Thomas Edison State College

I am so frustrated with this school. I have been trying to complete my last 2 classes for a year now. They are so slow to respond and heaven forbid if you actually need financial aid. You can watch paint dry and the ice caps melt long before you'll see any response to your questions or concerns. I sent an email on Jun 20 after waiting 2 months for anything about the financial aid award. Someone finally responded today, July 12, exactly 8 hours ago. That's absurd. If it wasn't for the fact that I am almost done, I would've went anywhere else by now. Maybe, just maybe, I will graduate this year. As for my experience since coming to TESU several years ago, the teachers rarely give quality feedback that helps you improve and exceed goals. I like feedback so I can improve every single time and there have been some that just give you a 90 or 85 on something and don't bother to explain why. That's useless, especially with a Calculus or Discrete Math class! I have attended and helped my children and husband attend AND graduate from several other schools while I'm still twisting in the wind with this place. I don't understand why they don't have a more streamlined financial aid system that doesn't take months to request more info from you and then another couple of months to send you an award letter. When you call to ask questions, you feel like you're on a practical joke show because they seem to be mocking you and utterly useless. They tell you, oh yeah, "he's" working on those next week. Who is he? You have one guy doing this??? Well, that explains it! They tell you to email important documents like a tax transcript. I guess they are under the impression that email is a secure way to transmit financial information. APUS has an entire online office where you upload your documents and transfer your information securely. I highly recommend American Public University (btw) and at least 5 other online schools including Excelsior. TESU is a horrible waste of your time, talents, and money. If you talk to a counselor to figure out how to best achieve your goals, they have nothing of value to add so you have to figure it out on your own. If you take time off, you'd better be quick because they'll send you to the back of the line as if you haven't already been going here for the last few years. I came here with no debt, a 3.6 GPA, and 60+ credits, this was supposed to be a fast and affordable solution. It has not been. Meanwhile, my husband is now in grad school, he has completely passed me up while I've been farting around with these folks. My daughter has graduated with a bachelors degree and my son has achieved an associate's degree. I'm hoping these numb-nuts will approve my financial aid in time for the August session but I feel like I'd have a better chance buying a lottery ticket or getting struck by lightning on a clear sunny day. Seriously, if you're considering this school because you read that they take a lot of credits and it's affordable but you live outside of New Jersey, I suggest you keep looking and side-eye whoever is telling you that garbage. I have over 20+ credits in excess that they never accepted. SO yes, that means I could almost have been closing in on a Master's if I hadn't screwed myself over putting all my eggs into this broken basket. Yes, I'm bitter and all I want is to just be done with them. I want to hang my stupid expensive piece of paper on the wall and kick myself because now I know that there were better ways and places to do it with.

I am very surprised where did these positive reviews came from? cheaper than this. Let me tell you my experience : 1.Departments don't really solve your issues if you complain they gang up against you sort of thing. 2.Trust me, they will find million reasons about not accepting your transfer courses. They are picky. Do not expect magic and graduating conveniently and in a short time! 3. Courses are very hard. There are tons of papers each week. So you need to expect typing nuisance stuff every week. If you miss exam or midterm then you fail your course, because 25 % for midterm and 30% for final.

If you read peoples reviews the biggest complaint is about the amount of work TESC assigns. People are lazy and just want a degree handed to them. I completed the BA in Social Science after completing credits from traditional courses at the University of Utah and SLCC. TESC was by far a better experience but did require more work then both of the previous mentioned institutions. After completing my BA in Social Science i decided to pursue a second BA in Computer Science with the goal of attending graduate school. I have to say the curriculum has been great. I learned a ton and it opened up doors to great graduate programs. As long as your willing to put in the work and be self motivated this school provides an amazing opportunity. It is worth mentioning however, that the financial aid department and the school counselors are not the best. I would say customer service is their biggest weakness. But this is a school for self motivated adults, so if you cant figure it out on your own and you need hand holding this certainly is not the school for you. Long story short, great school, great price, and fully accredited.

I'm in the middle of my course work toward an MS. I am over 50 and decided to return to school last year to give myself a better edge in my industry. I'm very glad I chose TESC. The tuition isn't high and the classes I've taken so far have ben very interesting. It takes a lot of time and self-discipline to do well, but it's all been worthwhile. Some have complained about how much work there is, but this is college, that's normal. There is one negative comment though, the concentration offerings are limited. It isn't a university, so there isn't the huge offering oyu'll find in other on-line institutions.

I wish, for the sake of those who need some information, to be as accurate as possible in this review. I also endeavor to communicate impartially, though I know my experience at TESC could be seen as making objectivity impossible. However, I don't think complete objectivity to be what is needed by those looking for answers. If you have been working in a profession, and you need a degree, TESC might be for you. It would be very helpful if your employer's company has educational resources. Not a good place to learn something new. Telephone interaction with advisors and mentors is inferior to face to face time at a traditional school. For those who want a radical career change, TESC is not the place to study. A local community college (if a good one, suited to your taste and temperament) can provide a better launching pad into a new phase of life. TESC is very good for a professional who needs a college credential, but TESC is not very strong academically. Comparitive examples are NJIT's superior online teaching format, and classroom instruction is superior because more and higher quality interaction is available. They offered me 30 more credits toward my degree than community college offered, and I found that I would have missed classes that I needed to fill gaps in knowledge had I continued with TESC. TESC books are more expensive. I left feeling ripped off, in every way and on all fronts. I'm an honor student now, studying, writing and calculating day and night, and I know that TESC would have given me an inferior education and experience, possibly leaving me with a false sense of educated competence relative to my professional peers.

I thought that TESC would be an institution that excelled in providing online learning because they are specialists. I was wrong. There were no online lectures. Other institutions of higher learning provide such lectures. There was very little mentor support; I have not yet had a "teacher" of whom I may ask questions. Many say that studying at TESC requires motivation. I am highly motivated, and I find that I need my questions answered but have no one to ask. It is run as a business, quite blatantly. If you want to study anything technical, don't try it here. If you want to develop a relationship with thinking faculty, you can't do it here.

TESC is still growing and developing, so I wouldn't give it a 10 overall just yet. That said, you cannot beat the value. Simply put, you'll not find another non-traditional college that offers attainable degrees for the cost that TESC offers. Like "real" classroom based colleges (and I use "real" loosely, I've been to a few brick and mortar institutions that left me cold) there are a variety of very good and not so good professors (known as "mentors" at TESC). I found that all of my math, science, humanities, and English comp mentors were top notch and very involved. Where I found some less than great mentoring was in my major area of study. Luckily for me, I've been working in the IT field for about 8 years and my experience was able to carry me through the rougher parts of my coursework. Ultimately, online learning is not for the person who isn't self motivated or creatively industrious. If you find that you are the type of person who NEEDS the constant watch of a professor, then online learning really isn't for you. If you are the type that is able to push yourself and to seek information from alternate sources (like the internet), than online learning and TESC is probably a good fit for you. For example, I had a lot of trouble keeping up with my calculus classes. I did some googling and found more video lectures from a university in Texas that explained some things differently than the video lectures from TESC. The different approach to the lectures worked better for me and I was able to grasp the concepts a bit better. If you are able to do something like this when you hit a roadblock instead of allowing yourself to be defeated, than you'll be successful at TESC. Lastly, there's no way I could ever finish school with raising my four kids, working a demanding full time job, and supporting my wife's career. There aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week. For me to do all the things I need to do as a husband and a father and still make it to a classroom on time. The flexibility of online based learning let me do my coursework when I was able to fit it into my day, whenever that happened to be. I recommend TESC to anyone who needs the flexibility of online learning and who is also a self motivated learner.