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+--- Thread: applied to TESC, now what? (/Thread-applied-to-TESC-now-what)
applied to TESC, now what? - JohnnyHeck - 05-16-2013
AZDan - Find the courses here Thomas Edison State College: Course Offerings that you think you could write up a PLA. If you know that any of these courses fit your degree requirements, you could start working on your narration(s) now. Report back with your major and what course(s) in which you are interested. I have done PLA at TESC. You should not be thinking PLA for any course that has a test out option - much easier and cheaper than PLA.
applied to TESC, now what? - ncpenn - 05-16-2013
Quote:5 weeks?? Wow, I really hope I get mine sooner. I really feel like I am stuck and have to wait for their evaluation since I want to do PLA as well.
From what I've read and heard, yes. They say on average it takes 20 to 25 business days after they receive your last transcript. (That's what a rep at tesc told me, anyway)
applied to TESC, now what? - ConflagrateCarl - 05-17-2013
AZDan Wrote:5 weeks?? Wow, I really hope I get mine sooner. I really feel like I am stuck and have to wait for their evaluation since I want to do PLA as well.
Yes, I was in the same boat. I just applied for the BSBA in CIS back around April 1st or so. I didn't get everything back for my credit evaluation until about 10 days ago. A TESC rep told me the same thing about 20 business days, and it was pretty much dead on. At any rate, once you get the evaluation, things speed up pretty quickly. Definitely make use of this forum. When I first got my evaluation, I set up an appointment with an adviser and had no clue what I really wanted to do in terms of credits and she somewhat helped me out. But now that I've been on this forum, and I know pretty much every course, I set up another appointment, and I'm going to run every course past them and make sure I'm on the right track.
Btw, if you haven't already, in your MyEdison (once you get your login and all that), on the left side, you can setup an appointment with an adviser in your degree program, or at least one that is in the same "realm".
applied to TESC, now what? - JohnnyHeck - 05-17-2013
ConflagrateCarl Wrote:At any rate, once you get the evaluation, things speed up pretty quickly. Definitely make use of this forum. When I first got my evaluation, I set up an appointment with an adviser and had no clue what I really wanted to do in terms of credits and she somewhat helped me out. But now that I've been on this forum, and I know pretty much every course, I set up another appointment, and I'm going to run every course past them and make sure I'm on the right track.
Carl brings up a most important point about "advising". If you want to fulfill a degree requirement with a course not offered at TESC or because you don't want to take the TESC course, you will have to take the responsiblity to propose the alternate path. But your advisor is the only one who has the authority to place your proposal in your plan as approved scheduled hours (SH). Until you have this approval in writing in your plan, you are only guessing as to what transfer equivelent (TE) course TESC will give you for this proposed course or test unless it is already pre-listed for equivelencey in the catalog (e.g. CLEP and DSST tests) This is very risky, paricularly for your upper level (UL) and the last 20hrs or so of your requirements. TESC's judgment of transfer equivelency can be very quirky and not understood by any logic coming from us outside of their institution. Don't sweat it - just get your planned courses/exams approved in advance for meeting specific TESC degree requirements. You can back and forth emails with different advisors to get things understood and even talk to the head honco.
applied to TESC, now what? - AZDan - 05-17-2013
JohnnyHeck Wrote:AZDan - Find the courses here Thomas Edison State College: Course Offerings that you think you could write up a PLA. If you know that any of these courses fit your degree requirements, you could start working on your narration(s) now. Report back with your major and what course(s) in which you are interested. I have done PLA at TESC. You should not be thinking PLA for any course that has a test out option - much easier and cheaper than PLA.
Hey Johnnyheck, I want to do their BSBA in Accounting and I have 62 credits available to transfer. So I am anxious to see how they evaluate and apply those towards that degree. I was thinking of doing the PLA because I have been in accounting for over 12 years in which I have been a Controller and Finance Director. I have done international accounting, completed an acquisition, due diligence, FX, systems conversions and a few other things. This is why I am thinking of the PLA but would love to get your thoughts/recommendations as well as anyone else.
applied to TESC, now what? - mrs.b - 05-17-2013
ConflagrateCarl Wrote:Yes, I was in the same boat. I just applied for the BSBA in CIS back around April 1st or so. I didn't get everything back for my credit evaluation until about 10 days ago. A TESC rep told me the same thing about 20 business days, and it was pretty much dead on. At any rate, once you get the evaluation, things speed up pretty quickly. Definitely make use of this forum. When I first got my evaluation, I set up an appointment with an adviser and had no clue what I really wanted to do in terms of credits and she somewhat helped me out. But now that I've been on this forum, and I know pretty much every course, I set up another appointment, and I'm going to run every course past them and make sure I'm on the right track.
One minor little deviation of advice. While a lot of people seem to make use of the Advising appointments, I preferred planning out my evaluation by email, one or two courses at a time. Keep it brief: "I'd like to fulfill the Managerial Communications requirement by completing and transferring the Penn Foster Business and Technical Writing degree, which is approved by ACE as ICS-0197. I would also like to fulfill the business core Principles of Marketing requirement by completing and transferring the CLEP Marketing test. Will these work? If so, please include in my evaluation." And I'd get back an email (and I saved every single one until graduation) with confirmation that those specific options met those specific requirements, with someone's name. I did not have as many customer service issues as many seem, but getting things in writing was invaluable in making sure that was the case. I did have a couple issues that came up, and forwarding the evidence in writing helped make them minor occurrences rather than full appeals or disputes. Advising will plan your degree, course by course, by email. You do not have to use the Advising appointments to do it.
