A college like WGU where I can test out of a degree-please help!

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by forest.green1, Dec 29, 2019.

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  1. forest.green1

    forest.green1 New Member

    Hello! I am looking for a university like WGU where I can test out of a degree.I am an international student so I can't attend WGU. I know of the Big 3 but I don't want to wait months for the cornerstone. I found JFKU and on the site it says you can take the test when you want and then move on to the next. That would be ideal but I then read that there are some assignments and that would be a deal braker. I don't want to wait for grading.
     
  2. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    You're going to have to do some form of waiting in any degree program. You cannot fire through a degree, even by testing, in a week. Competency based programs are great for many. However, they are often limited by an inability to choose electives as freely as a traditional program. So the likelihood that you can actually test out of a module as soon as it becomes available to you to the point where you would finish in a time period less than the TESU cornerstone is unlikely.

    Also, competency based doesn't necessarily mean you get immediate grading.

    Consider that if you started TESU today, you could conceivably have a degree program well underway very soon. If you sit around looking for this unicorn of a program and you're still no closer to a degree by the end of 2020, you waited, you just changed where and how you waited.
     
  3. forest.green1

    forest.green1 New Member

    So What if I cant choose electives? I will take whatever electives they want me to. Aren't TCEP and the likes graded immediately?
     
  4. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

  5. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Competency based degrees (like WGU and JFKU) aren't strictly test-out degrees. Every class will have assignments.

    Real talk: If having to do a few assignments or if having to wait for grades is a deal breaker, then maybe you're not at a point in your life where you are ready for a degree.

    We live in this wonderful day and age where there is a bountiful array of options to complete a college degree, but that doesn't mean that they hand them over to you on-demand without you ever having to face some inconveniences along the way.
     
  6. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    Okay, F/G, let's start with some basics . . .

    First, what country are you in? Also, keeping in mind that most tests are taken in a proctored environment, do you have an acceptable proctor available to you?

    Next, what, if any, credits do you already have toward a college degree and from where? Or, are we starting from scratch here?

    Finally, some degrees are easier than others. Exactly what field or subject area do you want to earn a degree in?
     
  7. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    Wow! Steve, you must be in a good mood. No condescending or sarcastic response to the OP?! Early new year's resolution? Haha :)
     
  8. forest.green1

    forest.green1 New Member

    I live in the UK, I have a different nationality and citizenship though. Doesnt Proctor U choose a proctor? Can international students use proctor u?

    I would like to take some exam for credit courses. I want either a psychology or Bussiness degree. I first want to find a college.I know most have some assignments, problem is I see a lot of people complaining that instead of the 2 day waiting for grading that they promise, they make you wait 1 week. And the bad part about it is that you can't have access to the next class until they are graded. Ideally I would have access to all classes from beginning.
    NAU has the closest thing to this but takes ages to grade. It used to be that if you pass the pretest you don't have to write the assignments or post test but now even if you pass it, you still need to do the assignments and post test. So wait a week for the assignments to be graded, wait a week for the post test to be graded...

    The most frustrating thing about all this is that a few years back there were MANY test-out degrees including from the Big 3 with no uneccesary waiting period.
     
  9. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Your goals/expectations are unrealistic. It's time to downshift or re-route.
     
  10. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    It sounds like you're willing to do the work, and that part is good. The problem is, you seem to be a little impatient when it comes to grading, and that part is bad and will work against you. One, it can force you to make hasty decisions and submit papers before they're fully ready and then that will have a negative affect on your grade. Two, while we trust school instructors and administrators to be professionals unswayed emotionally, that's not always reality. If you make a fuss over grading timetables and press the issue, it's not unheard of to start seeing some wacky things taking place with your grades and the amount of time it takes to get them.

    Even with independent study and competency-based programs, you're going to have to wait for an instructor or SME to grade your papers and sometimes it can take weeks if their grading work gets backed up. That's usually the biggest hurdle in terms of time and waiting. But, you have to expect that because humans are doing the grading.

    Best thing you can do is have more than one course open at a time so you can keep working. Some schools allow it, some don't.
     
    forest.green1 likes this.
  11. AsianStew

    AsianStew Moderator Staff Member

    OP - You seem to have done a bit of comparison and research already, it basically will boil down to your personal preference. The info from you is not enough to determine which program may be viable for you.

    Further to that, you didn't list any other colleges/universities that you have researched or looked into... if you give us a list of schools you have looked into, we can probably give you a list of others that you can look into more closely.

    Last but not least, many people including me or yourself want to get things done quickly, we look at cheap/easy/fast and want that extra value. All programs will NOT have everything you want, it's how much you want/need the degree to overlook those minor requirements of yours.

    I'm impersonating - Steve Levioff for today, I hope he doesn't mind - Literally this is what I thought when I read your response to Neuhaus... "So what if you want a degree! - If you don't put the energy/money/time into it and have the patience to wait for it... a degree right not might not be for you... so get off that high horse of yours mate..."

    Side note: You may want to review your thread for more info on the sister board: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-A-college-like-WGU-where-I-can-test-out-of-a-degree-Fast-Please-help?
     
  12. forest.green1

    forest.green1 New Member

    I looked into Capella, brandman, JFKU, walden, NAU, rassmusen. Capella seems to be the fastest so far.
     
  13. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    As I often note, going to college is an exchange of capital. You give them your academic effort (however it is measured) and your money. They give you an education (YMMV) and a degree.

    The OP seems to want to skip the effort and the education. There's a particular name for what he's asking for.
     
    Michigan68 likes this.
  14. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    Capella, Walden, and Rassmussen are all for-profit schools. It is not uncommon for the for-profits to actually keep you enrolled longer than non-profits so they can get more money from you. Capella and Walden are highly focused on graduate-level degrees (masters and above), and we rarely hear about people doing undergrad credentials through them - for bachelor's degrees, there's a reason people tend to stick with the big four.

    Meanwhile, since you said you are in the U.K., you have one of the oldest and most credible distance programs in the world right in your neighborhood - Open University, http://www.open.ac.uk. Open University also has regional accreditation from Middle States, a highly credible U.S. accreditor, so if you were to want to earn a graduate degree from a U.S. school eventually, you would not have to have your degree evaluated as a foreign credential.

    As for what you have said you are looking for - what Tom Cruise called "the need for speed" - I concur with the others, both here at DI and in your identical thread at DegreeForum, who have expressed the notion that you are not going to find it. For better or worse, my prediction is that you're going to crap out on your search and either end up not getting a degree at all, getting screwed by making the wrong decision, or simply buying a worthless piece of crap from a degree mill. At this point, you remind me of the old expression, "When your head stops spinning around, we can only hope that you are facing forward." In other words, humble thyself - you are not in a position to make demands of any school. Moreover, your goals are so non-specific that you presume much - I have a feeling that if you were to take a bunch of tests today, you would fail the majority of them anyway. And then I would laugh at you - no, wait, I'm already laughing at you.

     

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