Excelsior BS in Business Degree Plan

[jackbanta]

UPDATED DEGREE PLAN:
Arts and Science – 60 Needed
CLEP History of the United States I 3
CLEP History of the United States II 3
CLEP College Composition 3
CLEP Humanities 6
CLEP Biology 6
CLEP College Mathematics 6
CLEP Introductory Psychology 3
CLEP American Government 3
CLEP Social Sciences and History 6
CLEP Microeconomics 3
CLEP Macroeconomics 3
ALEKS College Algebra 3
ALEKS Introduction to Statistics 3
DSST Foundations of Education 3 *
DSST Environment and Humanity 3 *
DSST Technical Writing 3 *


Career Component – 45 Needed (12 Upper)
Accounting I, straighterline 3 (Financial Accounting)
Accounting II, straighterline 3 (Managerial Accounting)
CLEP Intro to Business Law 3 (Introduction to Business Law)
CLEP Information Systems 3 (Computers)
CLEP Principles of Management 3 (Principles of Management)
CLEP Principles of Marketing 3 (Principles of Marketing)
DSST Principles of Finance 3 (Financial Management)
311 MGMT at CSU Pueblo 3 (Production/Operations Management)
BUS 495 at Excelsior (Business Policy)
DSST Business Ethics 3 U (Ethics Requirement)
DSST Organizational Behavior 3 (Organizational Behavior)
DSST Business Law II 3 U
DSST Management Information Systems 3 U
DSST Money and Banking 3 U
DSST Intro to Business 3

Electives – 15 Needed
Information Literacy 1
DSST Principles of Supervision 3
DSST Human Resource Management 3
DSST Fundamentals of Counseling 3*
CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature 6

What I've changed is I've decided to take Accounting I in addition to Accounting II from straighterline and I took Statistics and College Algebra from ALEKS. Business Statistics DOES duplicate at Excelsior (and I'm not even sure if it fulfills the requirement, although if it duplicates, you'd think it would), so really, College Algebra and Intro to Statistics are the only courses one can use there if pursuing this particular degree from Excelsior.

I also dropped the American Literature test from my plan in favor of the DSST Principles of Supervision and DSST Human Resource Management due to the extensive crossover inefficiencies with CLEP Principles of Management and DSST Organizational Behavior. This thread says that you can't take DSST Principles of Supervision and CLEP Management at Excelsior, it is mistaken. However, Substance Abuse cannot be used as an upper level business class... Money and Banking needs to be substituted there.

*I'm personally not taking the Natural Sciences and Chemistry CLEPs now, as I want to take some more examinations that are graded in their place to raise my GPA, but one could substitute any combination of two six credit CLEPs instead of the four DSSTs I've selected.

[Mechanix26]

Looking good. Business stats will fulfill the requirement but, like I said earlier, it would only count as lower level credit if applied towards a business degree. This despite it being ACE reviewed as upper level.

[bkahuna]

Jackbanta,

You took the biology clep and got a 70, so take the NATURAL SCIENCES clep. Its 1/2 Biology and worth 6, so you could remove two 3 credit CLEPS in there some place. I.e. remove Human Resource Management and Fundamentals of Counseling. IC or cracking the clep have excellent materials for the natural sciences. With your score on bio I bet you could review the materials for 2 hours and go take it.


The only thing i needed help with was balancing chemical equations and I watched the 10 min Khan Academy video. I only had one question about that on the test though.

[jackbanta]

I'm only taking those extra DSSTs because I want to take some more graded exams. See, my actual plan differs from "my proposed ultimate mostly testing out plan" presented in this thread, because I transferred in some credits from my earlier, not ready B&M college experience. They were all Cs and they're killing my GPA. If I don't take those DSSTs I have marked, the best my GPA can be is 3.33. If I take them and get all As on them, I can get a 3.54. I'm not sure if this even matters tremendously, (in fact, I posted a thread about this), but I'd rather take a little bit of extra time and get the better grade at this point, so I'm not kicking myself later if it ends up mattering for an MBA program or something.

Plus, I would have to review Biology, as I took that CLEP a few years ago. If I had been smart, I would have probably knocked out the Biology and the Natural Sciences at the same time. But at this point, I definitely want to take the DSSTs I have mentioned, and I don't really think the Natural Sciences would be any easy than the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP, and that would be the only thing I'd be willing to substitute it for (I already took HRM).

[bkahuna]

Yeah I hear you.

My B&M screwed up my gpa also, but I was happy with 3.29. I figured it wasn't worth the extra money and time to take those exams or retake courses. So I respect your decision, I totally understand.

[jackbanta]

I just noticed that Excelsior has changed their requirements for this degree for anyone enrolling after 10/01/11. They now require that you have 21 upper level business credits. So, one would have to substitute the ECE Organization Behavior and the ECE Human Resource Behavior for the DSST of the same name and substitute ECE Labor Relations for DSST Intro to Business, if they wanted to follow the template I've laid out.

[perriquit]

Most people in the General Business concentration graduate with 21 upper level business credits anyway, look:

They require 15 in my degree plan but look:

Business Strategy (Capstone) 3 Credits
12 Upper Level Elective Business credits 12
Operations Management from CSU Pueblo 3
Financial Management from PF 3
--------------------------------------------
21 upper level credits.


Regarding ALEKS:

For Excelsior you can only use 1 statistics class in the Business degree so there is no point taking them all. In my case I had statistics from SL and also Stats from Behavioral Science from ALEKS, I was thinking that since they were classes with different content and one upper level and the other lowel I would get credit for both.. wrong, I only got credit for one. This might change for the Liberal Arts degree but for Business they are very strict with this policy of 1 stats class only.

Regarding the Math, I already had my College Algebra from SL and I took Pre-Calc from SL and it duplicated. However my advisor told me I could take Beginning Algebra and Trigonometry which I did. So my math credit for my degree is composed as follows:

Beginning Algebra ALEKS
Trigonometry ALEKS
College Algebra SL
Calculus I SL
Calculus II SL
Business Statistics SL (or any ALEKS stats class if you choose so)

[jackbanta]

Perriquit,

Excelsior, when they wanted 12 upper level credits, didn't count the core classes as being counted towards that requirement. So, Business Policy, Financial Management, and Operations Management didn't count as going towards their 12 upper level requirement. Perhaps they've changed and now they count those towards upper level, meaning that effectively there's no difference (as I don't think one could fulfill any of those classes with lower level credits anyway). I do not know.

[rashaun35]

Banta, or anyone who'd like to chime in,

How much would this degree plan differ from EC's BS in business with a concentration in risk management and insurance?

[jackbanta]

Rashaun,

Excelsior states that you need 15 credits in the concentration, nine being upper level. Meaning, things like Principles of Supervision, Human Resource Management, and Intro to Business would have to be substituted for something pertaining to Risk Management and Insurance. I do not even know if there are any tests that satisfy the concentration. Nor do I know if Money and Banking and Business Law II would satisfy the concentration's upper level requirement (though, they do seem tangentially related).

As always, checking with an academic adviser is key, as I can only speculate.