COSC Degree Plans

Overview
The following degree plans are provided as an example of how to complete a Charter Oak State College (COSC) 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.

This is Charter Oak's Master Credit Exam List: http://www.charteroak.edu/current/academics/earningcredits/exam/exams-master-list.pdf This provides a list of credit exams that satisfy different requirements and is handy to have while designing your own degree program.

Compared to Thomas Edison State College, and Excelsior College, Charter Oak's main advantages are that Charter Oak's B.S. in Business Administration degree is the most straightforward degree to complete, they will easily accept FEMA/TEEX credits (which are free, quick, and easy credits that count as "free electives" - credits that apply to any particular degree requirement, but help you get closer to 120 credits), it's typically cheaper than a similarly designed program using TESC's "enrolled options" plan by ~$1000, they have a master exam schedule on their website that tells you how each exam will satisfy any requirement, and whether or not it counts for upper level credit which makes it easier in planning a degree. With TESC, there is more fenangling involved to figure out how/what exams and courses will transfer in as, as well as far more requirements needed to complete their B.S. in BA degree.

The only major downside with Charter Oak State College (COSC) is that you will have to take 2 courses through the college, which are frankly just ways for the college to make money out of you – the cornerstone course which you take at the beginning when you first enroll, and the capstone course (MGT 499), which you take at the end when you are on the tails end of the degree. Unfortunately, because Charter Oak's business model is based off of making money on these two courses, you cannot avoid them. The Cornerstone course is rather frivolous, common sense, and a waste of time, but you can't place/test out of either of them as it's their strict policy. The good news, at least, is that the courses are straightforward, it still ends up being cheaper than following a similar degree plan through TESC or Excelsior, and you end up getting 6 credits, 3 of which would be Upper Level (COSC's required MGT 499 "Strategic Management" course).

Before 2015, one of the disadvantages of Charter Oak State College was the inability to complete a B.S. in Business Administration. The diploma would indicate that you had a B.S. in General Studies with concentration in "Business Administration."  Fortunately, as of July 1, 2015, the college has begun offering the B.S. in Business Administration . The only difference is that by doing a degree in "General Studies with concentration in Business Administration" you forgo taking a course in Business Law, and Business Statistics. ''' By doing the B.S. in Business Administration, you simply have to take a course or exam in Business Law and Business Statistics in addition to the requirements mentioned below. ''' Everyone should look into pursuing the latter, as it looks better on paper than the former, and if there are any fears of statistics, ALEKS Business Statistics course is a very straightforward and cheap option (~$20, and no proctor requirement).

Charter Oak's Business Administration Degree is a popular degree for the fact that it can be entirely completed through examinations with the exception of a "cornerstone" and "capstone" course that must be taken through the college. Between the three degree-through-examination colleges, if you're looking for a business degree, you should seriously compare Thomas Edison State College (TESC) and Charter Oak State College (COSC). Thomas Edison State College is known for being a little more lax on credits transferring in as upper level credit, but the absence of a master exam schedule makes it harder to figure this out yourself.

Furthermore, a  B.S. in Business Administration through COSC would be much easier to complete as TESC's B.S. in Business Administration in General Management would require you to take an additional 6 courses/18 credits and with advanced coursework in areas like accounting or finance . Refer to this forum discussion to see why the COSC B.S. in Business Administration degree would likely be easier to obtain than one from TESC or Excelsior.

In general, COSC would require the least number of business courses and upper level courses to obtain the degree. COSC would only require 15 UL credits in business credits (includes college required capstone course), a total of 30 UL credits, and 48 credits to finish the B.S. Degree in Business Administration.

TESC would require about about 63 credits in business courses, 15 Upper Level Business credits, and a total of 33 UL credits. Also, TESC  entails : 1) Satisfying about an additional 18 business credits compared to COSC 2) Satisfying an additional math course in College Algebra on top of a Business Statistics course 3) Taking advanced coursework in 3 out of 4 areas i.e. Finance, Accounting, Marketing, or Management which would require you to take advanced coursework in Finance or Accounting which are subjects typically considered very difficult by many people.

