I have been reading and reading and reading so finally, I decided to ask for some advice. I have probably 70 hours or so that will probably transfer. The hours are spread between music ed, piano and church music. I have been a pro musician since age 12, with tons of experience in performing, entertaining, conducting choirs, big bands, stage orchestras and a few symphonies in pops concerts. But no degree. I did not know what they wanted in college so never tested well. About 8 years ago, I was diagnosed with A.D.D. h: which certainly answered a bunch of my questions. I'm now in my 50s but would love to at least get some kind of bachelors if I could make it. A friend who got a bachelors and masters from TESC suggested I get a BA in humanities, kind of a general degree. At this point, it really doesn't matter to me that much. I have taught piano private and class for decades, since I was 14, but don't plan on doing that much anymore, probably just more performing and always a church gig as a director. But even smaller churches now demand a bachelors of some sort. I would like to have it just to prove to myself and to get over that ADD hump, if I can. I just want the degree, but from an accredited school, not from a degree mill. I checked TESC and they have a $2700 "Annual Enrollment Tuition:" fee. Others do not have something like that. The prices are much higher than a few years ago when I looked. Do all of these DL schools vary so much financially in things like that? Any other suggestions for a program or school I should investigate? What is the big three I keep reading about? Thanks so much for all the info and any suggestions, D*
Hope this helps a bit. Hi - I'm NO expert, so I'll offer general encouragement and let others give more specific advice. the "Big 3 " you hear about are TESC, Charter Oak State College Charter Oak State College - Finish Your Degree Online and Excelsior College Home - excelsior.edu - all Regionally Accredited. There are many similarities in operation (credits by testing, prior learning portfolio etc.) There is some useful info about this type of education on Lawrie Miller's fine page at Lawrie Miller's BA in 4 Weeks. Online degrees by distance learning. BA degree and graduate degees - Accelerated Master Degrees by Distance Learning.. I wish you every success. Your determination and smarts came through strongly in your posting! Good to hear from you! Johann
Welcome to the boards! There are people much more qualified than myself to discuss the big 3 with you, and I'm sure they'll chime in soon. If not, just keep reading. These boards will be able to answer your questions; sometimes you just have to dig really hard or keep asking questions. A lot of choices will depend to a certain extent upon where you live. I live in Texas, and it was actually cheaper for me to go through UTEP than it was to use any of the big 3. As far as the annual enrollment fee, most people go ahead and put together a program on their own to satisfy what they think it will take to finish out their degree. I have seen people on here post a summary of credits and others chime in providing guidance on which programs to consider and credits needed. Then do a combo of CLEP/DSST/FEMA/whatever works for you to satisfy those estimated requirements. Only when you are close to complete do you submit your transcripts for evaluation. That way you only pay the annual fee once, and you leave yourself plenty of time to fill in gaps if your transcript evaluations don't come out the way you expected. Again, I'm not the authority on this, and I really don't read much on them anymore because I'm on a completely different track. But maybe this will help. They will be higher a few years from now, and so on and so on. It behooves us to go ahead and knock it out. Good luck.
Another site for you to visit is run by our old friend Lawrie Miller: Lawrie Miller's BA in 4 Weeks. Online degrees by distance learning. BA degree and graduate degees - Accelerated Master Degrees by Distance Learning.
Steve Levicoff wrote several articles and posts on how he earned his BA from TESC including how he earned credit via portfolio learning for playing music. I could not find his articles but maybe someone else has a link.
I have been looking over Lawrie Miller's site today. Very interesting. Lots of reading to go on that site. Steve Levicoff is actually the person who told me first about TESC. We have known each other around ten years or so. But we have been out of touch now for several years since he seems to love being on the road. Because I really am not that particular about the degree, it was Steve who suggested I just go for "Humanities" for the Bachelors. Steve got a couple of music electives by taking some guitar lessons, same as if he were to do it in a class setting. I actually have over 80 credit hours, I think around 85, but some are such low grades I would probably not want to count them. My major area was always music. My problem came to testing. I never tested well, but I was always "doing" what i was going to school to learn. For example, I would take off a semester to travel in 'music evangelism" directing choirs of 40 to 100+ people and congregations of a thousand people, with bands or orchestras. then I go back to college for a required basic conducting class. In October, '75, I did some concerts in a theatre in Stratford, Ontario. The following semester, I had a theatre appreciation class with a story and photos of that same stage where I had performed ten weeks earlier. So I can "do the job" but I don't have the degree that tells some folks that I know what I'm doing...although I have been doing it for 35+ years! Perhaps that's why Steve suggested I just go for the humanities and get it out of the way. Thanks for the suggestions and conversation so far. D*
I suggest you download the liberal arts catalog from Excelsior College and look at the requirements for the BS in Liberal Studies. In my opinion the most flexible BS degree in the world because of its 59-unit elective https://my.excelsior.edu/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=f9efcdb6-2dad-4c83-b2e0-43725d335e94&groupId=78666 You can earn credit at any regionally accredited college or by passing CLEP and DSST exams. Some of the DSST exams may give you upper division credit. I also would not worry about any low grades you have - with your experience no one is going to ask you about grades.
