Initial Questions About BA History (T

[historicalarsonist]

Thanks, you guys are the best. Yeah, it looks like I overlooked the "with lab" part of the Biology II requirement because otherwise, it looks like the CLEP Biology would have done the trick (equivalent to Biology I & II).

Just to clarify, you mentioned that bio 1 & 2 both need lab, but I only seen bio 2 lab listed on the requirements for that degree. Is that another inaccuracy on TESU or is bio 1 lab a requirement for bio 2 lab? Regardless, it looks like bio 1 lab is available from at least two sources. With regards to fulfilling the bio 2 w/ lab requirement, what if I were to take this class as part of the 16 credits I take my final term at TESU? As of right now, I have 7 credits open to fill when the time comes. Would that seem to alleviate the only roadblock to the ASNSM in Biology?

Edit: Upon further research, I'm now fairly certain TESU actually does not offer the Bio 2 w/ lab.

And I hear what you are saying about computer science, I'm just a little bit apprehensive and weighing my other options. I've been basically working in the field of computer science for the past ten years (all of my adult life), and I'm pursuing this degree as a part of my plan to transition completely out of the world of computers. Not because I don't think it's a great field, it absolutely is. It's just not a great match for my personality. So I'm not sure if it makes a lot of sense to take classes I have no inherent interest in. I would obviously excel at them, but I do feel it would be borderline mind-numbingly boring. I wouldn't be able to just test out immediately because I don't work in academic programming languages or networking, which seems to make up the majority of the subjects available, so I'm stuck in a sort of grey area where I would need to actually learn some portion of the stuff (that I would probably never use again).

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Awesome, thanks for clearing that up.

Quick question about pursuing an associate degree all with the BA, perhaps the ASNSM Math and/or Biology. How do the credits interact between the BA you are pursuing and the associate degree? For example, the math area of study for the ASNSM requires 16 credits. Does this mean once I meet the general ed requirements, I can simply take 16 math credits that will account for elective credit in the BA and area of study credits in the ASNSM?

Also, I mentioned biology because there seems to be a ton of Biology classes available via CLEP/SDC/SL that look quite interesting. Does anyone have any experience with these? Math and science are very important to me, second only to History/English, so it seems either (or both) of these associate degree options might be viable for me.

That is exactly what that means. Yes many people get an BA and an Associates for only 120 credits and don't need more courses. The thing that can't overlap is the Area of Study but since History and Math don't overlap at all you good. Math courses can count towards your GE electives or free electives. So if you took math and Computer science courses those would fill your gen ed electives and free electives as well as meet your associates degree requirement. Biology is another associates degree TESU offers however it requires bio 1 and 2 with labs. The labs are expensive and only labs can be a pain to deal with. And there is no known alternative source of bio II lab. So youd have to take through CC (online or in person). Also there aren't as many alternatives biology courses as there are math ones. This is why the math and Computer science are more common to earn on this fourm over bio. If you want to do an Associates in Biology you can, you are only two areas of study for asnsm. So out of computer science, math and biology pick two.

Even if you did the asnsm in both math and Computer science you would still have electives slots leftover. Both AOS of the degrees are 16 credits each or 32 total. For your BA you have 27 credits free electives and 17-20 credits GE electives. So you'd have open spots and with those you could take biology or more math and science if you wanted to.

Agree with the advice by natshar, but want to note that A. You wouldn't have to do a Bio I lab (actually, you wouldn't have to do Bio I at all, come to think of it, though I'm not sure why you wouldn't), just a Bio II lab, and B. While there are a lot fewer bio classes than math, there are still plenty to fill the degree (save for the Bio II lab). On SDC alone, you have 22 potential credits, by my count.

Okay yeah, I just posted about the bio 1 lab and whether or not it's a requirement - didn't see it on the degree page, but wanted to get a consensus on that. Thanks a ton. Are you aware of whether or not TESU themselves offer Biology II w/ lab? I can't seem to find anything in the undergraduate course catalog.