The Importance of TESC Graded Credits When Applying to Graduate School

[Saharapost]

Firstly your "I'm Done" post is something I'm really looking forward to!
You've worked like a machine and I find that highly impressive!!
Every extra red CR which appears next to your TECEP subject makes me smile, and a little less intimidated at the thought of taking them myself

Secondly, this is a very interesting point you've brought up; I wonder what the general experience here is, as most people seem to go on to further education after their bachelors

Thank you- GMT. Yes, I had to work like a beast to meet up my plans for the year and next. Yes it was not easy, but my family was so helpful towards encouraging me to move on. There were days I would feel like, "why am I running like a mad man" and there are others when, after reading someone's I AM DONE POST, I dust my books and start studying again. I can't wait to share my success story with everyone on the forum- just waiting to get a confirmation letter or email from TESC that my audit has been completed and that I am a graduate. "

[Saharapost]

Saharapost,

Like GMT, I've enjoyed watching as you ticked off the list of your completed exams. When possible, would you please update your siggy to reflect marketing communications was indeed passed?

Bricabrac, yes yes, I completed Marcom- thanks in part to your encouraging advice, study notes, and resources. I wanted to update my siggy, but I had not kept this in mind.

[Saharapost]

Different schools have different requirements. Most schools can even waive one of the requirements you're lacking if you're strong in another area. Also, most schools can give a "conditional admission" when you don't meet all of their requirements but they let you in anyway and you just have to demonstrate that you can meet a certain GPA in the program within the first few courses. I'm not concerned about it. I'd just suggest that if somebody's got a specific program that they've got their heart set on, then look up its admissions requirements and do what you can to meet them, and try to balance weaknesses with strong letters of recommendation and high test scores. It's not TESC or any other college's job to tell us what every single graduate school out there may or may not require for admissions.

I agree that there are different requirements for different schools and programs. I also agree (to some extent) that it is not TESC's duty to monitor every single graduate school admission requirements, but I also agree with the original Facebook comments that

it's important to make your (TESC's) students aware that if they have aspirations of applying to a competitive graduate college after they complete their undergrad, they still need 60 graded credits for most programs.

I think the person who made that comment has got a point. Many are testing out their entire degrees and as such not having any B&M credits from which to have their GPA calculated by both TESC and graduate school. In such instance where someone used (let's say ALEKS, TEEX, Straighterline, FEMA, and other) non-collegiate credit sources to finish their degree, I think Advising should let students know about the "60 graded credits policy" the possible disappointment they may face when they wish to go further in their studies.

[Onlinestudydeg]

just curious, ALEKS, TEEX, Straighterline, FEMA was talked about as not eligible for "60 credit policy" credit source, what about CLEP & DSST ? coz I will have most of them, I won't be doing 60 of TECEP's

[Saharapost]

just curious, ALEKS, TEEX, Straighterline, FEMA was talked about as not eligible for "60 credit policy" credit source, what about CLEP & DSST ? coz I will have most of them, I won't be doing 60 of TECEP's

I think there are two or more issues involved here- the first being that, every school has its own policies on how it treats non collegiate sources of credits when it comes to acceptance for admission or GPA calculation, and the second being that, depending on the school, the "60 credit policy" may or may not apply to graduate school admission criteria. TESC and other "Big Three" members seem not to have a 60 graded credit policy. There may be other schools who also don't have a 60 graded credit policy.

That said, TECEPS seem to be treated the same way as ALEKS, CLEP, DSST since they don't come with numerical grades on a TESC transcript. I was curious about this and wrote to the ENMU MBA coordinator(?) to ask how they'll calculate my GPA. Though, they don't seem to have a "60 Graded Credit Policy," they, however, have a 3.0 GPA graduate school admission requirement if one wants an unconditional admission and a GMAT waiver. You see, every school has its own policy regarding admission into graduate school. I have a 2.90 GPA in my foreign evaluated credits. How they'll convert my 24 semester hours TECEP CR grades to GPA is what I am not clear about. If, as the response I got states that they'll treat TESC grades as C and above, then it becomes more confusing as one wonders how they'll know what CR grade to convert to C and which to convert to A or B.

For Straighterline grades, I assume that because they (ENMU) requested for the SL transcript, they'll be able to match my SL PASS grades on the ACE transcript to the numerical grades on SL transcripts and calculate the GPA from there.

[soliloquy]

I think there are two or more issues involved here- the first being that, every school has its own policies on how it treats non collegiate sources of credits when it comes to acceptance for admission or GPA calculation, and the second being that, depending on the school, the "60 credit policy" may or may not apply to graduate school admission criteria. TESC and other "Big Three" members seem not to have a 60 graded credit policy. There may be other schools who also don't have a 60 graded credit policy.

From reading your quote in the OP again, they said they were referring to "competitive" programs. I would not consider any of the big three to be competitive programs.

[Saharapost]

From reading your quote in the OP again, they said they were referring to "competitive" programs. I would not consider any of the big three to be competitive programs.

I agree that any of the "Big Three" may not be considered "competitive." I was only referring to TESC in order to answer Onlinestudydeg's questions. Yes, TESC may not be competitive, but even among competitive schools, policies varies.

[OfficerA]

Well, now I'm terrified. On one hand, I'm quickly taking care of my bachelor's degree. On the other hand, I did want to go into a competitive yet relatively affordable grad school for my MBA...

In any case, I contacted SEMO (Southeast Missouri State University) about this, as I skimmed through their general grad school requirements and MBA-specific requirements and the "last 60 graded GPA" only came up too for conditional acceptance, and that's only if the GPA going in is below 3.0. As I'm comfortably sitting in 3.9 from all my credit sources right now, I may be all right, but I'll find out next week if I hear back from them.

Note: If anyone else already has a reply specifically from SEMO, please let me know.

[OfficerA]

Well, here's the reply I got, if there's a minimum number of undergraduate hours required for the MBA program:

"Thank you for contacting me. We don’t have a requirement for the minimum number of graded hours. Is there information regarding your CLEP/DSST on the transcript?"

I'm not clear on what their question about CLEP/DSST is though. I replied back that it would show up as being credited/completed from my TESC transcript, as well as on the separate CLEP/DSST transcript (along with the grades for each completed courses I've taken), but I'll post back any updates tomorrow.

Edit (update) - They replied quick with the following:

"Having those test credits (I listed CLEPs/DSSTs/TECEPs) don’t pose a GPA problem. The MBA department will have to review whether you meet prerequisite course requirements. I am not sure how those tests play into that portion."

And back to square one I go. I'm probably going to try my luck as an AD servicemember and see if that makes a difference.

[cookderosa]

First off, it is not the "norm" for all grad schools to want 60 graded credits. In fact, of all the grad schools I applied to, none wanted 60 graded credits. With over 1000 USA graduate universities/schools to choose from, and thousands more when you open up to other countries, this seems like a moot issue. That said, if the specific school you are looking at wants 60 credits, you can apply anyway and see what happens (likely they'll ask for other things too, like admission exams and letters of reference, these will all be part of the overall application package) or pick another school. Frankly, it's a BUYER'S MARKET it in education; you might get denied admission to a specific school, but if that were really important, it would have been important months ago before your degree plan were set in stone. Also, let's remember that you can still use graded credits and graduate from TESC. You don't have to test out of your whole degree. Big picture is to look at where you want to end up (master's degree?) and work backwards. If you know you're headed in a certain direction, plan accordingly. I'm not being curt, I'm just shocked that this kind of question comes up all-the-time when people are in their final semester or two.