Charter Oak State College

Charter Oak State College Overview
Charter Oak State College (also called COSC) is a  regionally accredited  public state school in Connecticut and is one of the "Big 3" schools that offer generous credit transfer policies. The college was founded in 1973 and it grants degrees at the Bachelor's and Associate's levels. Charter Oak offers a significant list of majors and concentrations that can be pursued within a given B.S. or B.A. degree plan.

As of July 1, 2015, Charter Oak State College will offer new full degrees in Business Administration, Psychology, and Cyber Security. Previously, none of these degree majors were offered, and Business Administration was previously offered as a degree in "General Studies w/ Concentration in Business Administration." Now it is a full degree in Business Administration.

Excerpt from Wikipedia article on COSC:


 * Charter Oak State College is a public liberal arts college in New Britain, Connecticut and is named for Connecticut's famous Charter Oak. The college is located across Paul Manafort Drive from Central Connecticut State University. The college was founded in 1973 by the Connecticut Legislature to provide an alternative way for working students to earn Baccalaureate and Associate degrees.

Degree Plans Successfully Completed Through Charter Oak State College by 95% Testing Out
 See degree plans, costs, opinions, and advice for Charter Oak State College here. 

Structuring a Degree Through Charter Oak State College
Charter Oak has a slightly different degree structure than Excelsior and TESC. This results in more flexibility in many cases. An Associates degree has you take a Cornerstone course, whereas the Bachelor's will include your major or concentration requirements as well as the Capstone course.

General Education requirements can be found here and Sample Exams That Fulfill Gen. Eds for COSC can be found here.

Charter Oak's Master List makes it easy to determine what exams will satisfy any degree requirements and will show you whether any particular test (i.e. DSST, UExcel, CLEP, TECEP, GRE, etc.) is considered liberal arts, if it's upper level, and/or fits any gen. ed requirements.

With the B.S., you only need 60 credits in liberal arts electives, whereas with the B.A. you need 90 credits in liberal arts electives. Thus, it's simpler to get a B.S. than a B.A. through Charter Oak State College which is nice since some people believe that B.S. may look better than a B.A. on a resume.

Paying for the Bachelor's Degree
One idea you can look into if you can't afford to spend a few thousand dollars for a Bachelor's degree is to obtain financial aid i.e. Pell Grants, Federal Subsidized/Unsubsidized loans, and/or any state tuition assistance by taking some degree-pertinent online courses through a cheap community college like New Mexico Junior College which has an extremely reasonable out-of-state tuition rate of $62/credit hour or Clovis Community College which has an out-of-state tuition rate of $89/credit hour as of 2015. By taking 12 credits/4 courses through a college, you'll become a full time student eligible for the most federal aid possible, and likely receive a good amount of grants and loans. This is worth looking into as many students don't realize they are eligible for free grant money through the government if their income is sufficiently low. This can cover not only the tuition of the college where they're taking coursework, but also give them a few thousand dollars to cover for their actual Bachelor's degree through any of the Big 3.

Typically, many students are older than 24 years old (thus, considered financially "independent" from parents), have an eligible income, and thus qualify for a great deal of Pell Grant money (which is free money that you don't have to pay back), and Federal subsidized (no interest), or very low interest Federal unsubsidized loans (around 5%). This is money that can be used however you please whether it be for taking exams for credit, food, living expenses, books, any coursework towards the degree, etc.

If this is a good option for you, it is recommended when enrolling in a college to find courses that will satisfy degree requirements, and also selecting instructors that have a good and easy reputation, by using RateMyProfessors.com for instance, and saving money by either finding books online for free, and/or finding cheaper or older textbooks online through eBay or Amazon.

