Liberal Studies - Excelsior or TESC? A Study

Why did you not consider COSC?
http://www.charteroak.edu/
Do they not accept FEMA credits?

Also in evaluating schools I would think that obtaining credit via portfolio would be a consideration.

 

Will they give you advice after you have paid the $75.00 bucks and request a credit evaluation? I am wondering, my wife plans to apply to both Excelsior and TESC, hopefully next. Here is my plan. Apply to TESC, get an eval, then complete the requirements. Once she has met all of them, then she can formally enroll, even if she has to pay the $75.00 eval. fee. This would avoid another annual fee.

Abner


P.S. I don't know, in terms of time and ease of completion, I think TESC is best for my wife's situation. Especially if she can fill a lot of the remaing credit with these free FEMA courses.

 

I have been both successful and unsuccessful with both colleges regarding Credit Evaluation information. While Excelsior gave me an evaluation, the admissions representatives could not answer specific credit-to-requirement questions, and also said I'm not allowed to speak to advisors until I'm enrolled.

However, I have not tried to be "persuasive" yet either, and I find this to be a VERY useful tool.

Everytime I call Excelsior OR TESC I try to be very polite and deal with the same admissions counselor.

I've actually had better success via EMAIL than on the phone, this usually gives counselors their own time to research the question and get back with me.

We are both on the same page that we want to be fully informed before paying an enrollment fee, that is why I utilizing DL Forums like these are so invaluable!

 

I've found a great deal of information regarding both Excelsior and TESC, but not much regarding COSC. Because of that, I chose to apply to both Excelsior and TESC to see which would be a better fit for my personal goals.

As far as portfolio consideration toward college credit, I know that Excelsior no longer accepts FEMA courses through the TESC Credit Bank.

I have spent a large amount of time researching the most feasible way to attain credit, and the cheapest seems to be RAW if you're enrolled with TESC, or through FCC if you're with any other college.

 

Excellent, thanks for the lists and the link to FEMA. I printed everything out for future consideration. At this point, we will fill out the applications to both Excelsior and TESC for credit evaluations. I am leaning toward TESC because I am think my wife can fulfill needed credit with RAW FEMA courses, and maybe a few CLEPS, DANTES, etc.

Abner

 

Excelsior discounts graduation fee

Lets not forget that Excelsior gives a $15 discount off the graduation fee for every online course completed through Excelsior's course offerings.

So, if you have quite a few credits still to be completed and you are happy with Excelsiors courses ( I was!), you can save quite a bit of money on the graduation fee. For me it amounted to $60 off my graduation fee ( I had a lot of credits granted from previous studies elsewhere).

It's worth keeping this discount in mind when making a decision about the total costs.

Cheers!

 

To be honest I don't plan on taking any online courses if I don't have to.

 

My bachelor's of science ended up costing me slightly more than $4,000 at Excelsior. I did not take any courses, and I only purchased three books, everything else was self-study online and CLEP's, DANTE'S, and ECE tests. I played around the idea of taking a GRE, but after looking at the pre-assessments available (in preparation books) I decided against it because it would have taken too long to study to obtain 30 credits. It took me 4 months to prepare and take all tests. I have to mention I received 24 credits for my Spanish and French CLEPS. Spanish is my first language and I speak passable French, so 1/5 of the credits took me an afternoon.

I don't have a great recollection of facts, but I did look into the "BIG 3" and after carefully considering cost and other aspects I decided on Excelsior.

Things might have changed a bit in five years, but I believe that a bachelor's can still be earned at $5,000 or below.