How good are the degress from the 3 colleges mentioned - Charter Oak State College (COSC) Excelsior College (formerly Regents College, University of the State of New york), Thomas Edison State College (TESC). Let me explain my situation. I was in school for a little bit so I have some credits but I am looking for the most efficient way to achieve a BA in the shortest amount of time. Testing out seems like a lot of work and I am very prepared for it but I wanted to see what the members in this group thought. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks. Carlos
I completed my BS from COSC and did not have a problem gettting into grad school. The three schools you mentioned are all Regional Accreditied (seen by most as the highest level of accreditiation)
You'll be hard pressed to find a different University, other than the Big three, that will allow you to complete your degree any faster. On Lawrie Millers site, www.bain4weeks.com, he gives a step by step account of how to graduate in 4 weeks. This plan alone will save you a lot of time. The guess work has been removed. Most will not do that, but it is possible. These three were selected for various reasons, but they all will allow testing for credit, PLA, and ecourses. Testing is the most time efficient way to get credit. It certainly beats sitting in a classroom for 16 weeks, paying for a parking pass, student Id card, expensive textbooks, and then reading through the homework each class. These Universities also see the value in PLA (prior learning assesment), which is another excellent method to obtain credit. This does take a lot of research and writing, but it is still preferred to a classroom. The best thing is do a little research, and get started. All three are excellent choices. I have seen people take 1-2-3 years getting ready to get ready, and never take a class. Remember that every year, tuition will increase, and the potential lost revenue from not having your BS. Good luck.
A recurring theme -- in fact, perhaps the single most important recurring theme -- of these forums is that regional accreditation assures a baseline level of quality upon which the world may blindly rely. If that's true, and the institutions all being regionally-accredited as they are, then there is no question that they are inherently good schools, notwithstanding their unconventional approach to things which seems to make so many question them. The testing versus course-taking argument is also a recurring theme here. To me (and this is just my opinion), it just depends on what you're looking for. As an old fart with more of his life behind him than in front, were I in the need of the credential for professional reasons, I would not hesitate to test out of everything I could and only take courses where absolutely necessary. And I would do so unapologetically. But were I a youngster again, and knowing how green and wet behind the ears I was then, and if there were a way for me to know then what I know now, I would keep the testing out of things to a minimum and suck-up as much good, old-fashioned learning as I could. But that's just my opinion.
I have just taken a look on this website and I have a few questions for those who have first-hand experience. If you take all these tests, do you still pay the university for the credit hours as if you actually took the course? This may be a good option for my brother, so I just wanted to find out the scoop. Also, I need the following courses with a 'B' or better to waive out of some MBA requirements. - Business Law - Operations Management - Business Writing I'm thinking I could test out of them and have COSC accept the test and issue me my letter grade and then submit this to my MBA shcool. My wheels are now churning.
I tested out of most of the credits needed. I started with an AA, which I tested out of about 30 credits, and several Microsoft certifications. I was able to complete my BS in about 4 months by taking two traditional classes and testing out of the rest. look here - http://bain4weeks.com/randell.html COSC charges an admin fee of about $1,000 which covers a year. You can transfer as many classes/tests as you want without an extra charge. COSC does not give letter grades for every test. Some are just a pass/fail. Check with them first if you must have letter grades for certain classes. Good luck.
I appreciate everyones responses and input. I am a little nervous since I am getting my clep test material together for my first test and hope to embark upon a journey where I will continue to grow and produce several degrees. As of this writing I have a total of 12 credits. I plan on cleping alot of courses during the course of the fall/spring semester and hope to complete my AAS at my local community college. I am also enrolling in one of the 3 probably Excelsior (probably mispelled). I had almost given up hope of ever having completed my BA but now I plan on getting my MBA. I hope you all know that reading the various posts on here has given me the drive to get started. I had a few questions How long is too long to wait to take a CLEP? Obviously you want to be very well prepared but I don't want to lag for too long. Hope this question makes sense. I was planning on taking the test after I had gone over the practice and was getting about 80% correct. Has anyone gotten credit for being an Oracle DBA? I have my MCSE and am not sure how to submit my certification for credit so any input on that would be highly appreciated as well. Thank you to everyone for you input and feedback. Carlos
Carlos, Congratulations on stepping up to the plate. As for the CLEPs, Dantes, that is entirely up to you. As Unixman (Clep legend) says, start with the low hanging fruit. Take all the easy CLEP's and work up from there. You might want to get the appropriate study guides. Here are a few tips which should help. www.bain4weeks.com Excellent strategy to earn you BA fast! Lots of great ideas. http://bain4weeks.com/examdifficultytables.html (this will give you an idea of which ones to start with) www.eBay.com Buy your study guides here. Xenia has some really good ones, for around $5-10. www.instacert.com For many exams, this is an excellent test prep. It was horrible for Business Finance, but great for most others. www.degreeforum.com Great sections on CLEP's, Dantes, TECEP exams, ECE exams, Good luck
I had my MCSE and A+ and got credits for them. Look at Excelsior’s web site https://www.excelsior.edu/portal/page?_pageid=57,84884&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL for credit info. COSC uses the same system for credit. For COSC, I had to print my Microsoft transcript and get it notorized. There was a form for the CompTIA credits.
