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Advice For a Newbie - aley16 - 01-22-2015
Hello All - I am new to this forum and have a few questions that I hope someone is willing to help me with. I'm 19 and have an AA in general studies from a state school. I completed that while in high school. I am now expecting my 1st baby and need to finish school as quickly as I can. I would like a degree in Psychology or another field that would allow me to go into the human services field or get a Masters in Human Services, Psychology or NonProfit Management. I am not really worried about immediate job prospects with the degree as I have a great job with a company I've worked at since I was 15. I love my job and probably make as much as I would with a bachelors in my field. I would also like to get the best use of financial aid. Would anyone be willing to share what my best options would be? What should I do 1st.
Here are the credits I have:
ARH 2051 Art History:Renaiss to Contemp 3.00 3.00 B
ASN 1999 Asian Studies Elective 3.00 3.00 B
SLS 1101 The College Experience 3.00 3.00 A
SPN 1120 Elementary Spanish I 4.00 4.00 A
ARH 1000 Understanding Art 3.00 3.00 C
ART 1300C Drawing I 3.00 3.00 A
POS 2041 American National Government 3.00 3.00 B
SPN 1121 Elementary Spanish II 4.00 4.00 B
ART 1201C Design I 3.00 3.00 C
ENC 1101 Composition I 3.00 3.00 B
PHI 1600 Studies in Applied Ethics 3.00 3.00 B
SPC 1017 Intro Speech Communication 3.00 3.00 A
ART 1750C Ceramics I 3.00 3.00 A
HUM 2210 Western Humanities:Ancient to 3.00 3.00 A
LIT 2110 World Lit I Ancient-Renaissanc 3.00 3.00 C
ARH 2050 Art History:Ancient to Gothic 3.00 3.00 A
AST 1003 The Solar System 3.00 3.00 B
MAT 1033 Intermediate Algebra 3.00 3.00 C
PSY 1012 General Psychology 3.00 3.00 A
BSC 2085 Human Anatomy & Physiology I 3.00 3.00 D
BSC 2085L Human Anatomy & Physiol Lab I 1.00 1.00 D
MAC 1105 College Algebra 3.00 3.00 C
SPN 2200 Intermediate Spanish I 3.00 3.00 B
MGF 1107 Mathematics for Liberal Arts II 3.00 3.00 B
CGS 1070 Basic Computer & Info Literacy 1.00 1.00 A
Advice For a Newbie - sanantone - 01-22-2015
I know that you need to take a certain number of classes to receive financial aid, but are you interested in testing out of some of the requirements? If you just want to take online courses, then you should look at your state's public universities for the cheapest tuition. Other schools that tend to be cheap for non-residents are Chadron State College, Peru State College, and Fort Hays State University. There are some other cheap schools, but can't think of any right now that offer what you want. You can take a look at one of my favorite websites.
Online Psychology Bachelor Degree | Best Online Colleges | Best Online Universities | GetEducated.com
If you want the flexibility of the Big 3, then I would recommend COSC because they allow consortium agreements where you can be enrolled with them and use financial aid to complete courses at a cheaper college at the same time. Otherwise, I would recommend TESC for its Comprehensive Tuition Plan.
Advice For a Newbie - aley16 - 01-22-2015
Sanantone, thanks for replying and sharing that website. Yes, I would like to test out of as much as I can. I was thinking Biology would be a good CLEP to start preparing for because I got a D in one of my sciences and I know that may not transfer unless the school I transfer it to takes my AA as a block. I am just trying to figure out if I can complete a BA in the next 12 months as opposed to the 2 years it would traditionally take me to finish.
Advice For a Newbie - ryoder - 01-22-2015
If you are dedicated and are not opposed to solitary studying for 6-8 hours per day then you can finish the BA in 6 months no problem.
You need to really focus on the task and set intermediate goals such as completing the marketing CLEP in three days regardless of other obligations etc. It is very doable if you become a bit of an introvert.
Advice For a Newbie - KayV - 01-22-2015
TESC has a Bachelor of Science in Human Services degree, but it requires you to already be working in a Human Services field. Is your current job in a human services field? If not TESC offers a BA in Social Science that is test-friendly. Charter Oak has a BA or BS in General Studies with a concentration in Psychology as well.
