TESC, COSC or Excelsior in terms of responding

I was browsing through TESC moderated discussion board and have heard a lot of negative comments about their response to student's concern. You can check the following link.
http://www.tesc.edu/phorum/read.php?f=7&i=394&t=394

I would like to know other people experience with Excelsior and COSC.

 

I checked the URL you cited, and would hardly say that there were "a lot of negative comments" about TESC's response.

TESC has an advisement center that is open every day, and students who call in can generally get immediate answers to questions or problems. For what it's worth, when I did my B.A. with TESC, I never had communication or response problems - at all.

With that said, here's my sagely wisdom for the day: Whichever school you go with - TESC, Excelsior, or COSC - be prepared to take responsibility for your own program. In almost every school with which I have been associated, whether as a student or teacher/advisor, I have found that when there are problems, they usually (though not always) originate with the student. In that sense, you are likely to find similar "response issues" regardless of where you enroll. Some of them may be legitimate, but before you rush to judgment, the first place you should do an efficiency check is your own mirror.

One disclaimer: I was lucky enough to be only an hour from TESC, so I got to know my program advisor, portfolio advisor, testing advisor, etc., personally. Even if you are not located close to the school you are considering, be prepared to pick up a phone occasionally - it still gets results far faster than e-mail. But whichever way you present a question or concern, be prepared to take a proactive role.

 

Both TESC and Excelsior have gone through periods where there response time was slow and students complained loudly. But I think that these are transient episodes. (One happened after Ann Landers wrote about TESC and the school was suddenly flooded with twice the volume of inquiries.)

I have consistently heard excellent things about Charter Oak... a half dozen people who did degrees there said that they were much smaller and so the service was a lot more personalized... but, as Steve has pointed out, one can also "personalize" TESC by making the effort to get to know one's advisors and such... and probably the same goes for Excelsior.

If it were me, I would probably decide based on the specifics of the program. There are enough grads from Regents and TESC here to say that both are reasonably decent these days in responsiveness. And I've never heard anything bad at all about Charter Oak, so I think that any of them would be OK.

 

<<I checked the URL you cited, and would hardly say that there were "a lot of negative comments" about TESC's response.>>

I think moderator has removed other negative comments what I have read before. I am not blamining TESC but I just want to be careful and know the response time.

 

Hi Steve,

So far, my experience with Tesc’s advisement center is quite disappointing. As I said in a previous posting, I’d like to enroll there, but I need some practical information, from trivial (Tesc’s Toefl minimum requirement) to very important one (for instance: does Tesc accept World Education Services’ foreign transcripts evaluation?).
I sent them the first e-mail a month ago. An employee, Barbara Murdoch, answered shortly, saying that she was going to ship all the required information. All I got was a copy of last year Tesc’s booklet. I followed your advice: I picked up a phone and called. Nobody was able to answer my questions: the employee who took my call only told me that, after my enrollment, I will have my credits evaluated. Ok, but Regents (ops, Excelsior...) people said they will accept this and that, I have to decide what’s better for me – I replied. You have to enroll before – she answered.
Ok, I told myself, I have to be proactive. So, I send another e-mail to the office of Registrar (since the handle this matter, I thought, they should know what kind of evaluation they accept or not) and, in copy, to Mr Gordon Holly, Tesc’s director of admissions.
Almost a week later, not a word from them.
What would you suggest?

Thanks,
Giancarlo Summa

Ps. I am attaching copy of the first e-mail I send Tesc. I hope somebody here – starting from you, of course – could help.


Subject: Information Request

I am a 35-year-old Italian journalist, currently living in Brazil, and I will apply to TESC as soon as I take the TOEFL test. I have some questions:
1) The TOEFL score must be sent to the TESC's Register Office? What's the address? What's the minimum acceptable score in TOEFL computer-based test? (in the paper-based test it used to be 500) TESC's TOEFL code is still 2748?
2) I plan to transfer to TESC my university credits previously earned in Italy. Last year, following a telephonic conversation with TESC's Admissions office, I had my Italian transcripts evaluated by the New York-based World Education Services (WES) agency. It was a course-by-course equivalence
evaluation. The lady I talked to - I didn't jot her name - told me that it was the agency used by TESC to evaluate the equivalence of former credits. (New York University suggests to its students the use of the same agency, too) I will ask WES to send you a copy of their evaluation. It has to be sent to the Register Office as well? To the attention of whom?
3) I have also earned 16 U.S. credits through the Foreign Language Proficiency Testing Service of the New York University. Same question as above: to whom I have to ask for the official transcript to be sent?
4) After taking the TOEFL, I will send you my application with the required $75 fee. In order to decide the kind of tuition that best fits to my necessities (comprehensive or for service), however, I need to have a prior academic advisement. I need to know whether my credits apply to TESC's distribution requirements toward a B.A. in Journalism, and what's the best path to follow (portfolios, DL courses, tests).

 

TESC offers a B.A. in Journalism? (didn´t know that). You sure?

 

Yes. Tesc offers a B.A. with a major in journalism and a B.A. with a major in communications.

Check at http://www.tesc.edu/prospective/undergraduate/degree/ba.php

 

Yep. For those of you that haven't looked at a TESC catalog lately, they're doing all sorts of interesting things.

I've vaguely contemplated getting the B.A. in journalism myself, although not quite sure what I'd use it for.


Tom Nixon

 

I am an enrolled Excelsior student (soon to be an alumnus), and have had nought but excellent customer service from the College. I completed the majority of my degree program requirements prior to enrolling, but my Excelsior team was quite helpful in assessing my progress and helping me to chart the path to completion. Additionally, the wealth of information available on the Excelsior website made it easy for me to direct my studies with the confidence that my work would result in accepted credit hours.

I am on track to complete my degree in just over a year, and I take some pride in having (nearly) completed an accredited Bachelor's without stepping foot in a classroom. I am grateful for the opportunity Excelsior provided to me.

Good Luck!

 

Tony, what degree are you getting? I'm 4 exams away from my business degree...I can't wait to complete it ... just another 2 months.

 

With regards to Excelsior, I would rate them as okay. General inquiries (from an enrolled student) might take a week or two for a reply, while I have received replies within 24 hrs on high priority questions (regarding an impending for-credit independent test) and a phone call or two in the same genre.

My somewhat limited experience is that they prioritize well. In other words, if you are about to make a misstep, you may well be shunted to the front of the line. Whether this is better than other institutions, or if they coddle disorganized students, is another matter upon which I am unqualified to comment.

 

As an enrolled student at COSC, I have found them very responsive. I do need to call early in the Day (West coast to East coast) but I have never had to wait more than a day for a response, usually I talked to the person I needed to right away.

I am curently taking a course from COSC and the instructor anwered his phone on like the third ring and is always quick to answer e-mails. We also have a message board for the class. All in all I hve been very pleased with their availablilty.

Dan Snelson
pardon me while I go have a root canal...

 

I haven't called TESC or Excelsior but my personal experience with COSC has been positive. I am trying to come up with a spreadsheet comparing fees and other costs of three colleges - TESC, COSC and Excelsior. I am surfing through their web pages to gather all these info.

The site map of COSC is not very intuitive so I have to call them. The lady on the other end was very helpful. She didn't know the exact URL to get there but she got me the answer by asking somone. She made sure that I am on the right web page.