Excelsior College's B.S. in Business Administration would have you do 54 credits in business credits, and 24 upper level business credits, and it's generally the most expensive college of the three degrees-by-exam mentioned.

The main benefits of going through TESC for their business degree is that you don't need to take any coursework through them and if you don't want a GPA to show on your transcript for any exams you take. However, some and especially selective, graduate programs would probably look down on the lack of upper level graded coursework; at least UExcel exams show you how well or poorly you did. Besides, you may have to ultimately send your UExcel transcripts to graduate schools, so they may just end up seeing your grades on these exams anyways. Fortunately, the UExcel exams listed in the degree plan below are not that bad, and getting an A or B should not be that hard. TESC has a business capstone course that can be substituted with the much cheaper, easier, and faster to finish Penn Foster "Strategic Management" course or through their TECEP Strategic Management exam. The downside is that it will cost more through TESC's "enrolled options" plan to have the benefit of no courses compared to a similar plan through COSC even though you have to pay for 2 courses and fees. That's because COSC base cost for 2 courses and fees will be about $2,666 (as of 2015), whereas TESC's "enrolled options" cost will be $3,279 for a 1 year "subscription" with no coursework and no credits gained plus the cost of the Penn Foster Strategic Management course ($237) or TECEP Strategic Exam ($111). This is also why TESC's "enrolled options" plan will always be more expensive than COSC's typically by about ~$1,000 because $3,279 - $2,666 = $613 + cost of Strategic Management course or exam. At least with COSC, you'll get 6 credits, 3 of which are upper level, through the cornerstone and capstone courses and save about a $1,000 or so.

 Many people have asked why TECEP exams, offered by Thomas Edison State College, are not part of the program . Some of the major disadvantages of these TECEP exams are that the main way to study is by reading a lengthy 500 - 100 page textbook, there is generally an absence of pass/fail data, lack of InstantCert.com flash cards (which have a reputation of being invaluable to passing exams), lack of official practice exams (there are just a few sample questions and that's it), and lack of student info/feedback from the DegreeForum InstantCert.com forums regarding the exam contents. The general advice students/test-takers have for these TECEP exams is that you should read a 500 - 1000 page textbook, and/or a Saylor course.

Even the creator of 123collegedegree.com, one of the pioneers of testing out of a college degree quickly, thinks that textbooks are an inefficient way to study where he states, "You would have to go and buy every textbook or reference, which could be $100+ per book.  Then you would have to comb through the material of each book and bounce it against the content guide, ensuring you are studying the correct material.  Besides, we all would much rather have the quick and easy way to do it....In fact, this is what InstantCert essentially does:  researches the different recommended textbooks and other books and, based on the exam's content outline, provides detailed notes of what they think will be covered on the exam and nothing more.  That's why their study guides are generally very accurate.."

If there is one possible upside of TECEPs, it is that they are not given a graded letter like UExcels (A, B, or C), but given a pass/fail. However, many if not all of the UExcel exams that are recommended below are known to have very high rates of people receiving As and Bs and graduate programs may like to see graded work particularly for upper level subjects. Nevertheless if you are interested in taking TECEPs, there are sample schedules on the DegreeForum Wikia for TESC which tends to incorporate several TECEP exams into these degree programs. They are also geared towards people who wants to graduate cheaply through the "per credit" option which is the cheapest known program out there, but involves the use of 8 TECEP exams in order to graduate which has some major downsides to consider as mentioned above.

If you're like most people, who are looking to complete a degree as quickly, cheaply, and easily as possible, you want to be taking exams that already have a lot of student input, educational materials, and information on which the TESC's don't have. If in the future TECEPs begin to offer more review materials like official exams, sufficient student feedback, data on pass/fail rates, and accurate study guides, then they can become an attractive option, but for now they are not. Besides, many, if not all of the UExcel, DSST, and CLEP exams are really straightforward when using only InstantCert.com flash cards, the InstantCert forums, practice exams, and maybe some supplementation through some Google or Wikipedia searchs. In fact, you would never even need to crack open a textbook :).

