Literal First Step? BS@TESU I just need to start find myself procrastinating.

[David.Hamad]

So, like I mentioned. I don't want to be lazy. This is something I am going to do and it's time to get started. 

SO I have my credit plan and list laid out with the help of user Dfrecore on here. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...sp=sharing

I NEED TO START NOW!!

So, FIRST STEP: I should apply to TESU and lock in my degree plan correct?? 

Also,

What is the easiest course for me to complete right now?!?!

Anything I should be taking advantage of right now that expires soon etc??

[bjcheung77]

Haha, literally answered that with my "Beginners Guide Sticky" thread. Further to that, you need to "update" or "mix/match" the spreadsheet I have with what dfrecore provided you. Essentially the BSBA General Management spreadsheet I have was created by dfrecore, but modified with my customizations. As I tell everyone to start with the Free/ALEKS courses, then work on the Straighterline and finally finish with Study.com

[David.Hamad]

Haha, literally answered that with my "Beginners Guide Sticky" thread.  Further to that, you need to "update" or "mix/match" the spreadsheet I have with what dfrecore provided you.  Essentially the BSBA General Management spreadsheet I have was created by dfrecore, but modified with my customizations.  As I tell everyone to start with the Free/ALEKS courses, then work on the Straighterline and finally finish with Study.com

I see, I believe the hardest part is figuring out where you're going to get the credits from. Also, I am checking out the beginners guide right now!! In that post it seems like you prefer enrolling to the college of your choice after all the credits have been obtained. I've been told that was not the best idea since programs change and the degree requirements might not be the same down the road. What is your take on that??

ALSO: How do I know if a course will qualify for my degree? What should I look for? I'm going through your beginners guide and found myself looking at the wiki page on free sources for credit. I'd like to take advantage of that ASAP and that looks like a good place to start this.

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[davewill]

I normally suggest starting by doing three things:

1. Apply to TESU.
2. Send in your old transcripts.
3. Start your first test/course.

You don't appear to have any old transcripts, so you should probably start right off with number 3, then do number 1 after a bit. I figure you could have that free Ethics course done by tomorrow. Then pick out another! Maybe the math if you are confident of it. Pretty soon you'll be on a roll.

"The cowards never started and the weak died on the way."

[David.Hamad]

So, really quickly. I just signed up for this free Ethics course via theinstitutes.org. I had to put an address in and complete checkout. What next?? Must I receive something in the mail before I can proceed?

http://www.theinstitutes.org/comet/learn...ethics.htm

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I normally suggest starting by doing three things:

1. Apply to TESU.
2. Send in your old transcripts.
2. Start your first test/course.

You don't appear to have any old transcripts, so you should probably start right off with number 3, then do number 1 after a bit. I figure you could have that free Ethics course done by tomorrow. Then pick out another! Maybe the math if you are confident of it. Pretty soon you'll be on a roll.

"The cowards never started and the weak died on the way."

I see. I'll get that ethics course done ASAP. Once that is done I will apply to TESU and transfer the credit? Also, I have maybe 2 classes worth of credits from 4 years ago. However, I barely passed them as I stopped right before the semester ended. I don't think they would be worth grabbing. Unless the grades are irrelevant. 

Are the grades irrelevant??!?

[rlw74]

TESU only transfers in the courses - not the grades. It doesn't affect your GPA with them. However, there are minimum grades required for some courses. If you didn't pass them they probably wouldn't be counted toward your degree plan. It doesn't hurt to send them over if you aren't sure. It takes TESU about five to six weeks to add them to an evaluation after you pay your application fee. By then you could probably fly through all the free courses, take the ALEKs courses and maybe start with another course elsewhere. I suggest applying for the Guardian Study.com scholarship which will give you six free courses. I started with all that and just added what I needed through other providers afterwards.

As far as applying it probably depends on how long you think it will take you to finish up. Some people can fly through everything in a year so they go ahead and apply and get the courses transferred over and approved. You can also wait until you get closer to being done but there is always a chance a course might get downgraded or they change the degree entirely. I was a transfer student and only need around 40 credits. I finished 45 in 12 weeks. I had a lot of free time though. Someone working full-time or with less expertise in an area might need to study longer or spread out their courses more. If you plan to take TECEPs (which technically enroll you at TESU) go ahead and do it. It doesn't hurt anything and you only need one TECEP to stay enrolled for a while. It is also pretty cost effective. You can apply, send over ACE transcripts, take a TECEP every six months or so and be a fully enrolled students with access to academic advising. Its a win-win situation and doesn't affect your timeline at all.

[dfrecore]

First, you need to decide what degree you want, and where to get it. If you don't have a lot of credits already, then you are really comparing apples to apples; check out The Big 3, plus some competency-based programs like WGU and Patten.

Once you decide where you want to go, then start accumulating credits.
- If you want to go to TESU, enroll there now, because they change requirements more than the rest; they also don't charge per-term fees.
- If you want to go to EC or COSC, then you'll want to wait to enroll until after you accumulate credits because they charge per term, and that can really add up.
- If you want to go to WGU, then you'll want to wait to enroll until after you accumulate credits because they won't let you transfer any credits in after you enroll.

[High_Order1]

I went the opposite route, and did a bunch of courses, then applied at COSC and TESU, only to find that the degree path I wound up on didn't accept all of the credits (they were valid credits, but they didn't fit into the path).

So, unless you just want to knock out some of the courses that basically fit anywhere, apply, get your path laid out, then start knocking out courses!

[Ideas]

I would do some ALEKS this month. Then they will hopefully get renewed in early September and you can do more. Some of us suspect they will have a big change soon.