Advice needed fastest path to a degree

[tman7479]

Hello,

I want to first say this is an amazing forum and I've been reading posts here every night for about a week straight. I never knew about the Big 3 or the possibility to get Ace credit, etc until I found this forum.

I'm in a situation where I could benefit from having any sort of AA / AS / BA or BS degree, regardless of subject.

I've been admitted to TESU and 2 of my 4 transcripts have arrived there. I will look forward to getting my evaluation whenever the remainder of my transcripts arrive and they get to it.

My question for the folks here that are experienced is what do you think the fastest degree will be for me to complete? Is Tesu the best for my situation, or would one of the other maybe be a better fit? (I did noticed TESU charges $2000 residency requirement if you don't complete 16 credits there now) I do quality for a $1500 Pell Grant for 2016-2017 school year that I will lose if I don't actually enroll full time somwhere by Jan 1st as well.
Also, If you could be so kind to point out any gaps and recommend what I could do to start closing those such as Ace or Clep, etc. I did sign up with Aleks to try and get some quick math credits via ACE although I don't know if they will be useful. it's a great refresher nonetheless.

Here is what I have completed so far - all are regionally accredited and traditional semester hour credits.
Total Credits: 99 (I did take intro Psychology twice so 3 credits are duplicate)


University of Wisconsin Madison - 4 Year University - 30 Credits - (circa 1993 to 1994)
English 207 - Intro Modern Lit 1 - 3 Credits : B-
Math 113 - Trigonometry - 2 Credits : C
Physics 103 - General College Physics with Lab - 4 Credits : C
Psychology 202 - Intro to Psychology - 3 Credits : D
Classics 370 - Classical Mythology Class - 3 Credits - Upper Level : C
COMPSCI 302 - Algebraic Language Programming - 3 Credits - Upper Level : D
ENGLISH 208 - intro to Modern Lit 2 - 3 Credits : C
Math 221 - Calculus with Analytical Geometry - 5 Credits : D
SPA 101 - 1st Year Spanish - 4 Credits : C

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee - 4 Year University - 26 Credits - (circa 1995 to 1997)
BUS ADM 210 - Intro to Management Statistics - 3 Credits : C
BUS ADM 230 - Into to Information Systems - 3 Credits : B+
BUS ADM 235 - Business Systems Programming and Development (C++ Programming class) - 3 Credits : C-
BUS ADM 311 - Quality and Productivity Improvement - 3 Credits - Upper Level : D-
ECON 103 - Principles of Microeconomics - 3 Credits : A-
ECON 104 - Principles of Macroeconomics - 3 Credits : B
JMC 151 - Introduction to Mass Media - 3 Credits : B-
Music 101 - Fundamentals of Music (Music Theory class) - 2 Credits : B-
Music 327 - Electronic Music Studio 1 - 3 Credits - Upper Level : A


Milwaukee Area Technical College - 2 year technical college - 13 Credits - (circa 1994 to 1997)
HIST 232 - History of Wisconsin - 3 Credits : A
HIST 205 - Contemporary World Affairs - 3 Credits : A
HIST 218 - Native American History and Culture - 3 Credits : A
ENG 213 - American Literature I - 3 Credits : A-
COMPSW 162 - Web Page Create / HTML - 1 Credit : A-

RIO Salado - 2 year community college - 30 Credits - (Circa 2015 to 2016)
CIS 159 - Visual Basic Level I Programming - 3 Credits : A
CIS 162AD - C# Level I Programming - 3 Credits : A
CIS 163AA - Java Level I Programming - 3 Credits : A
CIS 276DA - MySql Database Programming - 3 Credits : A
GBS 205 - Legal and Ethical Regulatory issues in Business - 3 Credits : A
PSY 101 - Introduction to Psychology - 3 Credits : A
CIS 105 - Survey and intro to Computer Systems - 3 Credits : A
CIS 117DM - MS Access: Database Management - 3 Credits : A
CIS 120DB - Computer Graphics : Adobe Photoshop - 3 Credits : A
CIS 120DF - Computer Graphics : Adobe Illustrator - 3 Credits : A

Thanks.

[rebel100]

I'm sure a bunch of folks will jump in and I'm not the TESC guru, but I will make a suggestion on the PELL.

I would look to use that at your local CC or one of the discount CC's in New Mexico like Luna or NMJC....that would maximize your return.

There may still be a way to use that PELL at TESC with their guided study or regular courses ...but that sure won't be cost effective

[videogamesrock]

You may have everything done to graduate at Athabasca University's with a 3-year BGS degree in applied studies.


Undergraduate Calendar :

[tman7479]

The only problem with me doing any more work at a CC is you can't have more than 150% of the credits for an AA and do any sort of student aid. So since I am at 99 credits I can't use the Pell at a CC as far as I know. You can do up to 180 credits at a 4 year university. (150%).

[tman7479]

I just took a look and it looks very interesting. I didn't know about them before. I think I would be short on UL credits for the 3 year BGS there. I have 12 if the D's count and they are requiring 30.

[dfrecore]

I'm not sure which school would be best, but I can show you (spreadsheet attached) what those credits might look like at TESU if you took a BSBA in CIS. One issue you're going to have is that you will lose a lot of credits because some are too old (computers can't be used in the AOS if they're more than 5 years old), and because the BSBA is pretty restrictive in terms of what courses you can take and how many Free Electives there are. But, with that being said, you're still pretty close to your BSBA with my plan 50cr and $4500 away.

