I'm looking into TESC as a possibility for completing my BA in Religion. I have two years of college credit (not an AA) to transfer in and will be seeking credit for prior learning and life experience. I have been in church ministry for 13 years, so I think I can get much credit for what I know. Has anyone ever pursued a degree like this at TESC? What was your experience?
First you would want to go online and request a Program Planning Handbook. It says a lot about PLA's. One thing with TESC is that you need to be enrolled in order to have advisement questions answered OR to get an evaluation of credit. It's hard to tell otherwise if your course will be counted as upper level or lower level. What you can do is go over the gen ed requirements for Bachelor of Arts. It wouldn't hurt to take a few CLEPS or DANTES if you know you'll ned them at least for your gen ed's or free electives. As far as your concentration you can take the Intro to World Religions (DANTES), it will count as an upper level Religion for them (Religion 405). (don't quote me on anything though) I'm looking in my catalog it says for a BA in Religion you also need Introduction to Philosophy as a Corollary requirement whatever that means. You could find their catalog online somewhere through their site. If you want more flexibility, you can look into a concentration in Humanities (you could combine Religion with Philosophy, English, Foreign Languages...even music, art, communications if you want) You need to combine at least 3 Subjects within Humanities for a concentration but ant pretty much any proportion (for example Religion with a Philosophy course and a Communications course or 2) TESC I feel is the most flexible of the big 3.
oops... CLARIFICATION: I made a slight mistake, in describing the Humanities concentration.- Sorry about that. The proportion of courses does matter, but it is flexible nonetheless. Even the Religion "area of study" itself is rather flexible as you can see here: (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to cut and paste anything from another site but I'll just give you the link to the BA requirements) http://www.tesc.edu/prospective/undergraduate/degree/ba.php <this should tell you the details if you click on Religion or Humanities and can view PDF files.
Thanks for the info. I did in fact have all the information from the college. I didn't know about the DANTES in World Religion, so thanks for the advise on that. I was wondering more about quality of service and advisement from TESC once I enroll (if I do). As far as I can tell, the college checks out with all its accredition and the program would work perfect more me and my schedule, as long as the program really works.
DSST- World Religions exam... I don't know what your background is as far as religion, but for the DANTES make sure you know your Eastern religions. Hinduism especially, but also Taoism, the Vedas, Yoga, Confucianism, Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism and the different forms... only 8 to 10 of the 108 questions were on Christianity and maybe another 10 or so on Judaism. Only 2 questions had reference to Catholicism which is my background. I did not find the test easy but not exceptionally difficult considering I only studied for about 10 minutes that morning. The World Almanac has a pretty decent section on world religions and it's only a few dollars. Be sure to know the HISTORY of the religions. There are just as many questions if not more about the HISTORY of religions than on their doctrine. Know when Mohammed was born for example... As for western religon, know the difference between the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John... Know the three largest protestant demominations in the US, and the Southern Baptist view on infant baptism. (Im afraid to get into more detail than that- I don't want to get in trouble) But yeah definately take that exam, it's worth it. Go to www.getcollegecredit.com and pull up the fact sheet. You can even do a web-search on the topics mentioned. Just remember I'd estimate- at least the version I took to be about 20% Western and 80% Eastern. I didn't get my results yet and wont for another 2 weeks or so... Excelsior College also has an exam on World Religion, however it would probably be longer and would cost almost 3 times more. Both Excelsior and DSST/DANTES also have an exam on Ethics which also may be helpful to your degree.
