Enroll first, test after or visa versa?

I've always assumed its best to enroll in a college first and start all the planned tests (CLEP, etc.) after... but from reading here I'm now wondering if it makes any difference, or if I may even save some money by testing first and enrolling afterwards? Any advise?

 

Other people will contradict me, but I will repeat my advice borne of experience: Don't delay enrolling, unless you want to risk unpleasant surprises.

You can study and register for exams while you're enrolling, though.

 

check out bain4weeks . There is info on pros & cons of enrolling vs not under the "Fundamentals" section.

 

Thanks to both etech and Mark.
Another reason to delay down the tubes
(And yes, I know advice is spelled thusly, but the mind wanders.)

 

I thought about this for a while when I was first looking at this. Since I already had 80 hours, I felt I needed to see where and if my current credits would count. So I went for the evaluation first to see what I had. I will matriculate soon. I don't disagree with the advice to enroll so the rules don't change on you while you are testing if you are starting from scratch. But I think you have to also weigh how much you think you can get done in that all important first year. I knew from just reading COSC's website that I needed some tests to meet their core requirements, so I scheduled those while I was waiting for evaluation.

 

test first then enroll?

I chose to test first to get the number of credits required for my degree down below a number that was a cutoff for reduced tuition from Excelsior. When I enrolled, Excelsior disallowed one of my courses/exams and that put me 1 credit over the limit for the increased tuition (and nearly twice the price for the program). Approximately a year later my advisor informed me Excelsior was giving me credit for a exam I had taken before enrolling that would have put me under the limit when I enrolled (needless to say, I considered this quite underhanded). And naturally, I had already scheduled and paid for the exam (and additional textbooks and such) and no refunds were permitted so I took the exam anyway. Later I was glad I had enrolled when I did as Excelsior changed the requirements in a way that would have required 2 additional courses/exams for my degree. So as far as I'm concerned both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. I believe Excelsior reviews it's programs in the fall and announces changes in Oct so if you enroll in Sep or early Oct you can lock in your degree requirements. Also, if it's shortly after new requirements are announced it might pay to "test out" a few requirements before the next cycle of review and change.

Anyway, my advice is that if you plan to "test out" requirements for a degree, you take a couple of exams before enrolling to see how you handle this approach to earning a degree. It's not easy to go the independent study route and many students who started at Excelsior around the same time I did have disappeared (I no longer hear from them nor do I see them posting messages anywhere) so I suspect they may have dropped out. Quite a few have let me know they failed exams (and a few more than once). Only a very small number of students have let me know they've actually finished the work towards their degrees from Excelsior.

 

Thanks to all and etech particularly as http://www.bain4weeks.com/enrollment.html gives a detailed cost/ben. analysis of the whole issue of when to test and enroll.

 

Because I'm a cheap SOB, I waited to enroll until I was sure I would be able to complete all degree requirements within one year. The COSC enrollment covered that period, after which there would have been an additional fee.
I too found the bain4weeks site to be very valuable.
Dan