Excelsior - TESC Banked FEMA Credits

I know there have been a few threads on this topic in the past, but I was wondering if anyone has had any experience lately attempting to transfer TESC banked FEMA credits to Excelsior. I know Michael Gates was successful and I seem to recall that some others were and some others weren't. My wife is getting ready to enroll at Excelsior and is counting on some FEMA credits to transfer over. She doesn't want to spend the money opening a TESC credit bank if Excelsior is just going to require her to have them run through FCC anyway.

Pug

 

Unfortunately, this process is no longer accepted by Excelsior. The only "No Strings Attached" way I have been able to find is through FCC.

 

Well that's discouraging. Are you speaking from first hand experience? If so, did you attempt to "go up the ladder" and argue with all of the supervisors?

Pug

 

Here is where I got my information from

 

Well that's a bummer. I guess $60 per credit to book them through FCC isn't horrible, but it's way more than the cost of TESC's credit banking fee. I think Excelsior is really missing the boat here. They could easily charge for the credits like FCC does. Oh well.

Pug

 

Look at Clackamas - www.clackamas.edu

They are $25 per course versus the $60 per credit at FCC. Some of the CCC Em courses require several FEMA IS courses such as ICS 100, 200, and 700 to make up one class. It is worth a look.

 

I'm not sure if Clackamas will transfer courses into credit without some kind of requirement. I believe I spoke with them over the phone and they said that the agreement for FEMA ISP was changed from Clackamas to FCC. I could be wrong however, but I suggest you call whoever is most familiar with FEMA ISP at Clackamas.

 

I am unsure if this option will work, or even represents an option, but you may want to check.

Guam Community College is now offering degree programs in emergency management that accept FEMA credits. Perhaps the school may offer a cheaper transcripting option than FCC. A contact email address is on the page that I linked.

 

Very good post! I have an even better question. I wonder if it's possible to utilize the FEMA courses and general education requirements to satisy the associates requirements. After obtaining the associates attempt to transfer th degree to another program here in the states. Any idea what type of accrediatation they have?


EDIT: Ok wow I just checked and they are regionally accredited through WASC http://www.wascweb.org/
So I wonder if my plan could work. Seems like it would be easy to fulfill the associates requirements and then transfer the degree to another institution towards a bachelor's degree. What do you guys think? I've completed 25 of FEMA's courses so far.

 

Of the universities I have explored, only Bellevue accepts an associates degree in full, without doing a credit/course match. In other words, most universities do not recognize an associates degree in transfer, they review the individual courses on your transcript and attempt to do a course-by-course match with their own offerings, as if there were no AA at all. For example, let's assume the BA program at ABC University has general ed core requirements of 60 credits, 36 major credits, 12 elective credits that must be related to the major or specified concentration, and 12 open or "free" elective credits. You have an associate degree that consists of 25 FEMA credits and 35 general ed credits. Your AA degree would only transfer into the BA program at ABC University as 41 credits - (35 general ed credits that match up with the general ed courses at ABC University, and 6 FEMA credits that could be used as open electives). Actually, unless ABC University accepts FEMA credit, and it is under no obligation to do so, you may only receive 35 hours in transfer. Bellevue recognizes your AA as meeting all core requirements in all of its BA/BS programs, so there is no credit loss in the transfer process.

I hope I explained that well enough...

Pug

 

I believe Mountain State College has a similar arrangement with Penn Foster College. In other words, MSC will accept an entire associates degree from PFC as satisfying all core requirements for the BA and BS programs.

 

Ok I'll check out Bellevue. I'm having a tough time convincing myself that if it works out the way I think it could why not utilize it and get the Associates from GCC.

Check these out too....this is a quick search of colleges and universities with Bachelor's in Emergency Management. Is it possible they would take the full transfer. Might be worth checking out.

Capella- http://www.capella.edu/schools_programs/undergraduate_studies/public_safety/emergency_management.aspx

University of Richmond- http://scs.richmond.edu/emergency/

American Military University- http://www.amu.apus.edu/FAQ/FAQ.htm

Arkansas Tech University- http://commed.atu.edu/EAM/default.php?menu=Graduate%20Program&link=Graduate/graduateProgram.htm

These are just a few RA Bachelor's degrees in Emergency Management that are offered online. I wonder what the chances are that these would accept the full transfer considering it would be along the same path? Interesting to say the least.


NOTE*** Refer to this thread....I have updated some information from GCC. http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?t=27911

 

I don't know about the other three, but I know for sure that AMU will only accept the FEMA credits if they are transcripted by FCC. And while I think it's likely that all of your credits would transfer into AMU if you took the time/money to transcript the FEMA courses, AMU does not accept the AA as meeting its core requirements. You'd still have to go through the credit -matching game.



Pug

 

Saw this on another board. Looks like someone found another way of transcripting FEMA courses at $30 a course...I don't remember how much FCC is.


http://www.instantcertonline.com/forums/general-education-testing-discussion/3533-fema-ec-via-tesc.html

Look for the post from GettinMyBA

 

I was aware of Clackamaus Community College. The reason I don't talk about them much is because:

a) Excelsior's literature used to state that FEMA credits transcripted at FCC or CCC would be accepted. They have since removed the reference to CCC.

b) FEMA used to reference both FCC and CCC on its independent study website. They also have dropped the CCC reference. Any college has the right to transcript the credits, but since the official FEMA/EMI site references only FCC, most other institutions seem to demand a FCC transcript.

c) CCC requires an official transcript from FEMA and copies of the certifications. FEMA stopped issuing official certifications for completed courses back in 2006. They now send a link via email to a PDF version of the certification. I question whether these certifications will be accepted since they are not official.

I would NEVER try to talk someone out of transcripting FEMA courses at CCC, the savings is worth the attempt, but I would make EXTRA CERTAIN that the college to which you intend on transferring the credit will accept the transcriptions from CCC. I believe there are some schools out there that will still accept the FEMA credit directly, at least on a case by case basis. We all know this to be the case with TESC, Mountain State might (we are waiting for an update elsewhere on this board), Guam Community College ($30 flat fee to record all credits), and Bellevue recently accepted my FEMA credit.

Pug

 

Pug I'm the one we are waiting on for MSU. Still haven't heard from them yet on it. Did you verify with Guam Community College about their $30 flat fee to transcript? If so then wouldn't we all do it there instead? Seems it would be the cheapest route. I just finished two more courses last night and today which takes my total up to 27.

 

No, I didn't call them today. I'm betting the $30 flat fee only applies to matriculated students though. Students would still have to check with their "home" institutions to make sure the Guam transcripts would be accepted. I still think there will be a lot of schools that will demand a FCC transcript since FCC is the only school referenced on the FEMA site. That said, if the receiving institution agreed to accept the Guam transcript, yes, the $30 flat fee would make GCC the best deal in town, hands down.

Great news on the 27 courses. You're going to max out pretty soon here. You've already maxed out for TESC.

Pug

 

LOL...thanks Pug. I just keep downloading the course materials and the final exams. I then skim through the course materials for the answers. It takes just a few hours and I actually retain the information. I also use Ctrl+F on the online materials if I can't find it. I'm gonna keep rolling until I finish them all I guess.

 

2009 update

I recently called and talked to Excelsior about this very question. They confirmed both FCC *and* CCC as sources from which they would accept FEMA credits.

They did not say that a certificate was required in addition to a transcript.

JR

 

Does Clackamus still transcribe FEMA courses for a fee? I did an extensive search of their web site and there's no mention of it....anywhere.