Newbie question -- Transferring AAS to BA at TESC

[cookderosa]

I've calculated whether they're accepted as art courses or not. There is a difference of 9 credit hours (because of overflow in free electives). But then, I suppose that's only 3 more CLEP/DSST tests ...

How many gen eds did you do? The typical amount is only about 15. That will be your 3 or 6 credits of English (unless your department created their own English course which some do), your 3 credits of math (again, unless created by your department) and then anything that has a non-departmental code. For instance, if you look at your transcript, all your courses should look like this:
ABC123, 3 credits
ABC124, 3 credits
ABC125, 3 credits
ABC126, 3 credits

and then you'll notice other codes, like this:

ENG101, 3 credits
MAT101, 3 credits
XYZ101, 3 credits

The group that made up the majority of your credits in graphic design will be free electives (unless you can figure out how to get them counted as ART/humanities as you said). The other courses have potential for being used in some other way, essentially your 100/200 level gen eds.

If they fall into free electives, don't worry too much, you can still use them. It is highly likely that you'll have 15+ credits that may not count in the history degree, try not to let that discourage you too much and focus on how to complete the requirements as they are outlined. If you spent much time here reading about AAS degrees, you may have found my own posts about how I spend WAY-TOO-MUCH-TIME and energy trying to get my AOS (same as AAS) degree inside a bachelor's degree at TESC. End result- it was faster and cheaper just to test out then force round pegs in square holes. In other words, through testing, you can accumulate 60+ credits in the time it takes someone else to complete a traditional 3 credit course.