I was hoping some people who had attended this school or graduated from it could rate the programs there. Is the instruction good? Are you well prepared for your field?
We found this program very good. I graduated 15 years ago. My daughter graduated this year. If you need any ideas e-mail me. There are some distance learning credits that are out there yeat not in any book I've read.
Hello, As far as I know TESC doesn't offer a GPA. Did this fact in your case, or in cases of people you know, who graduated from Thomas Edison, somehow work to the detriment as far as acceptance into further, graduate study was concerned? Thanks, Dennis Siemens
TESC calculates your GPA for graduation eligibility, but it won't be reflected on your transcript. I posed the same question RE: GPA calculation to two schools, both DE programs (the Military Science & Diplomacy program at Norwich, and the International Relations graduate program at Troy State University.) They may not be the best predictors, but I got the same answer from both: They'd calculate your GPA based on the transcripted grades. I'll be applying within the next few months, and I'd be happy to let you know how it "shakes out." In my case, roughly 90% of my degree will come from courses transferred from other RA schools, the remaining credits being from CLEP or Excelsior exams. A co-worker was admitted to Syracuse's Master of Social Science program with a TESC degree closer to the middle: about 60 semester hours earned traditionally. The obvious example at the other extreme is Steve Levicoff, who appears to have spent somewhere around 15 minutes in an actual classroom prior to earning his BA at TESC and going on to graduate school. The lack of a recorded GPA doesn't seem to have been a problem for any of the five or so TESC grads I know. It isn't a scientific study, but it might be a good indication nonetheless.
This differs from the information that was recently passed to me by my TESC advisor, Dorothy B Sconyers, "Senior Program Advisor, Liberal Arts Degrees." Here is my question and her response, taken from a recent email: Q: I do have a general question about how transfer credits are transcribed. My understanding is that transfer credits will be transcribed with grades, except that courses with failing grades will not be transcribed. Is that correct, and if so does that mean that transfer credits will be included in calculating a GPA on the TESC transcript? A: You are correct about the way courses are transcripted and all graded courses are used for the GPA.
I don't think it differs. I think it answers a different question. The TESC transcript reflects transfer credits and TESC-awarded credit, broken down by source, along with course titles, grades (where grades were assigned), and dates taken. Yes, a GPA is calculated, but it's used solely to determine graduation eligibility. It doesn't appear anywhere besides your academic program evaluation. Quoth the catalog: "The Thomas Edison State College transcript will show grades A through D where grades have been awarded. However, no grade point average will be computed or noted on the transcript." Which takes us back to the question, "Did this fact in your case, or in cases of people you know, who graduated from Thomas Edison, somehow work to the detriment as far as acceptance into further, graduate study was concerned?" And my answer was "No." The lack of a reported GPA doesn't seem to inhibit admission to graduate school. Do you have any reason to believe otherwise?
Hmm... I specifically asked her, "...does that mean that transfer credits will be included in calculating a GPA on the TESC transcript?" I wanted to know if there would be a GPA on my transcript. I just received my catalog, and I found the section that you quoted. It seems that she misunderstood my question; maybe it was my phrasing. It's also possible that they changed their policy after the catalog was printed; I'll call and ask. Regardless, I would think that if a transcript doesn't indicate a GPA then the graduate school's admission office would simply calculate a GPA from the transcript using their own methodology. I suspect that's what they would do anyway, rather than just taking a GPA straight from a transcript. They would need to do it anyway if you had more than one transcript, whether each transcript had a GPA printed on it or not, in order to obtain an overall GPA. It just wouldn't make sense for an admissions office to care about whether the originating institution printed a GPA on the transcript, since grades are included for each graded course. I could see a transcript without any graded courses possibly causing a problem with some schools, but that probably isn't the case for most TESC graduates. Of course this is just speculation on my part. The best thing to do is call some graduate schools that you might consider and discuss your potential situation with them. The graduate schools that I've contacted were receptive when I told them that my undergraduate degree will be from TESC.
That's my impression (albeit based on limited queries.) One of the two schools I contacted wanted copies of all previous transcripts, even if all of the credit was duplicated on a TESC transcript. And good luck to them, I say. In my case, it'll involve transcripts from 6 different undergraduate institutions, including schools on the semester system, schools on the quarter system, a university which used narrative evaluations rather than grades, and non-graded credit from TESC. Seems like a lot of work to find those "D-" math grades from 1987. <g>
It's actually not that uncommon for the graduate school to recompute it anyway. I've seen a number of schools that recompute it to get a consistent set of rules for the GPA:Often something like: (1) no pluses or minuses. (2) No Phys ed credits count (3) Transfer credits are counted (they will generally ask for ALL transcripts. so even if your alma-mater omits the grade, they will have it). etc.
Hey Bud, I recently applied to Regis, Central Michigan, Southwest Missouri State, Nova, and the University of Kentucky. Each one of these schools asked for transcripts from all of the previous education that I have had (Central Michigan requires 2 transcripts from each former school). For the most part they have broken down my GPA based on the grades that I received from each undergrad institution minus Thomas Edison. They also did not calculate ACE or AARTS credits as well as PE into the GPA. They did not take any points either and I ended up with: CMU= 3.71 SWMSU= 3.77 Nova=3.725 Kentucky= 3.7 Regis= ??? Kentucky did not take some of the military or AARTS credits but the other schools did and all of them recognized and accepted a bachelors from TESC. Southwest Missouri appears to have the most modest tuition for out of state/distance edu. Hope this helps! Mike [email protected]
Additional comment. It is best to review and document all your course work, evaluations, and conversations with your advisors. Because of the volume of students and paperwork an oversight can cause delays in your degree time. We have three distance learning students in this house. Being organized (fairly) has helped. ------------------
