Easiest route instead of figuring it all out myself?

[collegechick]

Hello my fellow matriculated,

It's been a five year struggle to complete a Bachelor's.  You lovely people helped me with a degree plan for a BA Liberal Studies at TESU.  I've completed around 90-95 credits towards this degree.  I bombed CLEP's Analyzing and Interpreting Literature by two points, became discouraged, had deaths in the family, health issues, moved and dropped my studies.

While I completely understand why many people want to test out (CLEP, DSST, Straighterline, ect) it does not work for me.  It's lonely torture and I despise figuring all the info out by myself.  (FWIW I'm an ENFP.)  I'm reconsidering resuming my studies and vowed to return to community college and Uni to obtain my remaining credits and then transfer them back, and only punishing myself with a capstone.

I am now looking at changing schools to SNHU for a BA in Communications/Public Relations.  The Liberal Arts Degree bothered me as it wasn't a defined area of study as well as the name of TESU on my resume.  I genuinely want to learn PR, increase my job options and have my hand held through the process.  I am eligible for the Pell Grant.  I'm just wondering if enrolling directly with SNHU and taking all my coursework through them would be easier?  I really learn the best with an actual teacher in a classroom, but due to Covid this is not happening. 

Again, I do not mean ANY disrespect to those at TESU and truly envy those of you who can do all this self study and figure it all out by yourself.  Any thoughts or advice are appreciated.

[allvia]

List your credits and the source (eg: SL, Sophia, CC, B&M) - if they are traditional B&M or CC, grade too if you have them (Ds count for many gen eds, Eng Comp I & II and AOS need to be over a C). If you have RA credits maybe COSC works better - it seems the objective is to have a bachelor degree done (it is a worthy goal). Also you can earn a BALS from TESU with a concentration; such as social sciences or humanities. I have no doubt members here will be glad to help you.

[collegechick]

List your credits and the source (eg: SL, Sophia, CC, B&M) - if they are traditional B&M or CC, grade too if you have them (Ds count for many gen eds, Eng Comp I & II and AOS need to be over a C). If you have RA credits maybe COSC works better - it seems the objective is to have a bachelor degree done (it is a worthy goal). Also you can earn a BALS from TESU with a concentration; such as social sciences or humanities. I have no doubt members here will be glad to help you.

Thank you for the response.  I have never failed a class at an actual school nor at any vocational schools in my 25 years of work.  I was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.  That's why I'm flustered with online school and figuring out exactly what I'm going to be tested on.  I feel like I'm treading water, figuring the entire curriculum by myself.

Community College Credits:
FVT 150: Development of Film Expression - 3 credits
FVT 160: Video Equipment & Tech - 3 credits
FVT 254: Digital Editing - 3 credits
GAT 120: Adobe Photoshop - 3 credits
GAT 106: Adobe Illustrator - 3 credits
PSY 101: Gen Psychology - 3 credits
PSY 102: Gen Psychology II - 3 credits
SPE 115: Speech Comm - 3 credits
SPE 125: Interpersonal Comm - 3 credits
ENG 121: Eng Comp - 3 credits
ENG 122: Eng Comp II - 3 credits
HUM 122: Survey of Humanities II - 3 credits
HUM 123: Survey of Humanities III - 3 credits
ART 111: Art History - 3 credits
CIS 136: Power Point - 4 credits
CIS 125: MS Word - 4 credits
CIS 117: Web Page Essentials - 4 credits
MAT 135: Intro to Statistics - 3 credits
AST 102: Astronomy
AST 103: Lab - 4 credits
GEO 105: World Regional Geography - 3 credits
THE 111: Acting I - 3 credits

Art Institute:
MM1360: Inside Multimedia - 3 credits
XD1301: Fund of Design - 3 credits
XD1310: Fund of Drawing - 3 credits
XD2302: Computer Paint - 3 credits
XD3303: Fund of Business - 3 credits

ACE Credits:
American Institute For Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters/The Institutes
Ethics and the CPCU Code of Professional Conduct (online course)
American Institute For Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Insurance Institute of America
AICP-0121

National Emergency Training Center (NFA)
Self-Study Course for Community Safety Educators
National Emergency Training Center (NFA)
NNFA-0149

SOPHIA Learning, LLC
Developing Effective Teams
SOPHIA Learning, LLC
SOPH-0021

Texas Engineering Extension Service
Cyber Security for Business Professionals
Texas Engineering Extension Service
TEEX-0252

Cyber Security for Everyone
Texas Engineering Extension Service
TEEX-0250

[ROYISAGIRL]

Have you applied to SNHU yet? I am only asking because not a lot of people here have posted about going there and showed degree plans with possible course equivalency. You have quite a few courses that look like they should fit. If they do you may not get a lot of use from Sophia courses and from what I see SNHU does take study.com courses.

