For Harvard Extension School, do you take the admissions requirement courses first?

[cookderosa]

For anyone interested, there is an edX Poetry Whitman course (free) you can take with the same instructor.  I'm working through it now to get my feet wet.  
HarvardX: AmPoX.3
Poetry in America: Whitman

I've taken grad courses (3) at HES but they are too old to use toward a degree.  They do fall off, however, if you don't need a degree, it doesn't matter.  In my case, I did think I was going to pursue a degree when I started.  The first courses I took were  Psychology and Statistics because my TESU degree was in Social Science and I thought I might go that direction. The classes were perfect in every aspect, but psychology as a career in the counseling/helping wasn't for me, so I let that go.  Later, I took a course in Biology because I worked my way through the pre-nursing/pre-med sciences and I strongly weighed my options for nursing/medicine - and also, the course was perfect - engaging, tough, interesting, a "dig deep" kind of thing.  I used my sciences as the prereqs for a nutrition master instead, pulling from my background and staying in my field.  

I didn't have the resources to pay cash- something you have to do if you're not an enrolled degree-seeking student.  For the poetry set, I do have the resources to pay cash, so I'm getting after it.  

Part 2, I wasn't able to leave my family for the full semester on campus requirement that is part of the psychology/biology degree tracks.  English is different because my cursory research shows the potential of doing the on campus courses over several learning weekends.  Weekends I can do. Nevermind that my kids are older now, it's just less logistics and cost to figure out.  Further, there are at least 3 here doing these courses, plus another 3 in my homeschooling facebook community, so I'll in a cohort with 6 other people.  The "go alone" factor would be somewhat mitigated by knowing my peeps will also be there.  Sounds fun to me actually.    

So, I think I can say that I'm going to do all 4-5 of these at $200 if only for the fact that it adds a teaching block for me (ENG teachers at the community college = insane demand) and I'm not ruling out the proseminar this spring because it is live online with 1 learning weekend.  (full price) and that's one of the degree requirements for this degree.  In other degrees, there are still barriers and a full semester courses - though I haven't looked through them all.

How demanding are the HES courses when you take them at the graduate level? The current plan is to finish a ALM in Management or Finance at HES. This semester I completed 41 credits (18 online at the CC, 8 through HBX CORe, and 15 CLEP) to finish off my associates. I got a full ride to an online bachelor's program at Western Carolina that I can easily finish by Spring 2019. The dilemma I'm running into is whether I should just finish my bachelors at WGU (not to be confused with Western Carolina), which could be done in 3-4 months, or go the traditional route and wait until next year to graduate. The only reason I haven't pulled the trigger on WGU is my concern that I might not be ready for the rigor of HES. I'd also be leaving $7-8k in grant money on the table by not attending Western Carolina. Sorry for the rambling post. I'm just glad to be able to talk to someone who has actually attended HES.

Western Carolina is one of the 3 schools selected to participate in the new NC Promise program this year 2018-2019, making tuition for all in-state students a flat rate of $500 per semester unlimited. HES doesn't care where/what your undergrad degree is in, but there aren't many ways to chop the cost for the Master's program- so my opinion is to do everything within your power to spend as little as possible now so you can use your $$$ on your HES degree - you'll need it. I don't know the dynamics of that program, but there will be travel to Boston in there as well.
Rigor is to be assumed.
I can only share my limited experience, and I haven't taken any classes in your field, so take my opinion with a grain of salt- but I have taken dozens (and my husband and kids have taken dozens^) of tedious brainless thoughtless hunt-and-peck online trivial pursuit games under the category of "online classes." I can barely drag myself through TEEX to pull out 2 credits for Cyber101 this week. To me, they are painfully boring and a waste of my time- but, the price is right, expiration is around the corner, low hanging fruit and all. Harvard grad classes are not that. Don't go in with fear, go in ready to work, and you won't be disapointed.