B.A. Comp Sci at Thomas Edison

[benjenkinsv95]

Hello there, I'm currently a high school senior and will be graduating in 2 months, at which point I plan to start trying to earn a degree at Thomas Edison in Computer Science. Here is my plan so far, can anybody who is more educated in this school help me fill in the blanks or post some suggestions of things I should change? Thanks!

I will have English 1301, 1302, Govt 2301, (Micro I Believe)-Econ 2302(All done at collin college spring creek, Texas), AP Computer Science(Should get a 4 or 5 guaranteed, I would assume 5) and I might have a AP Physics B

I'm not entirely sure how many of my above credits Thomas Edison will take... But I list them anyway if anybody has some insight.

I. General Education Requirements 60
A. English Composition 6 (If my english credits above work I would be done, if not I will take the clep)

B. Humanities 12(american literature(6 clep credits towards humanities, plus includes many subjects that will be tested on the humanities test) & humanities(6 clep credits)
Must include at least two subject areas

C. Social Sciences 12 (3 FOR GOVERNMENT, 3 FOR MICROECONOMICS, 6 FOR UNITED STATES 1 & 2 CLEPS, assuming my above govt and econ credits transfer)
Must include at least two subject areas

D. Natural Sciences and Mathematics 12
Calculus I(3)(Aleks, possibly clep)
Calculus II(3)(Aleks)
Other natural sciences/mathematics(6)(college mathematics clep, 6 credits)
Must include at least two subject areas

E. General Education Elective 18(College Algebra clep for 3 credits, I am kind of clueless on how to test out of the rest of them)

II. Area of Study: Computer Science 33(3 credits from the AP Computer Science test, then I plan to pay for the rest of these using Thomas Edisons Online Classes)

Free Electives 27 (done all with Fema, the main reason I want to go to Thomas Edison over Excelsior or Charter Oaks is that Thomas Edison transfers in Fema credits for free(to my knowledge) so that would be a good $2,700 that I could save)

Thanks to all who reply!

[sanantone]

I don't have a lot of time right now, so I will come back later and give some more suggestions if someone doesn't beat me to it by then. ALEKS does not offer ACE-approved calculus courses. They only go up to precalculus. I think there is a CLEP and a Uexcel for Calculus. You can also take Calculus I and maybe II through Straighterline. All of the CLEP and DSST equivalents are below. However, for many people, Intro to LE, Criminal Justice, and Fundamentals of Counseling have been counted as social sciences. Someone said that TESC now considers the Intro to LE and CJ DSSTs to be duplicates even though they are transcribed differently.

DANTES
CLEP - College-Level Exam Program

Then, there are TECEPs.
Thomas Edison State College: Course Offerings

This is how Straighterline courses would be transcribed. This chart may not include the newer Straighterline courses.
EquivalencySearchResults

Then, there are Excelsior College Exams and Uexcels. TESC will not go by Excelsior or ACE's suggestions for UL/LL credit; TESC will make that determination based on the PLA database.
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The best thing about TESC is that they will accept community college credit as upper level credit as long as the course descriptions match those of UL courses offered by TESC or listed in their PLA database.

This website gives a pretty accurate guide to the difficulty of CLEPs and DSSTs.
Clep Difficulty List - Free-Clep-Prep.com
DSST Difficulty List - Free-Clep-Prep.com

The Degree Forum Wiki has some good suggestions for study materials and I have some in my signature.
Degree Forum Wiki

[JohnnyHeck]

Hello Ben,

You sound like one heck'uva smart young man to me. You are so wise in pursuing your bachelor's degree in an effecient and cost effective manner and in a technical field. But there are two issues I would like you to consider in your planning that are not self-evident in your post.

As you are just beginning your professional studies, I think you must be sure that your plans keep open the best possible options for later attending graduate school at a top notch name institution. You may later in your career pursue graduate education to cement your credentials in your field with an employer, or branch out in the business world with an MBA, or get the credentials you need to be a professor at a university in your field. But as sharp as you appear to be I don't want you to accidentally be "penny-wise and pound foolish" without some forethought. Both my wife and I are graduates at some level of "name" instituions, BSCE Northwestern (1970) for me and MD Georgetown (1976) for my wife, and I want you to know that after many, many, years of experience, I am quite certain that these alma mater badges have bestowed upon us priveldges and opportunities for which our naive humble souls (both of us scholarship students) did not suspect at the time.

My first issue is with your choice of FEMA credits for your electives. I urge you not to just take these jsut for ease and money saving. I don't think you should jsut be "ticket punching" this early in your career. Unless you really feel that the FEMA credits will have some value in their own right to your career goal, don't waste this critical time period in your life. As a "geek" myself, over ther years I have found that the courses I took outside of my technical field (Business Law, Economics, Money & Banking, Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Psychology, and others in the liberal arts) have paid handsome dividends to both my professional and personal life. Degree-wise I hold nothing but a BS but I have worked quite successfully in industry where all the others in my pay grade were Phds.

The second issue I want you to consider is related to later acceptance to a "name" grad school. The 3 facotrs affecting your admissin are: 1) Graduate Record Exam (whether it be GRE, LSAT, GMAT, etc.), 2) GPA, and 3) undergraduate concentration. You'll note that I did not mention the name of your accredited bachelor's instituion. This is because the GRE and GPA trump the name in spades! Plan your courses and tests to maximize and prepare for these! Please see this thread for a recent example: http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...elors.html

Good luck! We are looking forward to great things from you! You have the talent!

[Jonathan Whatley]

Welcome!

Sanantone and JohnnyHeck are wise and smart; listen to what they say.

Free Electives 27 (done all with Fema, the main reason I want to go to Thomas Edison over Excelsior or Charter Oaks is that Thomas Edison transfers in Fema credits for free(to my knowledge) so that would be a good $2,700 that I could save)

Charter Oak now does accept FEMA EMI credits directly from FEMA free of cost.