What is the deal with Excelsior?

Out of curiosity I called Excelsior, spoke with an admissions officer, and asked a few questions. I was basically told that enrolled students can only earn credits via transfer, and by exam.

This led me to my next question: If I complete an entire undergraduate degree at Excelsior, will my test-out scores be converted to a grade point average. To my surprise, he said no. Is this true? Or was I speaking with an unqualified admissions officer?

If the information I was given is accurate, how is an Excelsior degree alone of any value to someone wishing to pursue graduate credentials? For instance, I recently went through the law school admissions process, and the LSDAS required transcripts showing a significant number of convertible credit hours along with an LSAT score. All 12 of my CLEP scores were excluded from my LSDAS law school report.

It would be a bad thing if Excelsior does not convert a good majority of a student's credit-by-exam exam results into a GPA. In fact, this would a case where DETC degrees would provide the graduate with more utility.

I recently contacted a hand full of law schools (Creighton and every law school in the Philadelphia area), and only 1 state-funded law school said that DETC degrees are not sufficient for admissions. It actually appears that DETC and other nationally accredited degree are well accepted by law schools. In fact, unlike many RA distance-ed schools, Education Direct has been assigned with an LSAC school code (7025).

My point is that most law schools require that an applicant possess an LSAT score, and an accredited Bachelor's degree (in any discipline) with convertible credit hours. If I was provided with correct information, an Excelsior graduate would have a tough time gaining admissions to an ABA approved law school, while an AMU graduate would not.

Does anyone thoughts on this? Was I given inaccurate information? Are there any Excelsior students out there who can tell me how their system actually works?

 

The information was inaccurate--but it depends.

If the original credit does not have letter grades, Excelsior does not add them. The only exceptions are standardized credit exams, which Excelsior does recognize for graded credit. Although there are exceptions to even this rule: CLEP General exams are not graded--but then no one that I know does either.

In general, however, Excelsior is the most consistent exponent in following the recommendations laid down by Washington, D.C., based American Council of Education.

--Orson

 

Excelsior does award a grade for most of its exams. Check the catalog, available on the Excelsior website. All the exams are listed there along with the grading system for each exam.

 

Excelsior College assigns letter grades to some exams and pass/fail on others. All you have to do is go to Excelsior's web site and do a search for exams. As an example, I have included a link directly to Excelsior's CLEP grading system....

http://www.excelsior.edu/exams/xms_clcs.htm

Cy

 

Thanks for the helpful reponses.

If someone was to pursue an entire Bachelor's degree from Excelsior, about how many credits do you think would be convertible?

Also, I meant 12 CLEP credits (2 Exams), not 12 CLEP scores.

Thanks again

 

HOW many exams can be converted into grades?
Potentially unlimited, provided they fit you degree program requirements; under current rules (see the link kindly posted by Cyrus), however, only 12 CLEP exams can be accepted for letter grades. But add the many DANTES exams also available (I believe all of these receive letter grades), and there are lots of options through credit testing.

--Orson