Some things to keep in mind is that you can only typically use financial aid at one college, and for the purpose of having enough financial aid money to use on your actual Bachelor's degree, you can maximize any remaining grant and loan money by enrolling in a cheap college as mentioned above. Also, this won't stop you from simultaneously enrolling at the college where you want to obtain your Bachelor's degree if you wanted to of course. Most importantly, you can figure out how how and what you're eligible for from the FAFSA Aid Calculator. == Arguments For/Against Going to Charter Oak State College vs. Thomas Edison State College vs. Excelsior College                                      (opinions from students who went to Charter Oak) == This is Charter Oak's Master Credit Exam Table: 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) They have the cheapest annual fees (student activities fees*) compared to TESC's "Enrolled Options" tuition plan and Excelsior's. COSC charges $245/semester * 3 = $735/year, but can be as cheap as $245 if you complete all degree requirements in a semester, but typically a motivated student can easily do it in 2 semesters, ~ 7 months, so $490.

TESC's "Enrolled Options" tuition plan costs $3,729 (includes fees) for each year you are a student there and you get no credits for paying that much money. TESC's "Per Credit" tuition plan has no annual fees, but forces you to generally take 8 TECEP exams which can have some major downsides.

Excelsior charges you an enrollment fee of $1,065 plus an annual fee of $495, requires at least 4 credits at $495/credit hour and is almost always the most expensive and pickiest of the three colleges. In general, it is more expensive than COSC by at least $2,000 or more. For these reasons, Excelsior College tends to be excluded for purposes of comparison.

*Military students pay no annual/student activity fees to COSC.

3) It's typically cheaper than a similarly designed program using TESC's "Enrolled Options" Tuition Plan by ~$750-$1000, and at least $2,000 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 requirements 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.

The only major downsides 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, which you take 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,  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 (the Capstone course).

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 Table makes it harder to figure this out yourself.

In KittenMittens' opinion, a B.S. in Business Administration through COSC might be preferable over TESC's "Enrolled Options" Tuition Plan B.S. in Business Administration in General Management which would require you to take an additional 6 courses/18 credits, would be $750 - $1,000 more expensive, and you'd have to complete all degree requirements in under a year due to TESC's annual subscription fee to avoid being charged another $3,279 for a second year of service. TESC's "Per Credit" Tuition Plan B.S. in B.A. would be the cheapest program costing about $2,900, and $2,600 cheaper than COSC, and no annual fee, but requires 8 TECEP exams that don't have review materials, little to no student feedback on pass rates, no practice exams unlike other testing sources like CLEP, DSST, or UExcel, and tend to be the most difficult of all the exams available. Refer to this forum discussion to see why the COSC B.S. in Business Administration degree could be more favorable than obtaining one from TESC.

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 (including microeconomics, macroeconomics, and statistics) and around 15 Upper Level Business credits though several lower level courses can count as upper level credit. With TESC, you don't need to take nearly as many UL exams as COSC, though the UL exams recommended in the COSC Degree Plan page are known for being very easy and entail minimal prep (>90% pass rate and a few hours of study the days before the exam). Also,  TESC  entails : 1) Satisfying about an additional 15 business credits compared to COSC (though 6 of them are easy/free to fulfill) 2) Satisfying an additional math course in College Algebra on top of a Business Statistics course.

Excelsior College's B.S. in Business Administration would have you do about 51-54 credits in business credits, 24 of which being upper level business credits, they have some requirements that cannot be tested out of which drives the cost of the degree even higher, it's generally the pickiest and most expensive of the three degree-by-exam colleges mentioned and typically by a few grand. For these reasons,  Excelsior College tends to be avoided and the least recommended to students for the purpose of testing out of a degree .

The main benefits of going through TESC for their business degree are that TESC wouldn't require you to do a 1 credit science lab, but COSC would, you wouldn't need to take any coursework through TESC and if you don't want a GPA to show on your transcript for any exams/outside sources of courses you take (so it's possible you simply have no GPA on your transcript). However, some and especially selective, graduate programs would dislike the absence of graded coursework especially at the upper level; 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 should you get a pass/fail on them through TESC, so they may just end up seeing your grades on these exams anyways. Fortunately, the UExcel exams listed in the COSC Degree Plan are not that bad, and getting an A or B should be very easy.

