A few final questions before I begin

Hello all,

I’ve been contemplating getting a BSBA degree from TESC for 2 years and I’m finally ready to get started. However, I have few remaining questions. My primary goal is to get a degree now that will allow me to pursue a Master’s degree in the future. My thoughts are to complete as many exams as possible, prior to enrolling, to avoid the substantial yearly enrolment fee. When this is complete, I’ll enroll and complete portfolios for the majority of credits in my area of study (operations management) and free electives.

1-If I a take a CLEP or DANTES test and I’m not enrolled in a school, what happens to my results? Do I have the results sent to TESC now, or will they send the results when I’m ready to enroll?

2-How long are the test results valid? Do new versions of the tests get released that would invalidate the old version?

3-I have noticed that most Master’s programs require a Bachelor’s degree with a GPA of whatever. TESC transcribes CLEP and DANTES exams as well as portfolio credit as simply pass or fail. If I complete this degree through testing and portfolios, I believe I’ll have no GPA. Will this cause a problem getting into a Master’s program?

Thanks in advance.

 

delayed enrollment

> My thoughts are to complete as many exams as possible, prior
> to enrolling, to avoid the substantial yearly enrolment fee.

Big mistake, which I just made myself!

My wife Rosie was doing the exact work which we thought (based on info from Bears' Guide) would qualify her for a Bachelor of Science from Excelsior College. Now it turns out that Excelsior won't grant her the credits we thought it would grant (the COTE that she already got credit for elsewhere; the alleged 24 credits for fluency in Spanish; the GRE Subject Exam in Psychology on which she probably did at least as well as the National Guard sergeant). And what she's already done has closed off certain other options for her (e.g., TESC doesn't accept GRE results at all).

Solving this problem will turn out to be quite a bit more expensive than paying the yearly enrolment fee would have been.

 

I don't agree with the last post. Taking the exams before you enroll could save you money. You should know if you took an English class or a History class. You could look at the schools website and see what the degree requirements are and it should list the exams that fill those requirements (Excelsior and COSC list these).

Any classes that are duplicates or even close, wait until your enrolled and get the official word from the school if the exams would count.

 

I feel both sides of this discussion have merit. I would be inclined, however, to enroll and get their guidance before undertaking any exams or classes that could at all be misinterpreted. Better safe than sorry.

A bachelor's degree from TESC should be useful in getting admitted to a master's program later. However, some graduate schools don't take your nontraditional credits seriously when determining whether or not you've met the prerequisites for the degree. To wit: I applied to San Diego State's MBA program in 1980 based upon my recently completed B.S. in Business from Regents. They admitted me, and then determined how many of the 10 first-year prerequisite courses they would waive. (Those were for people entering the MBA without a degree in business.) Graduates of AACSB-accredited bachelor's programs would see the entire first year waived; other graduates of business programs would be evaluated on a course-by-course basis. Well, they waived exactly one course! And that was one I had NOT taken in my bachelor's program! They completely ignored all of my credits by testing, which made up 115 of the 120 credits for the degree. It was lame, and I didn't enroll.

You might find things a bit more liberalized these days, but I bet your nontraditional credits could still cause some problems. But all-in-all, it's worth it compared to going to night school the rest of your life to finish your degree.

 

Also, the results do not have to been sent to a school. You can call ETS later and have them sent to any school you want.
The results are good for either 10 years...I think. I know it is quite a while.