TAMUC Competency Based Program List

[arbitrarysky]

Update on my progress so far:

I moved from WGU to A&M Commerce due to lack of challenge and definitely received what I wanted. I enrolled in Research Methods, as I felt it was a necessary course for graduate school. Only to find out in week 2 (past the drop date) that it's on the list of courses NOT recommended for acceleration.

The list includes the following:
THE 1310: Introduction to Theatre
PSCI 2306: Texas Government
MATH 1332: Contemporary Math
IS 1315: Integrated Science
CJCB 303: Ethics
CJCB 404: Critical Shift
CJCB 499: Capstone
GSCB 405: Capstone
CID 111: Critical Thinking
CID 225: Record Keeping for Leaders
CID 347: Research Methods
ORGL 4341: Leadership Theory
ORGL 4352: Capstone

Research Methods has few assignments, but also very few materials inside the course shell to help complete the quizzes (which I think may be meant to use as a study guide for the test?). To be fair, it IS a research course but I didn't think I would have to literally research the course content with minimal guidance. On the other hand, the first GSCB course is a 180. Lots of resources and course materials but several assignments. One assignment consisted of an interview with someone in your desired field, so I would plan ahead if you plan to take this class and don't already work in your targeted field. Neither of the courses are particularly difficult, however Research Methods has A LOT of academic jargon. I would not recommend if you're coming from the Sophia/SDC route. GSCB is fine -- feels more like a career coaching course than anything else.

What really threw me off is not realizing how intensive my fiancé's bar prep would be, on top of pressing family issues. I'm still making progress but not as quickly as I had hoped. I *might* be able to add a third course if I can really buckle down over the next week.

The graduation and acceleration policies make it very apparent that this is program is not designed for super accelerators, which makes me even more impressed of those who have completed this in 1 semester/2 terms. Supposedly only 5 courses per term are allowed (not sure if this is a hard rule). CBE students also have the same graduation process as traditional students where you apply to graduate in the first half of the semester. With that, I do not think I will eligible to graduate in August.

In the back of my head, I'm debating switching into Organizational Leadership. It likely wouldn't throw off graduation any further as I'm only two courses in and ORGL requires an extra two anyways. I would actually have a major to list instead of constantly explaining why I'm in a General Studies program. And the courses seem sociology and social psychology based, which I already have exposure to and would be more applicable to my desired field (libraries). On the other hand, I really wanted to avoid having to list my degree as BAAS. Not sure if BGS is any better though.

Something else I wanted to mention is that BGS students are limited to CID and GSCB courses only. You cannot take ORGL courses, or any others in the College of Innovation and Design that do not have the CID/GSCB prefix. Which is a HUGE consideration if you are deciding between UMPI and TAMUC. Definitely wishing I chose UMPI over TAMUC for several reasons. Though, I am going to stick it out at A&M Commerce for the sake of not having another transcript on my grad school application.

Without knowing your plan after this bachelor, I'm going to vote for you to switch to the BAAS Organizational Leadership. I just think it will read better on a resume than a Bachelor of General Studies (of course depending on your graduate school plan it may not matter what your bachelor is).

Also, as you said the Research Methods will come in handy when it comes to graduate school no matter the path you take, so no effort wasted there.

My background is a mix of childcare and education. Long term goal is a Masters in Library Science. I think I am set on youth libraries after talking to those in the field. I likely won't pursue a MLS for at least another 5-10 years after undergrad due to the low salary not justifying the cost of childcare.