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02-19-2017, 11:24 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-19-2017, 11:35 AM by Redhead123.)
Hi there. I just started researching ways for me to get a DIY Degree. Right now I am looking for things to quickly get my general education out of the way. I have not decided if after getting general education done I will continue with DIY methods or go the more traditional route. I'm undecided since while on one hand I do want to have somewhat of a college experience (I'm 22 and paying college out of pocket on my own), but I also don't want to break the bank and be paying student loans for a long time.
I recently found this Sanantone's TESU General Education Options After July 1, 2015 | Degree Forum Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia and had 2 questions. 1) Is it still current? and 2) Do I need to take every test listed for every subject or just a certain amount?
Also, I would like to know how I can find out if the few college courses I took at California State East Bay would transfer over to one the Big 3? (I dropped out before completing the year due to costs.) I also have other certifications like TESOL Certificate and TESOL Diploma that I wonder if I can get credit for. Out of the Big 3, I am thinking of doing TESU.
To talk about my goals: I have always been interested in learning and was one of the weird ones that genuinely liked school. (I also was the oddball that read his textbooks cover to cover for fun because I knew we wouldn't get to it all in the school year.) I have always questioned what's around me and tried to discover the whys and such of life. My goal is to travel and learn about other cultures (hence the TESOL although most places want a bachelor's as well it seems) and as for a career I don't have any idea what I want to do yet. (Although I have considered Liberal Arts degree, Liberal Sciences degree, Psychology degree, and an Economics degree.) Not knowing what I want as a career (although I have considered teacher, psychologist, and engineer) is why I am just looking to get my general education courses out of the way. That way when I do find out what I want as a career I can just hop to it and get the corresponding degree.
Would a DIY Degree be right for me with just wanting to get general education done? (That would mean just an AA degree level I think.) If not then so be it but I would like to do it since it's cheaper and faster than the traditional path.
From what I have found online the CLEP tests seem to be referred to as more general education while the DSST and others are for more advanced (like majors?) so I will be looking into seeing if I simply just need to take a large number of various CLEP tests for my credits.
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Welcome to the forum. Start by listing the courses you already have ("ENC-101 English Composition I 3," for 3 hours) and tell us whether the courses are quarter or semester hours, and if any came from community colleges.
There is an associate degree from West Virginia Northern Community College that might be what you are looking for if you decide to just get an AAS for now. You would need 60 credits total: 6 hours of Communication, 6 of Math or Science, 6 of Humanities or Social Science, and 3 of Computers. That leaves 39 elective credits. At the moment, we have reports here that WVNCC has not been requiring a 3-credit residency, which makes this degree "free' if you transfer in all 60 credits.
If you are interested in international teaching, though, most countries will require you to have a bachelor's degree for long-term opportunities. A degree that might work very well for you would be Thomas Edison State University's BA in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Humanities. I say this because you can complete all of the major requirements, both lower and upper level, by using Shmoop.com literature courses. They are about $90/ month for as many online, unproctored courses as you can complete in that time.
Recent discussion of the WVNCC Board of Governors AAS degree:
http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...s-bog.html
Recent discussion of Shmoop literature:
http://www.degreeforum.net/saylor-org-st...rview.html
The Shmoop courses you could take to complete TESU's BA Liberal Studies (Humanities):
British Lit = Lit 208 English Lit 1
Intro to Poetry = Eng 246 Poetry 1
Western Lit = Lit 202 Literary Roots of Western Culture
Bible as Lit = Lit 242 Biblical Lit 1
Drugs in Lit = Lit 299 Special Topics in Lit
Modernist Lit = Lit 399 Special Topics in Lit
Holocaust Lit = Eng 301 The Holocaust
Shakespeare's Plays = Lit 320 Shakespeare 1
Women's Lit = Lit 323 Women in Lit
Lit in the Media = Lit 430 Literature & the Media
BA, MA, EdS, MMT, etc.
83 hours of ACE-worthy credits
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02-19-2017, 12:51 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-19-2017, 12:53 PM by davewill.)
The reason we call them the Big3 is because they accept so much alternate credit and transfer credit. This is good news for you as it means your transfer credit will almost certainly be accepted. Unfortunately, it also means you can't just do your GenEd with alternate credit, then switch to most traditional "brick and mortar" schools as they won't recognise the credit.
I strongly recommend you start reading threads here. You will quickly start absorbing the details of getting a degree with alternate credit.
NanoDegree: Intro to Self-Driving Cars (2019)
Coursera: Stanford Machine Learning (2019)
TESU: BA in Comp Sci (2016)
TECEP:Env Ethics (2015); TESU PLA:Software Eng, Computer Arch, C++, Advanced C++, Data Struct (2015); TESU Courses:Capstone, Database Mngmnt Sys, Op Sys, Artificial Intel, Discrete Math, Intro to Portfolio Dev, Intro PLA (2014-16); DSST:Anthro, Pers Fin, Astronomy (2014); CLEP:Intro to Soc (2014); Saylor.org:Intro to Computers (2014); CC: 69 units (1980-88)
PLA Tips Thread - TESU: What is in a Portfolio?
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Redhead123 Wrote:I have not decided if after getting general education done I will continue with DIY methods or go the more traditional route. I'm undecided since while on one hand I do want to have somewhat of a college experience (I'm 22 and paying college out of pocket on my own), but I also don't want to break the bank and be paying student loans for a long time.