It sounds as though you are able to provide documentation for the music-related work you have done, so you might consider obtaining some of your credits through portfolio assessment, as was mentioned above. Excelsior and Charter Oak offer this option, and there are likely others that do as well. Portfolio Assessment - excelsior.edu Portfolio Overview at Charter Oak State College
This is good info but i don't think I understand exactly. Do I evaluate my three transcripts myself, then consider what is lacking to complete a program, take the classes and tests elsewhere...then finally...enroll at TESC to present the info to them for receiving the degree? Is that what you are saying?? Thanks for the advice, at least I am getting an idea. D*
That is exactly what I did for my BS except I enrolled at Excelsior. The EC catalog is very clear on requirements in my opinion.
I graduated from Excelsior, and tested out for the entire degree, with the exception of eight credits. The enrollment fee pays for transcript evaluation and ongoing advice from the school, which I decided I wanted from the beginning - although I was confident I could complete all tests within one year, so did not expect to pay for a second year. My communication with them was somewhat frequent during the year I was enrolled, which worked well for me. I read the Lawrie Miller tutorial (mentioned above) and used InstantCert to study for the CLEP and DANTES tests, and highly recommend both. InstantCert - Study Guides For CLEP, DANTES, ECE, And GED Exams
I lost my confidence years ago, decades ago. I have been studying the instantCert site. Pretty interesting. My main problem that I only discovered about 8 years ago was that I actually have been ADD all of these years. I am a musical genius with ADD, which is not uncommon. As a result, I never tested well. That's why I have no degree. But I'm gonna try out Instantcert and see how that does. It is interactive (good) and cuts to the chase, feeding you the important stuff you need to know. Sounds great to me. And Excelsior has plenty of programs. I also enjoyed the discussion with "David" over the advantage of NOT using portfolio. I had thought about that, but at this point, I just want to finish the degree as a BA of some flavor. I already have around 80 credit hours. So I just have to decide the degree plan and see with what I need to fill in those extra 40 hour credits. It would be great to clep out of most of them. Steve Levicoff had recommended TCSE but Excelsior may have the answer if I can do the tests and now screw up like I always did before! I just needed to know what they were asking for and not try to over-analyze every question on the test. Who knows...if the testing goes well, i might go for something else later. Thanks, D*
Since you mentioned that money was an issue (for mee too) you might want to take a peek at UNISA. The cost is remarkably low, they accept transfer credits from US schools and they also do portfolio assessments. They have all sorts of subject areas to choose from, including music: Unisa Online - Musicology In any case, good luck with your quest.
Regarding the fear of tests: I had that too, but was saved by the advice offered by Lawrie Miller on the importance of taking the practice tests. They are invaluable for building knowledge of how the questions are presented, and for providing reliable feedback on the readiness factor.
YES! I have been reading through that site and it is certainly encouraging. All of the posts here have been. You are all so good at letting others know that it can be done...again...even after being out of school for many years. So thanks for the advice. I am still reading. The Lawrie Miller site is interesting, lots of material to provoke thought. I think I am going to try out InstaCert and work on a clep test or two. If that goes well, then I will jump in and see how much I can get done. It will be a good starting place for me. Thanks D*
How many of your 80-credit hours are upper division? EC requires 30 Upper Division (UD) credits of which 21 must be in the arts and sciences. CLEP does not have any UD exams but DSST does have a few. I'm assuming your 80 credit hours are semester and not quarter.
If you go to Home - excelsior.edu and click on Exams at the top of the page, the information will guide you through the process, including available options, methods and tests. Many of the Excelsior tests are upper level, and have practice tests associated with them.
All semester hours. I'm not sure at which point the hours are considered upper level. I really should order a copy of my transcripts myself to refresh my memory and get a more solid idea of where I'm going. I don't think there are any 400 level courses, if that's what you mean. D*
