Degree Planning Meets Reality

I took the advice of the folks at the Degree Forum and applied to TESU to see how my degree plan stacked up against reality. It was a good thing I did.

The process was relatively easy and straightforward; go to tesu.edu and apply, send them your transcripts, wait and see what happens. Between the transcripts and the application fee I was out $55, so well worth it to make sure I didn’t invest time and energy into a bad plan.

It is a good think I did it. My initial evaluation was off from my initial plan in a few important ways. I was counting on credits from my old University to cover things that TESU couldn’t map them to. I was also counting on CLEP credits for a few things that I took back in 1998.

I went through a lengthy but friendly process with my old University to try and get detailed course descriptions and syllabi to send along to TESU so that could grant me appropriate credit. None of the departments had true originals that dated back that far, but I managed to get enough data to earn back most of the credits I had been counting on.

CLEP was another story. CLEP doesn’t keep records past twenty years. Those few credits I had from there are just gone.

With this news, and some help from Degree Forum, I re-worked my plan.