For the traditional route, do you have some schools in mind? If you do, you will want to research what type of traditional credit they accept.
Andy
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TESC - BSBA: CIS
Current Degree Plan
Complete: TECEP Eng Comp I, Marriage and Family, Strategic Management, Networking, Computer Concepts, Liberal Math, Tech Writing, Managerial Accounting DSST MIS, Cybersecurity Study.com Macroeconomics
Remaining: Waiting for credits to process
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ajs1976 Wrote:For the traditional route, do you have some schools in mind? If you do, you will want to research what type of traditional credit they accept.
Currently no particular school in mind but probably local since I while I have considered moving out of California due to the cost of living here...I doubt I will since, without a degree, I doubt many businesses would be willing to match my current pay rate if I move to an area with a lower cost of living.
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davewill Wrote:The reason we call them the Big3 is because they accept so much alternate credit and transfer credit. This is good news for you as it means your transfer credit will almost certainly be accepted. Unfortunately, it also means you can't just do your GenEd with alternate credit, then switch to most traditional "brick and mortar" schools as they won't recognise the credit.
I strongly recommend you start reading threads here. You will quickly start absorbing the details of getting a degree with alternate credit.
Good to know, thank you!
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02-19-2017, 01:14 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-19-2017, 01:16 PM by Redhead123.)
KayV Wrote:Welcome to the forum. Start by listing the courses you already have ("ENC-101 English Composition I 3," for 3 hours) and tell us whether the courses are quarter or semester hours, and if any came from community colleges.
I took 2 quarters at Cal State East Bay. Fall and Winter.
Fall:
COMM 1000 Public Speaking which was a 4 unit class.
GS 1011 General Studies Activities I which was a 1 unit.
KIN 1038 Aerobic Kickboxing which was a 1 unit class.
LIBY 1210 Intro To Information Literacy which was a 2 unit class.
MLL 1801 Elementary Japanese which was a 4 unit class.
I passed this quarter with a 3.08 GPA and received all my units.
Winter:
GS 1012 General Education Act II which was a 1 unit class.
MLL 1802 Elementary Japanese II which was a 4 unit class.
POSC Amer Polit Instit which was a 4 unit class.
PSYC 1000 General Psychology which was a 5 unit class.
I passed this quarter with a 2.89 GPA and received all my units except for PSYC which I had withdrawn from during the quarter so I could work on campus.
So in total I have 21 units from Cal State East Bay but have no idea what means credit wise for other colleges. I notice on my transcript is says CUM Total 21 (assuming this is completed units) and then in another column it says 60.7. I have no idea what the 60.7 would be...is that credits? They were all from CSUEB as I have never been to a community college.
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Redhead123 Wrote:Currently no particular school in mind but probably local since I while I have considered moving out of California due to the cost of living here...I doubt I will since, without a degree, I doubt many businesses would be willing to match my current pay rate if I move to an area with a lower cost of living.
My question goes along with Davewill's comment about traditional brick and mortar schools. To improve the chances that the alternative credit will transfer to an unknown traditional school, I would go with CLEP, then DSST, then other providers.
Andy
---------------------------------
TESC - BSBA: CIS
Current Degree Plan
Complete: TECEP Eng Comp I, Marriage and Family, Strategic Management, Networking, Computer Concepts, Liberal Math, Tech Writing, Managerial Accounting DSST MIS, Cybersecurity Study.com Macroeconomics
Remaining: Waiting for credits to process
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Redhead123 Wrote:So in total I have 21 units from Cal State East Bay but have no idea what means credit wise for other colleges.
This is how TESU converts quarter hours to semester hours.
If your credits were earned on a quarter system, the following conversion applies:
2 quarter hours = 1.33 semester hours
3 quarter hours = 2 semester hours
4 quarter hours = 2.66 semester hours
5 quarter hours = 3.33 semester hours
Transfer Credit
Andy
---------------------------------
TESC - BSBA: CIS
Current Degree Plan
Complete: TECEP Eng Comp I, Marriage and Family, Strategic Management, Networking, Computer Concepts, Liberal Math, Tech Writing, Managerial Accounting DSST MIS, Cybersecurity Study.com Macroeconomics
Remaining: Waiting for credits to process
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All right, these are quarter hours, which means you have 13.95 semester hours of credit. The 60.7 refers to your GPA (60.7/21= 2.89 cumulative GPA).
Here is the streamlined form of your credits.
General Education
COMM 1000 Public Speaking 4 qh= 2.66 sh
MLL 1801 Elementary Japanese 4 qh= 2.66 sh
MLL 1802 Elementary Japanese II 4 qh= 2.66 sh
POSC Amer Polit Instit 4 qh= 2.66 sh
GS 1011 General Studies Activities I 1 sh= 0.66 sh
KIN 1038 Aerobic Kickboxing 1 sh= 0.66 sh
LIBY 1210 Intro To Information Literacy 2 qh= 1.33 sh
GS 1012 General Education Act II 1 sh= 0.66 sh
Did you happen to take any AP exams in high school, for English Composition credits for example?
Also, since a deadline is approaching I would strongly encourage you to start with taking ALEKS math classes before their current certification expires on 2/28. I would suggest College Algebra, but you might need to start with Beginning and then Intermediate Algebra first. Search the forum for tips about how to complete ALEKS courses, and be very careful about how you answer the placement test questions, since you get credit for the entire course if you make 70% or more on the placement.
BA, MA, EdS, MMT, etc.
83 hours of ACE-worthy credits
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