Saying hello

[bricabrac]

Hello Becksabec and welcome to the forum!

I'm going to provide a lot of information, so am breaking it up into sections.

I think for someone with your background the BA Natural Science/Mathematics degree would be perfect. I've outlined the area of study below as well as a list of rthe more relevant TECEP exams to choose from to take advantage of the Pay Per Credit Tuition plan. To research the specifics take a look at the College Website as well as take a look at the link in my signature. I also created a basic spreadsheet that details the TESC costs.

See my spreadsheep for an approximate cost scenario. Due to the nature of this degree plan you would need a bit more TESC course credit. The TESC ~base cost of this plan would be $5,235 (15cr TECEP, 9cr TESC). Of course, if you have 300 level courses from your college transcript that could transplant into the area of study, the numbers would change.

The BSBA Gen Mgmt, BA Social Science and possibly the BA, Psychology (which also has an additional requirement) degrees would be cheaper. The BSBA, you could use all TECEP exams and supplement the rest of the program requirements with other tests and low cost college credit (DSST/CLEP, SL, PF, Aleks). ThE BA Social Science would require an online TESC capstone, and the Psychology degrees requires the online capstone as well as another course, experimental psychology. (Not sure if you could test this course or take it elsewhere?).

Take a good look at TESC's BSBA General Management, BA Social Science and BA Psychology. All could have use for you in the future. You could look into companies such as hospital administration, health care providers (ex Blue Cross/Blue Shield), medical publishers, health services, etc.

Coming from a pharm tech background with a relevant degree, you could look into clinical research with the BSBA or BA NS/M. An entry level clinical research associate (CRA) position allows a lot room for growth (CRA I-IV, Manager/Assoc-Sr, Director/Assoc-Sr, VP). You could work for a Pharmaceutical company or a CRO. The postion prefers a degree in one of the life sciences (ex biology), the next best choice would be a physcal science (ex chemistry).

But as long as you have a BS and your background you should be fine. The BSBA would also set the stage for a Clinical Research position as a huge part of the job is managing resources and working in teams/groups with associates from different departments/sources. There is loads of travel for level II-III CRAs, at sponsor companies, most work from home. Along with study structual responsibility: study start up, drug accountability, reviewing, collecting, and analyzing source documents. Finally when in-house - wash, rinse and repeat: reviewing, analyzing, writing all study documentation and then reporting findings to management.

If you seek out employment in pharma/health related field most will pick up the cost of your higher educational costs. At pharmaceutical companies, employees usually qualify for the tuition reimbursement program after one year of employment. You could then go for your MS in Biology, MPH, MPA or even futher into a PharmD if that's what you would like to do. Best to have the company subsidize those costly expenses as part of your career goals. ;-)

Depending on the company, and level of the employee, the degree program can actually be awarded as a part of the company benefits package or in some cases (eMBA/PharmD) as a bonus incentive. The company picks up total cost of tuition, travel expenses if required (including international for eMBA programs), and allows paid time off while studying. Of course, there is a contract involved where you would have to continue to work at the company for an specific amount of time after acquiring the degree.

Good luck!

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BA in Natural Sciences/Mathematics

You could use the 24cr residency Pay Per Credit Plan, it's extremely affordable for out of state students.


TECEP Exams: choose 5 teceps from the following list

General Education Exams:
Applied Liberal Arts Mathematics (MAT-105-TE)
Computer Concepts and Applications (CIS-107-TE) - highly recommend
Technical Writing (ENG-201-TE)
Introduction to Political Science (POS-101-TE)
Psychology of Women (PSY-270-TE) - highly recommend (if interested I can send you my study notes)
Marriage and the Family (SOC-210-TE)

Area of Study:
The Science of Nutrition (BIO-208-TE) - listed in the Area of Study
Network Technology (CMP-354-TE) - listed in the Area of Study

Free Electives:
Medical Terminology (APS-100-TE) - highly recommend with your background


BA NS/M Area of Study 33cr (incl Capstone)
Upper level courses 18cr 300/400 level
TESC LIB-495 Liberal Arts Capstone - Required (3cr)
TESC ENS-314 Global Environment and change (6cr)
TECEP CMP-354 Network Technology (3cr)
DSST CIS-301 Management Information Systems (3cr)
Straighterline BIO-351 Microbiology (3cr)

6cr 200 level
DSST ENS-201 Environment and Humanity: Race to Save the Planet (3cr)
TECEP BIO-208 The Science of Nutrition (3cr) or Straighterline Intro to Nutrition (3cr)
ALEKS STA-201 Intro to Statistics (3cr)

6cr 100 level
CLEP NAS-101/102 Natural Sciences (6cr)

---

All degrees mentioned, as well as all other programs available can be found online, What You Can Study.


