Question regarding COSC

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Randy_Excelsior, Jan 28, 2004.

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  1. Randy_Excelsior

    Randy_Excelsior New Member

    For those of you who are familiar with COSC, I was hoping I could get some input on how good or bad their service is. What I'd like to know, is if I transfer to COSC with a full 120 units completed, and all requirements met, how long should it take for everything to be approved and set for graduation? Additionally, are they helpful about giving good information to students before enrolling, and are they easy to contact and ask questions of once I am enrolled in a degree program?
     
  2. Mel

    Mel New Member

    Youi can transfer in with all of yor credits, including all distribution requirements, but you will still have to submit your concentration proposal. Assuming you write well, and have a good plan, it will probably take a couple of months - time to forward all of your transcripts, and then time to write your proposal, have your advisor look it over, turn it in to the committee, and have them review it (they do this once each month). Not as fast as a degree mill, certainly, but much more valuable, and worth the wait.
     
  3. Randy_Excelsior

    Randy_Excelsior New Member

    Do you have to write up a concentration proposal? From looking at their site it seemed that they already had some pre-set concentrations (For example Business Administration)...I assumed just meeting all these unit requirements would equate to an accepted concentration.
     
  4. seekinghelp

    seekinghelp New Member

    I can address their customer service, which is absolutely excellent. Call Shannon Anderson and talk to her at COSC. She has literally spent hours on the phone and working via email with me and I have yet to matriculate (waiting to take the Psych GRE in April.) I can't say enough good things about her. She has been excellent and very helpful and informative. It doesn't get better than this in dealing with a distance college.
     
  5. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    Agreed

    Yes, Cosc has great help. My admissions advisor, Kerry Ann Kowar, has spent over a year helping me along and I too have only recently matriculated though I have everything set (hopefully). There is a kind of "Catch-all" option of the concentration in liberal studies which can be tri-dimensional in nature (Like a Psychology/Literature/History concentration.) if your credits are spread out a bit. I passed that Psych GRE in the fall and I was happy to have it over. It is really unfortunate for some of us nontraditionals that the darned subject GRE's are at the whim of the ETS schedule!
    Good Luck
    Dan Burrello
     
  6. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    COSC has been great. They answered my questions for about six months before I even enrolled or even had an eval. I can not say enough good things about them and I did try to speak to TESC and Excelsior but COSC beat them hands down!
     
  7. Randy_Excelsior

    Randy_Excelsior New Member

    Well, here is my problem. I was considering transferring over and graduating at COSC (since I'm missing a requirement that I don't want to make up at Excelsior). However, I just saw their 27 units in the concentration need to be Intermediate or Upper level. It seems that not enough of the tests I've been taking meet that requirement (The 15 upper I have, but only one other is not "basic" level I believe).
     
  8. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Intermediate is consider 200 level. There are several ECE and DANTES exams that are upper level.
     
  9. Mel

    Mel New Member

    For your earlier question, you will still need to write a concentration proposal, but it not need to be as long. You also shouldn't need to worry about your series of courses not meeting approval. There are 2 major reasons for concentration proposals not passing muster - one is the selection of courses, which is somewhat set with the predefinced concentrations; the other is the essay. If the essay is not well written, you have to do it again.

    As for your secnd question, have you looked at the list of exams & credits - that will tell you if you have any intermediate level credits.

    What concentration are you thinking about? Maybe we can find exams for you.
     
  10. Randy_Excelsior

    Randy_Excelsior New Member

    I was hoping to just use the standard Business Administration concentration. I looked over the list, but it seems I have very few intermediate classes. I believe in total I had 5 upper division and one intermediate, leaving me 3 classes short of the required 27 units in "above basic" courses. Am I reading that right? This would mean only 9 units of your concentration could be basic level, and it appeared that every CLEP was basic level. If you test out everything, via the normal tests, I can think of at least 15 units from CLEPs that would only be basic level, meaning with a 36 unit concentration, you would have only 21 that were upper basic level (not meeting the minimum requirement).
     
  11. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    BA in 4 Weeks

    You may want to check out Tom Nixon's site

    www.bain4weeks.com

    It has LOTS of info about appropriate tests and other fun stuff regarding the business degree world. It isn't particularly geared towards cosc, but you can personalize your program appropriately using the info there.
     
  12. You mean Lawrie Miller's site? think Randy's well past this stage, but nonetheless a great site for those looking to COSC or Excelsior.
     
  13. Randy_Excelsior

    Randy_Excelsior New Member

    Here is the basic problem. and maybe there is a solution (but I don't think so). I have 117 Units completed right now. The only thing keeping me from my graduation is retaking the TECEP Into to Operations Management exam (which even if I can get the waiting period waived, it still takes a minimum 2 months to receive, take, and grade the test). Due to my current personaly situations, it is of tremendous benefit that I complete my degree now, instead of in a few months. I looked for other ways to complete the Prod/Operations requirment, but even the self study courses all seemed to be at least a minimum of 2 months. I thought maybe I could transfer over to COSC, and graduate there. When I looked at the business administration concentration, I met all the general education and concentration courses that needed to be completed with my current units. However, I ran into a snag when I saw "...at least 15 of these credits must be upper level with a total of 27 beyond the 'basic' level."