With the Pell Grant, I would think that you might want to enroll somewhere cheaper than TESU to get a couple of necessary courses out of the way there - nothing from the AOS, since you'd need only UL courses there. But you could enroll at Rio Salado again and take classes like Public Speaking, Business Comm, Prin of Marketing, Society and Business (instead of International Management), Accounting I, World Religions or Tech Writing (Info Lit requirement), English Comp I, etc. Use all that money up there to reduce the cost of your degree by $1500, that's great.

Since the money is "free" to you, you could even take Intro to LAN and LAN Planning & Design classes, and then use your own money to go take (and probably easily pass) the UL Network Tech TECEP and the UL Intermediate Networking CSU-Global CBE.

Anyway, here's my spreadsheet to check out. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

[videogamesrock]

Generally 200 level courses or higher will count as UL at Athabasca.

[tman7479]

Thanks so much for the spreadsheet. That plan seems really reasonable. I've been able to do 18 credits a semester at RIO so perhaps I can knock out this last 50 credits in the next year. I will be anxious to see what the evaluation looks like when they are done.

[tman7479]

I do have on question about TESU. Is it possible to get credit for written communication based on the higher level English classes I took?
The logic is this:
At UW Madison somehow I got them to waive all English 10 level courses. I can't remember if it was the result of AP tests or something else. My transcript from them does say English 101, English 118 requirements satisfied although it doesn't list any credits for those.

I jumped right into an intermediate level English course on Modern Literature. English 207, Modern Lit, required you to read a pretty intense book every 2 weeks and turn in 5 page papers analyzing the novel as well as a 10 page paper for the final project.
Over the course of 14 weeks a student generates around 45 pages of written material which is all judged based on proper grammar, composition, proper use of APA citations, and all of the other concepts from English 101.
It required English 101 as a prerequisite. In other words, if you didn't know how to write well there would be no way to pass any 200 level English courses at UW Madison.

I tried to argue this point with a local community college and they kept on saying it didn't matter that I passed English 207 which required 100 level English as a prerequisite. i honestly feel that if you can pass 200 level English courses you've obviously mastered the learning outcomes for the lower level courses.

If someone passed Calculus for example, you wouldn't question their knowledge of arithmetic. Why are schools so critical of English classes? I'm sure I'm not the first person to bring it up, but I feel like the schools act like these were multiple choice trivia classes on literature and not writing classes, which they were.

Thanks in advance for any insight on this.

I'm not sure which school would be best, but I can show you (spreadsheet attached) what those credits might look like at TESU if you took a BSBA in CIS. One issue you're going to have is that you will lose a lot of credits because some are too old (computers can't be used in the AOS if they're more than 5 years old), and because the BSBA is pretty restrictive in terms of what courses you can take and how many Free Electives there are. But, with that being said, you're still pretty close to your BSBA with my plan 50cr and $4500 away.

With the Pell Grant, I would think that you might want to enroll somewhere cheaper than TESU to get a couple of necessary courses out of the way there - nothing from the AOS, since you'd need only UL courses there. But you could enroll at Rio Salado again and take classes like Public Speaking, Business Comm, Prin of Marketing, Society and Business (instead of International Management), Accounting I, World Religions or Tech Writing (Info Lit requirement), English Comp I, etc. Use all that money up there to reduce the cost of your degree by $1500, that's great.

Since the money is "free" to you, you could even take Intro to LAN and LAN Planning & Design classes, and then use your own money to go take (and probably easily pass) the UL Network Tech TECEP and the UL Intermediate Networking CSU-Global CBE.

Anyway, here's my spreadsheet to check out. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

[Synicaal]

I do have on question about TESU. Is it possible to get credit for written communication based on the higher level English classes I took?
The logic is this:
At UW Madison somehow I got them to waive all English 10 level courses. I can't remember if it was the result of AP tests or something else. My transcript from them does say English 101, English 118 requirements satisfied although it doesn't list any credits for those.

I jumped right into an intermediate level English course on Modern Literature. English 207, Modern Lit, required you to read a pretty intense book every 2 weeks and turn in 5 page papers analyzing the novel as well as a 10 page paper for the final project.
Over the course of 14 weeks a student generates around 45 pages of written material which is all judged based on proper grammar, composition, proper use of APA citations, and all of the other concepts from English 101.
It required English 101 as a prerequisite. In other words, if you didn't know how to write well there would be no way to pass any 200 level English courses at UW Madison.

I tried to argue this point with a local community college and they kept on saying it didn't matter that I passed English 207 which required 100 level English as a prerequisite. i honestly feel that if you can pass 200 level English courses you've obviously mastered the learning outcomes for the lower level courses.

If someone passed Calculus for example, you wouldn't question their knowledge of arithmetic. Why are schools so critical of English classes? I'm sure I'm not the first person to bring it up, but I feel like the schools act like these were multiple choice trivia classes on literature and not writing classes, which they were.

Thanks in advance for any insight on this.

It sounds like you got PLACED higher for the school you went too. I'd look into how you were waived from English Comp I/II and see if TESU will apply the same waiver. I think if you have 6 credits in Written Comp style classes they wouldn't have an issue with it?? Hopefully dfrecore will chime in seems to be a fountain of knowledge when it comes to TESU.