TESU Criminal Justice Advice

[kmj]

Hello all, this forum has inspired me to go back to school and finish my education. I want a degree in Criminal Justice, I am not dead set on TESU just yet, but I do have an academic evaluation from them. My overall goal is to get into a specific branch of law enforcement soon. My only problem is since I do not have the experience needed yet I would need to qualify based off academic merit, they want either "A grade point average (GPA) of “B” (3.0 or higher out of a possible 4.0) for all completed undergraduate courses, or for those courses completed during the last 2 years of undergraduate study", or "A grade point average of “B+” (a GPA of 3.5 or higher out of a possible 4.0) for all courses in your major field of study, or those courses in your major completed in the last two years of undergraduate study." They would also accept "Membership in a national scholastic honor society (other than freshman honor societies) recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies." 
 
My question is, is any of this possible thorough this method of schooling?  I have two C letter grades and one B letter grade from time spent at Community College and two random classes I took at TESU a long time ago when I was confused as to what I wanted to do. Any advice that can be given is appreciated. I know that the criminal justice degree is a bit trickier to do than say a business degree. I have everything for my degree besides the Area of Study portion where I need 39 credits, the cornerstone and the capstone.

[davewill]

Yes, it's possible.

For starters, we need to know which of those grades were for the courses that you took at TESU. Only courses actually taken at accredited schools will contribute to GPA, the various alternative credits we talk about here almost never generate grades, so you need to plan out which courses will be graded and what grades you need to make the required GPA.

There's a couple of ways to look at GPA. One is the GPA that TESU will show on their transcript, which will only consist of courses taken at TESU. The second is the aggregate of all the courses you've taken everywhere. I think it would be best if BOTH of those meet the 3.0 threshold.

In the aggregate, assuming your grades are in three credit courses, you need earn at least two A's (six credits) to counteract those C's to get to a 3.0 GPA (it takes 7 A's to get to 3.5). To get a degree at TESU, you have to take the cornerstone (1 credit) and the capstone (three credits) for 4 graded credits. You COULD take the new SOS-101 version of the cornerstone for 3 graded credits instead to get to 6, or you could take a cheaper course from a CC or other source to get the extra grade points.

However, if both of those C's are at TESU, then you need 6 credits of A grades AT TESU to show a minimum 3.0 TESU GPA.

OK, with all that said, you need to delve more deeply into what your potential employers are REALLY looking for. This outline leaves you with possibly only 15 graded credits and perhaps none of them in your area of study. It may be that not all the CJ courses can be found as alternative credits in which case you would have some, but maybe not many. You may find that they really expect more graded credits than that, and in CJ, in which case you'd have to modify your plan to include more real courses from real schools.

[dfrecore]

I would also say that you're going to want any CJ courses you take to have as high grades as you can possibly get, because those matter more than non-major grades. So taking CJ courses at your local CC (assuming they're relatively inexpensive) and having high grades for those is going to be your best bet, followed by taking some courses where you know you're going to get easy A's (whatever you're good at). Then, whatever you can do to make sure your TESU/Big3 GPA is 3.0 or higher.

Now, it does say "in the last 2 years" but the problem there is that if you did a TESU test-out degree, they wouldn't have anything to work with in terms of having enough current grades. They might throw out your old grades, and just look at your capstone - or they might not. Kind of hard to know at this point (and even if they didn't throw them out, they might still be biased against you because of them).

[kmj]

Yes, it's possible.

For starters, we need to know which of those grades were for the courses that you took at TESU. Only courses actually taken at accredited schools will contribute to GPA, the various alternative credits we talk about here almost never generate grades, so you need to plan out which courses will be graded and what grades you need to make the required GPA.

There's a couple of ways to look at GPA. One is the GPA that TESU will show on their transcript, which will only consist of courses taken at TESU. The second is the aggregate of all the courses you've taken everywhere. I think it would be best if BOTH of those meet the 3.0 threshold.

In the aggregate, assuming your grades are in three credit courses, you need earn at least two A's (six credits) to counteract those C's to get to a 3.0 GPA (it takes 7 A's to get to 3.5). To get a degree at TESU, you have to take the cornerstone (1 credit) and the capstone (three credits) for 4 credits. You COULD take the new SOS-101 version of the cornerstone for 3 credits instead, or you could take a cheaper course from a CC or other source to get the extra grade points.

However, if both of those C's are at TESU, then you need 6 credits of A grades AT TESU to show a minimum 3.0 TESU GPA.

OK, with all that said, you need to delve more deeply into what your potential employers are REALLY looking for. This outline leaves you with possibly only 15 graded credits and perhaps none of them in your area of study. It may be that not all the CJ courses can be found as alternative credits in which case you would have some, but maybe not many. You may find that they really expect more graded credits than that, and in CJ, in which case you'd have to modify your plan to include more real courses from real schools.

At TESU I received one C and one B. So from my understanding courses done outside of TESU will not factor into my GPA at TESU, so would I be right in thinking that if I went to say Charter Oak instead my TESU grades would not factor into their GPA? Would that be a better bet?

[davewill]

At TESU I received one C and one B. So from my understanding courses done outside of TESU will not factor into my GPA at TESU, so would I be right in thinking that if I went to say Charter Oak instead my TESU grades would not factor into their GPA? Would that be a better bet?

Yes, the TESU courses would not be reflected in your COSC GPA, leaving you the possibility to show a high GPA there..BUT (and it's a big one) I would expect that your potential employers would still want your aggregate GPA of all courses at all schools (or at least the last two years or 60 credits) to fall into their requirements, so I don't think it's all that much of a help. However, if you have the opportunity, I would strongly suggest talking it over with someone in hiring at the depts or agencies you are considering. If all they want is your last transcript showing the degree and the proper GPA to tick a box, then just find the easiest path to that.

[kmj]

At TESU I received one C and one B. So from my understanding courses done outside of TESU will not factor into my GPA at TESU, so would I be right in thinking that if I went to say Charter Oak instead my TESU grades would not factor into their GPA? Would that be a better bet?

Yes, the TESU courses would not be reflected in your COSC GPA, leaving you the possibility to show a high GPA there..BUT (and it's a big one) I would expect that your potential employers would still want your aggregate GPA of all courses at all schools (or at least the last two years or 60 credits) to fall into their requirements, so I don't think it's all that much of a help. However, if you have the opportunity, I would strongly suggest talking it over with someone in hiring at the depts or agencies you are considering. If all they want is your last transcript showing the degree and the proper GPA to tick a box, then just find the easiest path to that.

That's good advice, I reached out to them. Hopefully they can provide some guidance. I will report back soon hopefully.

[davewill]

That's good advice, I reached out to them. Hopefully they can provide some guidance. I will report back soon hopefully.

I would suggest you be very forthcoming and explain exactly what your grades are now and how many graded credits you intend to end up with. Otherwise you risk having them assume you will have more graded credits than you actually end up with and telling you things are OK when they are not.

[kmj]

That's good advice, I reached out to them. Hopefully they can provide some guidance. I will report back soon hopefully.

I would suggest you be very forthcoming and explain exactly what your grades are now and how many graded credits you intend to end up with. Otherwise you risk having them assume you will have more graded credits than you actually end up with and telling you things are OK when they are not.

Yes, I sent in an email asking about alternative sources of credit, the fact that I have been to multiple schools over the years, and how they calculate GPA. We shall see what happens.

[kmj]

OK, so it looks like I just need my school GPA to state a high GPA, with as my graded credits coming above a 3.0.

[sanantone]

What is this "specific branch" of law enforcement?