Daughter's BSBA TESU program - degree plan added

[Merlin]

Thank you for your swift response.  We can have her continue with the transfer AA in Business for next school year (she only has to take one math class - statistics - to earn the degree).  At the end of this semester, she will have earned an AA in General business and a 30 unit general business certificate from her CC.  However, she will only have 54 transfer units (with regards to in-state 4-year colleges).  Is the reason you recommend the BSBA for employment reasons (later in life)?  I will speak with her about her options.  However, due to the fact that her desire to write children's books does not translate into a college major, she does not seem to have much opinion about which major she should choose for a BA/BS.  I told her that the BSBA is a "safe" major for getting a job and she said, "OK, I'll do that then."  However, I will let her know what her options are for the BALS too now that I have received some info. here from the experts on TESU.

Actually, writing children's books does have an associated college major, it is called "creative writing." At the bachelor's level, this subject is usually part of a BFA (bachelor of fine arts) degree. My wife has a minor in creative writing and is considering going back to school to pursue a masters in creative writing (or an MFA with a concentration in creative writing) since she is an author and would like to focus more on that aspect of her career.

So, if this is an area your daughter is interested in, she might want to look for creative writing programs.

[natshar]

If your daughter wants to see exactly what courses count. Why not just apply to TESU and send all your transcripts. There is no commitment to attend and if you send everything you will see what counts instead of speculation. It does cost $75 and they provide a limited amount of transcript evaluations until you actually enroll by taking a course or TECEP. So maybe do this once she is either done or nearly done with CC.

[12save]

She still has another full year in CC after this semester to transfer the full 80 units from a CC, so we will have her apply to TESU when she is nearer to transfer.  The thing is that we want her to take courses w/ Study.com BEFORE going to TESU.

As far as the creative writing major goes, she specifically wants to write children's books, likely the early chapter books.  There are graduate programs which focus on this, but at the BA level, she would have to take and complete assignments and courses which do not relate to her goals.  She is a direct kid, she does not like doing what she perceives to be "extra" work.  My husband is much the same.  He has a BA, an MA, and an M Div. and he never took one extra course anywhere in any of his three degree programs!

Independent studies at BYU has a writing course in writing for children and young adults (with a single creative writing course as a pre-requisite).  My daughter says that she is doing her "back-up plan" first by working on a business degree.  She understands that writing and developing one's writing skills is a life-long learning process.  I am a former secondary English teacher, so I believe I can assist her following this path.  One of her cousins is also an English teacher who has self-published several books on Kindle (fantasy novels), so she is doing the one first, then will pursue the writing as a hobby while working at a day job.

[dfrecore]

She still has another full year in CC after this semester to transfer the full 80 units from a CC, so we will have her apply to TESU when she is nearer to transfer.  The thing is that we want her to take courses w/ Study.com BEFORE going to TESU.

As far as the creative writing major goes, she specifically wants to write children's books, likely the early chapter books.  There are graduate programs which focus on this, but at the BA level, she would have to take and complete assignments and courses which do not relate to her goals.  She is a direct kid, she does not like doing what she perceives to be "extra" work.  My husband is much the same.  He has a BA, an MA, and an M Div. and he never took one extra course anywhere in any of his three degree programs!

Independent studies at BYU has a writing course in writing for children and young adults (with a single creative writing course as a pre-requisite).  My daughter says that she is doing her "back-up plan" first by working on a business degree.  She understands that writing and developing one's writing skills is a life-long learning process.  I am a former secondary English teacher, so I believe I can assist her following this path.  One of her cousins is also an English teacher who has self-published several books on Kindle (fantasy novels), so she is doing the one first, then will pursue the writing as a hobby while working at a day job.

If I were here, and this was her plan, I would probably go completely away from the BSBA, and get a BALS - and take a bunch of writing courses that interested me rather than a bunch of business courses that don't.  Especially because 1) she's young; and 2) it's much easier to take classes you like than classes you don't (and you tend to get better grades in those as well).

There are some comm & english courses at Study.com that might interest her:

COM 102: Interpersonal Communication
BUS 113: Business Communication
ENGL 310: Short Stories

ENGL 305: Advanced Technical Writing (UL)
BUS 305: Leadership Communication (UL)
BUS 313: Organizational Communication (UL)
BUS 324: Managerial Communication (UL)

She could also look at Marketing, if she wanted to do something a little more creative on the business side of things.  Or graphic design.  Social media stuff.  Lots of ways to start writing in the business world - actually, all careers need good writers somewhere in there.

BUS 309: Digital Marketing & Advertising

[12save]

Thank you to all who responded.  I will let her know what her options are and she can decide.  She still has another year in CC and does not have to sign up for fall classes until April.  The ball is now going to be in her court.

I have figured a BALS which counts all her CC classes (including the 11 units which won't transfer in-state) and does not require her to earn the second AA in business, but to max out the CC credits at 80 to transfer to TESU and will earn her the California State University general ed certificate of completion for lower division general ed at the same time and allows her to complete a degree with no extra units - 120 total.  (The BALS with the concentration in either general management or healthcare management).  However, she must decide what she wants to do.

[MNomadic]

Couple points:
- Is there a reason she wants to do TESU vs COSC? COSC allows 87 transfer credits from CC which would allow her to take advantage of a few more transfer credits from her CC(since she's doing well there and it's relatively cheap). Also, COSC accepts the English literature GRE for 18 credits(some UL, though not sure on the exact breakdown). It may be a good option for her to consider since she has plenty of time to decide.

- If she is committed to TESU, it may behoove her to do the cornerstone before this summer. It is currently a cheap, fast 1 credit course but will switch over to being a full length, full price 3 credit course after July IIRC.

- Also, the free ethics course is set to lose ACE recommendation Jan 31st(in 3 days). It may renew but no one knows for sure. She may want to go ahead and knock that out now just to be on the safe side. It's relatively quick and definitely doable in that time frame.