Public Administration courses accepted by TESC

[dcan]

I've seen a question here and there about courses for the BSBA Public Admin at TESC. I'm interested in this too, so I'm putting this here to maybe give it a bit more general visibility & "findability" via searching.

I contacted TESC with a list of courses from Kaplan and Ashford. I received a response today approving the following for the BSBA Public Admin 18 credit core requirements.

If I find more I'll put them here. If you find some that aren't listed, please add to the list!

Requirement: Intro to Public Administration
KAPLAN PP 101 Intro to Public Admin
ASHFORD PPA 301 Principles of Public Admin

Both of the above are equivalent to TESC POS-290. It was not made absolutely clear that they do fulfill the Intro requirement, but they are named the same. Will get clarification though.

Requirement: 15 credits in Public Administration

KAPLAN
PP 201 Intro to Policy Making
PP 205 Intro to Administrative Law
PP 310 Finance and Budget in Public Sector (TESC PUA-323 equivalent)
PP 410 Oversight and Admin of Public Funds (TESC FIN-341 equivalent)
PP 450 Program Evaluation

ASHFORD
PP 301 Public Policy Analysis
PPA 303 Finance for Public Administrators (TESC FIN-341 equivalent)
PPA 305 Budgeting for Public Administrators (TESC PUA-323 equivalent)
PPA 403 Administrative Law
PPA 405 Personnel Management
PPA 497 Public Policy Formation

DANTES
DSST Management Information Systems (TESC CIS-301 equivalent)

Here is the relevant excerpt from their e-mail response confirming the above:

The Kaplan Univ course, PP101 and Ashford's course, PPA301 both equate to our POS-290. Please choose one of the above courses for your degree, but do not take both.

Kaplan Univ course, PP310 and Ashford's course, PPA305 both equate to our PUA-323. Please choose one of the above courses for your degree, but do not take both.

Kaplan Univ course, PP410 and Ashford's course, PPA303 both equate to our FIN-341. Please choose one of the above courses for your degree, but do not take both.

The rest of the courses are appropriate for your program. Please specify which courses you'd like to take and I will add them as planned to your evaluation.

Finally, the DANTES exam, Management Information Systems (CIS-301) is approrpriate for your degree.

As always, confirm with your own adviser, get forms in triplicate, DNA samples are helpful, make sure they know your uncle Guido doesn't like it when you are misled, etc.

[dcan]

Other possible sources to investigate: (links are to relevant degree programs at each school)

Colorado State University - Global

Walden University

Upper Iowa University

Also checking on the American Government CLEP, TESC equivalent POS110, since they take POS-290 -- which I can't even find as a real course on their site.

[bricabrac]

since they take POS-290 -- which I can't even find as a real course on their site.

Dcan,

When trying to find the equivalent TESC courses you can check the PLA database. Thomas Edison State College/ Prior Learning Assessment Description Database
I usually first plug in the title of the course and if not found will try key words from the course description.


Example, here's POS-290 :

Introduction to Public Administration (POS-290)
The impact of government bureaucracies on the policy-making process. Internal processes of the federal administrative units including recruitment, budgetary conflicts, formal and informal rules and rule making; regulatory distributive and control functions. Interaction between bureaucracies and state and local governing agencies.

[seanmathews]

hey Dcan (& Others), as you know i am very interested in this degree as well, although i am also interested in making is simple and quick.. as you said those are courses from Kaplan and Ashford, are those online schools as well? and how would i get those courses, do i have to enroll in those colleges? Are they something i can test out of or do i have to spend a semester in each? It would seem a bit stressful to have to enroll college after college getting a few classes at each, so i am just curious how it works. And also, how much more difficult or time consuming it would be rather than me going towards BSBA General Management (2nd Option).

Much Thanks!

[dcan]

When trying to find the equivalent TESC courses you can check the PLA database. Thomas Edison State College/ Prior Learning Assessment Description Database
I usually first plug in the title of the course and if not found will try key words from the course description.


Example, here's POS-290 :

Introduction to Public Administration (POS-290)
The impact of government bureaucracies on the policy-making process. Internal processes of the federal administrative units including recruitment, budgetary conflicts, formal and informal rules and rule making; regulatory distributive and control functions. Interaction between bureaucracies and state and local governing agencies.

Actually I used it before, I just forgot completely that tool existed. Thanks for the reminder!

[dcan]

hey Dcan (& Others), as you know i am very interested in this degree as well, although i am also interested in making is simple and quick.. as you said those are courses from Kaplan and Ashford, are those online schools as well? and how would i get those courses, do i have to enroll in those colleges? Are they something i can test out of or do i have to spend a semester in each? It would seem a bit stressful to have to enroll college after college getting a few classes at each, so i am just curious how it works. And also, how much more difficult or time consuming it would be rather than me going towards BSBA General Management (2nd Option).

Much Thanks!

Yes, they are private online schools as well as B&M schools -- or at least, Ashford was B&M in like 1913, don't know about Kaplan. For taking the courses contact the school. I actually asked UMUC at one point about taking a la carte courses from them for the CISSP certification and they said no problem, no questions asked. TESC has the annual enrollment fee, from my understanding that is pretty unusual/unique in the industry, so "enrolling" at a college should just be the nominal enrollment fee plus course costs.

Yes, they are semester-long courses. I had trouble finding what the semester lengths are but apparently Ashford's are 10 weeks, not sure about Kaplan. So you would be adding the time for the courses to your schedule.

You may want to just get your GM undergrad and go for an MPA. Personally, given my current career and future goals, I'm thinking of the following structure, mainly because I want to have a more technical graduate degree:

- BSBA CIS + Public Admin
- Master's in system/database management, "master data management", etc
- Possibly spend the $5k to get a junky nationally-accredited MBA through Andrew Jackson/NEW.edu just because

I like the idea of the public admin concentration because I'm looking at moving from my current job (military) to civil service after retirement and I'm thinking the public admin aspect will help out at least from a knowledge and "piece of paper" stance. Not sure though, but it won't cost me anything but maybe extra time depending on how I structure my work (still have five TESC classes to go anyway), so who knows? UoP (shudder) has 8-week semesters, so maybe they have something like this that can be knocked out quick and easy and transferred in to fill the requirements. UoP sucks, but it would only be for six classes.

[dcan]

Haven't checked with TESC, but here's a list of six PA courses from UoP that should probably fit in perfectly. They have a similar BSBA program and this is one of their concentrations.

BPA - University of Phoenix

[dcan]

Update from TESC:

For the Public Administration area of study, the following courses are the most appropriate, given what you've selected:

Kaplan University
PP201 Introduction to Policy Making
PP450 Program Evaluation

Ashford University
PPA301 Principles of Public Administration
PPA403 Administrative Law
PPA405 Personnel Management
PPA497 Public Policy Formation

*Either Kaplan PP101 or Ashford PPA301 will fulfill the 3 credit Intro to Public Administration requirement. Please choose one, but not both, and let me know in your response which you plan on completing so I can update your file accordingly.*

Finally, the CLEP exam, American Government (POS-110) will grant three credits towards the Social Sciences area once transferred.

I think this will be the end of my updates to this thread. Maybe it will help someone else out if they are looking for this info someday.

[drewthedude]

Ashford's courses are five weeks per term, and after your first course you can request to take two per term. The tuition is a bit pricey compared to CLEP - I think it runs $250+ per credit. I believe you can take courses for transfer though, without matriculating.