Cost of Degree* (Current as of 2015). *All calculations assume you are out of state/not a resident of Connecticut or New Jersey in the case of TESC)
It's hard to say what the exact cost of this program is – a lot will depend on how many credits you already have beforehand, how many FEMA credits/TEEX/etc. credits you want to get for free, whether or not you have an employer that will reimburse you (I personally did), etc.  Generally speaking, however, Charter Oak State College will be around $500 – $1,000 cheaper than Thomas Edison State College's "enrolled option" plan . I know that in my case, I was looking mainly at Charter Oak State College and Thomas Edison State College. I personally liked the name of Thomas Edison State College better, but I didn't think it was a decisive factor in choosing which school to go. Charter Oak's degree for me would have been simpler, faster, and cheaper for me to complete, and all I cared about getting was a regionally accredited American degree as my foreign degree wouldn't have been accepted by my employer. What I liked about Charter Oak State College was that they had a defined "master exam" table that made planning and creating my degree much simpler. Thomas Edison State College does not provide any of this information at least easily, and is a major headache not knowing how many types of credit will transfer as. Any coursework I wasn't sure of I would e-mail and call the Registrar to confirm how it would transfer in as (whether it would satisfy some requirement and more importantly if it counted as an upper level course).

When comparing TESC with COSC, assuming you want to test out of all exams/as many possible (which you probably want to do as taking coursework  is lengthy, involves a lot of homework assignments, quizzes, exams, discussions, etc. over 3 months, and costs hundreds to thousands of dollars more ), then you're probably looking to compare COSC with TESC's "Enrolled Options Tuition Plan" which is about $3,279 (as of 2015: for out of state residents, and $1,816 for New Jersey residents). Yes, TESC has another option the "per credit tuition plan" which is probably the cheapest program out there (and about $1,800 cheaper than the following COSC program) but the problem with that one is that you are required to do at least 24 credits through TESC, either through TECEP exams (TESC's in-house exams), or TESC courses, etc. This option can be technically cheaper than Charter Oak's, but the problem is that if you're like me, or the average student, the TECEP exams are much harder, more in-depth, and there is a lack of prep material available for these exams. As much as I would like to save $1,800, I wouldn't want to do it if it meant reading several lengthy, dry, boring 250 - 1000 page textbooks. You will have to study much harder for these exams, possibly study textbooks in depth, and be very self-guided for this. Compare that to Charter Oak where you can complete virtually all your requirements credits through DSST, CLEPs, & UExcel exams that have a lot of test taker data and positive feedback i.e. established high pass rates.

Thus, we will ignore TESC's "per credit tuition plan" and compare COSC's cost with TESC's "Enrolled Options Tuition Plan" which is $3,279 which does NOT require you to take 24 credits from TESC through TECEP exams, or TECEP courses and you can fulfill the degree requirements through other program exams i.e. UExcel, DSST, Penn Foster, etc.  The other problem with TESC's "Enrolled Options Tuition Plan"  is that the $3,279 is an annual fee – so you better complete everything within that year otherwise you'll be charged for another year of $3,279.

So using $3,279 as the basis of comparison – with me having already completed 60 credits, I needed another 60 credits to get my COSC degree (120 credits to finish degree).

 KittenMittan's Net Cost for B.S. in Business Administration Degree (in 2015): 

I had 60 credits coming into the program (I already satisfied a bunch of gen. ed/liberal arts requirements decades ago), but through testing out & separate coursework, I will have completed 36 credits through exams (12 exams, 9 of which counted as upper level) + 9 credits through ALEKS + 9 credits through Penn Foster + 6 credits from Charter Oak's cornerstone and capstone courses + some other free/cheap electives which was a total of about 69 credits  over the span of 6-8 months . If for some reason you don't have enough credits, then you should look into FEMA or TEEX credits which are free, quick, and easy to get.

