New guy looking for feedback on TESU History BA

[person8612]

First, thanks all.

Do presentation skills from study.com, the free sophia credits, and free ethics course.

By the free ethics course I'm assuming you mean "312N-H Ethics and the CPCU Code of Professional Conduct". If so, I hadn't realized that actually counts as 3 credits. For the Sophia ones though, those are 2 credits total, right? I'm not sure how that would help in my current plan.

2) TESU relies on ACE-recommendation for your AP exams, so you can't go by what your previous institutions gave you.  You need to list the years you took them, and the score you got.

I unfortunately don't have those yet since the knuckleheads at the College Board only send archived scores through the physical mail and take "up to 15 business days".

4) Study.com - Presentation Skills no longer counts for the Oral Comm requirement
5) Study.com - double check on the Civil War course counting as UL before you take it, they recently made a couple of changes, although there are other courses you can take instead

Any recommended substitutions?

Last, I would seriously consider COSC for the BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in History.  They require 36cr in the major (TESU requires 33cr), but they are much more lenient on what they will take.  They require US History I & II, Western Civ I & II, and 2 Non-western History courses (and I think they consider Vietnam War one of those).  Then the rest are electives.

They are also much less expensive than TESU, so the financial aid will go much further even if you don't take a full load.

Thanks for the tip, I'll make a mock plan and post it shortly for critique.

EDIT: Forgot to mention ModernStates.org to CLEP-prep, and then they will give you a free voucher for CLEP exams, and reimburse you for test center fees.  Don't forget to look at OnlineDegree.com as well, the courses are free and then the credit is $9 for proctored exams.

I, too, had forgotten about ModernStates, thanks.

The Pell Grant won't help you as much as you think.  Pell Grants are based on your status part-time vs full-time (based on number of credits; ig - 6 is half,  12 is full), and it is always divided. A max Pell Grant of $6195 would be split $3097 in the Fall / $3097 in the Spring for a Full-Time schedule. Here is a site that explains it well in simple terms - https://eligibility.com/pell-grants

I share this not to discourage you, but to inform you in advance - so you can plan appropriately.

I had completely forgotten that it works like that, thanks. However, you quote 6 as being half-time and 12 as being full-time, which is correct for most institutions, but TESU states they are under Pell Formula 3, and that the "Pell Grant will be one quarter of the maximum full-time award per term" as a result. They then say: "For example, if the maximum award is $4,050, the actual award will be $1,012 per semester if 6-12 credits per term are taken." I may be misunderstanding this, but since my yearly maximum award is $6095, my award if I took anywhere from 6 to 12 credits would be $2032, right? 6 credits * $379 per credit = $2274, for a difference of $242 per term out of pocket. Am I understanding all of this right?