Choosing

[dingbat]

How do I make a choice between Excelsior, Thomas Edison, or Charter Oak? They all seem the same to me on the surface. what should I be looking for?

[robo]

Whatever works best for you, there are some differences.

Like with excelsior you can graduate more often than with the other two. Which gives you a lot more flexibility with deadlines. They confer degrees every month, whereas with tesc they only confer four times a year. Cosc confers six times a year. Which means if you miss the deadline you'll have to waith another three months at tesc.

You will also have the option of getting grades for tests taken at ec, you may or may not still be able to get grades for the dantes. But you will still be able to get grades for the ec exams.

I think the name Thomas Edison sounds better than the other two. At tesc you can transfer in fema credits for free. Which in the end makes ec and tesc about the same in price. So it's really not the deciding factor.

Actually if you don't plan on using any fema credits then ec will be the cheapest way to go. Although I haven't looked into how much cosc is all together.

With Cosc you can not get a major just a concentration.

I chose ec because of the flexibility in graduating, it is cheaper for me, and I will have a whole lot more grades on my transcript. Without having to take all those online courses.

I don't like the name excelsior at all. I think it sounds pretty cheesy.

This is how I will list it on my resume
University of the State of New York, Excelsior College.

Also EC has been known to be a whole lot better with customer service, for the most part. And from my experiences and what I have heard they are a whole lot faster with evaluation, updating, and graduating. Which makes a world of difference for me. I need to graduate as soon as possible.

Hope this helps.

[dingbat]

Thank you so much for your kind and informative response. I will go with EC and I agree with you completely that the University of New York, Excelsior College sounds a lot better hilarious

[Sharkfin]

This is how I will list it on my resume
University of the State of New York, Excelsior College.

I agree, that does sound better. I may have to borrow that

[originalbigjim]

isn't that a little bit of a, i dont know.... a lie? if not isnt that at least a misrepresentation. I realize that it is technically true but I think it inflates the excelsior college from a little know online school to what sounds like a department of a huge university.

[livingproof]

Are you trying to confuse someone into thinking it's part of SUNY? Otherwise I'm lost because the University of the State of New York is simply a government organization that deals with formal education from grade school through college, in both licensing and accreditation. I mean, it disbanded from Excelsior in the late 90s.

[DetroitSki]

Before u decide. The main reason that I chose TESC was because they allow 200 level courses as upper level. That offers A LOT more flexibility regarding tests (EC/DSST/TECEP/CLEP).

The CLEPs and DSSTs run around 100 bucks a pop. The ECEs and TECEPs run about 250 a pop. So, think long and hard grasshopper. I would recommend paying the 75 bucks to both EC and TESC and do the math.

Good Luck

[cookderosa]

I don't like the name excelsior at all. I think it sounds pretty cheesy.

This is how I will list it on my resume
University of the State of New York, Excelsior College.>>


You should transfer to another college. I'm not being sarcastic, I am completely serious. For the rest of your entire life you will have to answer "Excelsior College" when someone asks where you are going/attended college. Thinking back to my first degree, I have probably answered that question over a thousand times. I promise you that this is going to be an issue for you, and I see it already is as you are already fudging your resume. You need to transfer to a college that you can be proud of. It's worth it, in my opinion, to spend another year or another few thousand dollars and buy the right thing. There is nothing wrong with choosing a college based on the name of the school.

P.S. Even if you disregard my comment, you still need to correct your resume, or maybe not apply for jobs that actually check your credentials.

[barcotta]

This is developing into one of the craziest threads I've seen on this forum. I'll have to respond to a few quotes here:

isn't that a little bit of a, i dont know.... a lie? if not isnt that at least a misrepresentation. I realize that it is technically true but I think it inflates the excelsior college from a little know online school to what sounds like a department of a huge university.

Is it a lie???? Without being condescending or reprinting long dictionary definitions--a lie is basically something that is untrue. Excelsior College is, in fact, a member of the University of the State of New York. It states that explicitly on the diploma. A misrepresentation??? I can't really see how a completely truthful and accurate bit of information can be construed as a misrepresentation. Adding the word "university" sounds better to many people, including me, and I can't imagine a problem with using the the name of an organization of which Excelsior (and virtually every other educational institution, library etc. in NY) is a member in your description of your educational credentials.

