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Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - Printable Version

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Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - Jenna.C - 01-09-2019

Hello,

Right now my current major is Liberal Studies with a concentration in Social Sciences. I am considering adding a second concentration but only if I can test out of it online. Going to a testing center for CLEPs/DSSTs is not convenient for me. 

I realize I could test out of the Humanities concentration and I know that the subjects are different than Social Sciences but I believe they sound very similar. I don't think there would be a purpose in doing both but if someone thinks or knows otherwise, please let me know. 

I honestly have no idea what I want to ultimately work in, at all. My current job isn't anything I'm going to move up in or need a degree for any promotion.

I was looking into something like General Management or Human Resources Management but I don't see all the classes listed on Study.com. Or one of the classes is there (Principles of Management) but it's Lower Level. 

Has anyone tested out of any of the available concentrations and can give me any tips? It doesn't need to be the ones I listed. I am open to anything!

Thank-you so much in advance!


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - Supermind - 01-09-2019

I am looking at something similar: Psychology + Gen Management or Psychology + HR Management. For General Management, study.com has two UL options: Organizational Theory & Industrial/Organizational Psychology. For HR Management, study.com offers Sociology of work as an UL course. Change Management is a course that I haven’t been able to find anywhere other than at TESU. Saylor, study.com, Davar- all have some management courses in which change management is a small part, but not the entire course. I have written to academic advising and waiting to hear from them.

Study.com has 4 options for UL psychology courses: Psych. Of Personality, History & Systems of Psychology, I/O Psychology & Org. Theory (transfers as PSY-360).


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - TexasTink - 01-09-2019

I am doing the Humanities concentration by testing. I think I have 33 LL credits and 9 UL. Now, I did get quite a few of those by Cleps, but those same courses are available from other providers as well. The hardest part is the UL credits - they’re few and far between for Humanities. Most of my UL are business communication courses. From what I’ve seen, Study and Sophia are the way to go if you’re trying for humanities and you can’t take Cleps. Humanities is basically any English, Literature, Art, Music, Communications, or Philosophy class. So the category is quite broad, it is just populated with LL classes online.

I’ve actually thought about getting a concentration in Social Sciences as well since I have a lot of history classes. But I can’t seem to get any definite information about what that would look like to have a double concentration.


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - Jenna.C - 01-09-2019

(01-09-2019, 02:12 PM)Supermind Wrote: I am looking at something similar: Psychology + Gen Management or Psychology + HR Management. For General Management, study.com has two UL options: Organizational Theory & Industrial/Organizational Psychology. For HR Management, study.com offers Sociology of work as an UL course. Change Management is a course that I haven’t been able to find anywhere other than at TESU. Saylor, study.com, Davar- all have some management courses in which change management is a small part, but not the entire course. I have written to academic advising and waiting to hear from them.

Study.com has 4 options for UL psychology courses: Psych. Of Personality, History & Systems of Psychology, I/O Psychology & Org. Theory (transfers as PSY-360).

Thanks for the response! Those seem like good combinations to pursue. For General Management, Study.com also has Negotiations and Conflict Management and Managerial Communications. 
I have not been able to find Change Management anywhere either. Good luck in getting a response!

(01-09-2019, 03:31 PM)TexasTink Wrote: I am doing the Humanities concentration by testing.  I think I have 33 LL credits and 9 UL. Now, I did get quite a few of those by Cleps, but those same courses are available from other providers as well. The hardest part is the UL credits - they’re few and far between for Humanities. Most of my UL are business communication courses. From what I’ve seen, Study and Sophia are the way to go if you’re trying for humanities and you can’t take Cleps.  Humanities is basically any English, Literature, Art, Music, Communications, or Philosophy class. So the category is quite broad, it is just populated with LL classes online.

I’ve actually thought about getting a concentration in Social Sciences as well since I have a lot of history classes. But I can’t seem to get any definite information about what that would look like to have a double concentration.

Thanks for the response! That's really helpful. 
Good luck in getting the information you need.


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - bjcheung77 - 01-09-2019

For the BALS, there are only 3 concentrations (Humanities, NSM, Social Sciences) that allow you to select 18 credits of any set of courses you would like to take. The other concentrations require you to take exactly those courses listed in the concentration. You just need to note, not to take more than 6 credits total at the 100 level within the concentrations combined.

Essentially, if someone would like two concentrations, you can take a combination of the two, such as Humanities & Social Sciences. The only requirement is to take 15 UL and 3 LL for each concentration, in total 36 credits for both. The only exception is a CS & NSM concentration, you can use "overlapping CS/CIS" courses to drop that down to 30 required.


