well i'm back to where i want/need to get a degree again or i've reached a dead end. i have 21 hours or regular classroom hours, and 12 clep hours. In order to earn a decent wage, or progress in my career I have to have a degree, so I'm looking at the big 3. Since money is a big issue with me, it will likely fall between excelsior and charter oak. so, hello..
Welcome! What fields of study interest you? You may have many more options than Excelsior or Charter Oak (although I highly recommend both).
general business i suppose. my career has recently taken a u-turn from the general qa compliance type work i did in the past, and i'm now working as a reports analyst. i'll need to understand a lot about statistical analysis, so i think business or perhaps marketing would be the way to go.
Another marketer!!!!!!!! Actually a move into biz wouldn't be bad, but look at all the other options. You might be able to combine your technical background with bidniz and consider technology management or perhaps e-biz (though I think that is a bit faddish).
What about these guys? Have you given these guys a chance? http://columbiasouthern.edu My GI Bill just ran out and out of pocket cost (cheap employer doesn't do TA) was my determining factor.
One of the benefits of Excelsior's BS in General Business is that you can finish the whole thing by examination. Depending on what you chose as a major, sometimes you need to take a few classroom courses. There are of course other majors they offer by examination but I know first hand of the business degree as I graduated in 2003.
I like that you can test out of the entire thing at excelsior. The columbia southern website had a great webpage offering for a BS in Marketing... but I'll admit, my heart went "thud" when I thought of the 175 per hour fees, as compared to the dantes/clep fees right now. I think it'd be a good school though, for those classes I know I'll need to attend, rather than test out. Right now my big concern is getting hold of the local college that has an open clep center, and finding out if they'll also offer DANTES exams. (I hope so). It looks like I'm a little late to register for that December subject GRE exam, which is just as well, I'm not prepared. (i figured it couldn't hurt to grab a quick bundle of psychology hours, regardless. now i'll just do it in April, instead)
Depending on your lonnger term plans, you could get a BS in general business and then use that as your ticket to get into an MBA program where you can focus in on marketing. I don't know where you are at, but I didn't really have much trouble finding a DANTES and CLEP testing center. I think CLEP exams are given at some of the Sylvan Prometric testing centers on computer. As for DANTES, I needed to find a college library that would proctor them for me. The Psych GRE was pretty hard but it I guess it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. I took it after I graduated with my BS since getting above an 80% will get you a second degree from Excelsior. I only got a 55% so it didn't really do me any good and I sort of forgot about it. Recently while discussing this exam on another thread, I realized Excelsior scales the credit they give for this exam starting at 30%. I ended up getting 15 credits in Psych for my effort using only a small text called Cracking the GRE. Maybe someday I'll retake it with a few more study materials. It's certainly a passable test with some study. You should be ok for the April exam.
I just remembered that I took CLEP exams at the ETS testing office in Concord, CA. I didn't take them at a Prometric center, I took Excelsior Exams there.
i'm in the twin cities, and it looks like there is one open testing center in each. one even has saturday hours twice a month, thank goodness. i've really got to learn statistics. when i was hired for this job, i don't think i, or my boss realized quite the amount of data analysis to be done. ugh. i've got some native skill, but look at this program minitab with sheer terror. I believe math will have to be the first area i bone up in...at least if I want to keep this job
Athabasca University offers a good introductory statistics course and the course has a Challenge for Credit option though in your case you might want to actually take the course. The course is self-paced within a 6-month enrollment period but you can finish the material as quickly as you are able.