[collegechick]

Have you applied to SNHU yet?  I am only asking because not a lot of people here have posted about going there and showed degree plans with possible course equivalency. You have quite a few courses that look like they should fit. If they do you may not get a lot of use from Sophia courses and from what I see SNHU does take study.com courses.

Thanks for your response.  No, I haven't.  I've been reading reviews online and none of the schools get good reviews.  Just looking for the easiest way, but some people think CLEPing is easy.  I do not.  Just wondering if doing the rest of my studies only at SNHU would be easier than trying to acquire credits from everywhere and teaching myself all these courses without the help of an instructor.

[rachel83az]

That's why I'm flustered with online school and figuring out exactly what I'm going to be tested on.  I feel like I'm treading water, figuring the entire curriculum by myself.

Not to diminish your experience but this is absolutely how I feel when taking "real" classes. Will this be on the test? Will that be on the test? Who knows! Except there is no video to review what's been discussed and not been discussed in class. (At least, not until very recently. I understand it's more common for professors to post their lectures online now.)

[LevelUP]

Thank you for the response.  I have never failed a class at an actual school nor at any vocational schools in my 25 years of work.  I was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.  That's why I'm flustered with online school and figuring out exactly what I'm going to be tested on.  I feel like I'm treading water, figuring the entire curriculum by myself.

Sophia, Study.com, Instacert all those are straightforward online courses where the grading is easy and the final test follows the course. And they have practice final exams.

TESU is getting very close to being possible to test out for the Communications degree, several study.com courses pending.

[Kab]

If you dislike testing or as you say it is not for you try to go for courses that focus on small bites a time.For this I mean if testing is eating a pie all at once go for making little bites one after the other. Many little exams, essays or where you are tested in small portions of the knowledge and not all at once.
I like Sophia for this because you make little chapters and many, many questions you learn one question at a time. I did not do study.com but appears to follow small test and then a big one. So very similar there.
If you can go to a B&M school, have the time, money, and like it, do it! In my humble opinion the important part is to keep advancing to get your goal, in this case your degree. You have some credits there so if you look for a place they accept all that you have a good way in into the road to success.

Each one of us has a preferred learning system so do not apology because testing is not your thing.

[Rustydroid]

I understand what you are saying. I've been to a few community colleges myself trying to finish a degree. I'm finally close to the finish line and I'm even considering getting an Associate's and two bachelors at TESU plus an associate's at my local community college. In my experience having your hand held really depends on the professor as well as the school. My main goal is to complete one bachelors though to keep me focused.
I had a professor in my last community college that was all over the place. I was not even sure what chapter were going to be on the test. He skipped chapters started from one to five then to 14 then 21.
I really like Sophia learning since all the material is there and you can even reference it when taking a test. Also you don't necessarily have to take CLEPS for TESU. I have yet to take a CLEP, most of my credits are coming from community college and the military. I'm at the 80 unit mark with TESU and I'm going to be adding more classes pretty quickly. I think that one of the benefits of CLEPS is that they are a cheap and easy way to earn college credit.
One of the best online learning experiences that I've had so far have been with ASU. Your hand is held, they give you deadlines with a clock telling you exactly how much time you have left to complete your tasks. Most classes that I have taken have all the reading material, and videos organized per week, they give you a study guide, glossary, cerego goes over the material that you need to learn. The exams are mostly based on the quizzes and Cerego. I like that you can leave off a class on one computer or your cellphone and pick up at the same spot where you left off on another computer.
Also once you have enough credits on a desired concentration a lot of the concepts tend to appear again in different classes. For example I'm seeing ideas that I studied in ASU's sociology class ideas crop up in my management class from TESU as well as CIS 105 and the COM class from ASU. In my economics and management class I'm expanding on ideas that I saw when I first took my first business class which was was Intro to Business.

[allvia]

I think your best bet would be TESU or COSC.  I would recommend you apply to COSC for a communications concentration
- https://www.charteroak.edu/catalog/curre...cation.php

You already have plenty of RA credits to meet their new requirement, and you already have the science with lab (another one of their requirements). If your objective is to be done and get that degree so you can check the box - TESU or COSC would likely be your quickest path.  'm not sure what your adversity of having TESU on your resume is (it's a NJ state school, as COSC is a CT state school); where SNHU is not (it's a private school) - and best known as one of those school's you've seen on the TV ads (not saying it's a bad school - but it wouldn't be considered better or higher level than any state school).  COSC would likely be your lowest cost vs TESU.

Once you apply - to a school (or two)  - you'll know where your existing credits fall and it will be easier for us to help you fill in what you're missing. There are definitely more options now than the 'one and done' the CLEPs offer - much better, affordable and friendly to use (imo). Between Sophia and Study.com you could get everything you'd need beside the two school requested courses. You could be done quickly this way and move onto applying for those 'degree required' positions that interest you.