Another Excelsior College question...

Hi Everyone!

I received the info packet from Excelsior College the other day and frankly, I'm a bit confused:

You can get a degree from them, but the actual courses are offered from other sources? How does that work? Do you have to pay separate fees for those courses on top of the fees charged by Excelsior College? Doesn't that negate the affordability aspect of getting a distance learning degree?

How does this work exactly?

(Sorry, I work full time and haven't had time to call Excelsior and get the 411.)

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Michelle

 

You take courses or examinations and transfer them to the College. You can take any type of academic credit course, whether distance or classroom allowing you to shop around for the best bargains or types of types of courses best suited to you. You save money when you apply examination credits such as CLEP and DANTES to your program. You might want to review this website www.bain4weeks.com which explains how you can earn your degree completely by examination.

 

> You can get a degree from them, but the actual courses are
> offered from other sources?

Yes.

> Do you have to pay separate fees for those courses on top
> of the fees charged by Excelsior College?

Yes.

> Doesn't that negate the affordability aspect of getting a
> distance learning degree?

You asked very similar questions in a previous thread:

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.phps=&threadid=11609

Excelsior is the cheapest option for people planning to claim a lot of credits by exam. (In particular, the DANTES and GRE exams are cheap.) For someone planning to get a degree entirely by coursework, Excelsior may well not be the cheapest option.

In the earlier thread, you said "even if I could possibly pass exams for credit [...] I'd be cheating myself by circumventing the coursework." So I'm puzzled why you're still considering Excelsior. What is the attraction of Excelsior for you?

 

Are you sure that Excelsior is the cheapest? Charter Oak State College doesn't charge for credits that are transferred in, so, unless Excelsior pay you to take tests/etc, I don't see how they could be cheaper. <g> Or do you mean that Excelsior's ancillary costs are less (which also seems unlikely)?

Cordially,
Richard Kanarek
Who possesses no knowledge of Excelsior's/TESC's fee schedule

 

Excelsior does not charge you for transfers of any type of credit. The annual fee of about $900.00 covers all transfer expenses. Thomas Edison charges a credit transfer fee but may be the best deal overall if you plan on taking courses to earn credit. A flat fee of about $4,700 includes unlimited TESC exams, transfers and 36 hours of Thomas Edison DL courses for one year.
My wife started her studies from scratch at Thomas Edison and took advantage of this plan and Thomas Edison's financial aid office. On the other hand, I transfered most of the credits I needed for my degree to Excelsior and finished very quickley and cheaply without needing financial aid. The best and cheapest college of the Big Three depends on your situation.

 

1. You pay an enrollment fee you
2. You transfer in your work (which can be exams, courses, ACE evaluation for credit, certifcations, etc.).
3. You pay a graduation fee.

This is a really rough estimate (I don't recall exactly how much enrollment and grad fees are):

So, I paid an enrollment fee for their AAS in Technical Studies program (I was in the military so, I paid 300 dollars).

1. Enrollment: 300 dollars

I had 18 credits from a community college @ 30 dollars a credit (600 dollars). I also had credit from military training and MOS evaluated by ACE which was 28 credits. Two college courses after my enrollment (6 credits) @ 40 dollars a credit (240 dollars). Finally CLEP'd two exams (total of 9 credits).

2. Course work: 840 dollars

Then I paid my graduation fee.

3. Graduation: 250 dollars.

Total cost for an AAS in Technical Studies (Electro-Mechanical Technology) $1390 (add about 50 dollars for transcript fees)

There are techs and operators on the floor where I work that are still paying for the degrees they received from ITT, Devry, and other expensive colleges up here. Excelsior can be really cheap, given the right circumstances.

Bill

 

Thanks everyone for clarifying that for me. That helps a lot.

MarkIsrael: I'm new to this and am just learning about earning a degree via distance learning. Excelsior College is the first one to respond to my request for more information. I was just a little confused about how they work, that's all.

My "attraction" to them is their reputation -- apparently very good. Naturally, as a prospective student, I want to go to a good, well-respected school.

I also requested info from Thomas Edison State College, but haven't received any info from them yet. Based on what I know (very little) and what I've heard people say here about it, it sounds like a very good choice for me. But that's merely an impression as I don't have enough information to make an informed decision at this point.

So I'm waiting for the info...

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Michelle

 

> My "attraction" to them is their reputation --
> apparently very good.

The Big 3 (Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State College, Charter Oak State College) are Regionally Accredited, which means that their degrees will be recognized. But since they don't require you to take courses from them, you could take your courses at the worst RA school in the country, transfer your credits in, and get a Big 3 degree. This makes the Big 3 "bottom-feeders".

You want reputation. For now, colleges with campuses have higher reputations than assessment colleges. I would again urge you to look at Gus Sainz's Website, "Distance Learning Undergraduate Business Degrees": http://collegedegrees.tripod.com

Why not the BS in Business Administration or Business/Economics from Eastern Oregon University, or the BS in Business Administration from the University of Florida, both at $95 per credit?

 

Slight correction:

The annual fee is about 450 USD.

The enrollment fee (one time only), is about 1,000 USD, and includes the first annual fee.

There is a graduation fee of about 500 USD as well.

There is no fee for transferring credits into Excelsior.

Daniel

ps, all of the above fees are for BA/BS programs for out of state, non-military students only.

 

okay, should i just enroll to excelsior, THEN send my credits in and just see what I need, or do i NEED to send in an application? the application seems kind of a waste if you are sure you are just going to go through and finish it up at excelsior no matter if they give you 80 or 70 hours already towards your degree, also wondering (as posted in another thread) exactly what all i need so i could say take all the stuff first then enroll. i guess it doesnt really matter though.