Got my evals from EC & TESC - Please help me choose one for a business degree

[jkozlow3]

I've received both of my unofficial evaluations back from EC & TESC and could really use some help choosing a school and formulating a degree plan. Like many people here, my goals are to:

1. Finish quickly
2. Take exams for as many courses as possible
3. Not spend more $$ than I have to unless it makes sense

I already took the Marketing & Management CLEPs and passed with flying colors so I'm psyched to try and get the rest of these classes done!

I would REALLY, REALLY appreciate your help with this, as I need to make a decision and start moving forward.


TESC Evaluation - 45.3 semester hours remaining for a degree

Here's what I need according to them:

English Composition II (3cr needed) - For this one I'm thinking CLEP (good for 6cr which is more than I need). There is also a TECEP exam worth the 3cr that I'd need (not sure which one is easier)?

General Education Electives - 3.65 hours needed. I guess I can just find 2 random CLEP exams for this? Or if I do the 6 credit CLEP for English (above), maybe I can carry over 3 of the 6 credits towards this requirement and take 1 additional CLEP?

Managerial Accounting - What exam can I use for this?

Business Law - CLEP?

Business Finance - DSST?

Business in Society/Int'l Mgmt - "Complete 3 hours of business in society, introduction to international business, international management or international marketing" - which one of these can I take by exam if any?

Business Policy - TECEP exam? Anything else?

Business Electives - 10.33 hours needed. 9 is the normal requirement but I am 1.33 short in other areas according to them (I went to a school that was on quarters instead of semesters for awhile), hence the 10.33. I hope I can fulfill most of these via CLEP/DSST - not sure?

Major Specialization - 15.33 hours remaining out of 18. Now, this is the tricky part. I don't necessarily care what I major in, as long as it's a business degree. TESC is telling me that I MUST specify a major however (unlike Excelsior which allows a plain BSBA degree with no major). That being said, it looks like "general management" is their catch-all and allows you to pick classes from finance, management and marketing categories to satisfy the 18 hour requirement. In a perfect world, I'd consider a finance major, but I also want something that's going to be easy to complete via exam. How can I best satisfy the 15.33 hours remaining via exam - either with a more specific major like finance or marketing or in the more generic "general management"?


Excelsior Evaluation - 58.31 semester hours remaining for a degree (as best I can tell - they don't give a total) - 12 of which must be "advanced" level courses.

What I need:

15.65 Arts & Sciences - I'm guessing I can get most of these from CLEP/DSST?

5.66 - Any collegiate level study - same as above?

Information Literacy (1 credit) - Excelsior online course?

Managerial Accounting (TESC also needs this one) - what exam for this?

Business Law (TESC as well) - CLEP

Financial Management - ??

Productions/Operations Mgmt - TECEP exam maybe? Does Excelsior accept TECEP exams?

Business Policy - It says I must take this 3cr class through them.

Organizational Behavior - DSST?

Ethics - DSST?

Concentration Requirements (15 credits) - Again, if I want a general BSBA, I can take various electives which I'm guessing will be easier to do via exam than if I select a specific major? Excelsior says 12 of the 15 must be advanced level. TESC didn't say anything about this. Is this a difference between the business degrees at these 2 schools or is TESC just not upfront about it? If so, is it harder to find exams that satisfy the advanced level requirement (perhaps tipping the scale heavily in TESC's favor)?


Again, I'd REALLY appreciate your thoughts/assistance on what my best option is as well as exams that will suffice for what I need. It looks like TESC might be a better option from what I can tell so far (certainly less credit hours needed), but I'm also not sure if I can take exams for as many of the remaining courses at TESC. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

[mtbkr02]

Heres a little info on the Excelsior side.

Take a look at the Excelsior Business Catalog, On pages 54 & 55 it shows you Examinations that may be used to meet the Business degree requirements.

Information Literacy (1 credit) - Excelsior online course? Many people have taken this through Penn Foster, no proctored test and the course is only $90

Financial Management - ?? DSST Principles of Finance

Productions/Operations Mgmt - TECEP exam maybe? Does Excelsior accept TECEP exams? Thomas Edison State College Examination OPM 301-TE Operations Management

Organizational Behavior - DSST? ECE (UL) or DSST (LL)

Ethics - DSST? DSST Ethics in America (LL) OR ECE Ethics: Theory & Practice (UL), not sure about DSST Business Ethics and Society (UL), its not listed in the guide, seems like it would fulfill the requirements

[IgnazSemmelweis]

Managerial Accounting - What exam can I use for this?
You can't. Take it at straighterline.

Business Law - CLEP?
Yes.

Business Finance - DSST?
Yes.

Business in Society/Int'l Mgmt - "Complete 3 hours of business in society, introduction to international business, international management or international marketing" - which one of these can I take by exam if any?
Business Ethics & Society DSST

Business Policy - TECEP exam? Anything else?
This is your capstone. It's either take it or take the TECEP.