Additional Resources:

As previously mentioned, Sanantone's degree program testing recommendations are a highly valuable resource.

CLEP - TESC list of approved exams/course equivalency
Dantes (DSST) - TESC list of approved exams/course equivalency
[URL="http://www.straighterline.com/colleges/partner-colleges/thomas-edison-state-college/course-equivalency/"]
Straighterline[/URL] - TESC approved/course equivalency guide

Aleks - Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Precalculus, Intro to Statistics

Penn Foster - (degreeforum.wikia.com) basic information and links to website. Most recent thread on the subject.

TESC Equivalencies - Unofficial list - kindly provided by forum member UptonSinclair

[sanantone]

This person just wrote a dissertation. milelol:

ThE BA Social Science would require an online TESC capstone, and the Psychology degrees requires the online capstone as well as another course, experimental psychology. (Not sure if you could test this course or take it elsewhere?).

Research Methods in Psychology fulfills the Experimental Psychology requirement. There is a Uexcel for this. It's included in my test out plan. I also have a test out plan for natural science/mathematics that shouldn't require any TESC courses besides the capstone. I really wish ShotoJuku would just make a sticky of them.

[sanantone]

This person just wrote a dissertation. milelol:



Research Methods in Psychology fulfills the Experimental Psychology requirement. There is a Uexcel for this. It's included in my test out plan. I also have a test out plan for natural science/mathematics that shouldn't require any TESC courses besides the capstone. I really wish ShotoJuku would just make a sticky of them.

On that subject, why do we have a sticky for the roadmap to Excelsior College degrees when it hasn't been updated in a long time? We could definitely use stickies with links to equivalencies and regularly updated degree programs in the wiki. I know we have a sticky for the Degree Forum Wiki, but I think most of the newbies either skip over it or find it too daunting to navigate. Anyway, we should also take down that GRE Subject Test sticky. Excelsior no longer accepts them, and hardly anyone uses them for COSC or Empire State College.

In General Education, we have a sticky for exam resources no one seems to ever read because we get a million threads asking what to study. Maybe we shouldn't do a degree plan and equivalencies sticky after all...

[bricabrac]

This person just wrote a dissertation. milelol:

I think it's sometimes obvious I come out of the research field. A part of my role is spent constructing clinical study reports, typing up the clinical and medical research sections. Depending upon the study size picture a min of 10+ 3" binders worth of documentation that is provided/reported to the FDA on a regular basis. Now combine those with electronic submissions that are hyperlinked with reports that may or may not include outside sources and we are talking business.


This post was the equivalent to a short email in my line of work; without dedicating sections for specific parties, minus the attachments and long member/group lists.
hilarious

[Becksabec]

Hello Becksabec and welcome to the forum!

I'm going to provide a lot of information, so am breaking it up into sections.

I think for someone with your background the BA Natural Science/Mathematics degree would be perfect. I've outlined the area of study below as well as a list of rthe more relevant TECEP exams to choose from to take advantage of the Pay Per Credit Tuition plan. To research the specifics take a look at the College Website as well as take a look at the link in my signature. I also created a basic spreadsheet that details the TESC costs.

See my spreadsheep for an approximate cost scenario. Due to the nature of this degree plan you would need a bit more TESC course credit. The TESC ~base cost of this plan would be $5,235 (15cr TECEP, 9cr TESC). Of course, if you have 300 level courses from your college transcript that could transplant into the area of study, the numbers would change.

The BSBA Gen Mgmt, BA Social Science and possibly the BA, Psychology (which also has an additional requirement) degrees would be cheaper. The BSBA, you could use all TECEP exams and supplement the rest of the program requirements with other tests and low cost college credit (DSST/CLEP, SL, PF, Aleks). ThE BA Social Science would require an online TESC capstone, and the Psychology degrees requires the online capstone as well as another course, experimental psychology. (Not sure if you could test this course or take it elsewhere?).

Take a good look at TESC's BSBA General Management, BA Social Science and BA Psychology. All could have use for you in the future. You could look into companies such as hospital administration, health care providers (ex Blue Cross/Blue Shield), medical publishers, health services, etc.

