I posted this earlier. am reposting now as it seems little off topic. Can one get a degree from TESC, COSC or Excelsior without having a high school diploma ? If someone does get a degree then how is the degree perceived ? Is the degree treated same as someone with high school and degree for further education or employment ? In most application forms for education and employment there is a question "do you have a High school Diploma or Equivalent" What would be answer ? I personally dont think going back to getting GED is a good idea, specially if one has already accumulated a lot of undergraduate credits via testing or DL courses? Even if one never got a high school diploma but later got a DL degree, should he answer that question YES ? as he has now attained education beyond that level or should he say "NO" ? Your valued thoughts and comments pls ?
If you hadn't checked your similar post in the other forum, there is a response there. Hope whoever posted there helps! http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10328
I responded to your question, but Bill Huffman worded it much better: " . . . I would think that it would be rare that someplace would be concerned with the lack of a high school diploma if the person has an Associate's of Bachelor's degree. . . "
Something that I HAVE run across in my recent job search is that employers want to know the DATE of your High School graduation (to work backwards and figure out if you are over 40?) I have also had a couple of them lately require passport, and birth certificate and social security, then tell me "US Dept of Justice requires you have H-1 visa" after circling my date of HS grad on application. There are two different forms out there that I've seen, both of them have three columns... one says "Passport, OR <other ID> and one says "Passport, AND Birth Certicate, AND social security..."
I have some personal experience with this, having never graduated from high school. All I can say is that, even as a teacher in both private and public institutions at the high school, jc, and university levels for the past 22 years, that high school graduation has never once been mentioned, either for graduate school or for employment. I moved out to California after football season of my junior year--I was 17. The Cal high school did not seem to understand my transcripts, because I had chemistry in the 9th grade and 4 years of Latin; and they also did not seem to understand the concept of religion and theology classes in HS, insisting that they were classes in agriculture! They wanted me to take Spanish 1 and earth science in my senior year, and continue in agriculture; so I walked. The Cal JC said that all you neded was to be 17 and be able to "profit from instruction." Since any living being could arguably, in some sense, "profit" from instruction, I was in. I took one semester, played some football, and moved on to Cal state LA. (BA and MA) My ACT scores were high and that was it. I think I spent one Saturday taking some kind of high school test, which I think any normal 6th grader might have passed, and high school was never once mentioned again. I hvae taught at 2 high schools, 3 four year universities, and 4 junior colleges; I have been in 4 different graduate programs, so it has not been too much of a problem. Seeing that HS is far more of a joke now even than it was then (1974), I would expect no problems. BTW I have a student who is going on to pharmacy school after only three years of university work, so he will have no BA, no MA, but only a doctorate in pharmacy...interesting. Hope this helps (the only thing I missed in HS was my senior year of football). Craig
Thanks everyone for your comments on this matter. As I thought it does not makes sense for someone to go back and get a high school diploma or GED if he already has taken college level courses and exams and could very well complete his Bachelor degree. I was just concerned if any time in life HS diploma issue would show up.
This is open to debate, Craig. A few on DegreeInfo have already achieved DL omniscience, or, ummmm, at least they think so.
Regard TESC in specific: I cannot tell you how it is done today, but when I enrolled in TESC (in 1985, with a GED diploma tha had gathered years of dust and would not have been needed anyway) the policy was this: No high school diploma was necessary. However, anyone applying to TESC with less than 60 college credits had to take a basic skills test in English and math. Most people passed the English portion; most people failed the math portion. If either was failed, you had to take a remedial course (no credit) to meet the requirements. Here's something you won't read in the book (whatever the book happens to be) . . . Like most people, I passed the English and failed the math. Face it, after we're out of high school for X years, most of us will tend to forget geometry and algebra concepts. Rather than take a remedial math course, however, I took the TECEP in BASIC (the computer language). Passing this fulfilled the remedial math requirement and gave me three credits in BASIC. The idea, of course, is that you would have to pass a course in a computer language which has a math component (BASIC, COBOL, PASCAL, etc.) as opposed to one that did not (RPG, for example, or most applied programs). But as to the basic question of whether a high school diploma is required for admission to TESC, the answer is no.
This may help. From TESC's web site: "Applicants to Thomas Edison State College must be at least 21 years of age and a high school graduate or equivalent." Emphasis not in the original. So, it appears that you do need a high school diploma, or some equivalency. This may mean GED, or maybe equivalency can be met in some other way, as mentioned by Steve. From COSC's web site: "Admission is open to any person 16 years or older, regardless of level of formal education, who is able to demonstrate college-level achievement. To be admitted you must have earned nine college-level credits from any acceptable source." Apparently, to gain admission to COSC, you need only be 16 years old, and have nine college credits from "any acceptable source." Presumably, this would inlcude such sources as CLEP tests or ACE-evaluated experiences. No mention of a high school diploma at all, just a demonstrated ability for college-level achievement. Finally, according to Excelsior's Liberal Arts Undergraduate Catalog (page 5), admission to Excelsior College is based upon "self-selection." Presumably, you, the student, are the primary gate-keeper at Excelsior. If you believe you are ready for admissions to Excelsior, than it matters not your academic background. Furthermore, the Undergraduate Application Form does not even ask for your date of high school graduation--or anything at all about high school, for that matter. It appears to me that TESC may be the most selective of the three when it comes to admitting high school non-graduates. Charter Oak will admit you if you can demonstrate college-level achievement. Excelsior will admit you whenever you think you are ready for college.
