Degree Completion Advice Pierpont/TESU

[allvia]

Update:


He received emails responses back from academic advising:

• Would the residency waiver be good for two separate graduations within one year (ASNSM in Dec, followed by a BA/BS in March/June 2019 (They confirmed in writing that the residency waiver would be good for one year and that he could graduate with the ASNSMs in December and return for the BS in March/June without having to pay a second residency waiver fee.)
  
• Placement of his Discrete Math course into Other Courses instead of under Math degree requirement (They requested the syllabus for this course to be sent for a second evaluation. This has me puzzled given they gave him credit for the course as Discrete Math MAT-302 in his evaluation but did not apply it to the degree??) So I take it he has to file an appeal to get this course moved into the Math slot, I'm just confused as to why an appeal is necessary)
  
• Natural Science Course options (2 Level I/lab and/or 2 Consecutive Level Chem/Physics courses) (They confirmed in writing that a Level I Chemistry w/Lab and a Level I Physics w/Lab WOULD meet the degree requirements. I am not sure which courses he will take BUT given the fact this appears to be outside of the norm of everyone else's experience with this degree to date...we will be sure to have ANY course selections preapproved AND preplanned into his degree completion plan.)
  

We are still waiting for a response on these inquiries:

• 2nd Degree evaluation for a Dual AOS BA Comp Sci/Psychology 
  
• Policy on earning both the BS Technical Studies degree and the BA Comp Sci/Psychology concurrently
  

"Natural Science Course options (2 Level I/lab and/or 2 Consecutive Level Chem/Physics courses) (They confirmed in writing that a Level I Chemistry w/Lab and a Level I Physics w/Lab WOULD meet the degree requirements. I am not sure which courses he will take BUT given the fact this appears to be outside of the norm of everyone else's experience with this degree to date...we will be sure to have ANY course selections preapproved AND preplanned into his degree completion plan.)"

I sincerely hope this is true  - I would have graduated with a BSTS last year had it been the case then.   Assuming it is and you have indeed been given correct information then TESU should expect far many more BSTS applicants from this forum in the near future. (I'm only skeptical because until it is on the official evaluation, it tends to be all speculation with TESU and varies from person to person you talk to there, even in email).  They must have changed it earlier this year during their revamp of what is worthy of what. This is very promising news

Did you ask all these questions all in one email, or send an email for each inquiry?

He sent individual inquiries for each question. Yes, I agree that it could be very good news for some students. Even though I am fairly sure my husband plans to do two consecutive level courses (for his own personal degree plan) he decided to inquire further due to the fact there seemed to either be a change or at least ambiguous information both in the new catalog and his personal degree evaluation. We wanted to at least get clarification in order to share it here. We plan to still  inquire about the ed4credit Chemistry course to see if TESU will accept it as a Chemistry I equivalent (since both SL and SDC courses were downgraded to survey courses).

Could you clarify what you mean by an official evaluation? He requested an evaluation of 150 credit hours towards a BS in Technical Studies. About a month later, a few days ago he received an email from advising that his evaluation was completed for his review and to schedule an appointment with academic advising for advice on finishing the remaining courses for his degree program. He is appealing four course placement decisions..each one individually as well. And he sent emails into academic advising on the above bullet points. Is this not considered an official evaluation/process? 

The discrete math has me stumped. He did just get an official evaluation for the Comp Science/Psychology Dual AOS BA. This degree evaluation is also not listing the Discrete Math course under the Discrete Math requirement. Both evaluations clearly show it transferring in as Discrete Math 302, but list that course under "other courses" and I have no idea why lol Could it be because it was a quarter hour course? That's the only thing I can think of, but it seems like they would of at least given him the partial credit if that was the case. I'm just trying to think of how he should phrase his appeal, but without having any idea why they are not using it, I'm not sure how to advise him to challenge it. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, we would really appreciate it 

Further Updates:

• 2nd Degree evaluation for a Dual AOS BA Comp Sci/Psychology (This evaluation has now been completed for his review.)
  
• Policy on earning both the BS Technical Studies degree and the BA Comp Sci/Psychology concurrently (He was then cautioned that if he wants to complete Both the BS Technical Studies AND the BA Comp/Psychology that he needs to finish all requirements at the same time AND apply for graduation at the same time. He was also advised that he may need to bring in some new computer science courses since his BS Tech Studies degree has several already and only 9 credits may overlap between both degrees. Further, if he chose to graduate with the BS Technical Studies first, he would be required to bring in 24 new credits for the Computer Science/Psychology degree. If he chose to finish only Computer Science OR Psychology either now or as a 2nd degree in the future, he would NOT be able to complete the third AOS since it would then be considered a 3rd degree. So the main take away here is, yes he can graduate with both degrees (from two different schools) at the same time apparently. There doesn't appear to be anything preventing him from doing it as long as he can find a way to meet all of the degree requirements for both degree programs at the same time and with no more than 9 credits overlapping between both degrees; or conversely bringing in 24 new credits if he chooses to not do the degrees concurrently.)
  

"He sent individual inquiries for each question" - This is good news, we've learned you tend to get the most accurate response from TESU when you keep your inquiries limited in scope.

What you are doing in regards to his official evaluation is proper, and I'm not surprised at all that there are a few course you have to appeal placement on (especially for this degree).  You are likely correct that the quarter credits award for Discrete Math are not enough to meet the 3 credits higher than College Algebra requirement and that is not why they placed it in other. (He should be able to easily get what he is missing in the math through ALEKS, if I recall correctly he still needed the College Algebra as well).  What I meant in regards to it being on the official evaluation for the Science Labs is until someone transfers in both Level I w/labs and has it show up as "Complete" I'll have my doubts (as no one here has shared this happening, possibly due to the Chem I recent downgrade with SL, I didn't know there was an issue with the Study one being lowered) - I'm holding out hope that soon someone in this degree (BSTS) will post they have their sciences COMPLETE with Chem I w/lab and Physics I w/lab.

What doesn't make sense to me is the 2nd eval for a dual Comp Science/Psychology - it was my understanding that TESU does not offer dual majors - you could get a degree in Comp Science and then another in Psychology - but if you add the BSTS then that would be 3 degrees (not an option, they cap at 2).