Excelsior: 18 (upper level) credits left (need advice)

Dear fellows,
I just got my evaluation of my previous education from Excelsior stating how many credits I would need to receive a 2nd Bachelor's degree, this time in Liberal Arts - it's 18 new credits altogether which I would need in the following areas:

• - 3.00 semester hours in Written English

• - Applied Professional Credits or Additional Arts & Sciences: 6.00 semester hours upper level in any academic area

• - General Education (Arts & Sciences Requirement): 9.00 semester hours at the upper level

So except for the written english requirement, they're all at the upper level, 9 in Humanities, and 6 in whatever subject (did I get that right?). Since it's pretty hard to find a proctor in Germany, I would like to rely on CLEP and DANTES, if possible (?).

Do you have any advice for me which particular exams I should take to fullfil the respective requirement? My only preference would be: no math in any kind...

I'm looking forward to your suggestions.
Thanks a lot, and kind regards,
master

 

Oh, and P.S.:
I'm not allowed to take any Business or Management related courses, if I understood that correctly, since my first Bachelor's is in Business Administration.

 

Proctors shouldn't be all that hard to find even in Germany. If you were to take BYU courses then they should allow a local LDS official to proctor for you. LSU is also pretty open when it comes to proctors. If you can take CLEP/DANTES then you probably have access to a testing center that can proctor for you.

You can get an upper level AND the written English in one course by doing Eng 312 Persuasive Writing through BYU Extension.

"Applied Professional or Additional Arts..." just means you can use 6 upper hours of anything. These can be business or management. The second degree issue regards degree and major -- not coursework.

"General Education..." means you also need 9 upper level that fall within the Humanities, Social Science/History, Natural Science/Math categories. Not just humanities.

All 15 hours can be Arts and Sciences if you want.

Since the written English can be upper level too if you did the BYU course -- that'd leave you with only 12 uppers left (4 courses).

LSU and BYU have pretty good selections of upper level courses in their DL programs at good cost.

Consider whether it might be faster and/or cheaper to visit local state university and register as a non-degree seeking student for some of these hours.

Upper level credit for CLEP, DANTES, and ECE are listed in the Excelsior exam guide which you should have gotten a copy of. IMHO - none of those are particularly easy tests.

 

Don't know if you've taken the CLEP Social Sciences and History or not - but it's an easy 6 credits. I've heard that the Humanities CLEP is somewhat difficult but that may be worth a shot also if you have any background in the test's related subjects. Hope this helps.

Gavin

 

Disregard my last post - just realized that you said you needed Upper division credits. Sorry for the wasted space.

Gavin

 

Tests I took and passed

These are ranked in order easiest to hardest. If I were taking them again I'd follow this order. ECE have the most upper level tests. I don't know of any UL CLEP off the top of my head (MIS maybe??).

ECE
---------------
1. World Population
2. Organizational Behavior
3. Ethics Theory and Practice
4. Human Resource Management
5. Research Methods in Psychology
6. History of Nazi Germany


I believe the following were upper level.

DSST
---------------
1. Civil War
2. Money and Banking

Good Luck!

 

Thanks, CoachTurner, and all you others for your help.
By the way, what is an 'LDS'? (don't know the abbreviation).

Unfortunately not possible since I'm in Germany at the moment, and the outstanding (new) credits need to be from a US university... ;(

Thanks again, and cheers,
Trigger

 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons)

 

The BYU folks are very helpful. They can probably even find a proctor for you, in your area. They were able to connect me with a proctor, BYU Graduate, 2 miles away from me, who was more than happy to do it.

Some of their courses are completely online, with the exception of the final exam.

Also, don't forget the Rise & Fall of the Soviet Union DANTES exam is also upper level.

Good Luck

 

hm, that sounds interesting.
could someone perhaps provide me with a direct link to the BYU extension website (or even better, the Eng 312 Persuasive Writing course).
somehow I couldn't find the course on the main BYU website... ;(
thanks and cheers,
m.

