Hi everyone, my nephew is going to finish his BS in Business, and he is not sure whether he should go to COSC or Excelsior. He has completed around 20-30 units at a community college. He want's to test out of as many as possible, PLA a portion and ecourses for the remainder. That being said would you recommend COSC or Excelsior? And why? Thanks in advance for your help.
My decision was COSC for the following reasons: 1) Customer service. Call me old fashioned, but I hate to give my money to an organization that can't provide some level of pleasant service to me when I have questions or concerns. TESC and Excelsior fail in this area. 2) It was not important for me to have a true major. I have 20 years of experience, so the degree was more important than the major. 3) I hate math and COSC only requires 3 credits of math. I didn't have to take stats and calculus for the undergrad (I will for my MBA, so I only postponed the inevitable...) however, I wanted my BS quickly so I guess I accomplished 1/2 the goal. 4) COSC is very flexible in their individual studies degree program, you can easily test your way out using CLEP, DANTES and GRE. 5) you can easily transition to your Grad degree through CT distance learning consortium (part of the U Conn system) This would be a very nice B&M related grad degree. CONS for COSC: Not many beside the fact that they don't really have majors. They have "concentrations".
What is the significance? What is the significance of not having majors versus concentrations? Does that really matter?
If he is interested in testing out, there is good news and bad: Both COSC and Excelsior offer credit for a successful score on the GRE subject examinations. COSC offers up to 24 credits and Excelsior offers up to 30. The bad news is that business is not one of the 8 subjects covered by the GRE exams. Here's Excelsior's info: https://www.excelsior.edu/portal/page?_pageid=57,41890&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL Here's COSC's info: http://www.charteroak.edu/Advising/StandardizedExams.cfm Tony Pina Faculty, California State U. San Bernardino BTW, I noticed that you have a degree from Thomas Edison. Why are you not considering TESC?
Plenty of reasons Hey Tony, Thanks for your and everyone elses input. As always you guys/gals are awesome. As for TESC, I loved my professors at TESC. They were outstanding. There was a lot of interaction, lots of reading, testing and discussions. The administrative section of TESC was beyond horrible. They rarely if ever returned a phone call. Same was true regarding with returned emails. They were inefficient in providing me with my advisement information. They were horrible about communication of pertinent information. My VA certification was not sent out on time at least 8 out of 12 months. When I would call, the TESC rep would have an excuse, and say it must have gotten lost in the fax, etc. Never accepting responsibility. Most of all, the attitude was always defensive, rude, non commital, and left me wondering why I bothered to call. Even my graduation information. I was told I would recieve information within 3-4 weeks. 8 weeks later, nothing. I have left 3 phone messages, not one has been returned. When I finally get someone on the phone, they tell me to keep looking on the website. The list like this goes on and on. Imagine an expensive restaurant where the food is terrific, the waiter, maitre d, and hostess are incredibly rude, slow, condescending, incompetent, and you have an idea of my experience with TESC admin department. It has been so frustrating dealing with the administration portion of TESC, that I would be hard pressed to recommend the school. I get the feeling that department doesn't care, has no accountablity, no initiative, and has no intent on helping students finish their degree. Having trained customer service, sales, service off and on for the last 10 years, I would give TESC an "F" in that department.
Re: What is the significance? I think in most cases it's really just a personal preference, but it could be useful to have a major. If you know what career path you're interested in, and during a job search the openings ask for "business degree required" it's easier to show a transcript showing a BS in General Business from Excelsior than explain that a BS in General Studies (Business Concentration) is the same thing. I'd be curious to know if anyone actually had a problem with this. On the other hand, Jhastings01 makes a good point in that the further along you are along your career track the more the degree is a historical pre-req - i.e. it's assumed you have a degree (any degree) - your skills and knowledge are likely to be much more important. Cheers, Mark
Here's my preference for Excelsior- 1) True majors are now recognized. Of course, this matters little to many - to me it did. 2) GPA's are more easily granted - COSC doesn't calculate them for certain exams. 3) True - on customer service, COSC has the edge by most accounts. But if you generally know what you need, you can find out either by reading, site searching , or asking! Since Excelsior went private, clearly the pressure is on them to provide at least adequete service. By most accounts and my own experience, that's happened; no TESC neglect! 4) More math? Not for a BA - but in business it is more. Call me hardassed, but I think that's an advantage in any degree program. 5) Usually, the confusions over the profusion of SUNY branches and colleges works to your advantage as an Excelsior student. My latest? University of Denver admit people thought Excelsior was SUNY-Albany (just because located in Albany). Similar positive reputational recognition is unlikely to occur with the competition. Let's call it an unintended halo effect. --Orson
A friend of mine had the same thing happen. When he graduated with his masters, the university put "B.S. S.U.N.Y. Albany" on the program (even though he had put University of the State of New York on his grad application). Tony
Thanks Thanks everyone. I'll forward this information to him. The main thing is to simply help him get enrolled and started. I know Execelsior has a flexible payment plan, but COSC has the edge on customer service.
One small clarification for those reading into this in detail - Excelsior doesn't require calculus for most undergrads (and for those that do such as CompSci-types you'd need Calc at COSC as well). For the business undergrad College Algebra + Statistics will suffice. If you're striving for a higher GPA and worry about your Algebra score, you can take the CLEP Algebra+Trig which gives you a P/F score. Note that many, if not most MBA programs require Stats as a pre-req, meaning that you can either take the DANTES now or take it or a more expensive foundation course later... Cheers, Mark
I never had any trouble with Excelsior's customer service when I was enrolled. I'd call them with a question and they would give me an answer immediately. On one occasion the academic advisement staff was in a meeting, but an advisor called me back within the hour. I think Excelsior's customer service gets a bad rap because they won't give academic advisement until you enroll. The major COSC advantages are its Title IV participation and its DL classes. However, these are not really a benefit if one is planning to earn credits by exam or transfer an abundance of credit from another institution.
Thanks Anthony and Mark, This is good to know. I've heard a lot of great things about Excelsior. Now for the final decision and taking ACTION! Thnaks again
Re: Plenty of reasons Whenever I read reviews like this I wonder to myself if the situation could/would be improved if those who received such lousy service -- especially when they've paid for coursework and successfully completed it... and all in good faith -- would lodge formal complaints with the CHEA-approved regional agency that accredits the college, stating in said complaints that its purpose is not so much to get personalized remedial action now but, rather, to simply encourage the regional accrediting agency to not be so quick to renew the college's accreditation until and unless the customer service problems were resolved. It's difficult to imagine that the regional accrediting agency wouldn't care about such abominable behavior on the part of the college; and it's equally difficult to imagine that the college would not fix the problem in a big hurry if they knew that it could cost them their accreditation renewal.
If you see this university being operated in an unsafe manner.... That's an interesting thought. Does anyone have any experience in which unsolicited student complaints to a regional accreditor had an impact on that institution's standing? -=Steve=-
Re: Re: Plenty of reasons Hey Gregg, I do plan on writing a long, detailed letter to the Dean and US Navy (veterans GI Bill) explaining these issues. Many times the department heads have no idea what the staff is doing. The lower levels report everything is great, and without letters to the contrary, it is difficult to ascertain what is really going on. TESC has experienced rapid growth, which I'm sure contributes to the problems I encountered. My Professors, learning models, ecourses were excellent; but the various administration staffs were a unhelpful, condescending, inefficient and unreliable. From the various posts I've read, web sites I've visited, personal messages I've recieved, this unfortuantely is the norm, and not the exception. As for writing the accrediting agency, I hadn't thought about that; but I think it might be a good idea. I'll wait and see if I hear anything from the Dean or the Navy.
