Searching And Searching but no progress.

I've been searching these forums for a couple hours a day for a few weeks now and there's a lot of information. However most threads are about a specific situation and certain credit hours they have that don't apply to me so I'm just going to come out and say it. I need help finding a college/university that meets my requirements, I'm going insane hopping thread to thread and site to site.


1. Regionally accredited
2. Accelerated format (probably the most important for me, the faster the better) I can put the work in to finish in two years I just need an institution I can trust and a program that accepts me based on my high school diploma only.
3. I have no college credits, I have a CHSPE which is an equivelant of a high school diploma. All colleges I've contacted say they will accept the diploma, however I'm sure there are some that will not. So I need a college that can be 100% started from scratch! No tests, no transfers, nothing. I'm terrible at taking tests anyway.
4. Price is an issue but I'll pay as long as it's not outrageous. University of Pheonix and AIU is just ridiculous.

 

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss CLEP exams. Several of them aren't difficult at all. I passed two CLEP exams with no preparation, and I'm not the best test taker there ever was either.

 

I just re-read your post. Do you mean you are looking for a degree program with no tests period? If so, that might be a bit unrealistic.

Nevertheless, you might want to take a look at the "Big 3" which include Charter Oak State College, Excelsior College, and Thomas Edison State College. Western Governors University is worth a look too.

 

This is a good starting point:
Lawrie Miller's BA in 4 Weeks. Online degrees by distance learning. BA degree and graduate degees - Accelerated Master Degrees by Distance Learning.

Good luck.

 

If speed is a concern, definitely don't overlook CLEP and DANTES exams; getting 3-6 credits for a couple hours of testing and less than $100, and can't be beat. And as already mentioned, they're not as hard as you probably think.

If for some reason you want to do strictly courses, any of the Big Three will accept online/correspondence courses from any regionally accredited school, and once again if speed is a concern, the traditional correspondence course can often be completed at your own pace, so you can accelerate them to whatever level you feel comfortable.

I agree with AV8R, though; you're most likely not going to find an RA undergrad program without any sort of testing involved.

 

I would suggest also reading Steve Levicoff's article on portfolio credit. Right now it's on the front page of degreeinfo. In his case, he earned all but 6 credits of his bachelors through portfolio which essentially meant no tests. I think he had a couple of oral exams, but that was it. He did his degree at Thomas Edison State College.

 

If you want to take "regular" classes, you can use LSU for many of them. My wife took a Western Civ class a few years ago, and it was pretty much self paced. There was a limit on number of lessons per week, but I think you can finish it in less than 2 months (that is from memory, so I am not positive on that last statement). These are all classes that would transfer to one of the Big 3, mentioned above. While I do think LSU's costs went up not too long ago, they are still fairly cheap, I think. Cost is about 400 per class, plus books.

 

This was posted last week on degreeinfo.
10K Degree - excelsior.edu
An RA degree by independent studies for under $10k

 

eagleforce626 - Please please do not count yourself out of the CLEP process. Do yourself a favor and go buy one of the REA CLEP books and read it. Then take the practice tests and see how you do. Study the answers you get wrong and take the second practice test in the book. The material in these books is so close to the actual CLEP that you really have a good indication of whether or not you will pass by taking these exams. If you want to get a business degree, I would recommend the CLEP Intro to Marketing as a first step. This is one of the easiest of them all. The worst case scenario is that you learn something about marketing from reading the book and you never take the test.

I studied this book for 2 days and passed the test with a 74/80. All you need is around a 50/80 to pass so get going with your studies. Your library should have a few REA CLEP books as well so you don't even need to shell out a dollar to begin learning the material.

 

The easiest CLEP for me was American Government, but then again I've been a political junkie since age 10 who loves politics but hates politicians.

The easiest credit-worthy test, for me, was the DANTES Here's To Your Health exam. If you didn't sleep through every session of your high school's version of "Health", you should be able to pass it in your sleep.

 

I believe the most flexible degrees to earn are those in liberal arts from Excelsior:
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This is because they allow you up to 59 semester units in electives which can be in professional areas such as business, engineering, education, and criminal justice.
Excelsior only requires that 3 or 4 semester units be earned though them, the rest can be earned at any RA college (which can save you a lot of money), through challenge exams such as CLEP & DSST, or via a prior learning portfolio process.

When I earned by Excelsior degree I needed quite a few general education courses; I was able to find acceptable courses that matched my interests. For example I used to be interested in ancient Egypt and picked up a course on King Tut (apart from attending a few lectures I had to visit a King Tut exhibit at a local museum).

In what state do you have residence - if in California I can direct you to low cost community college courses with some open book exam courses.

 

Also there is Clovis Community College if you want to earned some inexpensive credits at the associate level.
Your College Search Solution: Clovis Community College, Clovis, New Mexico

 

APUS had accelerated 8 week courses and is decently priced...

 

Question is without tests can it be done in two years as a full time student? I've looked into Regis University which offers 5 week courses. I just want somewhere reputable with a good program that I can put my foot in and just work extremely hard.