I have looked at TESC and Excelsior catalogs and have a question. With TESC it says that I can only take 36 credits per year. Is this true? This would cost $4K which is their comprehensive tuition plan. Excelsior charges not quite $1K per year and I don't see a credit per year cap. Am I missing something here? It seems like Excelsior would be far and away the best way to go. I plan on testing out on all of my credits needed besides those I will earn from portfolio assessment and I want to do it in a year or less. What is the best way to go? thanks in advance.
John, I feel Excelsior IS the cheaper route to go. I am not sure on the credit cap per year, but it seems TESC nickles and dimes you to death with misc. fees. Excelsior, on the other hand. Has one enrollment fee which varies in cost (can be as little as 599 if you are a military student whos completed a 2 yr. degree from there) and one graduation fee. For the exception of application (and actual tuition of different courses transferred), I believe that is all you pay. So, YES, I think Excelsior is a far cheaper alternative to TESC. Anybody else think otherwise? Best Regards, Bill
Get all the credits you know you will need before you apply. Check out Lawrie Miller's page if you haven't already. http://geocities.com/BA_in_4_weeks/mainmenu.html
TESC doesn't limit you to 36 credits/year, it's just that the comprehensive tuition only includes (covers the expense of) 12 credits of actual courses per semester (with 3 semesters/year, for a total of 36 credits). Comprehensive tuition also includes "unlimited" TECEP exams and portfolio assessment, so it can be very cost effective if you take full advantage of it. Any form of enrollment will allow you to transfer in as many credits as you want/can, including CLEP and DANTES exams. Which school would work best for you really depends upon your situation though. You have to evaluate each of them according to your needs. My own personal opinion is that if you are planning to take 36 credits of actual coursework then you really ought to evaluate the more traditional programs that charge by the credit rather than charging a large enrollment fee for each year. Most of those programs only require 30 credits of "residency" (courses taken from that school), and many also will allow you to complete much of the rest through testing, so they can often compare very favorably cost-wise if you are planning to take that many courses. The main advantage of the "Big 3" (TESC, COSC, and Excelsior) seems to be that they don't require you to take any courses from them, and will allow you to complete a degree through testing, portfolio, and/or transfer of previously taken credits.
I talked to someone in the TESC offices the other day, and this fellow informed me that 36 was the limit that they would allow any student to take, portfolios included. I'm hoping this guy was new to TESC, or was either confused/misinformed. I wanted to nail down 36 credits of classes next year, and submit several portfolios in addition to that. I read on one of the Yahoo! groups that TESC had recently changed their portfolio process, and that portfolios would now count against the alloted course load. I asked the TESC guy point blank: "can I take a full course load of 36 credits via classes, and submit portfolios, even if I pay for them myself, outside of the comprehensive tuition", and he said no. Can anyone provide any clarification?
this would be a real setback for those who want to go with TESC and want to take more than 36 credits in a year to complete the program.
If this is true, I wonder if there is another "creative" way around it, such as registering as a student in a different school (simultaneously with TESC), and doing portfolio assessment there, then transferring the credits or something?
An idea Good Morning, I am going to check on the colleges that have articulating agreements with TESC. I believe that some of them may offer there own portfolio situation. I believe TESC may be modeling another school which found additional revenue by changing the process. I could be wrong. Hopefully I will be able to find a cheaper option. Hille
For those who are interested in discussing this further, I've gone ahead and created a new thread: http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10869
