Thomas Edison State College

Hello: I am writing this review for adults who really need a "fast-track degree" and nothing more. TESC serves its purpose, but its main function is to serve as a sanctioned "diploma mill" really. I mean, you "do" get your regionally accredited degree in a hurry, if that is what you want -- just to "have your degree" for job prospects, by all means do it. That is what it is there for. Nothing else. Don't expect academic nirvana, b/c you won't get it. You will get a fast-track "regionally accredited degree" because they do accept a plethora of credits toward degree completion. So, depending on your goals, weigh your options. They are fast, regionally-accredited, and "serve the purpose of a Bachelor's degree". Don't expect anything special either in staff help or academic particulars. They are marginally functional and the courses marginally acceptable for accreditation. But, again, it "works". So just treat them as a step above a diploma mill that legitimizes your education and you will be fine. They are in it solely for the money and nothing more, but again, it does "work" for fast-track degree.

This is a school for those who have credits already or for those who are going to another college part time while TESU being your parent school. The courses are challenging because you have to teach yourself. If you cannot teach yourself and really dig into the text books then this school is NOT for you! Let me repeat that. If you can't teach yourself through textbooks and scholarly articles then this school is NOT for you! I attend Indiana University and there is no difference in the amount of work to be done or the quality of materials. I have learned just as much at TESU as I have at Indiana University. The only difference is the delivery of the information. At Indiana University there isn't as much high stakes testing which can be an issue for bad test takers. If you generally do not test well using standardized testing then TESU is NOT for you! Be prepared to be well versed to pass the test, some test are 25% of your entire grade, so two test can equal 50% of your grade. I have not run into a course at Indiana University with such high stakes testing. Overall, I think that you will be just as prepared coming out of TESU as you would be Indiana University. However, TESU does not have internships and you will have to search for internships and apply outside of the college. It wasn't a problem for me, but if you want a university to hold your hand by writing your resume and placing you into an internship then TESU is NOT for you. If you want to earn your degree and you can teach yourself, if you need flexibility, i.e. military/working professional, don't mind paying a lot for out of state tuition and don't need the college to hold your hand then TESU can provide the education you need.

I recommend that you do not attempt to earn a degree here in an area in which you are not already proficient. I found TESC to be inadequate in their approach to distance learning. The amount of work they require per credit seems to be excessive, an attempt to compensate for a lack of lecture time in a classroom or even online. I've taken many online classes since I left TESC, every one of them superior to TESC's classes, mainly because they utilize video lectures. None of the courses I took at TESC offered video lectures. I simply found myself writing lots of essays (with little useful feedback from professors), took what would normally be a full-time course load and found the course load overwhelming, and failed classes due to deadlines. I just knew it wasn't a problem with me, but that they don't really teach there, they grant degrees to people who are already advanced in a given field (they were really ineffective at teaching math, BTW). I left, went to community college full time,earned two scholarships and graduated. I then transferred to a state university, where I'm in my senior year and have maintained a 4.0 GPA. TESC failed me, in both interpretations of that phrase.

Finished my BA in Social Science at Thomas Edison State College. After completing my degree I got accepted into Florida Atlantic University, Master of Counseling program. This is a public state college just like any other state college in the United States. Regionally accredited and offer amazing online programs. There is also on campus courses if you are in the Trenton area for the Bachelors in nursing program. Graduation was amazing, took pictures with some of my professors and went around the campus in Trenton, NJ. I also found a job as a case manager after completing my degree. Only good things I can say about this college! It's worth it!

I'm a Social Sciences major at TESC, taking 3 history classes right now. Like many of the other reviewers have said, there's a lot of reading and writing. I had 11 books assigned for the 3 classes, and I've written about 30 essays halfway through the term. What means the most to me about this school is that I've actually learned something from the course material. I can now speak and write intelligently on subjects that have always been rather hazy for me in the past. As for the support staff, the school so far has lived up to everything they said they would. I've never waited more than 2 minutes on hold to speak to someone. My application, transfer credits, and course-related issues have all been handled exactly when they said they would be. In the past, I've been very wary about collegiate bureaucracies, but I haven't had that problem here at all.

