? about Excelsior BS in Psychology

Hi, I am new here and hope that someone with experience can guide me. I plan to major in Psychology at Excelsior. I have taken the GRE and gotten a score of 700, which according to what I have read on various web sites should give me 30 credits in this major, 12 lower, 18 upper. I have also read that you must take the Research Methods in Psych ECE exam to complete this major in Excelsior's eyes. Is this true, and if so, are there any other requirements for this major that are not fulfilled by the GRE test? In particular I am concerned about the Statistics requirement, but if there are any others, I would like to know those too. Thanks in advance for all of your help.

P.S. I only have 4 credit hours in Algebra, and no other math courses under my belt, if that makes a difference.

 

The Excelsior College Liberal Arts catalogue includes the BA and BS core requirements as well as those for specific majors.

http://www.excelsior.edu/pdf/cat_la.pdf

 

Thanks for the link. I took a look at that, but it still really didn't clarify much for me. If I were actually taking classes one at a time, that info would be much more helpful, but since I just lumped all the "coursework" together on one test, I am curious to know what experience others have had with Excelsior and the GRE. I am waiting to enroll until I am 90% done with these tests/classes, to minimize the amount of $$ I have to pour into this endeavour. But, at the same time, I want to make sure that I have all my ducks in a Row.

 

Since you mentioned it...

I too am accumulating credits before enrolling.
Since taking the Psy GRE is going to be one of my future options, just wanted to ask you if you've used any special preparation method for the PSY GRE, or simply you had previous credits in many college Psy courses?

 

> I have taken the GRE and gotten a score of 700,

Congratulations.

> [...] I am curious to know what experience others
> have had with Excelsior and the GRE. I am waiting to enroll
> until I am 90% done with these tests/classes, to minimize the
> amount of $$ I have to pour into this endeavour.

My experience with Excelsior (trying to plan an Excelsior degree from info in Bears' Guide) suggests that info on what Excelsior will or will not accept, from sources other than Excelsior itself, is not to be relied upon.

Also, Excelsior has the right to change their requirements at any time. Enrolled students will be grandfathered with the old requirements; unenrolled students will not.

For these two reasons, "waiting to enroll" may end up costing you more money in the long run.

 

It's probably best to call and ask at 888 647-2388. Doing so was a painless experience for me.

 

Will Makeit:

I had no previous experience in Psychology. What I did was actually pretty simple. I browsed all of the available titles in the GRE Psych prep, and ended up buying the Princeton Review version. I also bought a cheap old textbook (from 1993) in Psychology off half.com. I read the book through once, then handwrote all of the following on index cards for later study (and I do mean ALL): definitions in the back of the text book, famous people referenced throughout the text book (which I then looked up what they were known for on the net and wrote that on the cards), and the summary statements at the end of each chapter. This took a lot of time to do, more than reading the book, but I feel that this cemented the info into my brain, moreso than just passive reading. Finally, only then did I open the Princeton Review book and I reread that about 3 times. Because the info in that is so condensed, it is really beneficial.

If you already have the background in Psych, then I would suggest that you get the Princeton Review book on the test and make sure you know everything in that book, backward and forwards.

I started studying in January for the April test, usually about one hour a night, and about four hours a day on weekends. Becuase I was starting from scratch, I had to invest a lot of time into it, but for someone who has had some work in Psych, it shouldn't be time consuming at all. Stick with it and you "Will Makeit".


MarkIsrael:
I only have 12 tests left to take which I plan to have finished by Sept, and I plan to enroll probably in July. What I am trying to do is avoid having to take a last minute test that I am not prepped for to complete my major. If I know now that I need one or two additional tests, I can substitute those (for some of the 12 "filler" tests) before I take extra tests I don't need. Due to your advice, I will probably try to enroll all the sooner.