Jkoby's TESU Degrees Plan

(Yes, degree*s* plan.)

Introduction
This is a set of degree plans meant to be attainable mostly/entirely via online, self-paced, inexpensive methods; namely, being able to work a full-time dayjob while pursuing them.

Thomas Edison State University has a policy of awarding a maximum of 2 degrees at each level to someone. This used to include previously earned or non-TESU degrees, but now only reflects TESU degrees.

These plans do not reflect general education courses, only certificate and AOS ones, and as with anything on this forum, your mileage may vary. Always plan courses with your advisor in advance to make sure they'll transfer to your degree plan.

Goals
As of May 2022, I'm still in the process of pursuing these credentials, but these are what I plan to earn from TESU:


 * ASNSM in Mathematics
 * AAS in Environmental, Safety, and Security Technologies
 * BA with AOS in Biology and Computer Science
 * BSBA with AOS in Finance and Human Resources/Organizational Leadership

Sources of Credit
In general, I prefer exams over assignments, and self-paced courses over ones with defined term start and end dates. I am trying to keep costs low, but some of the coursework (especially in Biology) tends to be more expensive than most of the others.

ASNSM in Mathematics
TESU appears to have changed their policy since some other forum users tried this, and they will only allow one AOS in the ASNSM degree. Since I'm already pursuing degrees in Computer Science and Biology, I opted to take the remaining AOS and go for the ASNSM in Mathematics. Fortunately, as someone already mentioned in Sample TESU Add-on Associates Degree Plans, this is essentially a freebie to anyone getting the BA in Computer Science.

Even if you have a waiver on general education and SOS-110 for a bachelors degree, you still must take SOS-110 for an associates degree. I plan on taking this as part of a 16-credit term.

In my case, I still needed ENC-102: English Composition II, so I took the CLEP College Composition exam to fulfill that requirement.

I fulfilled TBD what will happen to the ENC-101: English Composition I course that I transferred in from taking the CLEP College Composition Modular exam some years ago; I expect one of the ENC-101s will get marked as a repeat and disregarded.

A: Intellectual and Practical Skills - ENC-101 and ENC-201 English Composition 1 and 2: CLEP English Composition - MAT-102 General Math 1: CLEP College Mathematics (General Math 2 is applied to the AOS) - SOS-110 Critical Information Literacy: TESU, no getting around this one B: Civic and Global Leadership - SOC-101 Introduction to Sociology: CLEP Sociology - PHI-286 Contemporary Moral Issues: transferred in using B&M RA credit C: Knowledge of Human Cultures - ECO-111 Principles of Econ I: transferred in using B&M RA credit, but one of the economics CLEP exams would probably work here - HIS-101 Western Civilization I: StraighterLine Western Civilization I, but any of the history CLEP exams would probably work here as well D: Scientific Knowledge - BIO-111 and BIO-112 General Biology 1 and 2: CLEP Biology
 * 1) Gen Ed (30 cr)

(Nothing here for this degree)
 * 1) Additional Gen Ed

A: Calc 1 - MAT-231 Applied Calculus: Transferred from RA B&M credit. My course was 4 credits, so 1 credit was removed from the Electives in the next section. B: AOS - MAT-235 Intro to Linear Algebra: Transferred from RA B&M credit. - STA-201 Elements of Statistics: Transferred from RA B&M credit. - MAT-270 Discrete Mathematics: Study.com Math 108 - BUS-210 Quantitative Skills for Business: CSMLearn.org - MAT-103 General Math II: CLEP College Mathematics C: Natural Science/Math/Comp Sci electives - COS-330 Computer Architecture: Study.com - COS-205 Python Programming: Study.com - CIS-311 Database Management: Study.com
 * 1) Math AOS (27 cr)

- Pick any 3 credits for an elective. I had some RA B&M credit here but this is a free elective. Any extra credits from the AOS will overflow into here.
 * 1) Electives (3 cr)

AAS in Environmental, Safety, and Security Technologies
This is speculative at the moment, pending confirmation from TESU of this plan.

This is 100% covered by the ASNSM gen ed plan above, but this is feasible to get (almost) entirely via CLEP exams. The following combination should work: A: Intellectual and Practical Skills - CLEP College Composition (ENC-101 and ENC-102) - CLEP College Mathematics (MAT-103) - SOS-110: Critical Information Literacy (at TESU) B: Civic and Global Leadership - CLEP Introduction to Sociology (SOC-101) C: Knowledge of Human Cultures - CLEP Economics (either one) or History (any of 4) (in my case, ECO-111 from some B&M RA credit) D: Scientific Knowledge - CLEP Biology (BIO-112) TBD but has this message and CIS-320 from an RA B&M school underneath it: You must complete all of the required courses in each of the general education categories above, in addition to completing the required number of total credits required within the General Education area of the degree (as indicated at the top of the General Education section). This Additional General Education section is used ONLY IF the total credit for General Education is not met, even after all of the General Education course requirements are satisfied. - BIO-252 Intro to Microbiology without Lab: StraighterLine Microbiology - BIO-210 Anatomy and Physiology 1 without Lab: StraighterLine A&P 1 - BIO-213 Anatomy and Physiology 2 without Lab: StraighterLine A&P 2 - BIO-203 Pharmacology: StraighterLine Pharmacology - BIO-208 Science of Nutrition: TECEP BIO-208-TE (but could probably have been another StraighterLine course) - BIO-102 The Human Body (transferred in from B&M RA school, maybe try another bio course here?) - APS-295 Associate Capstone: TESU - 18 credits of free electives, in my case this is 6 CIS/CAP courses brought in from a previous RA B&M school. Shouldn't be too hard to pick anything else to fill this out.
 * 1) Gen Ed
 * 1) Additional Gen Ed
 * 1) AOS
 * 1) Associate Capstone
 * 1) Electives

Bachelor of Arts
Upside to doing two AOS in a Bachelor of Arts degree is that you only need to do one capstone to cover both AOSes.

it's worth noting that I have a bachelor's degree, so the bachelor-level gen eds aren't discussed here, and SOS-110 is waived, but *only for the bachelors-level degrees, not for the associates*.

Biology AOS
TBD

Computer Science AOS
(Stolen from Sample TESU BA Computer Science Plan) - I'm in the process of updating this to reflect the courses I've transferred in.

36 credits are in the AOS. 15 credits need to be UL.

Part A. Introduction to Programming
3 credits. Choose one. I did this at community college, but alt-credit-friendly options are below:

Part B. Data Structures
3 credits required

Part C. Calculus
3 credits required. Pick one. I transferred in an Applied Calculus course from a previous RA school, and it still counted. If trigonometry is a show-stopper for you, consider doing an applied or business calculus course. Other options include:

Part E. Operating Systems
3 credits required.

Part F. Computer Architecture
3 credits required

Part G. AOS Electives
18 credits required. Only 12 of these need to be UL credits, because Computer Architecture is an UL course. Many of Oregon State University's UL courses require prerequisites that may or may not be easy to deal with as a visiting/non-degree student.

Lower-Level options that do not overlap with previously-suggested courses. 6 credits required. The Sophia IT course does not overlap with any of the other options. Some of the Intro to Computers/Computing courses overlap with one another. It is advised to take the Sophia course plus one other course from this list.