Charter Oaks State College : “Individualized Studies” or “Liberal Arts” concentration

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by contasm, Jul 28, 2009.

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  1. contasm

    contasm New Member

    Hi All;

    I’m interested on enrolling @ Charter Oaks State College ( COSC) with the objective of obtaining a BS or BA; concentrations : “Individualized Studies” or “Liberal Arts”. I have around 105 credits accumulated from an Associate Degree in Civil Engineering and 3 semesters worth of credits from a B.Arch. (Architecture) plus 5 credits on computer studies courses.
    I have worked for the last 20 years as a software developer and would like to pursue a concentration on Architecture/Construction/Software Development. I live in Toronto, Canada.

    My credits have been already evaluated by ECE (Educational Credential Evaluators)
    and Excelsior College assigned 105 credits when I first applied to their BS Computer Information Systems back in 2001.


    My Questions to those enrolled/ interested or graduates from COSC :

    1 - Main difference between “Individualized Studies” AND “Liberal Arts” concentrations

    2 - How easy is to obtain credits through “Portfolio Assessment”

    3 - Experience from Canadians enrolled/graduated from COSC

    4 - Canadians taking CLEP. DANTES etc type of tests

    5 - Your general experience with COSC

    Thanks in advance for your answers and comments.

    Contasm
     
  2. lostandfound

    lostandfound New Member

    I too am very curious, specifically about questions #2 and especially about #4.
    Anyone?
     
  3. lookinforward

    lookinforward New Member

    I'm watching too. Although...I'm not in Canada.
     
  4. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I graduated from COSC in 2003 and will do my best to answer some of these.

    From the COSC Website - Individualized / Liberal Studies **
    The Individualized Studies concentration option allows you to combine professional studies with the liberal arts and sciences into a cohesive course of study. The key to receiving approval for this concentration is your ability to explain the rationale underneath the proposed concentration and its relation to your career and/or personal goals.

    The Liberal Studies concentration is composed of traditional liberal arts disciplines found in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences and mathematics. Again, you will be able to pursue this concentration only if you are able to clearly explain the rationale behind the proposed concentration and its relation to your career and/or personal goals.


    In short, I went with Indiv. Studies because I combined business classes and IT classes. Business and IT classes are not part of "liberal arts". Indiv. Studies is a lot more flexible with what you can use to "make a concentration"

    I heard it was not easy and would probably be easier and faster to CLEP out if you already have the knowledge.

    Do not know

    Don not know

    Incredible - outstanding - top-notch. I called Thomas Edison and they acted like they were doing me a favor answering quesitons, Excelsior was okay, COSC answered dozens of questions and started to recognize my voice when I called with questions before I sent them a single cent...before I even sent in an application! Top That!

    Hope this helps.
     
  5. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    Depending on how many "professional" credits you have it might be worth looking at the Excelsior BS in liberal arts/studies. You can apply up tp 59 semester units of professional credit towards that degree. It is what I did with a whole bunch of engineering units.
     
  6. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    It is also WAY less expensive to do CLEP. CLEP, for most exams, turns out to be about $32 per credit and can be as low as $8 per credit, while a portfolio costs $80 per credit attempted, plus requires a 3-credit ($$$cha-ching$$$) prerequisite course on how to make your portfolio. Unless you expect a ton of credit, and time is an issue for obtaining it, I would go CLEP even if it wasn't based on prior knowledge and required starting from scratch. (FYI, Excelsior says to expect a few months for the portfolio evaluation to be complete- I am not sure, but can assume, that a similar time frame is needed for Charter Oak).
     
  7. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member


    Don't forget you need to meet upper division degree requirements; CLEP does not result in UD credit (There some DSST tests that result in UD credit). The portfolio route might.
     

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