Planning Ahead

[Florida_Gal]

Hello!

I'm the mom of two students on track to be done with their AA degrees from our local community college here in Florida at the ages of 15 and 16. My son, at 16, will probably enter the state university system for a degree in a science field. He's set as far as knowing what we need to do to support him on his educational path. My daughter, at only 15, will still be required to be enrolled in some sort of educational program, but has no idea what she wants to do long term (which at 15 is totally reasonable). She loves school and is not trying to accelerate through any program but really learn al that she can. Nevertheless, I have discouraged her from thinking she'll just enroll in any random Bachelors degree program without being sure she's really interested. Not even considering the financial cost to our family, I don't want her to get into a program and realize it's not what she was expecting and feel like she's wasted a lot of time and effort. I'm thinking the Excelsior University Liberal Arts degree might be the solution. Based on our research, it looks like she can continue to take liberal arts courses (humanities, science, social sciences, etc.) for the remaining credits over the next two years at the community college and then transfer them to EU. Then, after taking just 7 credit hours at EU, she can achieve her BS in Liberal Arts. Is it really that simple? My rational mind is screaming there must be a catch somewhere. It seems almost too good to be true - the perfect plan. She can continue exploring what interests her across the liberal arts spectrum and it could result in a degree. If something sparks her interest before then, she can always go on to pursue that in a more specialized field at a state school or any other university instead of doing the Liberal Arts degree at EU. 

If our understanding is correct, can anyone help us figure out what constitutes "applied professional coursework" at EU? The liberal arts categories for arts and sciences are nicely explained but that one is ambiguous. Also, has anyone had experience with certain courses in arts and sciences not being accepted at EU? My understanding is that their transfer acceptance is very generous.

Thank you to anyone who can contribute their thoughts and especially prior experience!

[jch]

The catch here is upper-level credits. Excelsior tends to require a lot of those in its degree programs, more than TESU or other schools that we discuss here. Community college credits will usually be treated as lower-division credits. Thus, you'll have to find an acceptable upper-division source to make this idea work.

[Florida_Gal]

The catch here is upper-level credits. Excelsior tends to require a lot of those in its degree programs, more than TESU or other schools that we discuss here. Community college credits will almost always be treated as lower-division credits. Thus, you'll have to find an acceptable upper-division source to make this idea work.

Thank you! This makes their 3+1 plan in particular make much more sense. According to that, you can transfer one year of community college classes after the AA, but the remaining courses, including 24 upper level elective credits, should be done at EU. We'd looked at alternative credit source plans and compared that to the 3+1 and it almost seemed like conflicting info. It's not. I wasn't comprehending upper vs. lower level. It's making more sense now. 

[allvia]

I'd recommend TESU over EU - she would have to wait (a few months) until she's 16 before applying, but she can certainly earn credits before then. TESU would also provide her more degree options should she decide after taking some alternative credit courses she does have an area she'd like to complete a degree in; when compared to EU's more limited alt credit current degree options. TESU degrees are also much easier to plan out, than those at EU, with fewer UL requirements. https://www.tesu.edu/admissions/undergrad-admissions

[rachel83az]

I also second TESU vs. Excelsior. Excelsior has made a lot of changes recently that make it... not the best. Not the worst, but TESU is likely to be both cheaper and easier for a young student who maybe doesn't know what they want.

[Florida_Gal]

Thank you both for the thoughts on TESU! We hadn't looked too much at Thomas Edison. I had thought of it more in terms of those wanting to do accelerated or non-traditional methods of earning credit rather than traditional credits that transfer. We will do some research and see how it compares with EU. Age shouldn't be a problem as long as she can be enrolled somewhere working on credits (hence why we were thinking continuing at the community college) in the interim. Thanks, again!

[rachel83az]

Definitely get the CC credits. TESU accepts up to 90 credits from a CC. Depending on the degree, there is plenty of room for those 90 credits to be placed.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Definitely get the CC credits. TESU accepts up to 90 credits from a CC. Depending on the degree, there is plenty of room for those 90 credits to be placed.

Furthermore, increasingly institutions that are still commonly known as "community colleges" are becoming accredited as four-year colleges and offering bachelor's degrees. This includes most "community colleges" in Florida. If your "community college" offers a bachelor's degree, it's possible TESU will consider it a four-year college.

[bjcheung77]

@Florida_Gal, Welcome to the board, it really depends on what the student wants to learn, subjects they are wanting study, budget, commitments, study habits, etc. Excelsior/TESU are good options, I would just continue on with the community college credits first up to 90 credits, you can review the TESU WIKI for degree plans and see which subject matter interest the student most. For both institutions, you can transfer in 113/114 credits respectively and decide on what courses you want to take for the remaining requirements using ACE or NCCRS credits.

[natshar]

Maybe the fist step might be for your daughter to take one of those "career decision making" courses at CC or "major exploration" or something along those lines. Lots of CCs offer a course (for credit!) where you learn about and explore different majors. Starting there would give her a good idea of what to do beyond that.

A general Liberal Arts degree doesn't do much for someone at a young age, and once you get one Bachelors degree you aren't able to qualify for most financial aid for a second one. So say she got a Liberal Arts BA from TESU or EU. Then decided she wanted to study engineering for example. She'd have to pay for that almost all out of pocket and any aid would be difficult to find and/or apply for. So I think given her age and experience pin pointing where she wants to go seems like a better option than just jumping right to a degree.

In the meantime at CC make sure she takes all the gen eds that would complete all the gen eds for most bachelors degrees. With the AA she might have that done already. Then maybe take "intro" courses in subjects she might be interested in pursing. Like say "intro engineering" "accounting I" "intro to social work" etc. That way she can test drive certain subjects and see what she likes.

Another idea, outside the classroom is to job shadow and/or do internships or paid jobs in certain fields to see what she likes and explore her interests more.