Also, as far as the time it takes to get the initial evaluation from TESC... Yes, it is a long time, and yes, the other two schools get them back faster, but for those that got evaluations from all three, it seems to be generally agreed that TESC's is the most comprehensive. Your wait may be long, but you will get a lot more information, once it does come.
applied to TESC, now what? - JohnnyHeck - 05-17-2013
Before thinking PLA the first thing you want to do with experience is to see if any of your certifications, licenses, or corporate training already would give you credit at TESC. TESC is the pioneer (before ACE and NCCRS) in evaluating and qualifying for college credit "outside the box" learning experience. First stop: TESC specific credit evaluations for business experience: Thomas Edison State College: Access all student publications, including the College Catalog and Advisement Degree Planning Handbook in Undergraduate pPospectus starting on page 13 (maybe you have some of these outside of business too?) If you have any of these specific certs check with admissions on how to submit for credit. If you have any training given within a large corporation or through contracted out training - Step 2: Check for ACE college certified training here: ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training and NCCRS here: College Credit Recommendations: National CCRS If you find your training listed as college equivalent here, follow the instructions on how to create a transcript with these organizations and then transfer these transcripts to TESC just like from any other college. Step 3: If by your own judgment your experience is close to any credit-by-exam (CBE) opportunity, i.e. CLEP, DSST, TCEP, UExcel, ECE. OHU, etc., I am almost certain that you will save time and money studying up and taking these exams verses doing a PLA for similar credits.
Now if you have exhausted all these previous oppportunities for obtaining credit for your previous experience - which is only likely to be for upper level (UL) credits - seriously consider PLA for specific course requirements. Review this Wiki: http://degreeforum.wikia.com/wiki/Sources_of_Credit subtopic PLA and the TESC catalog starting on page 20. Here you can see that the key to PLA is equating experience to specifice college courses. Everyone likes to try to sell PLA as just a process of saying "I've got 25 years business experience so I must have 12 credits of college experience in there somewhere" While this may be true, the difficulty is in narrating your experience to specific college level knowledge - obvious oxymoron that this is!
Learning Counts (LC) is trying to make this process more accessible and less opaque, but it is very new, and to my knowledge no one has yet succesfuly transferred an LC to TESC. First find your PLA TESC course equivalent in their database as I previously said: Thomas Edison State College: Course Offerings and I can suggest alternate ways of trying to obtain credit for these courses either from TESC or through Learning Counts. As far as I know I am the only one to understand the TESC PLA process. Good luck!
applied to TESC, now what? - AZDan - 05-18-2013
Johnny,
Thank you for the very detailed response, very much appreciated. I have taken several courses throughout my career that have CPE possibilities but I don't have any other certifications, haven't needed them to this point. However, I will go through your links to see what I might have.
From what I have read in posts in this forum there are a few UL classes for which there is not a CBE available. This is where I am thinking I might be able to try the PLA route. In speaking with one of the admissions reps at TESC a few weeks ago she stated that with the new catalog on July 1, they are changing the PLA process in that they are removing the class-by-class approach and allowing one PLA to cover several classes that you are attempting to cover. If this is true then it may (emphasis on the word- may) be cheaper and quicker to do this through LC than taking the PLA class at TESC.
I will use this "down time" before I receive my transcript evaluation to research all the great links you provided and report back on my findings. I should start a new thread and I hope you and others that are interested will join in that thread.
Thanks again for the help!
applied to TESC, now what? - AZDan - 05-29-2013
Tayon Wrote:So I applied and sent my transcript to TESC, Im set up for the BSBA in CIS. They show that they have received my transcript from my local CC(sent 4/29, in the system on 5/6). I go to the transcript part and see where they evaluated the classes and no classes show up. Does it take a few more days?
It is now 5 weeks and counting for my transcript evaluation. I contacted TESC (via email) because I barely noticed that they showed only two of my three transcripts that were sent to them in early April. They were quick to respond to confirm they did receive all my transcripts but mistakenly hadn't noted it on my WebAdvisor. In that email I also stated that I have been waiting for my evaluation since late April and he stated that it will "be completed soon".
applied to TESC, now what? - JohnnyHeck - 05-29-2013
Hello again AZDan. Nothing out of the ordinary here. My eval took 6 weeks from the time the transcripts showed up. Nothing wrong with hassling them, though I really don't know if it will do any good. Relax, your almost there for step 3 (1-APP acceptance, 2-Transcripts received, 3-Eval! 4-Approved Degree Plan)
So you aren't losing as much time as you think you are, you have the transfer course blank requirements evaluation available to you. Here you can see what upper level (UL) courses you will need for your major. You can start to figure out how you are going to fulfill these requirements. You have mentioned PLA before. Find these courses in the TESC PLA database. Read the PLA course description. If you think you can narrate and prove your college level knowledge to this description, then this is a potential PLA course for you. Group up to four like courses together (Programming Level I,II,II,IV would be a slam dunk combine) because TESC is changing their PLA cost structure to remain competitive with Learning Counts, and you will be able to narrate up to 4 courses for one combined price. You are miles ahead if you don't wait to get started on determining how you will meet requirements even before your "official" evaluation becomes available.
Also, if you think that there are errors on your evaluation, you have a 30 day pre-enrollment window to appeal. The process is really quite easy and smooth. It's a win some, lose some kind of precess. But, everyone is quite quick, curteous, and helpful if you have followed the appropriate procedures in writing. Call again on us here if you feel you should appeal something, and we'll give you the reference to the procedures and your odds of success for most situations.