Thomas Edison State College

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Lajazz947, Mar 24, 2002.

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  1. Lajazz947

    Lajazz947 New Member

    Hello everyone:

    I have now been doing a fair amount of research on DL schools and I truly enjoy this board and the information available.

    As my previous posts note I plan on continuing my studies in Poli Sci and Military Intelligence but every time I turn around I find some new information. I have just now started to look at TESC's website and plan to contact them tomorrow for some more info but I would like to pose this to the board.

    Question: I am a bit confused by TESC. They have a Masters program in Liberal Studies but in reading the information I have yet to figure out exactly how it works. I understand the portfolio assessment and trasfer of credit part but do I DESIGN a program of study in a field of interest, study and then test and write a thesis? i.e. History.

    At this stage in my life what I would LOVE to do is find a program that would allow me to do just that.....design a program in History with an emphasis in contemporary history.

    Am I asking too much? I checked in to Cal State Dominguez Hills program but it seems too philisophically based for me. Other than Political Science I am interested in the study of fact based events rather than the theoretical and philosophical study and application.

    Any programs out there that might let me design a course for a Masters?

    Thanks,

    Rafael

    BS Western State University, Fullerton, CA
    JD Western State University, School of law, Fullerton, CA
    MBA Pepperdine, Malibu
    MA Kansas State, Manhattan KS 2003
    :(
     
  2. Ken

    Ken member

    One of the best ones I have seen is from Lesley College.

    Fairly well respected school and a flexible program. A little expensive but what can you do.

    Lesley is much more respected than TESC.
     
  3. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

  4. Hille

    Hille Active Member

    TESC

    Good Morning, My husband is currently working on his degree in Liberal Studies for his second Bachelors degree. I will e-mail you directly after work to give you some short cuts that were missed when my daughter got her degree last year. Have a great day. Start compiling every certificate , picture, and evidence of knowledge you have for portfolios. Hille
     
  5. Susan2

    Susan2 New Member

    Masters in Liberal Studies?

    Hi!

    I wasn't aware that TESC offered a Master's program in Liberal Studies. I know they offer business-related Master's degrees, but are you certain they also offer one in Liberal Studies? (I'm a TESC grad and I usually read about new degree programs in the alumni newsletter.)

    I'll watch this board for your response -- I'm very curious about this!

    Regards,
    Susan
     
  6. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    By whom? Where is this data available? (Thanks, Bruce. Top-notch idea.)

    Anecdotally: Having worked in the Boston area as an educational specialist for the Air Force, this assertion wasn't consistent with my experiences. Well regarded, certainly, but a tiny reputation compared to the other Boston-area schools like Brandeis, Babson, Northeastern, etc. (Not to mention the big ones like Harvard and MIT.) But having worked in this field for more than two decades--most of them outside New England--I can say that neither school is particularly well know outside their respective regions. For most people, there would be no practical difference in terms of degree performance between the two.

    Rich Douglas
     
  7. Lajazz947

    Lajazz947 New Member

    MA in Liberal studies

    Susan:

    Sorry about that. It's a MA in Professional studies.

    Rafael
     
  8. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Hi Raphael.

    I have no personal experience with TESC, but I'll talk anyway.

    Don't confuse TESC's undergraduate procedures with their graduate procedures. You can't do your masters by testing. (They only allow 6 units out of their 36 unit program to be completed that way.) You will have to take conventional classes from TESC.

    As I read it, you get 12 units of electives out of 36, with all the rest either prescribed courses or thesis credits.

    Then you probably won't like TESC. Scroll down on this page until you reach the course decriptions for the required courses. Check out the readings: philosophers one and all.

    http://www.tesc.edu/prospective/graduate/degree/maps.php
     
  9. Ken

    Ken member

    Rich,

    You demonstrate such ignorance on a consistant basis, it is unclear what field you work it (maybe some bad tequila when you were trying to get you degree in Monterrey... you always have promoted the quality schools).

    Remember in school, you had the regular class, then you had the special class for the real intelligent kids, then you had the special class for the... special kids. TESC is a university for the special kids. I realize the special kids don't like to recognize this but oh well.

    Lesley... a top-tier regional university with a ave. reputation. Of course, you have your own world so the US News and World report doesn't matter... you would prefer a 4th tier school with an awful rep (see Touro or Goddard) rather than Lesley.
     


  10. Gee, that's funny. So many quotes about TESC, it's hard to keep track of them. Now, where was it... Ah, there it is:

    Message 2 in thread
    From: lewchuk ([email protected])
    Subject: Re: "Prestige" of Thomas Edison State College
    Newsgroups: alt.education.distance
    Date: 2000-12-22 06:26:04 PST


    I would not be concerned. TESC is a RA public school which will be accepted in the vast majority of cases (i.e. virtually all). It is in the 4th tier of prestige category to be sure but obviously so are many other schools. The distance component may cause you some difficulty in isolated cases but again, the school is a public RA institution which will likely mitigate any DL skepticism. Don't expect it to be recognized as equivalent to a Harvard or Yale but don't be concerned about general acceptability.

    (Source- http://groups.google.com/groupshl=en&selm=3a436447_3%40newsa.ev1.net - Ken Lewchuk, TESC wash-out and fellow "special kid.")

    Full of crap then, full of crap now, or both. Now, let me remember to keep cookies on so that my "Ignore List" is applied automatically. G'night, Johnny Reincarnation.
     
  11. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Speaking of reputations, no one knows the reputation(s) of the school(s) that awarded your degree(s), since you refuse to answer my very simple request that you enlighten us as to what prestigious universities awarded your degree(s), if any.

    No Ken, I won't stop asking until you answer.


