Beginning Advice

[Tlm]

I started doing what you did and regretted not registering first. The advisors are great and you know exactly what you need and if they will accept it. They will vet your courses before you take them. They take old credits. I have a college degree in the 80s from and a BA from 1991 from Canada and they worked to give me as many credits as possible. I applied to COSC and TESU and the evaluations were very different. I chose TESU because I needed less classes. When I did my half baked degree planning I was wrong. Just apply and use your old credits. I even used my PADI dive certification from 1998 and got 1 credit as an elective.

[crotique]

I started doing what you did and regretted not registering first.  The advisors are great and you know exactly what you need and if they will accept it. They will vet your courses before you take them. They take old credits. I have a college degree in the 80s from and a BA from 1991 from Canada and they worked to give me as many credits as possible. I applied to COSC and TESU and the evaluations were very different. I chose TESU because I needed less classes. When I did my half baked degree planning I was wrong.  Just apply and use your old credits. I even used my PADI dive certification from 1998 and got 1 credit as an elective.

Thank you for sharing!!!!  I am glad I posted here as I was under the impression my past life didn't matter. Well apparently in some aspects it will. I applied this afternoon and am waiting to hear back from them. 

As suggested, I am going to concentrate on the BS rather than the AS, which makes more sense in the grand scheme of where I would like to be at the end of this journey.

[tallpilot]

You will most likely want to apply to TESU by November or so. There are a number of reasons for this:

1.) This will let you see where the credits that you've gotten will go in your degree. The advice provided here is just advice and may not be accurate as TESU changes policies.

2.) If TESU is going to change its catalog/requirements for a given degree, these tend to happen on January 1st or July 1st. If TESU were to suddenly decide for some reason (there is no indication that it's going to do this) to no longer accept certain Saylor courses towards your degree, those credits would still be valid so long as they were on your transcript before the change.

3.) Being fully enrolled (not just applied) at TESU unlocks access to academic resources like EBSCO and NJ State Library. These resources can be extremely valuable for other coursework that you might need to do for your degree.

The academic resourses can be especially valuable for Sophia's English courses and Business Law course.

I agree with Rachel.

My advice is always to get enrolled once you've made the decision on which college.  Lock in the catalog and get access to the other resources.  Knock out the cornerstone since you can't get out of it; then you aren't scrambling to do it later.  It's (at TESU) easy and will show you where everything is.

Send them every transcript you have even if it is from a hundred years ago.  They are extremely generous with transfer credit and knowing which requirements are met will prevent you from taking courses you don't need.

I'm not a fan of Saylor but some people like them.  I would do everything you can on Sophia then switch to Study.com.  If that won't complete all of the requirements then come here and list what you still need so people can offer options.

[crotique]

UPDATE: I am so excited. I did as all requested. I applied and submitted my transcripts. Everything from the late 80's transferred over and for more credits than I expected. Now this is only a 3rd of the credits needed, but what a boost to know that I am already on the path. Next step is to speak with an advisor and make sure I am doing right via Sophia. I signed up for the BOGO w/Sophia and will hopefully be able to utilize if for all the lower level cores I need within the time alloted.

Still working through my "plan" and kinda stumped for the courses level 300+, but feel as though I need to just get as much done through Sophia that I can in the next 12 months.

Any advice is welcome. Any thing I should ask my advisor is also welcomed, as I am a NEWBIE and appreciate all the help I can receive!!!!

Thank you ALL!!!

[rachel83az]

Your advisor probably isn't going to be much help for classes taken outside of TESU. They are trained on pushing TESU classes and can often give conflicting information. If you share here your evaluation (minus any personal information) people here are going to be better able to direct you to what you'll need to finish your degree.

[cemam247]

Hi. I am brand new to this site and am confused as to how it works.
I have quite a bit of college credits. I have my Associates Degree and a bit of higher level courses. I was on my way towards my bachelor's but life happened. I am currently working at a school and want to get my Bachelor's so I can get my teacher certification but I want the path of least resistance. If I post all my credits, would someone be able to guide me into the "quickest" Bachelor's degree (honestly don't care what it is in at this point-just want the degree). It would be nice to be doing the teacher cert at the same time but it's not a requirement. Help?!

[bjcheung77]

Hi. I am brand new to this site and am confused as to how it works.
I have quite a bit of college credits. I have my Associates Degree and a bit of higher level courses. I was on my way towards my bachelor's but life happened. I am currently working at a school and want to get my Bachelor's so I can get my teacher certification but I want the path of least resistance. If I post all my credits, would someone be able to guide me into the "quickest" Bachelor's degree (honestly don't care what it is in at this point-just want the degree). It would be nice to be doing the teacher cert at the same time but it's not a requirement. Help?!

Sure, create a new thread and copy/paste all your courses or credits in the new thread and someone will look into it for you. Do you have tuition assistance or reimbursement? or Financial Aid? Indicate that in your next thread you create.

[Digital Jacob]

Also, I would advice you to have a look about potential scholarships or funding form the state. When thinking about improving one´s career it is always a good question how to finance it [link removed]. So that it, in the end also will pay off.

[rachel83az]

Also, I would advice you to have a look about potential scholarships or funding form the state. When thinking about improving one´s career it is always a good question how to finance it [link removed]. So that it, in the end also will pay off.

What does a German site have to do with American universities?

[dfrecore]

Also, I would advice you to have a look about potential scholarships or funding form the state. When thinking about improving one´s career it is always a good question how to finance it [link removed]. So that it, in the end also will pay off.

What does a German site have to do with American universities?

Digital Jacob is a spammer.