Finally finishing a degree

I have been thinking about finishing a BS degree for quite some time, but never seemed to get around to it. Last fall, I happened to come across the excellent site BAin4Weeks. I had known that I could get more college credit by testing, but had no idea that it was possible to do it exclusively by testing. What a revelation!

This got me motivated again, so at the end of August, I signed up with Excelsior and had my transcripts sent. One cautionary note - when I signed up on the Excelsior web site, I thought I was actually enrolling and starting the official transcript evaluation. I was surprised to find out that this was all "unofficial" until I filled out the paper form and paid them more money. This slowed things down a bit and I wasn't "officially" a student until early November.

There were a few problems, however. On my unofficial evaluation, everything was ok, except that some CLEPs that I took at NMSU in 1986 had not been reported to CLEP, so Excelsior couldn't accept them. Once I got my offical evaluation, Excelsior forgot some courses that were on the unoffical evaluation (Freshman Comp & CompTIA Server+). I did get this straightened out via email.

As for the unreported CLEPs, I had to hassle with NMSU for months before they finally told me that since the exams I took in 1986 were for their in-house use, they refused to now report them to CLEP. I faxed a letter and a copy of my score sheet from 1986 to CLEP and they kindly sent a letter to Excelsior, saying that they knew I took the exams, but that they didn't have any official scores to report. On the strength of this, Excelsior accepted them indirectly, by accepting the courses that NMSU had awarded me for those exams in 1986 (as transfer credits). It was a hassle, but was worth it for nine credits.

At this point, I had a total of 73 credits. This included CLEPs I had taken 20 years ago in the Air Force (almost missed the 20 year cutoff), a whopping 33 credits for my Air Force training, classes and CLEPs from NMSU in 1986/1987 and CompTIA certifications I took last spring (A+, Network+, Server+).

I originally thought I should go for the Excelsior BS in CIS degree. However, I decided that it would be better to get the BS in Liberal Arts now and later, get the CIS as a second BS. I have 17 years experience in my field, but no degree. I think that any degree at all will help me in the short term. I have encountered the "no degree" prejudice many times.

After talking to my Excelsior advisor, I knew that one of my depth requirements would be computers (Applied Professional). While deciding what to pick for my other depth, I took the DANTES Management Information Systems exam, since all I was lacking for the computer depth was some upper level credits. I took this just before Christmas and am still waiting for the results. I had to drive 40 miles to the University of Phoenix campus and take a paper exam. (That's another story. Don't get me started on their incompetence. And I still have four DANTES exams to take.)

After looking at what exams were available, I decided to do my second depth in history, as it is a subject that I have some knowledge of and an interest in. So last week, I scheduled with NMSU (at least they are local) to take the CLEP History of the United States I exam. I got some books from the public library and bought Barron's EZ-101 guide. I studied for a week and yesterday took the exam. I was a little worried and was really hoping for a 59, so I could get an A from Excelsior. I was blown away to find that I scored a 77.

After this confidence and ego boost, I went back to NMSU today and scheduled the remaining five CLEPs that I need (History US II, Western Civ I, Info Sys & Computer Apps, Principles Management, Principles Marketing). I have these scheduled for the next five weeks, so I will be busy studying.

After that, it is on to the other four DANTES and the six ECE exams. I have until early November before my year of academic advising from Excelsior is up, but I want to finish well before that, just in case I don't do well with any exams and have to take a course.

BTW, for the ECE exams, I have to drive 45 miles to the Sylvan/Prometric test center, since the Sylvan center in town does not do any testing. We do have a VUE test center in town, but apparently VUE does not offer ECE exams.

Sorry for the long-winded message, but I thought I would share my exeriences in case others would find them helpful. I know that I have found invaluable information in other postings on this forum. Thanks to all.

 

It sounds like you'll very shortly be graduating from Excelsior. Be sure to keep us updated as to your progress!

 

welcome and congratulations..

I myself am leaning towards Excelsior's BSCIS but am haunted by the Maths requirements for this degree. I will know when I attempt Maths courses/exams if this is the one for me.

I know you can get an unofficial evaluation from Excelsior that takes 3-4 weeks, does official admission takes further 3-4 weeks ? is it better to just enrol or does one have to go through unofficial eval.

 

As for the math, I had taken Calculus I at NMSU (twice), so I have that on my Excelsior transcript already. I have always been pretty good with Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry. It is just Calculus that I have a hard time with.

