TESC BA Mathematics completed coursework

[scubasteve212]

Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time poster. This forum really helped me out in the last year and I wanted to give a little back. I just finished my Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics at TESC and wanted to share my combination of courses that led to success. I started in September of last year with my first ALEKS courses, switched over to Straighterline and Texas Engineering Extension Service shortly afterwards, and then enrolled in TESC for the December 2014 term. I managed to punch out a big portion of the required coursework with high school Advanced Placement courses, ALEKS, SL, and TEEX. I finished my final course (Liberal Arts Capstone) at the end of August and am scheduled to graduate December of this year.
Here is the academic evaluation that led to my degree. I hope that it will help future mathematics students help decide for or against TESC. I wrote the equivalent credit course source that transferred to TESC at the end of each line.

Notes
*AP Advanced Placement
*ALEKS ALEKS
*SL Straighterline
*TEEX Texas Engineering Extension Service
*TESC Thomas Edison State College

BA General Education (60 SH)
A: Intellect/Prac Skill (Completed)
ENC-101 (Completed)
1.. ENC-101... English Composition I.... 3.00 CR ENC-101 *AP Engl.Comp.
ENC-102 (Writing Intensive) (Completed)
1.. ENC-102... English Composition II... 3.00 CR ENC-102 *AP Engl.Comp.
Math (Completed)
1.. MAT-115... Intermediate Algebra..... 3.00 CR MAT-115 *ALEKS
Intellectual and Practical Skills (Completed)
1.. MAT-129... Precalculus.............. 3.00 CR MAT-129 *ALEKS
1.. MAT-121... College Algebra.......... 3.00 CR MAT-121 *ALEKS
B: Personal/Social Resp (Completed)
Diversity or Global Literacy (Completed)
1.. ANT-150... Cultural Anthropology I.. 3.00 CR ANT-150 *SL ANTH101
Responsible Ethical Leadership (Completed)
1.. PHI-384... Ethics & Business Profess 3.00 CR PHI-384 *SL BUS106
Personal and Social Responsibility Elective (Completed)
1.. SOC-101... Introduction to Sociology 3.00 CR SOC-101 *SL SOC101
C: Hum Cult & Phys Wrld (Completed)
Humanities (Completed)
1.. GRM-102... Beginning German I....... 3.00 CR GRM-102 *AP German
Social Sciences (Completed)
1.. HIS-101... Western Civilization I... 3.00 CR HIS-101 *SL CIV101
General Physics I (Completed)
1.. PHY-113... General Physics I........ 3.00 CR PHY-113 *AP Physics
General Physics II (Completed)
1.. PHY-114... General Physics II....... 3.00 CR PHY-114 *AP Physics
Interdisciplinary (Completed)
1.. GRM-101... Beginning German I....... 3.00 CR GRM-101 *AP German
1.. POS-110... American Government...... 3.00 CR POS-110 *SL POLS101
D: General Ed Electives (Completed)
1.. ECO-112... Microeconomics........... 3.00 CR ECO-112 *SL ECON112
1.. HIS-114... American History II...... 3.00 CR HIS-114 *SL USHIST102
1.. HIS-113... American History I....... 3.00 CR HIS-113 *SL USHIST101
1.. ECO-111... Macroeconomics........... 3.00 CR ECO-111 *SL ECON101
1.. AOJ-102... Intro to Criminal Justice 3.00 CR AOJ-102 *SL CJ101
1.. HIS-221... European History II...... 3.00 CR HIS-221 *AP Eur.Hist.
Area of Study (30SH: 15SH must be upper level)
A: Calculus I & II (Completed)
1.. MAT-231... Calculus I............... 3.00 CR MAT-231 *SL MAT250
1.. MAT-232... Calculus II.............. 3.00 CR MAT-232 *SL MAT251
B: Calculus III (Completed)
1.. MAT-331... Calculus III............. 3.00 A *TESC
C: Lin Alg (Calc Based) (Completed)
1.. MAT-321... Linear Algebra........... 3.00 A *TESC
D: Probability or Stat (Completed)
1.. STA-201... Principles of Statistics. 3.00 CR STA-201 *ALEKS
E: Electives (Completed)
Group 1 (Completed)
1.. MAT-301... History of Math.......... 3.00 A *TESC
1.. MAT-361... College Geometry......... 3.00 A *TESC
Group 2 (Completed)
1.. MAT-332... Calculus IV.............. 3.00 B *TESC
1.. MAT-351... Mathematical Modeling.... 3.00 A *TESC
1.. MAT-270... Discrete Math............ 3.00 A *TESC
Liberal Arts Capstone (3 SH)
1.. LIB-495... Liberal Arts Capstone.... 3.00 A *TESC
BA Free Electives (27 SH)
1.. HIS-220... European History I....... 3.00 CR HIS-220 *AP Eur.Hist.
1.. REL-405... World Religions.......... 3.00 CR REL-405 *SL REL101
1.. ENS-200... Environmental Science.... 3.00 CR ENS-200 *SL ENV101
1.. BIO-208... The Science of Nutrition. 3.00 CR BIO-208 *SL NUTRI101
1.. LAW-201... Business Law............. 3.00 CR LAW-201 *SL BUS110
1.. BUS-101... Introduction to Business. 3.00 CR BUS-101 *SL BUS101
1.. MAN-301... Principles of Management. 3.00 CR MAN-301 *SL BUS201
1.. BUE-101... Personal Finance......... 3.00 CR BUE-101 *SL FIN101
1.. CIS-299... Special Topics Comp Info 2.00 CR CIS-299 *TEEX Cyber101
1.. CIS-344... Computer Security........ 2.00 CR CIS-344 *TEEX Cyber201

