Charter Oak State College - New Degree in B.S. Business Administration

[KittenMittens]

Looks like the new BSBA will be similar to the BSBA program at TESC with a major in BSBA with a concentration (Small Business Management, Human Resources, Organizational Management, Project Management, or Individual).

The one I was told most people would go for would be the "Individual" concentration. Employers and graduate schools don't care so much about "concentrations" – they care about what your degree's major is in and I remember COSC college graduates posting about this issue before & just saying they had a B.S. in Bus. Admin. which wasn't exactly true since they had a degree in "General Studies". I'm not sure how important this matters, but this distinction may be important in jobs that have strict degree requirements, and it's definitely better than having to explain you have a degree in general studies since most college graduates complete a degree with a major in something.

The COSC and TESC degrees are now very comparable in that they are almost the same i.e. COSC has a public speaking requirement, TESC has a "business communications" requirement (but the exams that satisfy COSC's requirement don't for TESC, so this requirement isn't exactly the same. COSC's requirement is in "Public Speaking" and TESC's is in "Business Communications."). They both require a course in statistics. Both COSC & TESC have a Principles of Finance requirement that can be fulfilled with a DSST in Finance or much better a Penn Foster Financial Management course (which is way easier). They both require a business law, a business ethics course, and a computer technology course (DSST MIS can satisfy both college's requirements for this area). They both require a course in Financial and Managerial Accounting, etc.

The one distinction though is that I think that the TESC B.S. in Business Administration in "General Management" is "harder" to complete than Charter Oak's new B.S. in Business Administration because TESC would have you also take an additional course in College Algebra, and required to take 6 courses/18 credits in 3 different subject areas from accounting, management, finance, and marketing, as well as take an additional 9 credits in business electives. See this: Sanantone's BSBA General Management - Degree Forum Wiki for comparison.

Whereas with COSC, you can take UL business electives in anything to fulfill 4 courses/12 credits upper level electives i.e. fulfilling requirements with exams that are covered by instantcert, TESC would require you to take at least 6 courses/18 credits, with 4 courses/12 credits upper level as well as an additional 9 credits in random business electives. Of TESC's 18 credit requirement, you'd have to probably take an advanced course in accounting (yuck!), and/or finance (double yuck!!). The UExcel exams in Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, and Labor Relations covered by instantcert.com would satisfy the "Management" area for TESC, but you'd still have to take some courses in advanced accounting OR finance, and probably marketing. Of these 3 remaining subjects (accounting, finance, and marketing), a student looking for a degree would probably pick 1 course in marketing as it's the easiest of the 3, and then an advanced course in accounting OR finance.

With this thought process in mind, a COSC B.S. in Business Administration would be more straightforward to obtain as it only requires 12 UL electives, and doesn't have to cover any specific areas of study whereas TESC does and would require you to take an additional 6 courses/18 credits to finish the degree. For the savvy TESC student, however, 6 of those 18 additional credits through TESC could be easily completed by doing the free TEEX Cybersecurity online credits, so it would be more like having to do an additional 4 courses/exams/12 credits.

I don't think cornerstone is going away. If you look around on the website, you can find a copy of the 5 year plan that includes information on why they created it, issues they have had with it, and how they are working to change it. Its non-pass rate (can't remember the term they use) is twice that of the other courses.

Yes, the IDS101 cornerstone course won't be going away, at least, anytime soon. I've begrudgingly taken IDS 101 Cornerstone Seminar, and it's a waste of time & $$$ for anyone who's taken plenty of college courses and knows how to write essays, and cite papers. I don't know exactly why the non-pass rate is double that of other courses, but I think it's because it's a required course to matriculate into the college, and many students who do this course are not really qualified for college, serious about it or about school in general, plus they're more reliant on federal loans so don't care as much about the debt; compare that to students who take other courses through the college, they've already taken IDS 101 Cornerstone Seminar, passed it, and are probably more serious and motivated about school especially if they're paying out of pocket ($1333.00) for the course, and not using federal loans to pay for the courses.

IDS 101 "Cornerstone Seminar" is basically a simpler Intro to English course which you do over 8 weeks (not over 16 weeks as in a traditional semester) and you basically plan your degree, figure out what you want to do/how you're going to fulfill the degree, and you read a book on Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers", discuss it, and answer some questions about that book. It's not a hard course, has an easy and interesting book to read, some weekly assignments, and should be an easy A with a decent instructor.

Since practically no other college has this requirement, and it doesn't help that the course can't be waived or "tested" out, I think it's a money maker for the college. I guess I don't mind it too much since their degree was still cheaper than TESC's or Excelsior's if I had followed a similar degree plan. TESC is convenient in that you don't have to do their strategic management course, but I don't really mind it too much that COSC requires this "Strategic Management" final course (MGT 499) through the college; they have to make their money somehow, and TESC does it either through their "enrolled degree" program or their "per credit" program.