I will have to double check the catalog, but I don't think that the Excelsior CIS degree requires more math than I have. I think the Computer Technology degree requires more, though. Or maybe I have it backwards?

The "official" evaluation seemed to take just as long as the "unofficial" one did. I don't understand this, as I had official transcripts sent the first time. Besides, they screwed it up on the official eval and I had to get them to correct it.

You don't have to go through the unofficial eval. You can just enroll and save time and $60. I misinterpreted what they had posted on their web site and thought that I was getting an official eval, before actually applying. I don't know if they have changed the web site or not, but they need to make it more clear exactly what you are signing up for via the web site. Nothing really counts until you fill out the paper application and send $1000 (roughly).

 

So far so good. Best of luck to you.

 

Testing

My school won't let me take CLEP, or DANTES exams for the upper level course work. Does Excelsior allow this?
From your disscussion it appears they do.....I just want to clarify this.

Paul

 

ETech writes:

> I know you can get an unofficial evaluation from Excelsior
> that takes 3-4 weeks, does official admission takes further 3-4
> weeks ?

On Excelsior College's Web page showing "Transcripts Received" (a very useful service, which I wish more colleges had), it says: "Your evaluation will be conducted within six to eight weeks after our receipt of your transcript(s)." This theoretically applies to every new transcript sent to them while you're enrolled. When Rosie first enrolled last year, Excelsior did seem to be about that slow, but lately they've been doing the evaluations in less than 2 weeks. When you apply to graduate, there will be another review of your credits and a further delay. Excelsior has been known to disallow already-granted credits at this stage, although it's rare.

Excelsior used to offer an official evaluation before enrollment, called "Credit Review". But they discontinued that last year.

Laser100 wrote:

> My school won't let me take CLEP, or DANTES exams for the
> upper level course work. Does Excelsior allow this?

It's all set out in the Student Guide to Credit by Examination at Excelsior College http://www.excelsior.edu/pdf/Student_Guide_and_Assessment_Catalog.pdf. There are no upper-level CLEP exams, but Excelsior grants upper-level credit for 7 of the DANTES exams. One thing to watch out for is that the DANTES exams "Drug & Alcohol Abuse" and "Fundamentals of Counseling", which get Social Science credit at some colleges, get only "Applied Professional" credit at Excelsior.

 

yup there is a requirement for Discrete Maths which must be taken. In order to take that one would have to take all the pre-reqs which would be really horrible. check it out.

 

Re: Testing

Yes, they not only accept them, they encourage them

 

GOOD LUCK!

Congrats to you on your progress. I am waiting out the official evaluation at COSC for my graduation (hopefully) in March or April.

 

Today's results

I just came back from taking the CLEP Information Systems and Computer Applications. There were 100 questions. I finished in 43 minutes. I scored a 77.

I must be on a roll, as that is the same score I got on the History US I exam. I wonder if I can keep this up

I really didn't study for this exam, for two reasons: I have been in the computer field for 17 years; last month I studied for and took the DANTES Management Information Systems exam (upper level).

I have to go back to studying, however. I have three more CLEPs in the next three weeks: History US II, Western Civ I, Analysing & Interpreting Literature. I won't study for the last one, as I took the practice exam and scored a 92% on it. It helps that I am well read and can write both poetry and prose.

After the CLEPs, I have four more DANTES and six ECE exams. I expect to be done with testing around June/July.

 

Another CLEP done

This afternoon I took History U.S. II. Due to an out-of-town funeral this past weekend, I only studied two days for this one.

There were several questions whose topics I did not come across in my reading and had never heard of. For these, I read the question carefully, used what I did know and eliminated questions until I thought I had the correct one. There were even four questions that I had to leave blank, as I had no idea at all.

Although I was not as prepared as I wanted to be, I still managed to score a 68, for another "A".

Next week I'm on to Western Civ I. I will definitely put in more study time for this one.

 

Re: Another CLEP done

Well, I'm back from Western Civ I. I was somewhat worried about this one, as it covers such a broad timeline.

In addition to a college textbook that I used, I found some practice tests and a study guide online at Houghton-Mifflin. This was helpful, but it also worried me, as the questions were rather hard. I'm happy to say that the CLEP exam wasn't nearly as hard.

I scored a 72. For Excelsior, I only needed a 50, as this one is a pass/fail.