Business Electives - 10.33 hours needed. 9 is the normal requirement but I am 1.33 short in other areas according to them (I went to a school that was on quarters instead of semesters for awhile), hence the 10.33. I hope I can fulfill most of these via CLEP/DSST - not sure?
Yes. Go here and pick four CLEP/DSST classes listed under business.
Undergraduate Ways to Earn Credit - Thomas Edison State College - acalog ACMSâ„¢

. .

[jkozlow3]

Thanks for the breakdowns so far!

Now, what about the major/concentration requirements needed at both schools? I need 15 at EC and they specifically said that 12 must be upper level. I need 15.33 remaining at TESC and they did not say anything about upper level being a requirement.

For EC, it doesn't look like any of the CLEP business exams count as upper level credit and only a couple of DSST exams do. So this might be hard to fulfill, no? I see that Ethics & Organizational Behavior count as UL courses if I take the ECE exams instead of DSST, but they identified those courses in a separate area on my evaluation, so would those count towards the 12 upper level "concentration" requirements if I got a general BSBA without a concentration? I'm thinking not?

Otherwise, maybe I can do the following without overlap:

HR Mgmt - ECE (3cr UL)
Labor Relations - ECE (3cr UL)
MIS - DSST (3cr UL)
Business Law II - DSST (3cr UL)
+ 1 more lower level DSST (there are several and I can't use the lower level CLEPs as marketing & management since they were already identified elsewhere)

Thoughts?


For TESC, if I don't in fact need upper level courses (someone please verify), I could choose 15.33 hours of business DSST courses for the "concentration" requirement, but I still need 10.33 hours of business electives as well. For these 26 combined business credits, it looks like I'd need to use a combination of 9 DSST & TECEP business exams, right?

Outside of the courses they've explicitly identified (Business Law, Business Policy, etc), I think I still need 26 (27) more business credits, right? Again, I don't think I can count the explicitly identified courses towards business electives or concentration requirements, correct?

So what about something like this (no overlap with explicitly identified courses):

Intro to Business - DSST
MIS - DSST
Money & Banking - DSST
Principles of Supervision - DSST
HR Management - DSST
Advertising - TECEP
Operations Mgmt - TECEP
Marketing Communications - TECEP
Sales Management - TECEP


Thoughts? I'm still trying to determine which path will be easiest and I already have a 13 credit head start with TESC. Thanks again!

[dshlvrsn]

Business Ethics and Society counts as an upper level credit.

I'm almost through with my degree at EC and here is what has been approved for my 12 UL credits:

Business Ethics (noted above)
MIS
Money & Banking
Business Law II

BE and MIS are P/F only. For both of these exams I studied the flashcards for a few hours, read through the specific feedback, did the easy stuff there - nothing that involved any more than clicking and reading. All in about 10 hours between both of them (I do like computers a lot and would say that my base knowledge is above average - not IT professional though by any stretch...)

M&B and BLII both count for grades at EC. I'm trying to bring up my GPA so I'm still studying for those. I've heard that the EC exams that you've identified may be a little easier. I've just gotten into a group with my testing center and don't want to mess with the pattern. I've completely avoided having to find proctors and all of that mess. I'm SO glad that DSST added the BE&S test. It simplified my final push greatly.

My recommendation for additional lower level business would probably be Principles of Supervision DSST... There are a few threads that give great feedback on what to take test in. Many either build on each other or overlap some parts of the subject matter. For example you may want to take Business Law CLEP before Business Law II.

Overall I'm suprised that the spread between degree requirements. My guess is that there is overlap in some of EC stuff - ie Org Beh counts as A&S credit. Also don't be afraid to challenge the initial assessment. I had a math class that was only being counted as general credit. When I did a search for a class that would count toward the requirement I found one that was almost word for word the same content as the class I'd already completed. One e-mail and the requirement was filled. I pretty sure that both schools are looking for 120 credit hours total. The fact that EC is still listing 5.66 anything credits seems to indicate that they've applied all of your courses somewhere.

Good luck! No matter which you choose if you apply yourself you'll be done in no time.

[nc1wynot]

dshlvrsn -
I noticed you didnt mention any word of the capstone course for Excelsior, "Business Policy". I was wondering if there were an exam that I could take to count for this course. (not to thrilled about taking another course)

Thanks for any information you can provide.

Also, do you mind telling me which math course you switched? I have several math courses completed.

Thanks,

Steve

[Yenisei]

You'd have to take the Excelsior Business Policy course- they will not accept exams for that particular requirement. TESC does accept their own exam to fulfill that requirement.

[MISin08]

The above posts cover your questions well. I'll just add that "finish quickly" pretty much restricts you to general business, because you can't test out of most courses for a concentration at EC. That said, if you can find courses on an 8-week schedule, that's almost as fast as preparing for an UL exam.

I didn't want general business so I looked at Operations Mgt (using self-paced courses from CSU) and MIS (using 8-week courses from Chadron State) and went with MIS.

Phillip