homeschooled teen - opinions wanted about TESU vs COSC

[CM1999]

Some background: this student is starting with 0 credits. He's been doing very part time school-at-home (online math class) and finding the online format works far better for him than being in class. Starting 2nd semester (one more week) he will be a homeschool student and taking three elective classes at the high school (PE, Metal Fabrication and Drawing). It only just dawned on us this week that he could start doing what I'm doing (testing for credits), so we are new to this idea. I will admit: my mind is spinning a bit from trying to nail down the best option for him when I'm comparing COSC to TESU.

His long-term goal (could change at any time because he's really not that into math and science) is to be a nurse. It's pretty hard to get into nursing programs around here (we know three other kids who are working on it now) but one option is to do the Accelerated BSN programs ---which means he needs a bachelors degree in any other field and then has to take some pre-req's and can apply. ---side note from mom here: I'm not certain that he will want to be a nurse once he's exposed to the field and once he starts working on the science classes but I'm trying to just be supportive --so the idea of getting a bachelors degree in something else, before doing the A-BSN program, makes me a little more comfortable. (yes, I know this isnt about me!!)

He is completely excited about the idea of structuring his high school classes to prepare him to test for college credits - suddenly school doesnt seem like such a 'waste of time' to him

So here is my solicitation for opinions:
knowing that he's starting with no credits....looking at bachelors degrees in Psych - maybe Applied Behavioral Science too? (his other interest, though not as strong as nursing, is counseling) which school would you pick? It seems like the downside of COSC is that semester fee thing.

as a side note, not sure if this matters, he WILL be taking some classes at our local community college that might transfer in as electives. The ones planned so far are: AHE110 Human Body Structures and Functions, AHE116 Intro to Healthcare, an 8 credit CNA course (AHE 162 and AHE 164), BSTEC104 Medical Terminology and then he is also planning to do an EMT course that is 13 credits (all 100+level). so the total would be 33 quarter credits. (and hopefully he'll know more about whether the medical field is what he's interested in

opinions about which one you would pick?

[rebel100]

What state are you in?

I don't much like the idea of trying to earn "any" bachelors as a path to a BSN. For one thing that will mean he wouldn't be eligible for federal aid for the BSN. F/A is just for the first bachelors.

COSC and TESC are both very expensive places to take courses from. Most around here will either test out of most subjects or take courses that are cheaper elsewhere and transfer them to CO or TE later. I probably wouldn't suggest either for most tend, too many other, possibly much better, options out there. At least keep an open mind to other solutions.

I'd there a dual our early enrollment option at your local CC? That's one reason I ask about your state. Both of my kids took essentially free courses through such a program, my oldest earned her AA while still in HS. The youngest is already completing nursing pre reqs without cost.

Get him some volunteer time at a local clinic or hospital. Be a shame to spend time, money, and effort pursuing nursing only to find out you hate it. My oldest volunteered at the hospital where I work and she calls it "the place where dreams and people go to die", not fit her in any way. The youngest on the other hand LOVES everything about the place, she already has hundreds of hours and knows people who are taking her under there wing as mentors and helping to give her along. Point is that it really maybe ought to be more a passion or calling than just a job. To hard and took important a vocation to hate going to work.

[Leherself]

I honestly don't know that I'd recommend either school at this point. The big three are all reasonable options for the right sort of student, but there's not really much point in enrolling in any of them until a student already has quite a few college credits. They're degree *completion* schools - they're not schools that I would recommend for getting a whole degree, or starting from scratch.

Honestly, I would look at individual courses for now. What can your kid do that is likely to be useful to him wherever he decides to go? There are lots of inexpensive ways to earn college credit, but I would probably try to stick with the ones that are most likely to transfer to a wide variety of schools. Regionally accredited community college classes are an excellent option, especially if you have an inexpensive community college. After that, CLEP is the most widely recognized national credit by exam program.

Almost every degree program on the face of the planet has a two class English requirement, and a math requirement. CLEP College Composition, and CLEP College Mathematics might be good starts. Most medical and allied health programs require an intro psychology class, and/or a human growth and development or lifespan developmental psychology class.

I'd highly recommend that anyone with even a vague inclination toward the medical or allied health professions take all of their science classes in person at a brick and mortar school.

If he really likes the online class format you can look into things like saylor, study.com, and/or straighterline. Just understand that these credits are generally accepted by a much, much smaller set of schools than community college classes or even CLEP exams would be.

I would hesitate to do anything at this point to dramatically limit your kid's options. There's plenty of time to figure out where he's going to get a degree, and what in. In the meantime, if he's really interested in pursuing college credit, focus on the basics.

[cookderosa]

I'd continue doing what you're doing with less degree planning and more diploma planning. High school really is the time to dream big and explore, there's no reason your son can't become a nurse, but rushing into a degree will ultimately undermine his success because it requires you to jump through hoops that will only get him closer to a degree instead of his goal. That's my sincere opinion, of course you should do what you think is best.