1) COSC Application Fee – $75

2) Charter Oak State College's Two Required Courses (includes tech fees, student activity fees, etc.) – $1,333 *2 = $2,666

3) $1,455 for 12 exams equivalent to 36 credits (1'' CLEP – $80 + $25 test admin. fees = $105 + 5 DSSTs – $400 + $80 test admin fees = $480 + 6 UExcels – $570 + $300 test admin. fees)''

4) $711 - 3 Penn Foster Courses (9 credits) ($237 * 3 = $711, I took Penn Foster Financial Management, Penn Foster Employee Benefits, and Penn Foster Microeconomics)

5) $20 - 9 credits through ALEKS  (ALEKS  Fee = $20 for one month of service, it'll cost you $20 for each month of service, and I passed the exams in a day)

6) $40 ACE Transcript Fee (used to get my Penn Foster and ALEKS coursework that was on ACE sent to Charter Oak)

7) $105 6 Month InstantCert Membership

8) $175 7 Practice UExcel Practice Tests – ($25/exam * 7 = $175)

9) Random/Miscellaneous Fees: ~$150 (Spent about $60 to send previous transcripts to COSC + $40 for Cornerstone Textbooks (they were cheap) + $50 for MGT 499 Textbook [the Strategic Management book is like $250, but I bought an international edition off of eBay for $50 :) ])

10) COSC Graduation Fee – $205

 TOTAL OF 1–10  = $75 + 2,666 + $1,455 + $711 + $20 + $40 + $105 + $175 + $150 + $205 =  $5,602* 

* Note: My employer, which was through the state, ended up paying for two courses, and for ALL my examinations + test administration fees, so my cost became $5,602 – $1,455 (Total Exam Fees) – $1,560 (Employer Tuition Reimbursements) = $2,587.00 :) 

 NOW IF I WENT THROUGH TESC, assuming I had 60 credits already transferred in, my costs would be approximately (again using TESC's "Enrolled Options" Tuition Plan):  $75 application fee + $3,279 "Enrolled Options" Tuition Plan + $299 Graduation Fee + $1,455 in exams + 4 Penn Foster Courses – $948 (Through Charter Oak, I would have taken 3 Penn Foster Courses, but for Thomas Edison, you'd probably need to take "Penn Foster's Strategic Management" course as well for another $237) + $20 (ALEKS coursework) + $40 ACE Transcript Fee + $105 InstantCert fee + $175 in Practice Tests + $150 (Random/Miscellaneous Fees) =  $6,546.00 

 The take home message is that by, going through Charter Oak State College saved me $6,546 – $5,602 = $944.00 . In general, you will find that TESC's "enrolled option" plan will practically always be ~$1,000 more expensive than COSC if you end up following a similar degree plan as outlined below. The upside is that you won't have to take two courses through TESC if you don't want to, but you will have spend a lot more money to do so. I personally decided to just do the two courses through COSC instead - they aren't hard, it saved me about $1,000, and I gained 6 credits, 3 of which are upper level.

Please keep in mind that your cost can be cheaper or more expensive depending on how many extra courses you take like through sources like Penn Foster or StraighterLine. I think it is an absolute necessity to get practice exams for anything and everything (DSST, CLEP, UExcel) and the InstantCert.com subscription for the flash cards and the forum student feedback.

KittenMittan's Updated B.S. in Business Administration Degree Plan (Originally by burbuja0512)
The following degree plan was created and completed by DegreeForum.net user burbuja0512 and updated by user KittenMittans in March 2015. It is derived and successfully used from: http://www.charteroak.edu/prospective/programs/concentrations/business.cfm. This plan covers only the business concentration; the general education requirements are addressed via separate plan below.

1) Keep all these following things in mind when trying to figure out your GPA:

A) 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 to this is 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).

''*TECEP exams (through Thomas Edison State College) are not a part of this degree plan due to the lack of InstantCert flash cards and information about these exams. They are typically more involved with some having writing and short answer questions, tedious reading of textbooks, and possibly "harder" than any of the other mentioned exams. That said, if you find that you are interested in taking a TECEP exam, and it fits any requirements, then that's fine too.''