Advice For a Newbie - KayV - 01-22-2015
As for Anatomy and Physiology, both Charter Oak and TESC will accept D (for Diploma!) grades in everything but English Composition and courses in the major. So they would accept your A&P hours for general education credit, just not for courses toward a biology or natural science and mathematics major.
Excelsior will not accept D grades in transfer.
In other news, all you need to complete your general education requirements for TESC is an English Composition II class.
Advice For a Newbie - sanantone - 01-22-2015
KayV Wrote:TESC has a Bachelor of Science in Human Services degree, but it requires you to already be working in a Human Services field. Is your current job in a human services field? If not TESC offers a BA in Social Science that is test-friendly. Charter Oak has a BA or BS in General Studies with a concentration in Psychology as well.
TESC also has a BA in Psychology that's test friendly.
Advice For a Newbie - aley16 - 01-23-2015
TESC and Charter Oak accepting my D's is exciting news. That is the 1 and only time in my life I celebrated a D and I didn't want to have to go thru that again. LOL I like the idea of a Psychology Degree, but would Social Science be easier to test out of? Which enrollment plan would be best for my situation at TESC? I need 60ish credits and want to be able to use financial aid. How long does it usually take to get going with them? How would financial aid even work with me testing out of credits? I also saw that Patten had a BA in Psychology. Does anyone have info on that? I know I have lots of questions. Thanks so much for being willing to help.
Advice For a Newbie - sanantone - 01-23-2015
Patten doesn't participate in Title IV financial aid. I'll answer the other questions later if no one else has.
Advice For a Newbie - rebel100 - 01-23-2015
aley16 Wrote:TESC and Charter Oak accepting my D's is exciting news. That is the 1 and only time in my life I celebrated a D and I didn't want to have to go thru that again. LOL I like the idea of a Psychology Degree, but would Social Science be easier to test out of? Which enrollment plan would be best for my situation at TESC? I need 60ish credits and want to be able to use financial aid. How long does it usually take to get going with them? How would financial aid even work with me testing out of credits? I also saw that Patten had a BA in Psychology. Does anyone have info on that? I know I have lots of questions. Thanks so much for being willing to help.
Your in a good position, at least at Charter Oak. I believe ALL of your Gen Ed's are met except fro English Comp 2 (unless I just didn't see it) General Education Requirements - Charter Oak State College Catalog
You also actually have 73 credits, I would expect all of them to transfer (you never know till you get in and see where everything lands, but i suspect they will grant credit for all.=).
COSC also requires two course, cornerstone and capstone, thats 3 credits lower level and three upper level (within your concentration). So that brings us to 79 credits, 3 of them upper level. You still need 41 credits essentially as follows:
COSC requires 30 Upper Level (UL) credits for a Bachelors degree. These could be all Psych or all Sociology for example and your concentration would be in that given area. Or you could go individualized studies and or dual concentration and break it up into a couple of areas of study. We seem to be talking social science so I don't think there is much difference....I would figure out what exams or classes look most interesting and form a plan around your interests. Here is a list of how COSC views the various exams http://www.charteroak.edu/current/academics/earningcredits/exam/exams-master-list.pdf
Exams however, will not work for Federal Student Aid (though there is some movement on that front at some schools...CSU Global?) But for our purposes I think your out of luck vis a vis aid and testing out. There are a couple other options.
The first thing that comes to mind are these degree options from CSU-Pueblo Undergraduate Degree Program > Division of Extended Studies > Colorado State University-Pueblo You only need about 41 credits, plenty of room to fill this out with CSU's own online essentially self paced courses. Lot's of interesting stuff to study, and a full ride PELL grant should just about cover it. see the learn by term link here Schedule of Courses > Division of Extended Studies > Colorado State University-Pueblo They also accept a limited number of CLEP. So the trick would be to work from the top down filling in the required upper level with their courses, Imagine 12 credits now, maybe 6-9 over the summer, and another 12 in the fall, 4 CLEP exams mixed in would round out your 40 odd needed credits. If you need to finish with financial aid I would really look at this option and see if it works...should be rather straightforward and the folks at the CSU-P Independent Studies office are simply extraordinary to work with.
You could also set up a consortium agreement through COSC to take courses at CSU-P and apply them back at COSC. this option will allow the use of F/A money, but you will have to float the initial cost and be reimbersed a month or two later. I did this to complete my bachelors...it's sort of unorthodox on this site, but it worked out well for me. You can, of course, use the full spectrum of CLEP/DSST/TECEP/EC, etc... if you go this route.