Excelsior, Thomas Edison,Charter Oaks

I am currently looking into these 3 colleges and I would like to know which school helps you obtain your bachelors and masters the fastest. I would like to obtain a bachelors as I have been awarded an associates from my home town college. I have twenty years of work experience and I am looking to get some college credit for my work. I am also a licensed alcohol and drug counselor with the state of VT. So I have some creditials. Please give me some feedback and your success if you choose one of these colleges. Thanks

 

It sounds like you're looking for credit for life/work experience. That would be TESC--and most decidedly not Excelsior.

Rich Douglas

 

You might check COSC regarding your drug and alcohol license. they have a special assessment that may work for you.

Dan Snelson
COSC class of real soon

 

TESC and COSC appear to have their own portfolio assessments. Ex. does not appear to do a portfolio.
Another thread looks at the fastest way to earn a BS/BA.
Has anybody out their done a porfolio assessment through COSC or TESC?
Good Luck!
Irat

 

While Excelsior does not do portfolios they do accept portfolios from other schools.

I believe COSC has some type of agreement with Excelsior regarding portfolios, that is one reason I chose COSC, I was planning on doing a portfolio and if COSC was going to do it why transfer it to Excelsior.

I ended up using COSC's special assesment instead (which was MUCH less expensive than a portfolio)and have been very happy with all contact I have had with all the staff and Instructor (power writing class taught by Dr Sloane)

Dan Snelson
COSC class of 2002 ish

 

It sounds like COSC has the advantage that one can both do the portfolio there and earn a BS/BA there. Does anyone have similar experience with TESC? I know TESC lists the NJ equivalent of the license in alcohol and drug use as proving existance of skills and knowledge worth a certain number of credits. Has anyone in this forum gotten life experience credits from TESC?
Excelsior appears to accept credits/tests from just about anywhere. Does that seem to be peoples experience?
Excelsior seems to charge a high fee to "evaluate" ones life experience, but that evaluation is not in itself a portfolio and does not generate any college credits. Has anyone been through this experience? Was it worth it?
Happy 5th day of Xmas!

 

One thing to bear in mind is that you will not get credit for work experience, per se, but for being able to prove that you actually learned something in that 20 years of work. You can show that you learned this through tests or through a portfolio, but you will have to show the knowledge in some manner.


Tom Nixon

 

Look at Thomas Edison or Charter Oaks both good. As far as Excelsior (Regents/USNY) I'm not a fan. (The administration is in a sad state of affairs)


West

BS, University of the State of NY
AS, Thomas Edison State College

 

And what is your basis for this statement on Excelsior?

John

 

Excelsior accepts exams from credible sources. Anywhere is a very broad term. A start on what Excelsior accepts can be found at http://www.excelsior.edu/exold/091.htm

As for the fee on the evaluation, I do believe you get a good percentage of that back if you decide to enroll and it can be applied to your enrollment. At least that was the case last time I checked. http://www.excelsior.edu/cred_rev.htm

You can also find free self-review forms at Excelsior online at: http://www.excelsior.edu/exold/804.htm#fs

John

 

I also had problems with Excelsior. I don't live in US, but I don't think that it is the only reason.

I send an application form 3 times by fax, but it never reached the admissions office. I called several times to confirm that they had received it. Somebody could confirm, but then, the application was lost somewhere. I sent several emails that were not answered. Among others telling them that I had just sent an application form by fax. I finally sent the application by air mail. And got an email saying that they could not accept my application because I did not yet have any credit. They also wrote that they did not have my correct email address (but I had sent them emails ...) - that is why they had not contacted me earlier by email (but they did not try to reach me by mail or fax). After some more back and forth emails, they told me that I would need a minimum of 30 to 40 credits before applying. Of course, that was not written anywhere on their homepage ...


I applied to COSC. They were much more helpful. They informed me that I need to get 9 credits before applying (and also 6 English credits). They also accept CLEP credits anytime. I will apply after I get some CLEP credits.

I registered to sit some CLEP exams. Procedures are very time consuming and communication with the college board folks is not very easy/efficient ...

oh, FYI: Thomas Edisson accepted my application without any condition/credit. But ... the fees are much higher than COSC, especially when living out of US.

 

I am also an alcohol/drug counselor who attended a community college and am now in a degree completion program at Prescott College. My major/competence is in counseling/psychology. If it is important that your degree is pertinent to counseling and if you have considered getting a master's you might want to look into Prescott. You have an option to use life experience credits. I have decided against life experience as some grad programs won't accept them. I will use life experience portfolio for the required practicum/internship in the field as I have 8 years experience as a/d counselor. It will take me 15 months others have done it in less time by doing 3 classes at a time instead of 2 per quarter. The cost weems about the same as other colleges. Kristine

 

For what it's worth, I went with COSC over Excelsior and TESC because COSC is less expensive, and because COSC would accept a social statistics (SOC 339)course I took by DL from Bemidji State University as satisfactory for completing the "Quantitative and Analytic" general education requirement. Both Excelsior and TESC said they would count it as sociology credit, rather than as math credit, even though it is the same class as MATH 339. Perhaps my experience indicates that COSC may be a little more flexible than the others in some ways.

Tracy Gies<><
B.S. Individualized Studies, Nov 2001, Charter Oak State College

 

Schools like Excelsior, COSC, and TESC are all great choices. Just like with any school one can find admin mix-ups and problems that have occured at one time or another. Sorry to hear that you had one of the bad stories. I can share stories of good and bad experiences with admins of all of the RA schools I have earned a degree from. My previous question to "Wandering" on why the current admin is messed up still has not been answered. It should be noted that Excelsior will soon be approaching its 100,000th graduate.

John

 

It sounds like the majority of responses to this post, have used COSC, and had positive experiences.
COSC does seem to have the advantage of offering several methods of assessing college level skills earned through work experience.
Does anyone know a different advantages for TESC or Excelsior?

 

I chose Excelsior over COSC because of the methods each uses in awarding credit for GRE examinations, and because I thought Excelsior was a bit more accomodating in their distribution requirements.

I had planned on taking the GRE Subject Exam in History as part of my degree program. Excelsior awards up to 30 credit hours for a pass at the 80th percentile, while COSC offers a maximum of 18 credit hours for the same passing score. The difference was important to me, as I scored a 580 on the exam and earned the full 30 hours.

Additionally, I was able to apply more of my prior for-credit work to the Excelsior degree (mostly Applied Professional credits from my CPCU and Insurance Institute of America studies).

I completed a thorough assessment of my prior credits and the examinations I intended to use to complete my degree before registering with either Excelsior or COSC (I included TESC in the process as well). I determined that I could complete the Excelsior degree more rapidly and less expensively than any of the alternatives.

Regards,


Tony

 

Has Student Wandering come to any conclusions about COSC, TESC, or Excelsior?