COSC Degree Plans

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. Typically, students find that the B.S. in Business Administration is a degree that can be easily tested out on 95% (114/120 credits) of the program, hence much of this page discusses strategies and courses for fulfilling this degree. Keep in mind that many of the courses listed below will fulfill other majors/concentrations through COSC as well.

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:

1) Charter Oak's B.S. in Business Administration degree has the least number of major-related requirement degree to complete.

2) There is no annual subscription fee unlike for TESC's "Enrolled Option" Tuition Plan or Excelsior College's which means there's no pressure to complete your degree in under a year for fear of being billed again another year.

3) It's typically cheaper than a similarly designed program using TESC's "Enrolled Options" Tuition Plan by ~$750-$1000, and about $1,500 cheaper than Excelsior's in general.

4) They are the only school to easily accept FEMA credits (which are free, quick, and easy credits that count as "free electives" - filler credits that help you get closer to 120 credits but don't fulfill any specific degree requirements). TESC no longer accepts them, and Excelsior will charge a hefty price to bring FEMAs in.

5) They have a Master Exam Table on their website that clearly tells you how many exams will satisfy any gen. ed requiremen and whether or not the exam counts for upper level credit which makes it easier in planning a degree.

6) COSC is known for having excellent customer service as does Excelsior College but TESC is known for having average and/or subpar customer service. == Arguments For/Against Attending Charter Oak State College Vs. Thomas Edison State College == Please refer to this discussion to weigh the pros and cons of attending COSC versus TESC.

Costs for Sample B.S. in Business Administration (Includes Fees) – 2015*
''*Note: These are just approximate costs following a degree program that uses cost-effective resources for credit. Also below, user KittenMittens describes her costs for her degree plan which is a little more expensive but avoids the DSST in Finance (hard), DSST in Money (hard) in favor of the Penn Foster Financial Management (easy) and Penn Foster Employee Benefits (easy) courses. Your costs will vary depending on what exams/courses you choose based on price and convenience. ''

 2 COSC Required Courses 

$1333 - Cornerstone Course

$1333 - Capstone Course: Strategic Management Capstone (Upper Level)

Subtotal: $2,666.00

 Core General Education Requirements 

CLEP College Comp (6 Credits) - $100

CLEP Analyzing and Interpreting Literature - $100

CLEP Intro to Sociology - $100

DSST Public Speaking - $100

Saylor Intro to Western Political Thought - $25

DSST Intro to World Religions - $100

Saylor Chemistry - $25

Saylor Biology - $25

DSST Civil War - $100 (Upper Level)

ALEKS Business Statistics - $20

DSST Business Ethics & Society - $100 (part of B.S. in BA degree & fulfills both Ethics Requirement and Upper Level Business Credits)

Macroeconomics: CLEP - $100 (part of B.S. in BA degree)

Microeconomics: CLEP - $100 (part of B.S. in BA degree)

SUBTOTAL: $995.00 (cheaper than TESC's cumulative gen. ed requirements by like $30 or so, so about the same)

 B.S. in BA Requirements: 

Principles of Management – Saylor $25

Intro to Marketing: Saylor - $25

Business Law: Saylor Business Law and Ethics - $25

Principles of Finance: DSST - $100

Principles to Financial Accounting: CLEP - $100

Principles of Managerial Accounting: Straighterline Accounting I- $149

DSST Management Information Systems - $100

UExcel Organization Behavior - $145 (Upper Level)

UExcel Labor Relations - $145 (Upper Level)

UExcel Human Resource Management - $145 (Upper Level)

DSST Money & Banking $100 - Upper Level (but this is a hard exam, so I’d find an easier substitute like Penn Foster Employee Benefits).

Subtotal: $1,059.00

 Miscellaneous Upper Level Exams 

DSST Substance Abuse - $100

UExcel Psychology of Adulthood & Aging - $145

UExcel Social Psychology - $145

Subtotal: $390.00

 Miscellaneous FEMA & TEEX Credits to Finish Remaining Credits (As much as 40 credits or so) - $0 

 Miscellaneous Fees 

Application Fee - $75

ALEKS Fee - $20

ACE Fee - $40

Graduation Fee - $210.00

Subtotal: $345.00

 TOTAL: $5,455.00 

According to User Sanantone, following her TESC "Enrolled Options" Tuition Plan for the B.S. in Business Administration using very similar coursework would be about $6,208.00. So $6,208.00 - $5,455.00 = $753.00 more expensive through TESC's "Enrolled Options" tuition plan.

Cost of KittenMittens' B.S. in Business Administration 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's B.S. in Business Administration will be around $750-$1,000 cheaper than Thomas Edison State College's "Enrolled Option" tuition plan for a B.S. in Business Administration. ''' There is also TESC's "Per Credit" tuition plan for the B.S. in BA which entails the use of 8 TECEP exams, is about $2,600 cheaper than COSC's but requires you to do 8 TECEP exams which I avoid as I discuss below and on this page.

