Help picking community college classes

[dfrecore]

TESU and COSC won't give grades for transfer credits.

They won't "give grades" but the CC will give a GPA, and the grad school in question may look at that GPA, depending on how far back they look (all GPA's, last 30cr, last 60cr, credits in the major, etc.).

[ajs1976]

English Comp I & II - for previously mentioned reason about feedback from an actual instructor. Make sure the course covers research writing and APA (American Psychological Association) style.

Speech - feedback from actual instructor

Lab Science - BIO would be the best fit for Psych.



Stats - previously mentioned reasons

Intro to Psych - for a psych major, i'm 50/50 on taking this a class versus an exam. I was a chem major in my first trip to college. I tested out of gen chem and went straight to o-chem. Would I have been bored in class, yes, but did I miss out on some of the introduction / orientation type stuff for the major, also yes.

Intro to Lit Studies or whatever the first course is of an English major

* Intro to computers - Something to consider, how are your daughter's practical computer skills? Word, powerpoint, and excel? basic PC?

* Foreign language - Not a requirement at TESU, but if another school has the requirement

If I had to do it over again, I would take History, Government, Art, and Intro to Soc as exams. What a waste of time and money those classes were.

[dfrecore]

I also can't figure out what will transfer as equivalent - looking at TESU right now. For example, if she takes a Intro to Visual Arts class at the CC, would that just fit under Gen Ed req? Our CC is not listed on the TESU site to look up equivalencies. Is Humanities or Cultural Anthropology listed under diversity where she needs 3 credits?

With TESU specifically, you can look at the Gen Ed listing to see what types of courses fit where. For example, if you look at Knowledge of Human Cultures, you can see that Art, Communications, English, Ethics, Flim, Humanities, Journalism, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Photography, Religion, and Foreign Languages are all considered Humanities, and fall into that category. Anthropology, Admin of Justice, Econ, Environmental, Geography, History, Political Science, Psych, and Sociology courses all fall under Social Sciences. Any other courses that fit into those categories should fit into the Knowledge of Human Cultures. So Intro to Visual Arts will be a humanity, and fit there. Cultural Anthropology is a SocSci course and will fit there as well.

For Diversity, they're going to be much stricter. Anthropology will fit there, so it will get moved from the more general Knowledge of Human Cultures to the Diversity section when they do an eval. Since it's more narrow, it will get priority for courses going there.

[cookderosa]

Hi! New here and have been reading tons to begin to wrap my brain around the process. I'm the mom of a 16yo and we are working together to put a plan in place.

Right now she's a dual-enrolled homeschooler at our local CC. We have access to free classes for the next 2 years I believe - but they may start charging DE kids soon, not sure. Anyways they will be around $100 probably, so comparable to a CLEP except for time.

While they are free we want to maximize them. Can anyone point me to a thread to help decide what she should take in person at the CC vs CLEP or other avenues? We will likely stick with general ed stuff of course because its a CC and also because she hasn't decided on a major yet (psych or english). If she goes the PSY route she wants to leave the door open for grad school so a good GPA is a plus, so taking courses at the CC where she's most likely to get a good GPA is one way to pick? Or do gen ed GPAs not matter?

I also can't figure out what will transfer as equivalent - looking at TESU right now. For example, if she takes a Intro to Visual Arts class at the CC, would that just fit under Gen Ed req? Our CC is not listed on the TESU site to look up equivalencies. Is Humanities or Cultural Anthropology listed under diversity where she needs 3 credits?

Bottom line is I don't want her to waste any time/credits. She already took one that was required of DE students called EDUC 1300 Effective Learning Strategies for College Success. I wonder if that will transfer, and if so in what category?

Any help is appreciated!

Amy

I'll answer specifically to North Carolina (my state) because this is a common discussion point. In our state, dual enrollment is free but is limited to a selected number of courses (several hundred) that are part of what they call "pathways." There is an AA pathway, an AS pathway, and several career pathways. A pathway consists of about 30-ish credits, and if your teen completes the pathway, or when they graduate high school, they can begin going "off pathway" and take what they want.
So...the question is always "where does CLEP fit in?" and there are 2 ways to approcah it.
(1) take CLEP that is on the pathway to accelerate through the pathway and get off pathway as soon as possible - this is the best method if you are trying to earn a full AA in high school.
(2) take CLEP that is off the pathway as to not "waste" the free tuition available to high school students. This is the best method to keeping costs as low as possible.

So, depending on the specific parameters of your dual enrollment program and the structure of your options, you can usually pick a strategy that serves her best. Good luck!

[originalamyj]

This is very helpful everyone, thank you!!

She's a very strong writer but does want to take English Comp at the CC so we will stick with that. She took intro Psych this semester and will finish with an A. I think this summer she will give her first CLEP a try and do Amer History. She's been studying it in high school and knows a lot but it's not her favorite in terms of sitting through another class. She also took a very challenging biology course and so she may attempt to CLEP out of that to capitalize on what she already knows. We'll see.

The below quote makes sense to me! I think I was trying perhaps too hard to make sure every class we pick has an exact equivalent. It it sounds like, for example, if she did want to take an British lit comp, even though in general ed there's no specific English lit equivalent, it would likely count as meeting a general ed requirement?

With TESU specifically, you can look at the Gen Ed listing to see what types of courses fit where. For example, if you look at Knowledge of Human Cultures, you can see that Art, Communications, English, Ethics, Flim, Humanities, Journalism, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Photography, Religion, and Foreign Languages are all considered Humanities, and fall into that category. Anthropology, Admin of Justice, Econ, Environmental, Geography, History, Political Science, Psych, and Sociology courses all fall under Social Sciences. Any other courses that fit into those categories should fit into the Knowledge of Human Cultures. So Intro to Visual Arts will be a humanity, and fit there. Cultural Anthropology is a SocSci course and will fit there as well.

For Diversity, they're going to be much stricter. Anthropology will fit there, so it will get moved from the more general Knowledge of Human Cultures to the Diversity section when they do an eval. Since it's more narrow, it will get priority for courses going there.

[dfrecore]

The below quote makes sense to me! I think I was trying perhaps too hard to make sure every class we pick has an exact equivalent. It it sounds like, for example, if she did want to take an British lit comp, even though in general ed there's no specific English lit equivalent, it would likely count as meeting a general ed requirement?

TESU lists the courses they actually TEACH on that page - so it's a guide, but not a definitive list. You will not always find an exact match, but that's ok.