Degree plan help for COSC Public Safety Admin.

[Jonathan Whatley]

When I attended Austin Community College, the two year program was offered two different ways, a day program for college credit with a bunch of prereq or the evening program non-credit option. Same program, same course of study. Essentially you could do it for college credit and take it during the day along with the prereq courses or skip the prereq courses and take the program in the evening. I took it in the evening. I would have to call ACC to see if they could turn the Paramedic Courses into college credit since it is still the same course given in the credit program. Well see what they say.

I took Anatomy And Physiology with lab, but I was too busy being a young 20 something year old and was too interested in flirting with my lab partner to worry about grades. The D I made in the course does me no good now. Same thing with the Math for Health Sciences course I took. Funny how now I wish I would have studied harder and made a good passing grade.

You may be able to get credit from Charter Oak on the basis of a review of your course, or on the basis of your state (or possibly national registry) license.

• Here Charter Oak implies they award credit for a CT EMT license. Perhaps they would directly for TX EMT-P. Failing that, you might apply to CT for reciprocity and then send your CT license to Charter Oak. How to Obtain Non-traditional Transcripts

• There are two other ways Charter Oak might award credit: The best here is probably a Credential Evaluation, "For assessment of state or national credential, licensure, or professional certification not previously evaluated by an approved evaluation agency." This is currently 285 per credential for an enrolled student, 311 CT resident/420 non-resident non-enrolled.

The other option, more flexible and individualized but likely not necessary for something like a major mainstream health professions license, is a Portfolio Assessment. The student takes IDS 102 Prior Learning Portfolio Development, and can submit one 3 sh portfolio as part of that course. Additional portfolio reviews are 91 per sh for an enrolled student, 118 non-enrolled.

For both, see the Sources of Credit section of the Official Catalog, page 99 of the 2012-13 edition. Official Catalog [.pdf file]

• For evidence of how many credits Charter Oak's in-house review has awarded paramedic training in the past, here's their review for credit recommendation of the Hartford Hospital EMS training program. 3 sh for their A&P course, 3 sh for Clinical Experience, 19 sh for Principles of Paramedic Practice. (These recommendations were effective until February 2008; perhaps Hartford Hospital didn't renew, especially if Charter Oak started awarding similar credit for the state license directly.) Hartford Hospital Department of EMS Education Paramedic Program [Credit Review] [.doc file]

• Also for relevant background Thomas Edison State College awards 16 sh for an NJ EMT-P license. Earning Credit for What You Already Know: Licenses and Certifications.

Also: The Excelsior College Examination in Anatomy & Physiology is good for 6 sh. There are also ECEs in Microbiology (3 sh) and Pathophysiology (3 sh upper-level).

If you complete and submit an online FAFSA to show you could be eligible for federal student loans – it's free and should be easy, and you're not signing up to take a loan, just showing eligibility – and you're not, at the time you apply for this, "actively enrolled or attending college," you may be eligible for a free Introduction to Medical Terminology course from Test Drive College Online. Successful completion earns an ACE CREDIT recommendation (3 sh). Test Drive College Online is a loss leader from EducationDynamics, one of the larger companies that markets programs from accredited schools; they hope successful students will go on to pursue a degree program from one of their partnered schools, but this comes after taking the course, and its ACE CREDIT recommendation can be taken elsewhere.