I have been in and out of college for years. I've also passed a bunch of CLEP and DSST tests (I have employer reimbursement). All told, I've got 120 hours. Yes, the magic number of hours for a degree but I don't have one. I'm looking for a way to complete my degree online. Fast is more important than cheap. Nationally accredited or for-profit is okay as long as I can get into a graduate literature program at a real school. Cram, test, and pass has worked for me. I need to be honest with myself. I write well but I just don't do the written work in courses. I know I should, but I just don't. I read that people used to get degrees without a capstone course. Too bad I missed that. I suppose I could make myself write a lengthy research paper, particularly if I get to choose something that interests me. Is a capstone just writing a research paper using citations for everything? General education, liberal arts, history, psychology, I don't care what the major is. I just want a degree.
Welcome! You're lucky that I'm a night owl who's up late, so I'm awake to approve your first post. There are many, many options out there, but if you have a mess (in a good way) of credits, your best starting point is probably "The Big Three"; College Degrees for Adults at Thomas Edison State College Excelsior College | Excelsior College Finish your Degree Online - Charter Oak State College
The issue I have with TESC is that it is a research project instead of a research paper, at least for the one instructor I'm familiar with. If I must choose between the two, I greatly prefer a conventional research paper iver a research project.
The Big Three are your best bet for completing an accredited degree as fast as possible. Don't get too hung up on the research project with TESC. Oh, and avoid schools that only have national accreditation if your goal is to go to grad school at a "real school," as you say.
It would be helpful to list all the credits you have and exams you've passed. 120 is the magic number, but you need them in specific places.
TESC says I need only a capstone to graduate. The problem is the capstone requiring "primary qualitative research" that could be interviewing subject matter experts or creating a survey and analyzing the results. It says writing a paper citing the work of others is secondary research which is not acceptable.
In that case, I wonder how well you would possibly do in a graduate literature program, at a "real school" or otherwise. I don't say that to be callous, but what do you think will be different when you get to the Master's level?
I agree with Steve completely. What do you think you will be doing in a graduate literature degree program? Let me give you a hint, reading and writing, TONS of writing, :eek2:and research too, imagine that. :scared:
You forgot, fast, cheap, accredited and highly ranked. Oh, and it leads to a high-paying tenure teaching gig.
To echo some of Steve's comments, I think you are underestimating what would be expected of a graduate literature student. "Cram, test and pass" without writing might help you win the day as an undergrad but it is less likely to yield any results at the graduate level, particularly in a writing intensive field like literature. None of that has anything to do with your desire to earn a degree. I applaud your initiative in wanting to earn that degree. But if you really, really want a graduate degree in literature you are going to need to do some writing. And if you get into an MA program and "don't do the written work in courses" you are going to fail those courses. Many of them (programs) may not have a single objective test it will be 36 or so credits of writing your butt off. So, if you stay the course, then developing those writing skills and better homework habits now might be a good idea. You don't want to burn through 2-3 grad programs before you get into the swing of things. Regarding your "120," as rebel notes, that is only a magic number if you have the appropriate course distribution. Warning - Neuhaus Story- So, when I was in the Navy I had this guy come into the office and want to add his bachelors and masters to his records. Now, an obvious way for us to verify a degree is to just look at SMART transcripts (a separate process not handled by my office) in addition to whatever records he brought in. The guy was getting out of the Navy in a few weeks and wanted to make sure his record was all up to date. Practically speaking, this was a useless exercise on his part. While his service record would include a code for his highest academic degree earned that code (and his service record) offered him very little utility in the outside world. But, hey, my job wasn't to keep people from doing pointless things. Anyway, the guy has a SMART transcript that is just packed full of courses. What it's lacking, however, is a notation that any degree was awarded let alone a bachelors and a masters. No biggie, if you didn't use military TA (a lot of people didn't) then it was entirely possible that the SMART folks just never got record of his graduation. I asked for school transcripts. All looked to be in order except, again, no degree awarded. Maybe he had them issue the transcripts before the degree was awarded? It took us a solid two weeks to figure out the sad, sad truth; he didn't have any degree. Once he reached the "magic number" of 120, he decided that meant he had a bachelors degree. So, he kept up and earned another 30 and assumed that meant he had a masters degree. He was angry that no one had actually given him a pretty certificate to hang on the wall, so he came into my office assuming that I must be the guy who printed the certificate. Worse yet, the majority of his 150 credits were lower division, and at least 24 credits were either direct duplication of courses (i.e. he took English Comp two or more times) or less obvious duplications (i.e. he took College Algebra and Business Math, either of which might meet a single math requirement but having both would not be as beneficial). Moral: You need a certain number of credits to graduate. This is true. But you really need to meet the requirements for a particular degree plan. Explore some of the options at TESC, Excelsior and Charter Oak. They are your best shot. If you find that you need to take additional coursework and you're concerned about earning a degree from a "real" school, DeSales has a fairly liberal transfer policy (up to 75 credits). So, assuming that you max out transfer credits, you can knock out a bachelors for around 15 courses at a private (Catholic) university with leafy quads and all.