Are you trying to confuse someone into thinking it's part of SUNY? Otherwise I'm lost because the University of the State of New York is simply a government organization that deals with formal education from grade school through college, in both licensing and accreditation. I mean, it disbanded from Excelsior in the late 90s.

Now THAT is untrue. USNY did NOT "disband" from EC in the late 90's--or at any other point in time. I think your confusing the USNY with the Board of Regents--which once ran the external degree program which became Regents College. EC is now a private institution but still clearly a member of the USNY.

P.S. Even if you disregard my comment, you still need to correct your resume, or maybe not apply for jobs that actually check your credentials.

Correct?? Correct what??? What is incorrect? Let's assume the worst case scenario I can conceive:

"Mr. Smith, we would love to offer you a job with our firm, however, we were unable to find a university called "University of the State of New York, Excelsior College." We did, however discover that there is a body called the University of the State of New York, but it does not offer degrees. We also note that Excelsior College does offer degrees--but due to your gross misrepresentation on your resume--we will not be offering you the job."

That possibility, spoken or unspoken, seems remote--and that's a stretch. The simple explanation is that Excelsior College is not a household name so I thought it would be helpful to include the name of one of the accrediting institutions as it appears on my diploma.

What bad or inaccurate thing could be found if someone were to "check the credentials??" It's all 100% true and accurate--not to mention that there are an infinite number of resume styles so there are no hard and fast rules about how to describe the school from which you graduated.

Having said that, here's what I think about the rest. I initially did not like the name Excelsior or Thomas Edison. Over time I grew comfortable with both. I REALLY like the fact that Thomas Edison offers a BSBA degree. That's a very common degree title from a state school. I don't like the BSGB (or BGB--or now Bachelor of Science in Business with a concentration in General Business) degree title.

I LOVED attending Excelsior and thought everything about the way they ran their institution was terrific.

I don't consider it a plus that Thomas Edison awards upper level credit for 200 level courses.

I'm not crazy about the whole FEMA thing either--although I may be slightly hypocritical on that because I can't say with complete confidence that I would not have taken advantage of that had I the opportunity.

Just so you know--this is probably the hardest part--figuring out where to go and your degree plan. Jennifer is right about the name, though. You may use it a lot and if you feel like you have to do a lot of explaining every time you have to tell people where you went to college--you may want to consider a different college. In truth--it doesn't make an ounce of difference. Perception--yours and others, are all that we're talking about here.

[PatsGirl1]

I would agree with Jennifer on this one, and I did the same thing. Because the name of the school is a BIG deal to me (hey, I’ve already answered where I’m going to school about 25 times in the last month, no joke) I picked TESC over Excelsior. It ended up costing me almost $3k more (I had evaluations done at both schools) but I have no issues with saying my school name, it sounds better to me and others, and it was worth it to me.

It may be a gray area as far as in how you are wording it, but to me, you’re wording it incorrectly. “University of the State of New York, Excelsior College” is not entirely correct, something like “Excelsior College, of the governing University of the State of New York” would be. Better yet, just use Excelsior College. Sure, it is semantics, but the point is in the intent. You intend on making the school sound “more official” and giving it a better title. It’s like the people who say University of Michigan and leave off the campus (because neither Dearborn nor Flint is nearly as prestigious as Ann Arbor). Technically, it’s correct (all schools are under the UM umbrella system). But it’s not, in fact, the actual name of the school in its entirety.
What I think Jennifer is suggesting (not speaking for her, but just commenting) is if it’s that big of a deal to you that you are already planning on re-wording the name and moving it around on your resume, change schools. I did, because I knew it was important to me and it was a big deal to me.

Is it a lie? No, because it’s not an untruth. It’s not even incorrect, really. However, is it intentionally misleading to make it sound a bit better? To me, yes. Why bother with doing it? Just switch schools.

And FWIW Michael, yes, I do some part-time HR work and we have thrown out resumes for being misleading (the above UM example is one I was a part of personally). My mother has done it in her capacity as a hiring manager, which is where I got the advice to go with a school I could say the name and leave it the way it was with no embarrassment. Logic being, if you can “bend” the truth on something as innocuous as a resume, what will you do when working for the company? It’s a gray area but it’s like 20 seconds you have to make an impression on a resume, why even bother doing it? Not all companies care, not all would even know, but yes, some do know and some do care.