COSC Degree Plans

Overview
The following degree plans are provided as an example of how to complete a Charter Oak degree with a primary emphasis on testing out. Be sure to read the Charter Oak degree structure guide for more information on establishing a Charter Oak degree plan for yourself.

KittenMittan's Updated B.S. in Business Administration Degree Plan (Originally by burbuja0512)
The following degree plan was completed by DegreeForum.net user burbuja0512 and updated by KittenMittans in March 2015. This plan covers only the business concentration; the general education requirements are addressed via separate plan below.

0) UExcel exams are given a score of A, B, or C on your transcript for calculating GPA. CLEP and DSST exams are not. The only exception is to older DSST exams that are on the 20 – 80 grading scale (with 50 as a C), but most of these have been phased out. You know a DSST exam is pass/fail (no grade allocated to it) when it uses the 500 grading scale (400 minimum to pass out of 500).

1) ''A minimum of 36 credits is required to complete the concentration. At least 15 credits must be at the upper level (12 UL credits in business electives + 3 cr. exam UExcel Organizational Behavior + 3 cr. UL DSST Business Ethics exam = 18 credits which satisfies the 15 credit requirement in upper level business credits). Grades of less than "C" are not accepted as part of the concentration. ''

2)  Always confirm with Charter Oak's registrar before taking any coursework through another college and always refer to the latest master exam table from the COSC website. And be sure to get anything the registrar & admissions say in writing in case any issues arise (i.e. whether a course will count/meet a certain requirement). COSC has been known to occasionally be incorrect & backtrack on things, and if you can have a paper record through e-mail it will help should any issues arise (unlikely, but you never know). 

3) You also need at least 30 upper level credits to graduate, so if we include DSST MIS, then this list will give you a total of 21 upper level credits.

21 upper level credits = DSST MIS (3 cr.) + UExcel Human Resource Management (3 cr.) + UExcel Organizational Behavior (3 cr.) + UExcel Labor Relations (3 cr.) + Penn Foster Employee Benefits (3 cr.) + DSST Business Ethics (3 cr.) + Required COSC course: Capstone Seminar: MGT 499 – Strategic Management (3 cr.) 

''Then, you will need to fulfill the remaining 9 upper level credits (30 credits - 21 credits UL credits = 9). 9 upper level credits is equivalent to 3 exams in any subject exams. You may wish to take UL exams that fulfill other degree requirements like general eds/liberal arts requirements. ''

''Here are some examples of miscellaneous upper level examinations that are worth looking into. These have high pass rates, and study guides from instantcert.com – remember to read the exam forum posts as well, as well as purchasing any practice tests to maximize your chances of scoring well: ''

A) UExcel Ethics – Theory & Practice (I was able to get this to transfer as a separate ethics course in addition to the DSST Business Ethics exam, but confirm this with the registrar) 

B) UExcel Social Psychology 

C) UExcel Psychology of Adulthood and Aging 

D) ECE Abnormal Psychology (it's 3x longer and 3 as expensive as the previous psych exams mentioned)

E) DSST Civil War (counts as an upper level course, and also the US History requirement for COSC).

4)''This template also provides the easiest exams/coursework to get the minimum 12 UL business electives. If you don't want to take the Penn Foster Employee Benefits or Penn Foster Financial Management course which each costing only $237, then you can do an exam, but many of the remaining UL business exams can be much harder. If you're a good test taker, then do that – and you can look for these other upper level business electives from the Charter Oak Master Exam List, just google it). The benefit with the Penn Foster courses are the they are really really easy, and in the case of Financial Management, there is no proctor for the final. For Penn Foster Employee Benefits, there is a proctor requirement for the final, but it can be anyone like a friend, co-worker, colleaguee, etc. who can "proctor" you. ''

5) Please refer to the Sources of Credit guide for alternate methods for satisfying any upper level credits/miscellaneous coursework. Look into ALEKS courses, TEEX, FEMA, or Straighterline credits to fill in any gaps, or look into courses that you can take with an instructor at a college (use ratemyprofessors and google searches to find out what your best options are). 

 UL = Upper Level Credit 

 LL = Lower Level Credit 

Burbuja0512's General Education Plan
This plan provides the general education credits required to complete a degree at COSC. You will still need to complete a concentration area of study like the business concentration above.

publius2k4's COSC AA in General Studies
The following plan is designed to meet every Bachelors level General Education requirement, while still granting an AA. This gives a graduate the option to return to COSC (as a junior) and complete their Bachelors degree, if they choose to. There are also many other options for completing many of the Gen Ed Education Requirements. You simply need to look at the COSC Master List.

If price is an issue (and the student was ok with an AS instead of an AA, the student could drop the CLEPs in the Free Elective Section and add FEMA courses to fill those 12 credits.

At this point, a student would have met all requirements for the Associates degree, and would have also met all the general education requirements of the Bachelors Degree at COSC.