Regarding the 120, if we're talking about Charter Oak, almost anyone who has that many probably has met all of the required categories or close enough that another easy test or two should do it. The bigger question is whether you have enough upper division credit (300 or 400 level), because if not you'll have to either take more tests (harder ones than CLEP and DSST usually are) or else actually take courses to make up the difference. Unfortunately, the days of no coursework degrees are over, at Charter Oak one needs to take both a Cornerstone course and a Capstone course to take a Bachelor's degree. My understanding is that TESC and Excelsior also now have such requirements.
Well, perhaps Auld said it that way because of a lack of enthusiasm for make-work in undergraduate "check the box" courses, and just wants to get that out of the way because s/he's excited about delving into literature. I kind of felt that way after I had found GW's program but realized I first needed to finish my Bachelor's.
There is an option at TESC to do a creative project. Has anyone actually done one? "It may take the form of developing a film, choreographing a dance, acting in a production, exhibiting paintings, writing a collection of poetry or short stories, writing a play, writing a literary analysis, presenting a photographic essay, or any similar type of creative endeavor." I understand how my wording has prompted the responses. The goal is to find something to do that meets the standards but is fun, not drudgery. "Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life." Some people are lucky enough to successfully apply that adage to school. Most aren't.
While I'm certain there are exceptions, I've only ever heard it from people who are either too delusional or stupid to recognize that work sucks. If you wake up in the morning and say "Boy, oh, boy I can't wait to go to work" then you are likely one of those sickos who think that work is "fun" because you get to "meet interesting people" or some such nonsense. Yeah, if you love playing rock music and you become a major rock star then it's probably an easy thing to say. I imagine it is particularly the case when you reach that point in your career where you can literally sing anything and people will buy millions of copies of it on iTunes. But, realistically, if you aren't bound for rock fame or professional athletics it probably isn't in the cards for most people. And many of those people find that the business of that fame overshadows the creative part that they actually enjoy. The Chiropractor/Acupuncturist who lives next door to me absolutely loves sticking pins in people and twisting them all around. But he hates insurance billing, medical coding, managing staff, advertising and standing around at health fairs telling people how subluxations are really a thing. Unfortunately, all of those things overshadow the work that he actually does. Self-employed? Wouldn't have it any other way? Awesome. But if you hit the lottery the next day (something big, say $400M) would you continue doing that thing as an actual business? Doubtful. You might still carve driftwood sculptures but I doubt you'll give much thought to the business aspect of it. So, unless you are independently wealthy drudgery is generally a part of life. Once I accepted that fact I stopped being so frustrated by the idea that, on any given morning, I would prefer to be doing any number of things rather than going to work. I'm grateful for my job, mind you. And I love my job when compared to other jobs I've had or might have (and certainly love it compared to the idea of unemployment). But, I work because I have bills to pay not because it provides me a more intellectually stimulating environment than sitting in my den reading books. Generally speaking, earning degrees isn't "fun." It's work. And it comes with a fair amount of drudgery. I have fun thinking through various degree programs like I do here. But, my latest project (my own TESC degree) is going to require some actual work on my part that I'm going to have to force myself to do. If I wait for it to get "fun" it won't happen. And when I knock out my (and what will likely be my last) masters degree, that's going to require work as well. Note that I'm not trying to kill the buzz here. And a fair portion of what I'm writing is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But, yeah, I just really despise that phrase.
You can test out of TESC's Strategic Management capstone for the BSBA degrees with a TECEP or CSU Global CBE. You can also transfer the course from Penn Foster if it is currently ACE-approved.