Coming from a pharm tech background with a relevant degree, you could look into clinical research with the BSBA or BA NS/M. An entry level clinical research associate (CRA) position allows a lot room for growth (CRA I-IV, Manager/Assoc-Sr, Director/Assoc-Sr, VP). You could work for a Pharmaceutical company or a CRO. The postion prefers a degree in one of the life sciences (ex biology), the next best choice would be a physcal science (ex chemistry).

But as long as you have a BS and your background you should be fine. The BSBA would also set the stage for a Clinical Research position as a huge part of the job is managing resources and working in teams/groups with associates from different departments/sources. There is loads of travel for level II-III CRAs, at sponsor companies, most work from home. Along with study structual responsibility: study start up, drug accountability, reviewing, collecting, and analyzing source documents. Finally when in-house - wash, rinse and repeat: reviewing, analyzing, writing all study documentation and then reporting findings to management.

If you seek out employment in pharma/health related field most will pick up the cost of your higher educational costs. At pharmaceutical companies, employees usually qualify for the tuition reimbursement program after one year of employment. You could then go for your MS in Biology, MPH, MPA or even futher into a PharmD if that's what you would like to do. Best to have the company subsidize those costly expenses as part of your career goals. ;-)

Depending on the company, and level of the employee, the degree program can actually be awarded as a part of the company benefits package or in some cases (eMBA/PharmD) as a bonus incentive. The company picks up total cost of tuition, travel expenses if required (including international for eMBA programs), and allows paid time off while studying. Of course, there is a contract involved where you would have to continue to work at the company for an specific amount of time after acquiring the degree.

Good luck!

---

BA in Natural Sciences/Mathematics

You could use the 24cr residency Pay Per Credit Plan, it's extremely affordable for out of state students.


TECEP Exams: choose 5 teceps from the following list

General Education Exams:
Applied Liberal Arts Mathematics (MAT-105-TE)
Computer Concepts and Applications (CIS-107-TE) - highly recommend
Technical Writing (ENG-201-TE)
Introduction to Political Science (POS-101-TE)
Psychology of Women (PSY-270-TE) - highly recommend (if interested I can send you my study notes)
Marriage and the Family (SOC-210-TE)

Area of Study:
The Science of Nutrition (BIO-208-TE) - listed in the Area of Study
Network Technology (CMP-354-TE) - listed in the Area of Study

Free Electives:
Medical Terminology (APS-100-TE) - highly recommend with your background


BA NS/M Area of Study 33cr (incl Capstone)
Upper level courses 18cr 300/400 level
TESC LIB-495 Liberal Arts Capstone - Required (3cr)
TESC ENS-314 Global Environment and change (6cr)
TECEP CMP-354 Network Technology (3cr)
DSST CIS-301 Management Information Systems (3cr)
Straighterline BIO-351 Microbiology (3cr)

6cr 200 level
DSST ENS-201 Environment and Humanity: Race to Save the Planet (3cr)
TECEP BIO-208 The Science of Nutrition (3cr) or Straighterline Intro to Nutrition (3cr)
ALEKS STA-201 Intro to Statistics (3cr)

6cr 100 level
CLEP NAS-101/102 Natural Sciences (6cr)

---

All degrees mentioned, as well as all other programs available can be found online, What You Can Study.


Additional Resources:

As previously mentioned, Sanantone's degree program testing recommendations are a highly valuable resource.

CLEP - TESC list of approved exams/course equivalency
Dantes (DSST) - TESC list of approved exams/course equivalency
[URL="http://www.straighterline.com/colleges/partner-colleges/thomas-edison-state-college/course-equivalency/"]
Straighterline[/URL] - TESC approved/course equivalency guide

Aleks - Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Precalculus, Intro to Statistics

Penn Foster - (degreeforum.wikia.com) basic information and links to website. Most recent thread on the subject.

TESC Equivalencies - Unofficial list - kindly provided by forum member UptonSinclair

Becoming a CRA seems intriguing. We have a lot here in terms of drug companies and hospitals who do a lot of research studies - as well as two big medical schools. I'll look more into either the Natural Science/Math or Biology program at TESC. I was planning on getting an evaluation, thought I don't plan to return to college until sometime next year.

[Dr John]

Clep3705, like always you make perfect sense,, I do agree with the strategy, Texas instituted that core complete deal because we had several universities that wouldn't transfer many credits. My wife lost out on a years worth when she went from Austin Community College to UT.

Having a bachelors degree, regardless of major is what is most important.