Thomas Edison State College

The courses themselves weren't so bad, and the its definitely not a diploma mill. Hard work required. Problem is with the administration. The school is arrogant and in denial of its own problems. If you have a problem, unless you wind and complain until it makes it to the top, they'll just give you the run around. The big issue is getting beyond the phone bank. I had constant problems with disappearing mentors, BLACKBOARD and later MOODLE becoming inaccessible... stuff like that. Burnt out on dealing with their buggy system. Totally detracted from the school work. Not worth it, even if the courses were good (though anything but state of the art.)

The real issue is the test are computer generated, which means all the information that you focus on, that you spend a lot of time writing papers on, is rarely on the tests. Often the test will have the most obscure facts, one time questions were from the introduction of the chapters, being one line out of hundreds of pages, and I was expected to write an essay on it worth 15 points. The information was not important for the class, it would be like asking write an essay on how old Freud was when he got married; I am not being dramatic here. I understand that you are working for a BA, but the test should be on the main points of the chapters, not minute details. If you know the material, especially the information that you were told to focus on, inside and out, you should be okay talking a test, but rarely is that the case. It is not as if one question is thrown in, that is on a major point not covered, but you should know, to see if you studied. The issue seems to be that the mentors are not the ones writing the test in general. You also can't skip ahead during the midterms or finals and then go back, which I have always been taught is how to take a test, do what you know first and then go back and answer what you are not sure of. To clarify, they are in sections, like standardized test, you can't go to the next section and then go back. I don't know the point of this. You also can't see what you got wrong, so I don't know how you can learn from your mistakes or even question your grade. Maybe this is common in traditional schools on a BA level, I do not know, but I requested to see one of my test and was told the school would not allow it. The mentor had no issue with it, but the school said no. I only had one really bad mentor, she won't answer any of my questions. The syllabus is confusing at best. I had many people read it and tell me that they had no idea what was expected of me, people currently enrolled in the master's programs, people that have Phd's from NYU could not help me understand what was wanted. This was brought to the attention of the mentor and she did not explain to me what was wanted. It is sad, because if the issues with the test were fixed, and it is a real issue, the school would be a much better school. The classes require a lot of work and I have learned a lot. If a student puts the effort in to write an A paper and to bring something of value to the discussion boards, they should feel that some of the material they focused on would be on the test. I would say that information should be the majority of the test and that the other major points in the chapters should be covered.

This is my first semester at TESC and its been a good experience so far. I transferred in about 65 credits from a community college and i plan to finish my BA in psych in about a year and a half by taking 36 credits a year. The courses do require a lot of writing but it is easy depending on the course. Take the time to look over course syllabi and find courses of interest that can apply to your degree. Some courses require less work than others. Also take the time to check out professors on rate my professor before signing up for a class, it really helps. So far ive had no complaints with professors, some are more lenient graders than others. Its important that you stay on top of course schedules.

The online books that were provided are a complete ripoff. The institution is a scam.

TESC is an excellent school for working adults. The classes are somewhat long (12 weeks), but they do start monthly and are easy to overlap and manage. I have easily juggled four at a time with a very busy work schedule. The counselors do a great job developing your degree plan with you. I took about 8 or 9 classes per year (I already had an AA) and finished my BA in about two and a half years. The value for your money at TESC is exceptional. The only shortcoming I found through my studies was the attitude and engagement from a (very) few of the mentors (only one "bad" one and he was fired). Also, if you don't like the military then do not take classes with TESC because half of your class will be in the military (like me).