    So...I looked up all my courses on their little chart, and this is what I came up with:

    CLEP - Princ. of Accounting (B)
    CLEP - Princ. Management (B)
    CLEP -Princ. Marketing (B)
    CLEP - Introductory Business Law (B)
    CLEP - Info. Sys and Computer Appl (B)
    DANTES - Princ. of Supervision (B)
    DANTES - MIS (B)
    DANTES - Princ. of Finance (I)
    ECE - Business Policy (U)
    ECE - Organizational Behavior (U)
    ECE - Ethics (U)
    ECE - Human Resources Management (U)
    ECE - Labor Relations (U)

    Total 42 Units. 15 Upper Division. But, 18 units above 'basic' level. So, even if I added a Dantes Upper Division (money and banking or Business Law 2) for my final three units, I'm still well short of the 27 'above basic' units. Am I correct in assuming there is no way to graduate with these current units from COSC, without taking 3 more upper or intermediate courses?
     
  14. Randy_Excelsior

    Randy_Excelsior New Member

    A few more questions about my particular situation (I'm thinking now there might be a way to make it work).

    1. If you are using a predefined business concentration, in the section for other "business" units, can you put in things like psychology courses as long as you can argue why they have to do with the business world?

    2. If you create your own concentration, is than any additional fee or waiting period to get it approved?

    3. If you create your own concentration, can it be named whatever you choose? Can you have whatever classes you want, as long as you can justify how they all work together?

    The reason I ask, is because while I may not have 27 or more above basic "business" classes, if I throw in some of the psychology classes and possibly other things, I should be able to get there no problem. Any advice would be wonderful!
     
  15. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    psych

    The Psychiatric and Mental Health nursing exam is pretty cool and intuitive. Its worth 8 upper level credits.
    Have you tried the GRE approach?
     
  16. seekinghelp

    seekinghelp New Member

    You can name it and link it all together. My BS concentration will be Nursing/Psychology/Business. Since I think I want to do a masters in Healthcare Administration or Public Health it is only a small leap to write a good argument (essay) of how these all fit together. You already have the Organizational Management and HR, now tie in what Psych credits you have and you end up with a Business/Psych/Human Resource concentration. I think you are where you want to be and can write an excellent essay.
     
  17. cmt

    cmt New Member

    My concentration is all business and psych. I argued in my proposal for an Business/HR concentration (Individualized Studies) and I think it will fly (have yet to hear back on it).
     
  18. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member

    Re: BA in 4 Weeks


    While I wish I could claim it as my own, Lawrie Miller is the mastermind behind the BAin4Weeks website. It is a great site, though.



    Tom Nixon
     
  19. Randy_Excelsior

    Randy_Excelsior New Member

    Okay, I think I got just about everything figured out here, but a couple quick clarification questions, to make sure I understand everything.

    - I hear people saying that you can make your concentration more than one topic and sort of mix and match. Do you get to name this concentration? For example, I'd like to have mostly Business and a few Psychology, and maybe have my concentration called "relational business" or "communicative business". Or, do I just have to combine the two together, and have a general concentration title like "Business/Psychology"?

    - After getting in all the items for my concentration proposal, how long should it take to see if it is approved? Do most people have to revise things, or if you go in with a plan are you pretty safe the first time?
     
  20. seekinghelp

    seekinghelp New Member

    Here's what COSC's student handbook says on page 41 for naming concentrations:

    The key to receiving approval for this concentration is the same as that for the Individualized Studies Concentration: the student's ability to construct an essay of 750 to 1000 words in which the student explains the rationale underpinning the proposed concentraion and its relation to his or her career and/or personal goals. Some sample concentrations: literature/religion
    history/political science, biology/chemistry, literature/sociology, literature/psychology/history, music/literature/art, political science/geography, physics/geology, paychology/sociology, biology/sociology.

    So based on that description it sounds like you need to keep it more in tune with how the overall classes group. I haven't written my concentration essay yet, but I did ask if I could use the word Nursing in my concentration since two of my upper level classes will be nursing tests (and I am a nurse), I will have some business credits, and I will have the psych credits, thus Nursing/Psychology/Business and they said yes.

    Using your classes you may be able to call it Business/Organizational Management/Psychology or something like that. They may not let you get too creative but you may be able to come up with something that sounds good to you and conveys the gist of what you want it to be with the emphasis on Business/Management. They may let you keep the psych out of the title if you don't like it.

    I believe the concentrations are considered once a month. It took me from December 4 to December 22 to have my credits reviewed, my college must have sent out my transcripts pretty fast.

    Randy, I really can't express to you how much time my cousellor has spent with me. These are really very very helpful, forthcoming people. I think you can get many of your questions answered without sending them a thing, just by talking with them on the phone. This thread has two counsellor's names in it, call one of them. You won't be sorry you did. I think you will be most pleased.
     

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