OTHER COURSES: (not counted towards coursework)
Src Course # Title S.H. Grd TESC # Notes
--- ---------- ------------------------- ------- --- ---------- ————
1 CIS-299 Special Topics Comp Info 2.00 CR CIS-299 *TEEX Cyber301
1 MAT-231 Calculus I 3.00 CR MAT-231 *AP Calculus
1 HIS-113 American History I 3.00 CR HIS-113 *AP US Hist.
1 HIS-114 American History II 3.00 CR HIS-114 *AP US Hist.

[cookderosa]

congratulations!! I don't think I've met anyone else here that did the BA in Math. How were the online calculus classes?

[scubasteve212]

Thank you!
I took calculus I&II through Straighterline and both of them were very straightforward. It's a Thinkwell course that has excellent videos explaining the relevant content.
Calculus III&IV were done at TESC. These are full online courses with a fairly high amount of homework. These courses included both mid-term and final exams. You definitely need a solid math background for them. I probably spent about 10 times the work on the TESC courses compared to the Straighterline courses. In general, I found the Straighterline content to be a lot more manageable than the TESC courses. Straighterline is great for knocking out the general education requirements.

[JTP]

cheersmate Well done!!! It takes some serious focus and dedication to complete math classes online, let alone very high level math like Calc 3 & 4.

[bricabrac]

Wowza, Strong Work!! cheersmate Congratulations!!! :hurray:

Takes a very, very intelligent person to do what you just did; hats of to ya!

Thanks for sharing your completed program. It would be wonderful if you could stop over to the wiki site and post your plan there as well. Folks can easily figure out the current Gen Ed requirements, it's the area of study that is most important; at least in my opinion.

Congrats again on a job well done! I am so green with envy!!

[lavagirl]

Congratulations!!! And best of luck on your future endeavors! cheersmate

[Prloko]

WOW!! Great Job!!

Thanks for sharing and good luck!

[petersouth]

Thanks for posting - I'm missing the upper level math stuff -> were College Geometry and Math History 1) interesting 2) super hard?

[Jody7818]

Congratulations! Wow...I'm always impressed when I see a math major complete his/her degree...especially online.

[scubasteve212]

Thanks for all the congrats, y'all. I really appreciate it. I have spent countless hours lurking and reading in the past year and the amount of information that is available in this forum, especially in regards to the Big 3, is immensely helpful.

Thanks for posting - I'm missing the upper level math stuff -> were College Geometry and Math History 1) interesting 2) super hard?

In order of increasing difficulty, here's my personal ranking of the upper level courses available at TESC.
1. College Geometry - barely goes beyond high school level geometry class; content-wise the easiest class for UL math credit.
2. History of Math - interesting course that really tries to cover as much ground as possible. A healthy dose of calculus is helpful for the later chapters/centuries.
3. Calculus 3 - builds on calc 1&2 and is an absolute requirement for some further courses
4. Linear Algebra - does not require calculus knowledge as a prerequisite but that knowledge does make it easier to compare certain problem-solving approaches
5. Mathematical Modeling - a very interesting course that brings together a large set of problem-solving skills.
6. Calculus 4 - by far the most challenging course in the upper-level math repertoire at TESC.
7. Liberal Arts Capstone - not technically an UL math course. I chose financial mathematics as my topic. The highest work load resulting in the most rewarding course that I've taken at TESC. My mentor was awesome, by the way, and really contributed to the success of the course.

With the benefit of hindsight, I should not have chosen to take Calc 3 and Calc 4 in the same term as both courses are very work-intensive. However, I did want to knock out as many credits as possible in the shortest time possible. A one-month delayed start would have been better.