Thomas Edison St.

[DepingNuke]

Whats the deal with this college? I have seen that some of you have mentioned going there and finishing your degree, and so on. I am just wondering because i live within 8 miles of it, and i work less than a half mile from the college.

[Roll Tide]

Whats the deal with this college? I have seen that some of you have mentioned going there and finishing your degree, and so on. I am just wondering because i live within 8 miles of it, and i work less than a half mile from the college.

Go to the website and check out the options for completion of a BS degree after NNPS. I think it is www.tesc.edu You will find you are about halfway there, and can gain additional credits while deployed through PACE (or modern equivalent)!

[Riskman1]

Be careful...Thomas Edison State -- has an electronic engineering TECHNOLOYY undergrad program. That is not a true engineering degree. If you don't want to be a licensed professional engineer that might be fine but it may close more doors than it opens.

If you want to ever sit for a State Professional Engineering (PE) exam (after passing your Eng in Training exam and serving a 4-years under a Licensed PE) you need to graduate from an engineering program accredited by the American Board of Engineering Technology (ABET)  Generally speaking true engineering programs have tougher core courses than engineering technology programs have.

When I was an undergrad at a state university those pre-engineering students who were only doing fair in foundational courses (calculus-based physics, chemistry, calculus/differential equations/linear algebra sequences etc) often dropped down to the engineering technology program, rather than continuing on in the more rigourous engineeering curriculum.

IMHO putting in the extra work and sweat to get a true engineering degree in the field of your choice is worth it. You can always pick up a Masters in Business  or whatever later on in night school or in distance learning--but for many people it is harder to get a real engineering degree by distance learning than by the traditional day-college courses.

Caveat Emptor

[JassenB]

I recently graduated from Thomas Edison with their BS in Nuclear Engineering Technology. While not exactly a very usefull degree since I live 500 miles from the nearest plant, it served many purposes. First of all, I started the program in 2000 while still in the Navy. They gave me over 90+ semester hours of credit, between A school, power school, prototype, making E-5, plus some course work I had taken elsewhere. While not exactly the degree I wanted, it was quick and easy to finish, mainly some general ed courses. It was cheap, too, even before throwing in GI Bill paying for it.

The program *is* ABET accredited, but as the previous post mentioned, you cannot take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam with an eng. tech degree in most states. Fortunately for me, Colorado is one of the few states in which the degree qualifies one to sit for the FE exam, so if I choose to I can start down the path to being a PE.

Another benefit is that a degree in any technical discipline is good for many other jobs, including STA slots at nuke plants, any type of facilities supervisor position, and gives you 12 months of junior HP credit, which was my motivation for finishing it.

However, my nuclear career appears to be over for a while because I was denied unescorted access at Catawba a few weeks ago and got sent home (which pretty much sucked). So now, the biggest benefit to having the TESC degree was that it enabled me to get admitted to graduate school so I can step back from radiation protection and pursue the bigger picture of that which RP is a subset of, namely the broad arena of industrial hygiene and environmental health and safety.

So, it just depends on what your goals are. I highly encourage all current Navy nukes to spend some free time taking general ed CLEP and DANTES exams while they're free, and then get the TESC or Excelsior Nuc. Eng. Tech degree just for the sake of having a degree, then go from there with whatever additional education they may desire. Once you have a first BS, a second one in a different field or a graduate degree is much closer at hand.

Toodles!
JassenB

[DecommMan]

I could not have said it better.  Well done.  Good luck.

[troycawley]

I disagree with the advice of getting the degree "just for the sake of getting the degree."  As Riskman1 said: it may close more doors than it opens.  How? you may ask:  If you have the BSAST, then you no longer qualify for many forms of financial aid--specifically employee tuition assistance programs.   (Why would they pay for you to get another BS?)  I don't know exactly where the GI Bill stands on this, but it is something to consider before jumping into TESC.  You could graduate your way out of thousands of dollars of free money for college.

[troycawley]

From (Career:  College - Thomas Edison Degrees):

Roll Tide -I understand--I will go through with the TE Degree(includes Calc 1&2) since I only need 4 classes and I could always take 2 calculus- based physics courses later if need to (ie STA opportunities)  Thanks for the info!!

That can be an expensive decision. I have the BS without calc-based physics. I cannot just go get the additional classes and then be eligible for STA. Most plants require your transcript upon graduation to show the classes. That means paying for another degree! (Not a problem, as long as you expect it.) Also, it is like pulling teeth to get GI Bill for undergraduate classes when you already have a BS.

[Roll Tide]

I disagree with the advice of getting the degree "just for the sake of getting the degree."  As Riskman1 said: it may close more doors than it opens.  How? you may ask:  If you have the BSAST, then you no longer qualify for many forms of financial aid--specifically employee tuition assistance programs.   (Why would they pay for you to get another BS?)  I don't know exactly where the GI Bill stands on this, but it is something to consider before jumping into TESC.  You could graduate your way out of thousands of dollars of free money for college.

Good point. Here is my experience: I found a graduate program I "wanted", determined what additional undergraduate credits would be required for admission to that graduate program, and submitted the request.
GI Bill and corporate tuition assistance covered the classes I took afterwards, based on a letter stating that those classes would make me more competitive for the graduate program I wanted.
They won't pay for you to get another BS, but they will pay for all the classes required to get that BS, if it is based on graduate program needs.

IF you don't have the initiative to get the GI Bill and corporate tuition assistance to pay for your classes after your BS, you wouldn't have the initiative to complete a BS anyway. It's still a no-brainer to me: GET THE BS while you are in.

[taterhead]

Concur on that...get something, anything, and everything you can while you are in.

Surprises me how many guys say that they came in for educational benefits, yet refuse to go over to Navy College and look into taking advantage of what the Navy offers.