B) Coursework from other colleges that are graded A, B, C will become a part of the Charter Oak State College's transcript (i.e. if you take Penn Foster's Financial Management and you get an "A", then Charter Oak will record that on your Charter Oak transcript as an "A"). If you have any coursework that you do not want to bring into the college, you can have Charter Oak remove them individually for the transcript, but you have only up to a month after matriculation to do so before it is finalized. This may be useful for you if you want to keep your GPA as high as possible on the COSC transcript which may be important for you for graduate admissions. Keep in mind that some graduate programs have a GPA cut off of around 3.00, and may factor in GPA from UExcel, DSST, or CLEP if it's their school policy. In general, it is advised to do as well as possible on each exam just for the sake of keeping doors open in the future, but that is up to your own discretion. One thing to keep in mind is that if your goal is to pass as many upper level credits and credits in general using TECEPs which are pass/fail particularly in upper level work, graduate programs will frown on that as they want to see some type of GPA in higher level coursework. In my case, I will not be pursuing an advanced degree, as a regionally accredited bachelor's degree is all I needed for my career path.

See: http://www.charteroak.edu/catalog/current/academic_policies_regulations/academic_forgiveness_policy.cfm

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) 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 + COSC MGT 499 Capstone Course = 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.

4) You need at least 30 upper level credits to graduate.

18 upper level credits = 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 12 upper level credits (30 credits - 18 credits UL credits = 12 credits remaining). 12 upper level credits is equivalent to 4 exams in any subject exam. 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 , considered relatively easy to prepare (I was able to prepare for each, having no background knowledge with about 5 - 25 hours of preparation the week before the exams), have official practice tests, and flash cards 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 in case anything changes) 

B) DSST Substance Abuse

C) UExcel Psychology of Adulthood and Aging 

D) UExcel Social Psychology 

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

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

5) This template also provides some of the easiest and most straightforward exam & course options available in order to get the minimum 12 UL business electives. If you don't want to take the Penn Foster Employee Benefits (counts as an UL course) or Penn Foster Financial Management course (this one is LL, and so is the DSST in Finance but said to be very difficult/hard) which each costing ONLY ~$237, & can take only a few hours each to complete, then you can do an exam instead, but many of the remaining UL business exams that are left can be much harder or a pain to do (in particular the TECEP exams through Thomas Edison State College like "TECEP Federal Income Taxation" where some students recommend reading a 300 page IRS book which is not far from the seventh circle of Hell imho or "TECEP Security Analysis and Portfolio Management" or "UExcel Quantitative Analysis").

If you're a good test taker, then you can do that – and you can look for these other upper level business electives from the Charter Oak Master Exam List. The benefit with the Penn Foster courses is that they known for being really, really easy, and in the case of Penn Foster's 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, colleague, etc. who can proctor you which is nicer than having some ProctorU stranger from the internet watch your every eye, hand, and body movement. Also, for each course, you can retake the quizzes 2 times. For each course, I was able to complete all of them within a few hours to days total. They're supposed to be equivalent to a regular 3.5 month 3 credit course, but their standards are so low, it can feasibly be completed in a few days. In both cases, as of 2015, these courses are really, really easy. If you decide to to this, please do a google search/degreeforum.net search on previous students' experiences on these courses.

Also, if you need to take an intro macroeconomics or microeconomics course, and don't feel like taking a credit exam for either of them, look into CLEPS, Penn Foster's courses (which are only $237/each), StraighterLine's courses, or a community college if you want more instruction. I personally recommend Penn Foster's courses as they are cheap, easy to do well on, and have a lax proctor requirement where it can be anyone for the final. If you already have a decent background in microeconomics/macroeconomics, or like to prep on your own, CLEP exams are another attractive option as well and are the cheapest.

6) 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).

Note: FEMA Coursework Equivalencies (only lower level): http://em-study.com/emsfema/article.php?category_id=1&article_id=62

B.S. in Business Administration*
* A B.S./B.A. in "General Studies with Concentration in Business Administration" exists and has the same requirements but without Business Law and Business Statistics. If for some reason you choose not to do either of these two courses, you can get this generalized degree. However, it is recommended that the B.S. in Business Administration degree is pursued as it certainly would look better to prospective employers and graduate programs.

 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. __INDEX__