General Education Requirements

My son has just graduated from high school and is looking to go to college and major in history. Does anyone know of a online program that would allow him to get the g.e.d requirements out of the way while he is working full time?? All of the distance learning programs or online programs I have seen on the net so far seem to be for someome starting a bachelors. Thanks.Please post answer.

 

If you would like to get general education courses out of the way there are several options to look into:

1.) Your son could take AP exams, CLEP exams, or other exams that will award college credit. You need to take a look into the colleges that your son is interested in applying to and determine what their policy is and scoring guidelines for awarding exam based credit. Exams are an inexpensive means to earn credit quickly.

2.) Many college and universities offer online courses. A couple of independent study divisions with large offerings are:

University of Wisconsin Extension http://www1.uwex.edu/

University of North Caolina Continuing Education http://www.fridaycenter.unc.edu/

And there are hundreds of others.

Another site, broader in opportunities, to look into is:
http://www.worldwidelearn.com/index.html

Keep in mind that you need to focus on courses that will be transferable to the college your son will be attending. At the freshman level credit transfers should be straight forward but there is no guarantee. I would stress checking into what the college will accept and plan a course of study accordingly. If your son will be attending college in the fall then time is limited and you may be able to find some courses to supplement his regular semester studies.

John




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John R. Wetsch, Ph.D.
B.S. '84 Excelsior College (USNY/Regents)
M.A. '89 Antioch University, The McGregor School
Ph.D. '94 Nova Southeastern University

 

I'm not sure what DL school might offer in terms of g.e.d. classes, but your son may be able to test out of most or all of the undergraduate work through CLEP exams. You would have to check with the the prospective college that he would do his upper division courses to see how much CLEP they will accept. I believe that Excelsior College may accept all CLEP, but you would have to check that out.
http://www.collegeboard.org/clep/
http://www.excelsior.edu/

 

Handmaiden,

Is your issue with the online programs that you've found so far that they require full-time status and/or don't allow you to pick and choose the courses? If not, there is no obligation to finish a program even if you "begin" a BA/BS there.

There are some community colleges with DL programs that would probably allow you to pick and choose courses and they're relatively inexpensive. Here is one that has articulation agreements with all of the state universities in Florida (their 2+2 program): http://web2010.brevard.cc.fl.us/bcchome/index1.html . (There is a link for distance learning. I'd check with the senior college first before enrolling...to avoid surprises.

You might want to avoid history courses because the senior college may be more selective for courses in your son's major area; check with the senior college!

You might want to check with the Univ. of Nebraska Lincoln: http://dcs.unl.edu/disted/college/courses.html

 

One thing to consider is that general education requirement vary greatly from school to school. (Private institutions that have either attended or worked at have varied from no general education requirements to 27 credit hours in 9 areas to 54 hours of fairly specific coursework.) While many state institutions have created shared general education core courses, even those vary from state to state.

If your son knows the school he would liek to attend, he can tailor the DL courses he takes to meet their General Education requirements. If not, he would probably be best served by taking a broad range of introductory courses via DL, with the knowledge that he may need to fill in the gaps once he chooses a school.

Hworth

 

There's a great book that Peterson's puts out called something like "Peterson's Guide to 10,000 Distance Learning Courses." It lists several hundred schools that offer a wide range of courses that can be taken via DL, some for very low tuition rates.

One school in particular to check out is Ohio University - Athens, a huge DL program which offers most of the courses via DL that are available in their on-campus programs.

The CLEP/DANTES exam idea is worth considering, however, you may want to be somewhat cautious if your son doesn't yet know where he wants to earn his degree. Quite a few of the more selective schools will not accept CLEP/DANTES credits, and many more will not accept credit-by-exam or other non-work-based credit programs. But most will accept transfer credits for a class taken via DL.

On the other hand, your son could do a bunch of credits via DANTES/CLEP, take a bunch more classes through Ohio U or another program, take the specific major classes he wants at a school of his choice, and transfer everything to a place like Thomas Edison State in NJ, and they will issue a degree based completely on work done elsewhere.

It all depends on what he's trying to accomplish.

We'll be happy to provide more detail if you (or he) fill us in on specifics.

Best of luck!

 

Thank You all for helping us, the information, your time and effort, are greatly appreciated!!

 

A lot of these programs would offer the general education courses that your son wants to get out of the way. Often if you look at them a little more closely, you'll find that they allow students to enroll in just one or two courses without going through the whole application process and being admitted to the school. I think this is more common in programs that have grown from independent study (aka correspondence).

All the specific schools mentioned are good. If you want to find courses in specific subjects, try some of the online guides I list at http://distancelearn.about.com/cs/courseguides/

I've usually found Excelsior's DistanceLearn database -- you can search by key words, delivery media, grad/undergrad credit and cost.

If at all possible, your son should talk to an education adviser at the school where he wants to go, so that he can plan his DL studies for maximum acceptance. Schools have different rules; some are very liberal, others very strict. Many will not allow "retrograde" credit; that is, if you pass an advanced course you can't then pick up easy credits in an intro course. For example, don't expect credit for French I if French III is already on your transcript.


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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com