Without knowing your state, I'll just operate under the assumption that you have full curricular control. If that's true, I'd suggest a Language Arts at grade level (all college majors and career occupations require a grasp of the English language in some regard) a math at grade level (no need to go higher than Algebra 2 if he's struggling- it's better to have EXCELLENT algebra mastery, even if that means taking Algebra 1 and 2 over 4 years instead of 2) and a science. Science can be at high school or college level, since the difference is negligible. Biology, chemistry, and physical science are the typical high school subjects, but your son might enjoy different sequence, something like biology, anatomy and physiology, microbiology, and genetics. Those would absolutely be better aligned to his current interests!

Those 3 will keep him on track with academic progress, and if there are special interests, add those in too. If your city offers dual enrollment options, he can kill two birds with one stone, but also don't disregard the adult education catalog. When I was a teen, some of my favorite classes were through the community college studying chocolate, cake decorating, and others - they were non credit but monumentally significant in my decision to pursue culinary school. In your son's case, depending on his age, they may offer health occupation options like nursing assistant or similar. Dipping his toe into those topics and perhaps even some volunteer work at a hospital (or job shadow) will allow him to decide if he's up for the hard work of nursing school. I like the courses he's considering, keep in mind those are allied health courses, so perfect for exploration, not perfect for degree completion. If he does one or two and that seals the deal- he wants to be a nurse, both of you can meet with the nursing advisor or attend an info session to find out which courses they'd like him to do in high school.

It's true that nursing is competitive, but so what. It's not "Harvard-competitive" where fewer than 10% who want it get in, it's more like 50% competitive- he can do it if he's dedicated. And there's really no point of adding a bachelor's degree in front of someone at his age. One degree will do. Give him a good high school education and remove barriers to things that get in the way of his good high school education. You can find classes, pay the bills, write the transcript, etc. All of those allow him the pleasure of thinking about his future. You can even inject CLEP exams, but I'd strongly suggest these not be in the sciences because that's usually not acceptable in anything healthcare related. Keep them in the electives (literature, psychology, computers, business, etc)

Finally, if you haven't already, be sure to thoroughly investigate the laws of your state and be sure you're in full compliance. I strongly suggest joining HSLDA if you're in a state that is tricky. Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, so you want to be sure his high school graduation requirements are met and his diploma is considered official. That task falls on the parents.

[CM1999]

i just want opinions about which you would choose if you were starting from zero.

He's our third child to homeschool and we have explored many avenues of homescholing -classical to unschooling - so we we aren't nrw to this, we are members of HSLDA and know the ropes.

We DO encourage a lot of volunteer time and are pursuing options in the fields he has expressed interest in - I didn't think it was relevant to my question so I didn't explain.

We wouldn't enroll him in either school at this point -unless he chooses to, he's 18 next year. We were just looking at the two options and I wondered which one people from here would pick -and was hoping for a "here is why" answer too...because it could help him look at them with a different view, different critique. My only answer about why I chose the one I did was because TESC took more of my chemical dependency counseling credits as transfer and used them in ways that were better than COSC. But he doesn't have that same background.
We aren't going to run out and apply right now. I was just wanting your opinions about which school you would pick of you were starting with NO credits.
Maybe I put too much info and then not enough. But I'm really just looking for opinions about the two....not looking for advice on what we should do ---if that makes sense.
I honestly dont know that he will choose either one. But getting opinions on how people view the two could help narrow it down to one that he can create a plan for -having goals and directions that are more specific has helped in the past but we always stay flexible for changes.
Thanks!!!

[cookderosa]

i just want opinions about which you would choose if you were starting from zero.

He's our third child to homeschool and we have explored many avenues of homescholing -classical to unschooling - so we we aren't nrw to this, we are members of HSLDA and know the ropes.

We DO encourage a lot of volunteer time and are pursuing options in the fields he has expressed interest in - I didn't think it was relevant to my question so I didn't explain.

We wouldn't enroll him in either school at this point -unless he chooses to, he's 18 next year. We were just looking at the two options and I wondered which one people from here would pick -and was hoping for a "here is why" answer too...because it could help him look at them with a different view, different critique. My only answer about why I chose the one I did was because TESC took more of my chemical dependency counseling credits as transfer and used them in ways that were better than COSC. But he doesn't have that same background.
We aren't going to run out and apply right now. I was just wanting your opinions about which school you would pick of you were starting with NO credits.
Maybe I put too much info and then not enough. But I'm really just looking for opinions about the two....not looking for advice on what we should do ---if that makes sense.
I honestly dont know that he will choose either one. But getting opinions on how people view the two could help narrow it down to one that he can create a plan for -having goals and directions that are more specific has helped in the past but we always stay flexible for changes.
Thanks!!!

Sure, I understand.
What "I" would choose starting from zero (as all kids do) would be "none of the above."
Specific to those two schools, COSC and TESU are exactly equal.

[sanantone]

I don't think you need to love math to love nursing, but not liking science is concerning. Healthcare is a science-based field. Of course, some healthcare occupations, such as CNA, are more about caring for the patient than treating the patient, but that's not a good, long-term occupation. However, doing some work as a CNA or EMT might help figure out if the healthcare field is for him. Many nursing homes will hire just about anyone and train employees for free. Some volunteer fire departments might offer free EMT-Basic training. He can also look into EMR/ECA training, which is a level below EMT-Basic.

