I am looking for advice regarding the quickest, easiest way to complete my Bachelor Degree online. I already have 113 hrs from an accredited state university, with a sociology major and an anthropology minor. I have looked at the MA in Psychology/Behavioral Medicine at Northcentral. Apparently, only 120 hours are required for admission, regardless of whether a degree had been earned. I could find a quick way to come up to 120 hrs, then begin work on the MA. The disadvantage would be that if I had to withdraw, I would have nothing! Or, I could just proceed to complete the BA, but usually at least 30 hours are required to be completed with the online school. And then I would still have to begin the work on the MA. ANY wisdom greatly appreciated!
Have you thought about taking your last 7 hours - anywhere - and transferring back to your old state university? If so, what individual classes would you need?
I really can only do it online because of family responsibilities. My original four years were so long ago, too, that I would have to take many more than seven hours to meet current degree plan requirements. Plus, I was so enthralled with my major and minor classes (I have even more of those than I needed) that I skipped at least two or three of the core curriculum classes that I decided, foolishly, were too boring. Although I enjoy studying and learning and could take classes from now until death, I am limited by finances and want to do this in the simplest way possible, and then try to proceed with the MA. Thanks for the ideas and I will go check out the links. I did look at the Excelsior website after reading about it here, but could not determine how many of my credits they would accept.
As you are so close to completion of an undergrduate degree I would recommend you check Thomas Edison State College (TESC), specifically, the Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Sociology. My sister earned a graduate degree in organizational leadership from Royal Roads University in British Columbia, Canada, via distance education without benefit of an undergraduate degree.
Wilder, From what you have told us, I believe that you should definitely consider Charter Oak, Thomas Edison or Excelsior. (www.csoc.edu www.tesc.edu www.excelsior.edu) If your credits are less than 20 years old, then they should all transfer. You should be able to transfer in most classes, then take a few CLEPS/DANTES tests to fill in general education requirements. To complete any degree specific requirements, you might have to take a class or two. However, you can probably find the classes through correspondence courses at one of the major universities. For example, LSU offers 5 sociology courses through correspondence or online.
Hey Wilder, I don't know what your last 7 credits need to be exactly, but you might find it useful to go here: http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/crslist.asp ... Take 7 FEMA courses (I recommend the entire Professional development series because after you finish it, you get a frameable certificate in Emergency Management). They can all be done online and you can submit your exams online. Plus, its totally self-paced and totally FREE! Some FEMA courses are awarded upper-level credit... check with TESC to find out which ones are upper-level. Next, open a credit bank ($380 for non-military folks) here: http://www.tesc.edu ... Have FEMA send your transcript to TESC, get the credits and then have TESC send the transcript to your local College. ... Graduate. Now, before you do anything, ask (email or fax) your local College if they accept Nationally or Regionally accredited credits that have been transcripted (don't mention FEMA)... if they say yes, you'll have it on record that they said yes. Then, go ahead and try the transfer. If after you try to make the transfer and they tell you that FEMA courses have to go through FCC (Fredricks Community College), do a search for "Michael Gates" here on this forum to find out how he fought that ridiculous policy. If they still don't budge, go someplace else to try and graduate, like Excelsior for example. Alternatively, like MrLazy suggested, you could always try to test out of whatever credits you still need. With only 7 credits left, you owe it to yourself to finish, and you have so many options to get yourself there.
You guys have given me much to think about, and I really appreciate it. Unfortunately, my credits are all over 20 years old. (I am feeling older by the minute!). I will need to check the feasibility of transfer for each institution, so thanks for the heads up. The FEMA thing went right over my head, so I will definitely go read up on it. Do you mean transfer them back to the original university? Would that university not expect me to complete my remaining hours in residence? It never dawned on me that they may not have that requirement. Am I understanding the Excelsior website to say that they have no minimum coursework requirement with them in order to have them confer the degree? I could just take seven hours with them, or whatever their transcript evaluation suggests I need? I have not seen that anywhere else. Again, thanks for all of the help. I am feeling hopeful...
Yes, the "big 3" schools (Excelsior, Charter Oak, Thomas Edison) accept the entire degree requirements in transfer. There are no residency requirements that I know of for these schools. You can literally transfer in 120 credit hours and as long as they meet the degree requirements, be conferred a degree. Which makes them great for people like me who have collected college credit from many sources over the years.