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 since all three colleges are regionally accredited which is all that really counts. 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 Tablethat 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 the cheapest degree program out there (and about $2,600 cheaper than a typical degree by exam COSC program) but the problem with that one is that you are required to do at least 24 credits through TESC, typically either through TECEP exams (TESC's in-house exams), or TESC courses. 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 generally harder, more in-depth, and there is a lack of prep material available for these exams. Plus, you'd have to buy textbooks too. As much as I would like to save ~$2500, I wouldn't want to do it if it meant reading several lengthy, dry, boring 500 - 1000 page textbooks. You may/probably have to study much harder for these exams, possibly study textbooks in depth, and be very self-motivated 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. > 90% pass rates. Plus, you can do TECEPs too if you'd like.

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 all degree requirements within that year otherwise risk being charged for another year at $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).

Note: 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 – 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) $150 – Random/Miscellaneous Fees (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) $205 – COSC Graduation Fee

 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 taking the same courses, 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, I saved $6,546 – $5,602 = $944.00 . In general, you will find that TESC's "enrolled option" plan will practically always be $750 - $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 (the MGT 499 capstone course).

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.

B.S. in Business Administration Degree Advice
The following degree plan was created and completed by DegreeForum.net user burbuja0512 and updated by user KittenMittens in April 2015. It is derived and successfully used from: http://www.charteroak.edu/prospective/programs/concentrations/business.cfm. This plan covers only the business major; 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. Your transcript will show the letter grade you received on these exams, but won't be factored into Charter Oak's GPA on the transcript which comes exclusively from Charter Oak courses. In my case, since I transferred everything, the only courses that showed a GPA were Charter Oak's two required courses: IDS 101 Cornerstone Seminar and MGT 499 Capstone course. CLEP and DSST exams are not graded & they're only pass/fail. 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 part of KittenMittens' 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. You can read KittenMittens' thoughts on the TECEP issue on this page.''

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" but it won't be part of GPA calculations for overall GPA). 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 graduate admissions. Keep in mind that some graduate programs have a GPA cut off of at least 3.00, competitive programs probably > 3.6–3.7 GPA, and may factor in GPA from UExcel, DSST, or CLEP if it's their school policy (likely just UExcels though). 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 pass/fail exams like CLEP, DSST or TECEPs, graduate programs may frown upon an absence of letter graded college work as they typically want to see some type of GPA particularly in upper level coursework. UExcels are graded which is one nice thing so long as you do well on them (which can be pretty easy if taking UExcel exams that are covered by Instantcert.com).

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 48 credits is required to complete the B.S. degree in Business Administration. 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 (>90%) , 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 (from instantcert.com) , as well as  purchasing/obtaining any practice tests  to maximize your chances of scoring well:

 A)  DSST Substance Abuse

B)  DSST Civil War & Reconstruction (counts as an Upper Level course, and also the US History requirement for COSC).

 C)  DSST Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (counts as Upper Level, and also both the "Global Understanding" and "Non-U.S. History/Culture requirements)

D)  UExcel Psychology of Adulthood and Aging 

 E)  UExcel Social Psychology 

 F)  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) 

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

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 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 even some UExcel exams like "UExcel Quantitative Analysis" which can't be really studied for in a few days).

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 are 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 i.e. through CLEP, look into 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 or miscellaneous coursework. Look into ALEKS courses, FEMA*, TEEX*, 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).

* Useful Sources: 

1) Free FEMA Credit Equivalencies (Count for Lower Level Credits Only) 

2) Free TEEX Credits (Count for Lower Level Credits Only) 

B.S. in Business Administration Degree Plan (48 Business Credits Needed Total)
 UL = Upper Level Credit 

 LL = Lower Level Credit 

Courses are lower level unless otherwise specified.

General Education Degree Requirements
This plan provides the general education credits required to complete a degree at COSC. You will still need to complete a major or concentration of study like the business major above. Also, by following the plan below, you could obtain an Associate's by getting an additional 20 - 23 credits in random electives like the free FEMA, or TEEX credits or any credits you wish to obtain.

 UL = Upper Level Credit 

 LL = Lower Level Credit 

Courses are lower level unless otherwise specified.

Associate's Degree (A.A. or A.S.) in General Studies
An A.A. is essentially the General Education Degree Requirements plus some free electives which ends up being an extra 20 - 23 credits or so for a total of 60 credits.

If price is an issue (and the student was ok with an A.S. instead of an A.A.), the student could drop the CLEPs in the Free Elective Section and add additional FEMA or TEEX credits which are free to fill those missing 12 credits.__INDEX__