Excelsior: Enroll now or wait?

The cost of enrolling is like everything else. It keeps going up. You will have a year to complete what you need after you enroll. If you do it now, you will have taken the most important step and set your self a time line. Sometimes the degree requirements change. The program you might want now, might have more requirements next year. ( Mine changed a lot, but because I was enrolled I was covered.) I agree with Shotojuku and raristud2 to enroll now. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Good luck

 

My thoughts:

1) If you can finish the degree requirements within a year, enroll now, or at the latest in December. Excelsior makes any yearly changes in January - and I was able to grandfather out of the Literacy exam because I was enrolled prior to its requirement. If you think you'll take more than a year, then wait until you're about a year away. Excelsior also appears to be slowly replacing some of its ECE exams with courses (Business Policy & Strategy was a notable one) so starting sooner than later is a good idea.

2) I'm pursuing my MBA at Indiana (Kelley Direct). My undergrad is a BS General Business from Excelsior with 100% testing out. Also, I was very clear about this (even emphasized it as demonstrating my ability to learn independently) during the admission process. Ultimately where I received my degree didn't matter. What matters more is your GPA and your GMAT or other entrance exam along with what you have to offer the school (experience, etc).

Good luck!

Cheers,
Mark

 

I think you're absolutely right, an MSW is significantly different from a master's in counseling, both in terms of preparation and in terms of the netowrking and hiring opportunities an MSW brings you.

I don't think any MSW program would allow any substitutions for their statistics requirement; most schools are pretty obsessed with making sure you take it there. The CSWE requires that only accredited "social work" classes count for the degree, so DANTES wouldn't really help.

But you might want to consider IUN even if it means a few extra classes, because the tuition savings might really help you. Unless you expect to practice in Illinois, but given your location you might want to go for LCSW licensure in both states.