<p>I posted this question in another forum on this site, but got little response. I probably should have gone here first...</p>
<p>My S is a freshman engineering student at TAMU. He will probably have 27-28 credits by the end of spring semester, and would like to get 3 humanities/core credits over the summer. The extra 3 should help him stay on track to graduate in 4 years. His advisor said he would sign off on virtually any summer courses in the humanities as long as they came from an accredited institution (community college courses, on-line courses, etc, would all be fine). The catch is my S will be working over the summer, so it might be challenging to go to classes during the day.</p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with 100% on-line summer school courses? Any institutions that seem to have a good selection of offerings with flexible scheduling? Any other thoughts? </p>
<p>Mine have taken online classes, but we’re OOS so the school names won’t help you. Formats are accomodating to work schedules (that’s why mine chose online), but they are normally not self-paced. You will have assignments with due dates & testing windows (must test during a certain time frame usually a day or two). The ‘teaching’ was online textbooks & optional videos, you could interact with a professor via email. Tests & quizzes were timed, and rather stressful (but I guess that will depend on the courses). The level of difficulty far exceeded their expectations & they really had to work at it although it was a CC online course. One word of caution, make sure that the course you select is listed in the catalog as being accepted in the required area-Humanities (there is an equivalency tool that you use for the school you select). We did have a problem with an advisor recommending a course then at graduation review it did not count since it was not on the official list. There is no recourse, you need to take one of the approved courses - the advisor’s guidance had no bearing on the final decision & another course had to be taken. It only counted as an elective and not one of the requirements for graduation. You may have a different experience, but we were quite frustrated as we trusted the advisor to be accurate with their course recommendations.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that equivalency tools like the one above are not exhaustive. Typically they will be well-populated for Texas public schools, but much more sparsely so for anywhere else. Courses from other schools will be added as they are evaluated by the transfer administrators, but they do not attempt to “boil the ocean” by evaluating every course in every catalog across the country.</p>
<p>Case in point: there is only one course from Harvard in the equivalency database. However, if your S were to take a summer course from Harvard Extension, I estimate a 99.9% chance that it would be accepted for transfer credit.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, due to the structure of the Harvard Extension degree programs the vast majority of their summer courses are on-campus, not online. So while it makes a good example for my argument above, it makes a poor suggestion for your son’s specific situation.</p>
<p>I’d suggest online courses from A&M, but their online extension catalog is devoid of humanities offerings. </p>
<p>I am currently in a self-paced Spanish course from UT and can confirm that the course is very flexible. Only the midterm and final exams have to be scheduled for a specific date and time, and even those are scheduled at your request. Everything else can be done at your leisure.</p>
<p>I’d try taking some online at Blinn. There were quite a few that I took online that were completely online. I think one or two I had to go to take the exams in the learning center(they had to be proctored) but you were able to do those within the days that the teacher set aside for you to take the test. As long as you went during the days to take the test, you could take them any time. However, most of the classes I took online at Blinn were completely online. All exams, quizzes, homework, etc. were all online.</p>
<p>if you have a CC close to you, this will be the cheapest option. blinn has online classes, too, but they will probably be twice the cost of your local school.</p>
<p>i know kids that have taken online classes at lone star college and at blinn. my daughter took a couple from blinn last summer. i think they were pretty easy. it would be a good way to get some of the humanities stuff out of the way.</p>
<p>and yes, be EXTRA careful about making sure it will count the way you think it will. the advisors we have had at a&m have been awful. if you are going to an advisor to talk about TAP, then they should be advising you so that you will complete the requirements for TAP. you shouldn’t have any surprises when you think you have completed the requirements and are applying for your automatic admission. unfortunately, this is what happened to a couple kids i know. if the advisors had advised them properly, they would have had the requirements completed, but instead they ended up short on some of the requirements for auto admit. infuriating!</p>
<p>As another option for your son, he might want to consider taking a mini-mester at your local community college. Community Colleges typically have a mini-mester in December and another one after the spring semester ends but before the summer sessions start. The mini-mester is only about 2 1/2 weeks long. More than likely, the classes they offer will be online. It’s a great way to get rid of some classes fast and at a fraction of the cost A&M charges.</p>
<p>Lone Star College in the Houston area has fully online courses. They have full semester courses, and a winter mini-mester, and they also have mini-mesters during the summer. There are quite a few courses of varying lengths and start dates. I’m sure there are other community colleges that do the same thing. I believe you can take courses at any community college in Texas, but you pay more if you are out of district. Is that correct - does anyone know how that works? My student did both a winter mini-mester and a summer mini-mester. Worked out fine - never even had to go to campus. Not once! And A&M took the credits. </p>
<p>Another option is to study on your own and take a CLEP test. The A&M MARS website will tell you which CLEP tests and scores you need, and you get your score as soon as you finish the test.</p>
<p>Yes, out of district you do pay slightly more however, still much cheaper than A&M. If you are in the Houston area, look into HCC, Wharton Junior College, Lone Star, San Jacinto Jr College, Blinn, Alvin Jr College, etc. As long as the class transfers in to what you need you can take the classes anywhere in Texas. Just make sure your advisor signs off on the class you are going to take.</p>