Excelsior College and NA credits

Hello to everyone,

I am sure this question has been asked many times, but a friend of mine is a bit upset because they wanted to enroll at Excelsior and they have credits from Penn Foster and Ashworth College and they tried to transfer in credits from those institutions to Excelsior and they were told that they could not do this. They received the following email"

Good afternoon,

Excelsior College awards credit toward its degree requirements from regionally accredited colleges and universities. Unfortunately, the credits from nationally accredited institutions are not transferable to Excelsior College. Excelsior College degrees are well respected, based, in part, on our academic requirements and standards.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact our Admissions Office at 888-647-2388, 2-7. The office hours are Monday and Wednesday 8:30 am to 8:00 pm, and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, EST. Any one of our Admissions Counselors would be happy to speak with you. Keep in mind that additional information can also be found at our web address, www.excelsior.edu .

Best of luck in pursuing your educational goals!

Sincerely,

Peter ******"

Is this a new policy? I did steer my friend to AMU/APUS and WGU as a backup.

Thanks to all who respond.

 

Caveat Emptor

It is good that this is brought to light. Enrolling in a DETC program (aka National Accreditation) unequivocally does NOT have the same utility as enrolling in regionally accredited colleges and universities. Caveat Emptor. At least you found out early -- before it was too late! Not so for your unlucky friend!

DegreeInfo.com provides a wealth of information on this subject. It's really tragic for people who enroll in DETC programs, only to find out several years later that they can't do [what they originally thought they could do] with it.

We only want what's best for potential students.

 

check out this link:
https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/About/Ways_to_Earn_Credit

#10 he can appeal for consideration of the NA credits

#6 if any of the Penn Foster courses taken are approved for ACE credits he should have an ACE transcript sent to Excelsior

 

Thanks for the tip, I will pass this on to him. Does anyone know if Thomas Edison State or Charter Oak, accept NA credits?

 

Hi - This is either new policy or ignorance on behalf of the person who wrote this letter. I was able to successfully transfer over 9 graduate credits from Aspen University (DETC) to Excelsior College. This was back in November of last year.

 

Do any regionally accredited colleges accept nationally accredited credits?
Thanks

 

I would say ignorance. Please see the policy effective 7/1/06. Since then, more than a few students have had their NA credits accepted at EC. Now that the procedure is no longer new, they have simplified the process quite a bit. See below:




Dear Abner,

Thank you for your inquiry to Excelsior College.

You are generally correct in your understanding of the process. I would just add that the coursework must be degree level and there are some limitations when it comes to NLN and ABET degrees.

As well, the nationally accredited institutions must be approved by the US Department of Education and hold either professional or national accreditation, as verified by CHEA.

I hope this information is helpful to you. If you need further assistance, please contact us again or call our toll free number at 1-888-647-2388 ext. 2-7.

Sincerely,

Emily Glasser
Admissions Counselor
[email protected]





Hello:

Can you tell me if there was a new policy instituted effective 7/1/06 whereby a potential Excelsior student can follow the procedures listed below in regards to transfer of Nationally accredited Colleges/Universities?

1) Student must pay $200 appeals fee
2) Student must complete an "appeal" letter, which Excelsior will make available
3) Student must provide official NA transcripts
4) Student must provide NA school catalog with course descriptions for the year(s) attended
5) NA school must provide signed letter referencing 3 RA schools that have accepted its credits in the past
6) Package goes before a board for a decision.

Would this procedure apply to the National Accreditor DETC? DETC is recognized by the U.S. DOE and CHEA. Please advise.


Abner

 

I spoke with an adviser of the school of business and technology. Since the business programs are IACBE accredited, Excelsior will not accept credits from nationally accredited colleges and universities. If someone had a different experience in NA transfering credits to a business degree, you're welcomed to respond. At times, staff members provide incorrect or outdated information. However, based on the quickness and tone of her response, I get the impression that a similar question has been asked in the past.

The same exclusion applies to programs that are ABET and NLNAC accredited according to the student handbook ( nursing programs, electronics engineering, nuclear engineering, and information technology ). The exception would be schools that are both RA and NA. She confirmed that credits from CLEP and DSST will transfer to a business degree's core and specialization requirement ( upper level ).

https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/Publications/Student_Policy_Handbook.pdf ( Page 29 )

If your friend attempted to transfer NA credits to business and other programmatically accredited degrees, they most likely rejected the NA credits. However, their admissions page states the following:

"Excelsior College reviews credit from degree-granting non-regionally accredited institutions to determine if those credits will transfer. These institutions must be approved by the U.S. Department of Education and hold either professional or national accreditation, as verified by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)." I believe they should be more specific and clear.

https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/Admissions

 

Northcentral University also used to accept DETC degrees, but they too recently stiffened up their entrance requirements, just as Excelsior College and many other schools have done. Ships are being tightened. Last year, NCU quit accepting DETC degrees, as follows:

• Master’s Degrees — Admission to a NCU Master’s program requires a conferred bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited academic institution.
  .
• Doctoral Degrees — Admission to an NCU Doctoral program requires a conferred master's degree from a regionally accredited academic institution.
  