If he can't get into a nursing program, becoming an LPN or paramedic and bridging to an RN is another option. If he decides he doesn't like the healthcare field after working as a CNA or EMT, however, COSC will apply his credits toward their health studies concentration. Excelsior has health science programs that might be able to utilize those credits, but they're less flexible.

[dfrecore]

I too have a homeschooled daughter interested in going into nursing. Since she will be 18 when going into it, we are going with the Community College down the road, where she will take all of the prereq's for the nursing program, especially because she needs a high GPA in some specific courses to get into the program. Even though I am a very active member on this forum, and know a LOT about getting a degree in a non-traditional way (almost done with my BSBA at TESU), I will not be doing this with her. I will be using some of the things I know from here, but she will do things the old-fashioned way. That's because I think she needs the structure of the college system, and the 16 weeks to get through each course with a thorough understanding of what she's doing in those classes where GPA matters. If she chooses to take the electives via CLEP (like Algebra, US History and American Government), we will probably do those in High school. We may even start doing some of the other courses while in high school (Career/Life Planning, Art History, Stats, Cultural Anthropology) through dual enrollment.

I may even have her do the Straighterline "$1200 for the "freshman year" deal - so she can take college-level Bio, Chem, Anatomy, English, during her senior year in high school, knowing that she won't be transferring it to college, but giving her a leg up when she does get to the college, to get those high grades. Almost the opposite of what everyone on the forum is trying to do, I know!

I started with the plan of nursing and worked my way back through to figure out the best thing for her. Since nursing doesn't require an AA in our state, I figured that by the time she got through most of the classes she needed, she'd be 80% there anyway, so we filled in what she needed to get an AA. Then, we figured out what she needed for the RN-to-BSN program at the local state college (only $11k), and added those courses in that could be taken at the CC. We also added a foreign language, since 3 semesters of that gets extra points to get into the nursing program. She would be at 117cr by then. She would have a very easy time transferring to another school for a different program if she changed her mind later. And if at that point, she wanted to switch, we would then look at TESU/EC/COSC. But I just wouldn't really consider those at this point, because I think they would actually limit her options. Taking a bunch of DSST's and ACE-approved courses that wouldn't transfer to many schools didn't seem like the best plan for her, since it might actually frustrate her more than motivate her ("You mean I studied for and took this test and no schools will accept it?"). I know every student isn't my kid, but it's hard to put myself in someone else's shoes when I don't know them.

I think you should look at both TESU and COSC, as well as your local CC and see what you can take that works for all 3, so as not to limit your options. Think dual enrollment, so that your kid feels like he's getting a leg up on his future if that motivates him. Take CLEP tests for electives. But it won't do much good for him to take DSST's and CLEP's, only to find out that the nursing program won't take them (even if the college might), because they require labs be taken at a B&M school, and they require specific grades for those lab classes. Same with College Comp, if they require a grade for it. That kind of thing needs to be taken into consideration.

I'm sorry that none of us is giving you the info you would like to hear, but I think it's because none of us would do that, so we're having a hard time figuring out why it would be a good idea. Not trying to discourage you, just trying to explain why we're saying what we're saying.

[rebel100]

TESC can be cheaper if you take a certain number of TECEP exams. TESC will require a capstone (usually, though not always through TESC)...if that works for you then match to TESC

COSC allows free use of FEMA, that matters to some it can equal up to a tear of college. They will also require a cornerstone and capstone, this adds to the cost but can be offset in many ways. COSC may require more upper level credits than TESC...but again, depends on the program.

Otherwise they are very similar to each other.

Even if I chose one of these schools, I would try to bring nearly everything I needed to the school. In general one should not choose either as a place to attend for the sake of taking classes they actually offer....too many other ways to get credit. In fact if you ignore the fact that they each allow 114-117 transfer credits...there would be almost no reason to choose either.

[TrailRunr]

First of all, the lack of interest or lack of aptitude in science lab classes is a big problem.

What's the point of taking those CC classes? There is usually no room for free electives in nursing, so it sounds like a waste of time to me. If they don't count in nursing, don't take them. Relevant volunteer work is a much better way to determine interest in the health professions. Instead, getting rid of all GE via courses or testing prior to entering the actual nursing program will be very helpful. Nursing school is hard enough without having to worry about GE requirements. Don't dance around the issue of not liking science classes with "medical terminology class". Studying the MOOC/Khan of the science class is a much better use of time without nursing program admissions GPA implications.

As far as testing out, limit it to AP, IB, and CLEP for GE requirements. There is usually no room for free electives in nursing, so choose exams and courses wisely. Many schools won't take DSST. Watch out if GE type requirements (eg. English composition) count towards the nursing application GPA. If they are, they need to be taken for a grade and he needs to earn a good grade.

Don't waste time and money on DSST, ALEKS, ACE, TECEP, SL, etc. because they won't count at most schools. It would stink if he took those classes/exams and found out later that they only count at the big 3 schools. I'm with the others thinking that TESU/COSC may not be the best idea.