Mentors are very slow to respond to emails. There is a lot of work in each course that requires papers, group discussions, and quizzes. If you can write well, the course assignment are no problem. The exams are difficult because the mentors require seven weeks worth of reading and then the pull information from several hundred pages and expect you to know a phrase or a definition. The test development at Thomas Edison State College is the worst that I have seen in any educational setting.

I graduated in Dec 2006 with a BA in History. I had no problem getting into graduate school at Milligan College. I graduated Dec 2010 with my M.Ed in secondary education. The professors at TESC are top notch. If you have been GIVEN grades all your life,such as most American high schools do, then on-line courses will be demanding and tough at TESC. The work load is heavy in many courses but very rewarding.

I just finished a BA in History through TESC. The worst part about TESC is the customer service, it barely exists. The support staff are rarely much help and the processing of documents takes far longer than is reasonable. As for the quality of the education, I can only comment on 1 history course because that is all I took at TESC. Overall it was about average I'd say. However, I didn't choose TESC because of the classes they offer but I did so in order to finally finish a degree. TESC offered me a way to piece together a degree with credits from my time in the military, community college, etc. The credits I was missing I tested out of thanks to CLEP and DSST exams. Some of those were easy for me while others were not. I recommend DegreeForum.com for help in taking these exams. All in all though for an adult worker with years of job experience already like myself, this was the perfect way to finish an RA degree through a state college and for that reason alone I am very glad I found out about TESC.

This is a University for adults with busy lives that have practical experience and have some amount of previously completed college credit. Like many others have said, expect to do your own learning and provide your own motivation. It worked well for me but I feel like like most people need or want the feedback that physical attendance in a classroom provides. Cost is reasonable. I wouldn't even bother with TESC unless you have completed at least 75% of your degree requirements, and take advantage of DANTES and CLEP tests.

Make no mistake, classes at TESC WILL require work and lots of writing. TESC provides one of the few ways to earn an accredited degree fast, however, this is not a cakewalk. You have the opportunity to EARN a degree in a year if you work your butt off, skip sleep and study, study, study. Customer service has its issues, but their are counselors that actually care. The key is to avoid the few that don't.

I am in my last semester, and have had an excellent experience at TESC. This is an online program and I write approx 20 to 30 pages per week total for 2 courses. To do well you need to drive the curve in each class and manage time well. It is not a program for a learner that needs hand holding. I would venture a guess that there are no online programs for students that need to be in a classroom. For me, with a busy career and 4 kids, there is no other option. I have had such an excellent experience that I am continuing in an online environment for a masters, albeit not at TESC, but only because they don't have the program I want. I highly recommend TESC for you if you are a serious learner.

I'm so furious right now! I wish I'd actually listened to the reviews on this website. I've always been an honor student, but between working full time, having a 14 month old, and being pregnant going to a regular university wasn't an option to finish up my undergrad. So i decided to stick to TESC, but BIG mistake. You're bombarded with phenomenal amounts of work, I'm expected to write a 3 page essay for each one of my 4 classes EVERY week. Like OKAY, I'm sooooo not super woman. Needless to say, i ended up dropping 2 of my classes. The "mentors" are really there for no purpose, but to make your life more difficult, I don't think many of them are competent of even teaching the courses they're attempting to mentor. For example my religious studies mentor is actually a journalism major that's very biased against every religion except his own. After spending hours on my psych paper, the "mentor" gave me a 55, like what the hell? I even had it reviewed by a friend that's doing her PhD in psych, he had totally stupid remarks on the paper. I'd drop those 2 classes too, but then I'd have to pay the school some outrageous amount like $6000 or something, so I'm gonna tough it out, and if I do bad then screw it, but I'm so not gonna be here next semester, I'm transferring to La Salle University, they have an evening program for working people, and I'll get REAL professors that are competent to teach the course material. The price isn't so bad, but considering you won't learn much if you have any of the mentors I have, is it really worth that hole in your wallet?