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - TexasTink - 01-09-2019

For a concentration though, you don’t need 15 UL in the concentration itself - just in the whole AOS for the BALS. Each concentration requires at least half of your credits to be UL, which means 9 credits or 3 classes worth. So for instance, my AOS looks like this -
Humanities Concentration - 9 UL and 9 LL credits
Liberal Studies General Coursework - 6 UL and 6 LL credits


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - Supermind - 01-09-2019

Thank you bjcheung. There is some confusion though, reg the UL requirements for other concentrations (Psych, Management etc). For example, I am pursuing BALS Psychology. I have completed 3 UL courses among the required courses (Personality Psych, History & Systems, I/O Psych). The other required courses (Dev Psych, Social Psych & Abnormal Psych) are all LL options. But they are all of the 200 range. There is an additional 12 credits for Lib Arts courses,in which, I have two more UL courses (Org Theory & Org Communication). So, I have not strictly followed the 5+1 (UL+LL) order as you have mentioned. But I have my 15 UL AOS credits. Are you saying that if I decided to do a Gen Management or HR Management concentration, those two UL level courses in the liberal arts AOS will become redundant? And that I may be expected to find UL options for the psych required courses?

The AOS in these concentrations has an 18 + 12 division. And one is only required to have 15 UL credits among the 30 total AOS credits. It is not mandatory to have 15 UL credits among the 18 required courses credits.


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - Jenna.C - 01-10-2019

(01-09-2019, 09:53 PM)TexasTink Wrote: For a concentration though, you don’t need 15 UL in the concentration itself - just in the whole AOS for the BALS. Each concentration requires at least half of your credits to be UL, which means 9 credits or 3 classes worth. So for instance, my AOS looks like this -
Humanities Concentration - 9 UL and 9 LL credits
Liberal Studies General Coursework - 6 UL and 6 LL credits

I thought you had to have 15 Upper Level courses in the concentration itself?


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - TexasTink - 01-10-2019

(01-10-2019, 01:55 PM)Jenna.C Wrote:
(01-09-2019, 09:53 PM)TexasTink Wrote: For a concentration though, you don’t need 15 UL in the concentration itself - just in the whole AOS for the BALS. Each concentration requires at least half of your credits to be UL, which means 9 credits or 3 classes worth. So for instance, my AOS looks like this -
Humanities Concentration - 9 UL and 9 LL credits
Liberal Studies General Coursework - 6 UL and 6 LL credits

I thought you had to have 15 Upper Level courses in the concentration itself?

The way they do things is confusing, but no, you don't have to have 15 UL credits in the concentration. This is from the TESU website - "A concentration includes a minimum of 12 semester hours and a maximum of 21 semester hours of specialized course work with no less than 50% of the concentration credits upper level credits."

When you have the concentration added to your evaluation, it will arrange the courses so that it appears that you need 15 UL and 3 LL in the concentration. (And then 12 LL in the general AOS coursework) However, nothing on the website or the evaluation itself says that the 15UL concentration credits are mandatory. I had to email an academic advisor and have them move the courses into the correct places because very few of my AOS were slotted properly. Once I did that, it just states that your remainder UL requirements will be met in your general AOS coursework. No one ever pushed back or told me I couldn't do that. I can try to take a screen shot if you want to see what it looks like and the verbiage used. My evaluation is still not 100% correct, but it will show the general idea.


RE: Help with testing out of Liberal Studies concentrations at TESU - Jenna.C - 01-10-2019

(01-10-2019, 02:31 PM)TexasTink Wrote:
(01-10-2019, 01:55 PM)Jenna.C Wrote:
(01-09-2019, 09:53 PM)TexasTink Wrote: For a concentration though, you don’t need 15 UL in the concentration itself - just in the whole AOS for the BALS. Each concentration requires at least half of your credits to be UL, which means 9 credits or 3 classes worth. So for instance, my AOS looks like this -
Humanities Concentration - 9 UL and 9 LL credits
Liberal Studies General Coursework - 6 UL and 6 LL credits

I thought you had to have 15 Upper Level courses in the concentration itself?

The way they do things is confusing, but no, you don't have to have 15 UL credits in the concentration.  This is from the TESU website - "A concentration includes a minimum of 12 semester hours and a maximum of 21 semester hours of specialized course work with no less than 50% of the concentration credits upper level credits."

When you have the concentration added to your evaluation, it will arrange the courses so that it appears that you need 15 UL and 3 LL in the concentration.  (And then 12 LL in the general AOS coursework)  However, nothing on the website or the evaluation itself says that the 15UL concentration credits are mandatory.  I had to email an academic advisor and have them move the courses into the correct places because very few of my AOS were slotted properly.  Once I did that, it just states that your remainder UL requirements will be met in your general AOS coursework.  No one ever pushed back or told me I couldn't do that.  I can try to take a screen shot if you want to see what it looks like and the verbiage used.  My evaluation is still not 100% correct, but it will show the general idea.

Thank-you! Your explanation is very helpful! 
And if you wouldn't mind and if you can, that would be much appreciated!