    Bruce
     
  12. P. Kristian Mose

    P. Kristian Mose New Member

    As was mentioned, the TESC masters in liberal studies is actually called a MAPS degree, Master of Arts in Professional Studies, which to my mind is an very stupid designation. Stupid, because the very concept of the masters in liberal studies is that it is the *opposite* of a professional degree. It is a by design a graduate degree with little specialization. Sort of a higher-order BA, and a degree most people don't quite understand. Generally pursued by high school teachers seeking a raise.
    Clearly this is what TESC is striving for on one hand, since they have designed a rather impressive 18-credit great books sequence that is required for all, and they are trying for accreditation by the Graduate Assn. of Liberal Studies Programs (I think that's the name).
    But when you pore through the TESC catalog, as I have, you get the strong feeling that your fellow students will be people at some low-to-midrange rung on a corporate ladder at Sears Roebuck, who are doing this for the credential, and who may indeed be delighted by the ambiguity of the degree's name, for they deem themselves professionals rather than enlightened citizens.
    Furthermore, the program does not list a single faculty member, and it sits side-by-side in the slim graduate catalog with a master's in management (and the two programs even share some management electives!)
    Clearly this MAPS is a new program, but it sounds to me like a degree designed by two warring administration factions: the liberal arts types, and the marketing and MBA types. Right now I would assume the latter are the stronger camp. I hope I am proved wrong.
    Peter
     
  13. Susan2

    Susan2 New Member

    TESC Master's Programs

    When TESC first started their Master's program in Management, I went to an informational seminar they offered to graduates of their Bachelor's programs. At that time, I was considering a business-oriented master's, and since I'd had an excellent experience with TESC when I completed my bachelor's degree, I was very interested in learning about their management degree program.

    I discovered that the degree was intended primarily for employees of corporations, was somewhat overpriced, and required students to attend monthly meetings on weekends. Needless to say, I didn't bother applying. As I recall, almost the entire first group of students was comprised of AT&T employees. This situation may have changed by now, but I remember being very disappointed that the master's in management was structured so distinctly for corporate types, and was also not the complete distance learning degree I was looking for.

    I don't know about the MAPS degree, but from what I'm reading on this board, I wouldn't be interested in pursuing it unless I was looking for a "master's in anything" just so I could tell people I had my master's degree. Hopefully, I'm misinterpreting the intent of the degree program.

    In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't bother with the TESC program -- I'm very happy with my CSU master's program (MS in Education with an Option in Online Teaching and Learning,) and I'll finish it at the end of this summer, about a year after I began. (I think the TESC program in management was 2 years -- with no possibility of acceleration.)

    Susan
     
  14. Ken

    Ken member

    Mose,

    Warning, when you criticise TESC you are defiling the temple... desecrating sacred ground. There are many TESC alumns around here.

    Your analysis is correct.
     
  15. A co-worker described it as "the MA custom-designed for the person who has no idea what he wants to do with a graduate degree, except have one." He might be right. It strikes me as a liberal arts degree (some great classical selections, BTW) being forced by its "parents" to attend business school.

    But then, some people like almonds on pizza.

    - Dennis M.
    BSHS (TESC)
     
  16. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I don't like the name very much either, but that's a pretty superficial criticism.

    All graduate degrees are higher order bachelors degrees, aren't they?

    But there is a more serious point here. Not all employers are looking for specialists in a narrow technical subject, even if it's business administration. A large number of them want the kind of person who is flexible, who can move into new areas and not suddenly be at a loss. People who possess a strong general background and the ability to make connections across disciplinary boundaries.

    Here's what a widely quoted report on higher education has to say on the subject:

    The same report stated that about 40% of the job openings surveyed that required a university degree did not specify a particular major.

    Are professionals something opposed to enlightened citizens?

    There is this recurring theme in higher education that sees universities as if they were Benedictine monasteries. Rather than institutions in close interaction with the needs of their communities, they idealize withdrawal from the world into a cloister where they can undisturbedly contemplate *higher things*. In the years since the middle ages, those higher things have gradually been secularized, but the the style remains even as the substance is lost.

    In a way I don't disagree with you. But unlike you, I can see some positives in a program like this.

    The most prestigious kind of university program trains a few graduates to go on to get doctorates and end up teaching another generation of students intending to get doctorates who end up... You get the picture. It's pointless, unless you assume that the papers and books that they publish along the way have inherent value and enrich mankind. They do, of course, but nobody really cares or bothers to read any of it except those few graduate students aiming at a career teaching a few graduate students. That's the academic cloister...

    That's why I see this sort of program that TESC is experimenting with as an interesting development. It is trying to say that education outside the confines of a narrow vocational skill is not irrelevant in people's real lives. That the ability to think sophisticated thoughts about the forces that shape our society actually has some value in business and government. Imagine that.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 27, 2002
  17. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    And from what prestigious institution are you an alum? You continue to ignore my question concerning from what school(s) you earned your degree(s), if any.

    But, rest assured, I will continue to ask it.


    Bruce
     
  18. P. Kristian Mose

    P. Kristian Mose New Member

    Lovely post. It's the b-school parenting that I find so unfortunate. If you are running a university and want to sell your liberal arts master's degree to the world, sell it either by its content as the world of pure thought and knowledge, or by the fact that it is a graduate credential. But don't sell it masquerading as something else, like a business degree.

    Peter

    P.S. You sure you can get almonds on pizza?
     
  19. My bet? A theology degree from a completely unprestigious bible college, an admittedly aborted attempt at TESC (TESC being RA, and thus, more acceptable) and a presumably aborted attempt at H-W. But we'll never hear this from him.

    But still an authority on the relative prestige of different programs, forms of accreditation or oversight, the "academic rigor" of different institutions.
     

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