I have been going to school at TESC for 2 1/2 years now and have been very pleased with the online format. It is accredited by the same regional body as the brick and mortar school that I attended before, so its legitimacy is valid. I had grown frustrated with having to go to classes and miss out on family time (I am married with small children), but now I can attend class even while on family vacations. You have to be a very self-sufficient student as most of what you do is without the direct guidance of instructors. The only complaints that I have is the lack of efficiency in the administrative offices and the lack of consistency in the quality of instructors (this is true of any school that I have attended). Overall, I feel very lucky that I found a way to work toward a degree on my own time without compromising the time I can spend with my family.

I really enjoyed my short time at Thomas Edison State College. I am glad that there is a reputable school out there that can meet the needs of adult learners. I transferred in the majority of credits from major universities that I've accumulated over the years. I am pleased that there is an institution that allows this convenience. I took 3 actual classes at TESC and I found them to be about equal to the other universities that I've attended. The mentors don't always respond in the quickest manner possible but I found them to be very reasonable. The customer service at TESC definitely isn't perfect but there are a few members of the staff that genuinely care and provide excellent service. I am pleased to be an alumni of Thomas Edison State College and the positive points definitely outweigh the negative.

When I enrolled at Thomas Edison State College (TESC), I needed fifty or sixty credits in order to receive my degree. TESC is very flexible when it comes to earning those credits for this particular degree program. Some people transfer credits from other colleges. Some people earn credits via portfolio assessment. Others take Guided Study courses, correspondence courses from other colleges, PONSI/ACE recommended training, inexpensive FEMA courses, or credit by examination programs to earn college credits. When I enrolled, I immediately realized the benefits of earning credits for my bachelors degree program through credit by examination. TESC allows its students to take and pass an unlimited number of college courses this way. TESC is also flexible with its distribution of upper level credits. Did you know that TESC will accept 200 level courses as upper level credits in their concentration or specialization? At the time, these considerations were important since money was an issue for me; and credit by examination was the cheapest method to earn credits through TESC. In addition to the 63 to 67 credits that I transferred to TESC for another regionally accredited college, I earned 48 college credits by examination through TESC and took 2 correspondence courses in order to receive my degree. However, TESC does have its weaknesses. Sometimes, their recordkeeping and organizational skills aren't great. They misplaced a copy of my passing test results or neglected to include a passing class on my transcript. I wasn't pleased; however, I decided to call the college and politely address the issue with one of the staff members. They found my CLEP transcript on top of a dusty cabinet, apologized for the mistake, and took care of the problem. Another time, the college staff misplaced tests on a Saturday test date. I had driven an hour to get to the college only to discover the administration didn't have our tests ready or misplaced them. The college staff knew students were angry, so they sent us a letter of apology and allowed us to take two additional TESC tests at no charge. At least, they made amends. TESC is a great place for a person who is flexible, well motivated, and disciplined in his or her studies. However, the biggest drawback about the college is its recording keeping and organization skills. Sometimes they do misplace student grades, or they are slow with transcribing a student's grades; therefore, if you or someone you know know is interested in enrolling at TESC, please keep good records of all of your correspondence from TESC before, during, and after you enroll. If you experience a problem, address it politely with college staff and you should have no problems.

The quality of mentors is not consistent. I hoped to improve my weaknesses in preparation of a higher degree. At times, I found receiving an A was all too easy. However, many mentors were wonderful and offered tips and insight toward improvement. I believe TESC's greatest weakness is the lack of consistency of dedication in mentors.

I was a straight "A" student at two REAL untiversities in NY. I thought I'd complete my degree more quickly by going entirely online. In short, the materials are horrible, support & guidance from teachers is non-existent, and the school reputation is very poor. Tests do not match materials told to study. Experience was aweful. Complete waste of money and time. Like me, you should pass this school by and attend a REAL school -- as I now am.