 

Unfortunately, I was right.
Just got that e-mail from Excelsior:

As the course in question [...] is related credit towards your first degree (Bachelor of Business Admin.), we could not accept it towards your second degree with us. This is part of our second degree policy (i.e. we cannot accept new credits that are related to the student's first degree).

Thus I'm not allowed to take any business related courses or exams. Bad luck for me. Anyhow, how does this look to you? (in case the BYU/proctor thing doesn't work out):

-English Composition (Excelsior College Examination) - 6
-Religions of the World (ECE) - 3
-History of Nazi Germany (ECE) - 3
-World Population (ECE) - 3
-Drug and Alcohol Abuse (DANTES) - 3
-Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (DANTES) - 3

Any of those real hard? (how much time would I need to prepare/learn?)

Thanks,
m.

 

Here you go: BYU Engl 312

Good Luck!
Beate

 

There are US university extension campuses (sp) on and near some military bases in Germany. Many will allow students who are not affiliated with the US Govt to take courses there.

It may be worth a look....

 

Similar Situation / almost there

How hard is the BYU English 312, I am also about 18 upper credits short!
I am looking for the easiest classes out there!!
I need 4 upper credits in natural science
3 upper credits in english
and the rest needs to be upper credits in arts not applied professional, or business related.
Help please!!

 

If you enjoy writing and are skilled in the craft then I bet the 312 class at BYU is not too hard.

If you don't enjoy writing, or if you don't have much experience in the subject, then I bet an upper level English class is not a good idea.

Just my thoughts -- I haven't taken this one yet but will before long. I do have 9 other B&M upper level writing credits though.

 

From the Excelsior Website:

Q: What arts and sciences examinations carry upper-level credit?
A: Excelsior College Examinations include 11 upper-level arts and sciences examinations (listed below). They each carry 3 semester hours of credit with the exception of "American Dream," which carries 6 credits. In addition, we offer several applied professional upper-level examinations. These are primarly in the disciplines of business and nursing.

Abnormal Psychology
American Dream
Ethics: Theory & Practice
Foundations of Gerontology
History of Nazi Germany
Organizational Behavior
Pathophysiology
Psychology of Adulthood & Aging
Religions of the World
Research Methods in Psychology
World Population


The Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) program offers a selection of upper-level examinations worth 3 credits each, as listed below. The credit classification is listed in parentheses after each examination title.

The Civil War and Reconstruction (social science)
Money and Banking (social science)
Business Law II (applied professional)
Principles of Finance (applied professional)
Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (social science)
Drug and Alcohol Abuse (applied professional)
Management Information Systems (applied professional)

Best wishes to you,
Angela

 

by the way:
does anyone know where I can takes the DANTES exams in Germany?
thanks!
m.

 

Nowhere - unless you hold some kind of a US government ID that allows you to benefit from US forces status.

My preferred DANTES (and CLEP) testing centre is London. Getting there via Stansted Airport is cheap and easy. I've done that more than ten times by now, having taken about thirty CLEP and DANTES tests.

You'll have to make an appointment well in advance to take DANTES tests there because the testing material has to be ordered from Chauncey and proctoring must be arranged.

I'm going to take DANTES exams in London on July 20th. If you are prepared to take one or two DANTES tests on that date, please let me know so that we can share the proctoring fee.

I'd recommend "Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union" and "Money and Banking". Both tests are upper level and are doable with short but intense review.

 

Hi Falkenberg.
Good idea.

The exams I'm thinking about would be

-Drug and Alcohol Abuse (DANTES) - 3
-Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (DANTES) - 3

Can someone tell me what books/other sources could make sense for these exams?

Thanks and cheers,
m.

 

I used
McCauley, Martin. The Soviet Union 1917-1991.
New York, NY: Longman, current edition.

and some additional material about soviet economic policy I googled.

Enough to score a 71. If you have a European educational background this test should not be hard.

Remember to inform the London testing centre as soon as possible of your intention to take the tests so that they can be ordered.

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