  Source

The DETC v. RA issue is NOT a joke. It is something that should be seriously considered by ALL young students who are seeking to enroll in a degree granting program because it could adversely affect their career choice(s) several years down the road.

Invariably, Dave Wagner will come on here and say that I'm an NCU shill. Nope! I don't care which college or university you enroll in, as long as it's regionally accredited! I am sooooooooo thankful for one of Dr. John Bear's first publications that described all the various kinds of accreditations in the United States. As a result of his sage wisdom, I stuck with regionally accredited programs and, as a result, it has served me well and all the RA degrees ARE recognized in the United States.

 

This sounds like my story also.
Now that I have three RA degrees I am willing to pursue a DETC degree should a suitable one appear (this would be for personal satisfaction).

 

I got several courses approved from Penn Foster because they are DETC accredited for Financial Management and Ethics in Criminal Justice within the past six months toward my BS in General Business. I think if they are not DETC, those courses need to be ACE approved.

 

Joel were the courses from Penn Foster credited to Excelsior College to meet your core business requirements for the General Business program or did they count as arts and sciences/general education?

 

CJS 105 Ethics in Criminal Justice counted toward humanities and fulfilled my ethics requirement
FIN 101 Financial Management counted toward business and business core requirements.

FYI, I was thinking about switching to accounting concentration and as of a few months ago was told even Intermediate Accounting I, II and Cost Accounting would have been accepted as well. I decided to just get my General Business degree instead, but they would have accepted it.

I think you need talk with another advisor if they are saying they will not accept credits. Not sure if you mentioned DETC or if they are ACE approved. For DETC they accepted those two courses like other courses I completed at my local community college. I also got like 30 units accepted for insurance courses at American Educational Institute, but those had to get ACE approved and I sent the ACE transcript to Excelsior. For those, it shows up at "P" on my transcript.

The two advisors I have dealt with at Excelsior was Jenn and Sandy.

 

I couldn't agree more. I have always advocated avoiding DETC programs in favor of RA programs for the reasons you mentioned. It's not that I think that DETC programs are academically inferior. There are several DETC schools I think have very innovative and rigorous programs. However, the utility of a DETC degree is very limited. Plus, there are so many DL RA programs out there that it really isn't necessary go the DETC route.

 

Source[/list]The DETC v. RA issue is NOT a joke. It is something that should be seriously considered by ALL young students who are seeking to enroll in a degree granting program because it could adversely affect their career choice(s) several years down the road.



I think the operative words here are "young students". I'd advise any young student to go RA. An older student may want to pursue NA for various reasons (i.e. more self paced; career validation; not concerned with transferability, etc.). RA and NA have their respective places and offerings.

Sideman JD

 

Yes, tons of them do. I think there is a list floating around somewhere on this board. Off the top of my head...Bellevue, Kaplan, Phoenix, Liberty, APU/AMU, Moody...

 

I've seen this happen to several people who earned Ivy Tech AS degrees. The programs provided a quality education but are just not as accepted because they are NA programs. None of the credit transferred.

It's unfortunate that people aren't advised better. There are high quality AS degrees from RA programs that are more easily transferred. From a short term perspective a NA program is ok, but when you look at the long term it is usually a mistake.

 

I think people with NA degrees or credit can use the UK, Australia and other countries with DL providers.

There appear most of the time high level of acceptance.
So if you get degree from University of Liverpool I don't think it's inferior to
Excelsior College actually it has better name recognition and ranked higher.

I know number of Aspen graduates who earned UK Masters degrees or in final stages of completing them.

 

Are you sure you mean Ivy Tech? Ivy Tech State College is Indiana's multi-campus community college system. Or did you mean ITT Tech, a private ACICS-accredited (NA) multi-campus school with campuses across the country which happens to have its corporate base in Indiana?

 

Yup, Ivy Tech State College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association www.ivytech.edu/about/mission-accreditation.html. You must've meant ITT Tech, also in Indiana.