Thomas Edison State University Reviews of Bachelor's in Liberal Arts

I enrolled at this college to complete the last 15 credits of my bachelors. The school itself was fine, I was only there because I needed my bachelors degree to practice my trade (completed at a different school) in New Jersey. I was not informed until after I completed 15 credits, and only received an E-mail after it was too late to sign up for more classes, that if you do not sign up for 16 credits minimum there is a residency requirement fee in which you have to pay $3,000 if you use less than... Read More 16 credits from Thomas Edison. Not only was the person who I called to discuss the fee with extremely rude, the counselor who had helped me with the admissions process claimed she usually tells people about this but must have forgotten to mention it to me. The only way I would have known about this fee is if I read the hundreds of pages of course catalog, and even then I would have had to narrow in on one small paragraph which discusses the residency requirement fee. I wanted to write this review in case anyone else has a similar experience. If I had known about the fee I would have taken the one extra credit and saved myself thousands of dollars.

I highly recommend the TESU experience. I struggled with education throughout my life because I am 65% deaf (one dead ear, the other with damage due to childhood disease). Though I attended classes in everything from community college, to traditional four year, with a couple courses at an Ivy, it was TESU, its advisors, instructors and support staff that made my education worthwhile. I uncovered talents and capabilities for which I had not been aware. I graduated with honors! (And some of the course... Read More - especially the 6-credit specialties - were tough (to say the least). Certainly, if you have hearing impairment (which - like me - made traditional classroom courses VERY frustrating), then TESU is a most logical, and best, solution. Yes. There are frustrations from time to time, but nothing like I've read in the low-star reviews. My advisor was nearly always available (we even had lunch). My professors were nearly always willing to help, especially if you treat your degree as an education, and not just a necessary piece of paper. Most exciting was that professors taught at prestigious colleges and universities across the country, and students were living around the world while attending classes! So the experience was eclectic and global. But no matter your situation, if you're serious about learning, go for it!!

Very disappointed in a couple of the classes I took here. Online students are generally non-traditional students, who have careers and families outside of the fact that they are going to school. No adjustments whatsoever for workload. I ended up with a C in one elective, even though I had 100's on all of my papers. I bombed the midterm and final because there was just too much information to try to retain, even though I studied my ass off. To me, I learned more writing the papers, and the tests did... Read More me absolutely no good. Also, if you know anything about teaching, you would know that students learn best in small increments......quizzes, papers, etc. Therefore, the midterm and final were a waste of time, and made my GPA suffer. I did my absolute best, and still bombed. Very frustrating. One of the classes I was required to take was an ethics class, which was a ridiculous waste of time and energy. The books were very hard to navigate, and were not up to date. Listening to audio lessons that were outdated put me to sleep. This university needs to adapt the curriculum for the non traditional student, and make the learning more relevant.

TESU has a very fine online program. The curriculum for each course is set by the administration, so every section of a course runs exactly the same. The course mentors varied in quality and the amount of their participation, though. Some mentors were slow in posting grades and did not have a lot of interaction with the class, but others posted grades quickly and were as active in their participation as an in-classroom instructor would be. As should be, the upper level courses were more challenging... Read More than lower level ones, and the amount of work required in upper level courses was greatly increased. I am considering continuing in a masters program, and would have no qualms about pursuing that at TESU.