Moreover, 2 of the big 3 (TESC and Excelsior) will award college credit for the free FEMA courses. In short, you may be a 'FEMA Weekend' away from completion: 1. Complete 7 easy fema courses online. 2. Apply to TESC w/old transcripts 3. Forward FEMA transcript to TESC Of course there are many alternatives (TESC or Excelsior), Liberal Arts or specific major...and it may be worthwhile to phone both Excelsior and TESC to see what your specific alternatives are. Good luck man! Greg P.S. Excelsior awarded me credit for 17 year old classes so I don't think old credits are going to be an issue...
Yep. I think Pug's 1-2-3 answer sums it up. Of course, if you wish to still try and graduate from your local school... you could find out how many credits your local school will grant you, then if you only need those 7 you'd take some FEMA courses making sure you definitely take the upper-level ones (see TESC for which FEMA course are considered upper-level). Then send the FEMA transcript of the FEMA courses you finished to TESC, have them transcript them through their credit bank ($380 fee), then take them to your local school and see if they will accept them... If your local school accepts them, great! You're on your way. If they don't, you should then look to one of the Big 3 schools. Your local school might admit you so that you can finish, but I'm guessing that this option would be inconvenient for you in terms of scheduling. There has been a number of people who transferred into Excelsior having met all of the requirements, but most people come in still needing to finish more courses. The reason I suggest the FEMA courses--besides them being free--is the fact that a few of them count for upper-level credits which you will more than likely need in order to complete your degree. You'll have to check with TESC to find out which ones are considered upper-level. You should. I think you're right at the door with a handful of options
COSC took my credits that were about 15 years old and they were the most flexible and customer focused school of the three. For the final seven credits take a few quick and easy CLEP's / DANTES. I earned 51 credits in 6 weeks. I am sure if you look through my old posts the numbers keep changing Look here for the exams I took to complete my degree- http://bain4weeks.com/randell.html "I was able to complete the requirements for my BS from Charter Oak State College in only 4 months. I started with a diploma in Biomedical Repair from the US Army, an AA from University of Phoenix, and my MCSE, and A+ certifications. I completed two classes from the University of Phoenix for upper level credit and the following CLEP/DANTES/ECE exams: August 08-14-2002 DANTES Intro to Criminal Justice 08-14-2002 DANTES Intro to Law Enforcement September 09-04-2002 DANTES Intro to Computing 09-04-2002 DANTES Organizational Behav 09-04-2002 DANTES Envir and Humanity 09-09-2002 DANTES – HR Management 09-09-2002 DANTES Tech Writing 09-09-2002 DANTES Intro to Business 09-12-2002 DANTES Here’s to you Health 09-17-2002 CLEP History and Social Science 09-19-2002 ECE Labor relations 09-22-2002 DANTES Ethics 09-22-2002 DANTES MIS 09-26-2002 ECE Production/Operation Mgt 09-30-2002 CLEP English w/essay November 11-11-2002 ECE Research Methods in Psy"
Btw, the FEMA courses are open book, unproctored, exams. Using key word searches in the pdf and google, I passed the first one in 45 minutes (with zero prior knowledge). The second course was passed in 35 minutes. And for what it's worth, folks on the instantcert.com/forums seem to agree with this assessment (regarding timeframe of 1 hour = 1 credit). Of course, everyone's mileage varies...but these and TESC would be on my shortlist given your requirement of 'the quickest, easiest way to complete my Bachelor Degree online'. Greg
With the soc. major and anthro minor, you might want to consider Thomas Edison State College and the BA in Social Sciences. Social Science program It requires some work in three social sciences and you could fill your remaining hours with psych. courses to complete the TESC requirements. This option may help you get into a psych grad program a little better than a soc. BA. The cheapest and fastest option may well be the Excelsior College BA or BSc in Liberal Studies. Your Soc. and Anthro. work likely would meet the required depth areas. Good luck.
I'm impressed with the things you guys have accomplished, and thanks for sharing so much great advice. I am trying now to figure out the basics required by TESC and compare them to those required by Excelsior. I suppose I will go with the one that seems more likely to accept most of what I have already taken. Good point on the entrance to the MA Psych program, because I just noticed they (Northcentral) mention 'leveling classes'. I assume that, if I call them, they will give me a general idea of what they may be. I do have Intro to Psychology and I think I have a Social Psychology. Maybe that is enough, but if more is required I could take those now to get the BA and kill two birds with one stone....I think? I am also confused about the enrollment fee at Excelsior. $995 and then I would still have to pay per credit hour for any classes I took? Makes the FEMA option look really good. I am hoping they will explain all of this with a phone call before I apply and pay the first fee. The only thing that throws me about Thomas Edison is the proctor requirement.
