's BA Computer Science can be fully completed with Study.com classes.

CLEP/DSST exams are, unfortunately, mostly LL ones. I think that there is a single UL DSST exam left. Between CLEP, DSST, and your JST, you already have most/all of your gen eds and electives covered, so further CLEP/DSST testing may not be possible/of much use. You're going to have to go out of pocket for Sophia, Study.com, and/or Coopersmith depending on degree/school.

[dfrecore]

You need to add the date of each of the CLEP and DSST exams you took - because they change the number of credits some are worth, and some are/were UL but have changed over time. So those are important.

TESU will be a good one, because they allow the CLEP/DSST exam for the English Comp. Excelsior does not, but allows more Free Electives, and you have a bunch of those. UMPI will be the cheapest, although with possibility of deployment, they may be out of the running.

Give the dates of the exams so we can help more.

---

For the TESU BALS/CS degree, here's what I show you needing:

Oral Comm (taking the DSST exam for this)
History - take the US History II CLEP for this
COMPSCI 113: Programming in Python
COMPSCI 201: Data Structures & Algorithms (SDC)
COMPSCI 306: Computer Architecture (SDC)
COMPSCI 303: Database Management (SDC)
COMPSCI 302: Systems Analysis & Design (SDC)
BUS 303: Management Info Systems (SDC) - ONLY IF YOUR DSST EXAM COMES IN AS LL / ONLY IF THEY WON'T TAKE IT IN THE MAJOR
Possibility of needing CS302: Software Engineering from Saylor, take SDC's COMPSCI 307: Software Engineering beforehand in order to study for the exam, which is only $5.

You will need SIX TECEP exams to meet the military residency requirement (the Cornerstone and Capstone will get you to 24cr total), so replace one of the above or something you've already taken with a TECEP exam.

Recommended:
English Comp I
English Comp II
Technical Writing
Public Speaking
Marriage & the Family
Applied Liberal Arts Math
Computer Concepts & Applications

The BALS/CS can be done just as easily as the BACS degree, I'm not sure what rachel83az is referring to that it can't be done. If for some reason they won't take MIS, then you can take Software Engineering instead.