The last CLEP is next week - Analysing and Interpreting Literature. This one will be a piece of cake.

 

Last CLEP finished!

Today was Analyzing and Interpreting Literature. I scored a 71, which is not only another "A", but this one is good for six credits.

If you are reasonably well read, this one isn't too hard. You will have to know the meaning of several terms, however. Things like the forms of verse, alliteration, personification, simile, etc. A few minutes with a Google search will give you all the definitions and examples you will need.

The only problem with this exam is that it takes a while to read and analyze each passage. I finished just 10 minutes short of the time limit. I had to watch the timer and pace myself, so I wouldn't run out of time.

The DANTES and ECE await...

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

It's GREAT to hear about the progress my fellow returning students are having.

I have gained more useful knowledge from this forum in the last 24 hours since I signed up than in the 6 months of emailing, request and downloading bulletins and catalogs, etc!!!!!

In just the past 24 hours I have submitted preliminary review requests with transcripts to four external degree programs and have put together a firm game-plan. All from knowledge gained on this forum!

To hear of other's experiences and learn from thier triumphs, thier progress and from any pitfalls they experience is immensly helpful and encouraging to all of us on this journey.

Wishing you great luck, and success, and hoping that you will keep us all informed of your experiences!

 

Re: CONGRATULATIONS!

I have the same sentiment about this forum. I have been reading it for months and only just registered recently. I have found a wealth of good information here. I hope that posting of my experience will be of some small contribution and that others will find it helpful as well.

While I'm on the subject, I would like to publicly thank two individuals. Dr. John Bear for introducing me to the idea of distance learning some time ago (I have two of his books) and Lawrie Miller for showing me that it is possible to finish a Liberal Arts degree by exams. BAin4Weeks has finally pushed me over the edge in doing something about finishing a degree. Once I have the BSLA, I plan on pursuing a second BS in Computer Science.

I knew that exams could be used (having taken some CLEPs before), but did not realize that an entire degree was possible by exam. Although I didn't need to do the entire degree by exam (I transfered 73 existing credits to Excelsior), I thank Lawrie for showing me that I could finish things without sitting in night classes for years, while also saving money.

College level self study works well for me, as I am a self-learner and an information junkie. This has served me well in my profession (computers).

Thanks for the congrats.

 

Update

It's been a few weeks since my last exam. Today I took the DANTES Civil War & Reconstruction. Of course, I won't know my score for weeks, however, I feel that I did well.

The comments made by others about this exam were helpful. I know that there are different versions of the exams, but I have to definitely agree that you need to know about all the major battles, which generals were at each one (and why in some cases) and why that battle was significant. There was a lot about the politics and policies of various people and groups, too. You also need to understand why certain people did what they did (morally, politcally, etc).

One thing I did notice about this DANTES history exam, in contrast to the three CLEP history exams I took - it wasn't nearly as concerned with the "social history" aspect of history and was more focused on factual history.

As for study material I used, I got a few books from the public library that looked like they covered the material. None of them were on the recommended list. One other source that was very helpful was the Spark Notes on the Civil War (if you register at sparknotes.com, you can read the entire thing online for free). It certainly doesn't cover everything you need to know, but its consise nature helped reinforce the major events in my memory.

Next week, Drug & Alcohol Abuse.

 

Re: Update

Hope you did in fact do well. I have found that if one feels he/she did well then he/she usually did.

Reconstruction is one of my three favorite periods of history, the other two being the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution (I guess that's why Les Miserables is my favorite book and movie of all time), although there is tremendous deviation between the two, which is common.

Good luck on your drug and alcohol test.

 

Re: Re: Update

Thanks for the encouragement. As for the Reformation, I had a class way back in high school (I'm not telling how long) that covered the Renaissance and the Reformation. It was a very interesting and enjoyable course.

Come to think of it, that was the only history class that I not only enjoyed, but did well in. The other courses were dull and boring. The shame of it is, I have learned since that history can be fun, fascinating and enjoyable. That's just not the way it was taught in my school. I hope they have improved since then.

I enjoy history so much more now, that history is one my two depth requirements for my Excelsior Liberal Arts degree. In fact, the Civil War exam completes that depth. The depth in computers was done a while back. That one was easy - I have 17 years in the computer field

 

THANKS for sharing, planning on getting started with Excelsior.