Associate of Arts in Liberal Studies from Excelsior - Help me help my dad

All,

This is going to be a long one, so please bear with me. My father has asked me for help in going back to school and completing an associate's degree, with the option of continuing on to a bachelor's later on. As always, money is an issue here, so we're trying to do it on the cheap. I asked him to get me a copy of his transcripts, and last night we talked on the phone for a few hours while I put together a spreadsheet of the credits he had at the "C" level or above. It turned out to be 52 credits, although 4 of those were in physical education, which it appears do not transfer to the "Big 3". All of his credits were taken between 1967 and 1975. Here's the complete breakdown:

CSC 111 ALGORITHMIC LANG I 2 A
CH 101 GEN CHEMISTRY I 4 C
CH 107 PRINCIPLES CHEM II 4 C
CHE 205 CHEM PROC PRINCS 3 A
CH 221 ORGANIC CHEM 1 4 C
CH 497 CHEM ENGR PROJECTS 3 C
ENG 111 COMP AND RHETORIC 3 C
ENG 112 COMP AND READING 3 B
HI 205 WEST CIV SINC 1400 3 A
MA 102 ANAL GEOM CALC I 4 B
MA 201 ANAL GEOM CALC II 4 B
MA 202 ANAL GEOM CALC III 4 B
MA 301 APPL DIFF EQUAT I 3 B
PE 116 PHYSICAL EDUCATION 1 C
PE 221 PHYSICAL EDUCATION 1 C
PE 243 PHYSICAL EDUCATION 1 C
PE 245 PHYSICAL EDUCATION 1 C
PY 205 GENERAL PHYSICS 4 A

I know it's a bit hard to read, but each line breaks down as course code, course title, semester hours, and grade. Ignoring the physical education courses, we then grabbed Excelsior's Liberal Arts catalog from their website, and tried to slot Dad's credits into the requirements and determine what's left.

Arts and Sciences Electives
12 Credits Required
Have:
CH 101 for 4 credits
CH 107 for 4 credits
CH 221 for 4 credits

Written English
3 Credits Required
Have:
ENG 111 for 3 credits

Humanities
9 Credits Required
Have:
ENG 112 for 3 credits
Proposed:
CLEP Humanities for 6 credits

Social Sciences / History
12 Credits Required
Have:
HI 205 for 3 credits
Proposed:
CLEP Social Sciences and History for 6 credits
CLEP American Government for 3 credits

Natural Science / Mathematics
12 Credits Required
Have:
MA 102 for 4 credits
MA 201 for 4 credits
MA 202 for 4 credits

Applied Professional Electives
11 Credits Required
Have:
CH 205 for 3 credits
PY 205 for 4 credits
CSC 111 for 2 credits
MA 301 for 3 credits

Information Literacy
1 Credit Required
Have: None
Proposed:
Excelsior Course INL 102 for 1 credit

Chemistry Area of Focus
15 Credits Required
Have: 18 Chemistry credits

So, assuming my assumptions are correct, to finish this degree plan, my dad would need to take three CLEP exams and the EC Information Literacy Course, pay the applicable fees, and he would graduate from Excelsior with an Associate in Liberal Arts, Area of Focus in Chemistry. Here's the financial breakdown:

$75 Application Fee
$895 Enrollment Fee
$95 CLEP Humanities
$95 CLEP Social Sciences and History
$95 CLEP American Government
$315 Excelsior Course INL 102
$495 Graduation Fee
$2,065 Total

Alright, Excelsior gurus. Please check our work. My dad will be applying soon, so we'll know for sure soon enough, but I'd love a couple of extra eyes on this so I know that this is a reasonable expectation. I tried to work up COSC and TESC degree plans as well, but they were either much more expensive (TESC) or would have required a lot more tests (6 tests for COSC).

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi,

This looks like a good plan.

Is your Dad a veteran? If so, he will receive a nice discount on the enrollment fee.

 

He almost was. He joined the Navy during the Vietnam era and was literally lining up to leave for boot camp when he collapsed. Turned out that he had a perforated stomach ulcer. While he was recovering, they basically told him "Thanks, but no thanks" and released him from his service contract. He ended up working for 30+ years as a "high rad drifter", working outages at nuclear power plants around the United States. He's between jobs right now and has some time on his hands, so he is using it to take care of some unfinished business.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

You could do the Penn Foster Information Literacy course for much less than EC's course:
http://www.degreeforum.net/general-education-testing-discussion/2174-penn-foster-information-literacy-1-credit.html

It's a little bit more hassle, but he'd save about $200.

The plan looks good!

 

Alissa,

Thanks for the tip - that is awesome! I checked out PFC's website, it even looks like they are running a summer special. Nothing wrong with saving a couple of hundred bucks!

 

Perhaps after he finishes this, he could take that money he saved and take a stab at the GRE Chemistry, Physics, or Mathematics this upcoming Oct. and Nov. and April, and if he does well, re-enroll at the discounted Excelsior graduate reduced fee, and pick up a BA for cheap, too.

 

Or, if he is rusty with his science/math subjects, he could always study and take the Psych GRE. As Alissa alluded to above, the subject GREs are worth up to 30 credits at Excelsior. In some cases, this can account for an entire major.

