Is Thomas Edison a Good College?
Thomas Edison was the college I went to, and today my video was about rating TESU in four categories.
And it made me want to tell you a few things:
How to judge a college
I want to remind you of the four categories you can use to judge a potential college.
Cost: Average 4-year online college costs around $50,000 or $400 per credit hour plus fees. If your college costs more than that, you’re paying more than average.
Transfer Friendliness: What CLEP do they accept? How large are their free elective sections? How much transfer credit do they accept? Do they accept Sophia and StraighterLine?
Degree Quality/Choice: Are their degrees flexible? Do they have the degree you want? Are the courses offered interesting and relevant to you?
Student Outcomes/Quality of Experience: What’s the graduation rate? Aim for at least over 30%. 50% is about as high as you’ll get with online colleges. Is the school non-profit? Is it regionally accredited? Do students say good things about?
My experience at TESU
Annnnnd…I want to tell you three things about my experience at Thomas Edison State University. This is exclusive to the newsletter. I didn’t mention these in the video.
I got an English major, but there weren’t enough English classes I was interested in to fill my major, so I asked for permission to sub in a journalism class. It was about writing and was similar, so I asked. And they granted! So I got to drive around town writing news stories for my class, and I loved it. But the coolest part was that I made a good justification, and TESU respected it, so I got to change my degree based on my interests a little. You might be able to do the same!
I really liked my American Literature professor. He had office hours you could during, and he gave really thought provoking comments in discussion boards. He even wrote me a letter of recommendation for graduate school. I really respect him as an online professor and thought he was high quality.
TESU challenged my way of thinking. Some people knock online learning (mostly only people who have never done it), but I definitely felt like I grew and was challenged. I learned a LOT about Jane Austen in my course on her. And I knew nothing about academic formatting before that course, and I learned a lot. I also remember a really good discussion board conversation with my American Lit professor about whether America was a “melting pot” or a “tossed salad” in how immigration works. I remember feeling dumb at times but then realizing how to grow to meet the challenge, and it was awesome!
All that to say, I really liked my time at TESU, and I do recommend them personally for the quality of the learning especially in the English major.
Oh, and here’s the video about TESU with more info!
That’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for reading and happy hacking!
Dr. Clifford Stumme