Newbie looking for the best place online to acquire A.A.

First time poster, month-long lurker here. I need help and you all seem so smart on this subject (and only half of that is me buttering you up for a favor). I have 31 credit hours from three different community colleges in my state. (My husband and I moved around a lot and then I kind of lost focus…but I digress.) I would really like to complete my Associates in Liberal Arts and then pursue a Bachelor's at my local university. I was planning to go to my local CC (note: a fourth one :eek1, however, they require at least 15 hours be completed there -- but with my transfers, I was hoping to CLEP out of everything else but a speech class (which I had intentionally avoided for 31 hours thus far). So now I'm looking online for an affordable option that will allow me to CLEP out with 30 or so hours (and possibly even skip that dreaded Speech 101). I'm curious about Excelsior, but I can't seem to find out the maximum CLEPs they allow and their fee system confuses me. (Been out of school too long perhaps?) Any opinion is much appreciated.

 

One of the three assessment schools is your best best to quickly wrap up your associates: Charter Oak State College, Excelsior College, and Thomas Edison State College. Of these three, Charter Oak is the most affordable and has excellent customer service. Your plan of finishing your associate's degree with CLEP is a good one. If you use CLEP exams, you can literally be finished in just a few short months.

 

Oh yeah, about that speech class....if you truly do need a speech class, Brigham Young University offers an excellent speech (public speaking) course by distance study that doesn't require any exams. All of your speeches are recorded on an audio cassette and mailed in for grading. Quite a few folks from Degree Info have taken this course (myself included).

 

I didn't read your entire post before responding....that'll teach me to pay more attention.

Excelsior really doesn't have any upper limit on how many CLEP exams you can take. However, Excelsior does require a one credit Information Literacy course to be taken to graduate. Charter Oak is much more affordable, will allow you to complete your degree entirely through CLEP, and doesn't require any courses taken through them to graduate. Charter Oak would probably be your best option.

 

I concur with the above; Charter Oak, Excelsior and TESC are your best choices. Like everyone has said, go for as many CLEP's as possible to keep the costs down. No new info here, just a confirmation of the above.

 

Thank you all so very much, I'm looking into that right now!

 

Charter Oak now requires all new students to enroll in their cornerstone course:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Charter Oak State College

Shawn

 

Good catch, Shawn. Charter Oak's tuition is $203 per credit hour so the cornerstone course will run $609.