Dear ladies and gents, I am new to this forum and hopefully I can bring your wisdom to bear upon the following question: Considering Ratchford, degree mills, instant degrees, etc.. Is there any way one can legitimately have one´s prior academic background/life-experience evaluated for a degree? Much Obliged, Victor.
I have no input to offer, I am just wondering if you could help me parse "rats-found-on-road-dead." Well, besides the obvious. DJ
The obvious? Hi, It is just a simple wordplay on rat /s-(ch) f-o-r-d. No big deal-just thought it was kind of funny. Best, Victor.
Victor, the only way you can earn a degree for life experience is by "testing out" at one of the big three. If you do a search you will find plenty of information to guide you in your quest. All the other less-than-wonderful schools are more or less diploma mills. best of luck
Dear Mr. Savia, Thank you for your reply. You mention the "big three"..now I have performed a search and I am working with a few results. However, I want to be sure I am not overlooking anything. I would love to be tested and not just submit something to some board of advisors using an arbitrary algorithm for evaluating my background/portfolio. May you perchance send me more details via PMB? Thank You, Sir Best, Victor
A good source to get started on testing is to go to Lawrie Miller's BA in 4 Weeks site. Read the overview and look at the options. See: http://geocities.com/ba_in_4_weeks/ John
Roy Savia writes: > the only way you can earn a degree for life experience is > by "testing out" at one of the big three. If you do a search you > will find plenty of information to guide you in your quest. > All the other less-than-wonderful schools are more or less > diploma mills. Um, what about Western Governors University? What about portfolios as an alternative to "testing out"? And, is "other less-than-wonderful schools" supposed to imply that the Big 3 are "less-than-wonderful schools"?
For an entire degree? Virtually all schools allow students to transfer in prior academic work, though they place all kinds of restrictions on it as they see fit. You will need to study university catalogs. Most schools have some arrangement for prior learning assessment, such as challenge examinations. You will need to read the catalogs. But all but a handful of schools place limits on how much credit you can receive for prior work done elsewhere and require you to take x number of units with them in order to receive one of their degrees. For a BA, that's often one year or 30 semester units. Again, the catalogs. The handful of regionally accredited schools that permit you to transfer in or test out of all of your requirements are: Excelsior College in NY Thomas Edison State College in NJ Charter Oak State College in CT Western Governors University in several places Degreeinfo often calls the first three (Excelsior, TESC and COSC) the "big three". I don't know where that started. Western Governors University is a newer school and still probably doesn't get as much discussion around here as it deserves.