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 their much harder TECEP Strategic Management exam. The downside is that it will cost more through TESC's "Enrolled Options" tuition plan to have the benefit of no courses and  you only have a year to complete it  compared to a similar plan through COSC where you only have to pay for 2 courses and cheaper fees. That's because COSC flat cost for 2 courses and fees will be about  $2,946  ($2,666 for two required courses [as of 2015] + $75 Application Fee + $205 Graduation Fee) whereas TESC's "enrolled options" minimum cost will be about  $3,890  ($3,279 for a 1 year "subscription" with no coursework and no credits gained + $237 [Penn Foster Strategic Management course] + $75 Application Fee + $299 Graduation Fee). This is also why TESC's "Enrolled Options" plan will always be more expensive than COSC's typically by about ~$750-$1,000. At least with COSC, if you're looking to finish the degree in under a year like I and many have done, you'll get 6 credits, 3 of which are upper level, through the cornerstone and capstone courses and save about a $750-$1,000 in doing so. For every year after the first, COSC would be an  additional  $2,544/year cheaper than TESC's "Enrolled Option" tuition plan ($3,279/year for TESC fee vs $735/year fee for COSC [$245 Student Activity Fee/Semester * 3 semesters= $735 for 1 year of fees for COSC].

Thomas Edison State College's "Per Credit" TECEP Exam Programs vs. Charter Oak State College's Degree Programs
TESC has created a new attractive and cheap option for completing a B.S. in Bachelor's Administration for around $2,900 (as of 2015). It's about $2,600 cheaper than a B.S. in Bachelor's Administration from Charter Oak which can be an attractive option for those on a very tight budget. It's called TESC's "Per Credit" Tuition plan which typically entails taking 8 TECEP exams which are worth 24 credits.

Charter Oak State College student, KittenMittens, who was deciding between a B.S. in Business Administration from COSC versus TESC decided to stick with COSC in order to avoid the TECEP exams despite the TESC "Per Credit" tuition plan degree being cheaper by about $2,600.  Generally speaking, credit exam difficulty from easiest to hardest is as followed: CLEP > DSST > UExcel > TECEPs . KittenMittens believes that 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 where testmakers take questions directly out of any random paragraph of any chapter of specific edition of a specific textbook which often forces you to read big chunks of textbooks, there is generally an absence of pass/fail data publicly available, lack of InstantCert.com flash cards (which have a reputation of being invaluable to quickly and easily 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. CLEPs, DSSTs, and UExcel exams that are covered by InstantCert.com don't typically have these problems. 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 non-credit course to prepare for these exams.

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 in the COSC Degree Plans page are known to have around 95% of test takers 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 TECEP exams, there are sample degree programs on the DegreeForum Wikia for TESC that utilize TECEPs. Many of these TESC degree plans are also geared towards people who wants to graduate through TESC's "Per Credit" tuition plan which is the cheapest known degree program available, but involves the use of 8 TECEP exams in order to graduate which has some major downsides to consider as mentioned above.

KittenMittens believes that if you are looking to complete a degree for the "best bang for buck" you want to be taking exams that already have a lot of student input, educational materials, and information on which the TESC's TECEP exams don't have. If in the future, TECEPs begin to offer more review materials like official practice exams, accurate study/prep/review guides, and there is sufficient student feedback and data on pass/fail rates then they can become a very attractive option, but for now she believes they are not. Besides, many, if not all of the UExcel, DSST, and CLEP exams described in the Charter Oak Degree Plan page 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, it can be said that you would never even need to crack open a textbook for any of these exams :).

Resources

 * Charter Oak official website
 * Wikipedia article on Charter Oak
 * DegreeForum.net sub-forum specializing in Big 3 discussions, including Charter Oak
 * The ultimate Charter Oak question and answer thread (DegreeForum.net)

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