 

Alissa and Tom,

Thanks for your insights - it's really helpful to have someone who's gone through the process to draw wisdom from. While we were reviewing the steps Dad has to go through to get across the finish line for the Associate's degree, he paused for a second and asked me, "What if I decide I liked this and want to go for the bachelor's?" I explained to him that it would be very easy to take this associates degree and build on it, whether it be at Excelsior or elsewhere. I also told him that returning to finish school after 34 years was an accomplishment in and of itself, and if he stopped at the AA level and never thought about it again, he'd still have a lot to be proud of. What I didn't tell him is that in my experience, distance education is addictive, and that once you've finished one degree, you want to chase that feeling of elation again and again. He'll find that out soon enough, I'm sure.

As for Dad being rusty with science and math, not hardly. He reads voraciously on science subjects, and is one of a few people I know who can use a slide rule as quickly as most people use a calculator (the others, of course, are his three brothers). I don't know if a subject GRE is in his future, but we'll see. Right now, our next steps are to get him applied, enrolled, and studying for the CLEP tests. Thanks so much for your help!

 

If he's been working outages at nuclear power plants, he might be interested in the AAS in Nuclear Power Technology at Bismarck State College www.bismarckstate.edu.

 

Ted,

Thanks for the link, however, at this point I think he's looking more for something that can be finished quickly, hence the Excelsior degree plan. From a personal standpoint, I'd be overjoyed if he could actually get off the road. Nuke work is a hard life, he was almost never home while I was growing up, and when he was home, he was so exhausted he would sleep literally days at a time. He's still keeping that kind of grueling pace, even though he just turned 60. It keeps him fit, but I worry about him a lot.

 

Just a quick update: my dad is taking his first CLEP exam today at 3:00 PM. This discussion of CLEP has turned out to be a really good thing for my family, as my step-sister's son (my step-nephew?) is going to be doing some CLEP testing as well to move him from tier 2 (GED) to tier 1 (high school graduate) in the U.S. Army recruiting pool. Apparently, GED + 15 college credits = High School Diploma to the military. My younger brother is also about to take his third CLEP en route to an A.S. in pre-business from the local community college, and hopefully going on to a BSBA from East Carolina. We're not exactly CLEP poster-children just yet, but we're on the way!

 

Go Dad! Wishing your Dad the best of luck with his CLEPs and degree program.

 

Speaking of which, upon completion of his associate's degree, he could continue on at Excelsior for the BST in Nuclear Engineering Technology https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_College/School_of_Business_and_Technology/Technology_Programs/BS_IN_NUCLEAR_ENGINEERING_TECHNOLOGY.

 

Great find, Ted! I will pass this on to my dad tonight when I see him!

 

Just a quick note to update, my dad passed his first CLEP on Friday, the Social Sciences and History exam with a 62. He's studying for the Humanities CLEP now. One question for those who might know - he's sending his score reports to Excelsior, but he hasn't applied or enrolled yet. Will he need to resend them when he applies, or will they hold on to them?

Thanks!

 

Congratulations! Why not apply and enroll with Excelsior College now since he only has two CLEPs remaining and the information literacy course?

Speaking from experience with Thomas Edison State College, I was told there are two situations in which you must resubmit all transcripts: enrolling for the first time, and re-enrolling if you let your registration lapse. I presume Excelsior College has a similar policy.

 

Mostly to hold off on the outlay of cash.

 

Another update. My dad took the American Government CLEP today, and unfortunately, ended up with a 49, which as we know all too well, is one scaled point away from a pass. There are plenty of other tests he can use to fulfill this requirement, but I think he's a little bummed right now. I'm going to talk to him this afternoon about going ahead and completing the information literacy course through Penn Foster, so he can get back on the horse with a quick win. In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions for which CLEP we might substitute for the Excelsior Social Sciences / History Requirement?

Thanks!

 

He should retake the American Government CLEP after reviewing the areas in which he was weak based on the experience gained during the first attempt. It would be a waste of all the time and effort put towards studying to the examination only to walk away because of one scaled point. Give him the weekend to put things in perspective.

 

He'd have to wait six months to retake the CLEP American Government for the scores to be accepted. I recommend that he take either CLEP U.S. History I or II, since he has recently reviewed some material relevant to these exams during his preparation for the CLEP American Government exam. CLEP American Government is a difficult exam, I hope he doesn't get too discouraged.

Another suggestion would be to consider taking DSST exams. http://www.getcollegecredit.com/resources.html#factsheets The grading curve on the DSSTs seems more favorable, and although they cost about $10 more than CLEPs, Excelsior awards letter grades for most of them, rather than P/F. Any one of the following DSST exams would fulfill his History/Social Science:

Criminal Justice; 3B
Foundations of Education, 3B
Fundamentals of Counseling; 3B
General Anthropology; 3B
Introduction to Law Enforcement; 3B
Lifespan Developmental Psychology, 3B
Western Europe since 1945; 3B
Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union; 3BU
An Introduction to the Modern Middle East; 3B
A History of the Vietnam War; 3B
The Civil War and Reconstruction; 3BU

Hope that helps!