Excelsior Degree Plan

What I find funny is that you can't get them to tell you if anything satisfies a specific requirement but the one thing they come out and specifically say does satisfy a requirement in writing in their catalog is the one thing that doesn't.

 

So I talked with Excelsior today and evidently the AP English doesn't currently comply with ACE standards. For future people reading this, just keep in mind that AP classes won't always transfer if they don't meet ACE requirements. His AP Art transferred in fine. He took AP Calc AB but it was excess credit so don't know for sure on that.

My son is enrolled in a dual credit english program however, it will only satisfy 3 of the 6 credit hours needed. We need to figure out what are going to do to satisfy that.

 

He could satisfy that requirement by taking an online course through a traditional university. There are several schools that offer relatively affordable online courses for college credit that don't require you to matriculate in a degree program. They are open to anyone who wants to take them. Here are some good options:

Brigham Young University Independent Study
https://is.byu.edu/

Independent Study in Idaho
https://www.uidaho.edu/academics/dee/independent-study/

University of Arkansas Self-Paced Online Courses
https://online.uark.edu/self-paced/index.php

 

I'll check those out.

 

Back with another update!

I enrolled my son in the info lit class which I think he completed today. I'm not sure how to tell if he is done although he completed all of the quizzes and the final exam.

A few weeks back I did petition the dean of undergraduate studies to see if they would accept the AP English exam for the written english requirement but I hadn't heard anything back.

I logged in to excelsior today and noticed there was an updated preliminary review of his credits posted today which showed they have accepted the AP English exam to satisfy the written english requirement.

In the end they have said they will accept 98 of hits 106 credits which is exactly what I had plotted out.

It was great news and I was excited to share it with everyone!

 

That's great news! How did you convince them to accept the AP English exam?

 

We wrote a letter to the dean asking if they’d accept it. Took about a month to hear back.

 

So I'm back with another update to this thread.

My son graduated from high school this past spring. During his senior year, his other classmates were all obviously getting prepared to go the traditional route of college which put the pressure on my son to also go down this path as well. And after a stellar score of 1540 on his SAT, my son wanted to give applying to college a go, specifically at a few of the top schools to see if he would get accepted. The idea was to see if he could get a full ride to college as well. While he got accepted at all of the state schools he applied to, other colleges like Harvard were on his list. He did go through the interview process and got deferred at Harvard on the first go around and eventually at the main deadline didn't get accepted. He was a disappointed by that but he wasn't alone. Some very talented kids in his high school class of about a 1000 students all got denied at all the top schools including an Olympian who probably was the only student in his school who got a higher SAT score than my son did at 1550.

The next step then was to see what the financial aid process would bring. i've always told my son that the financial aid process is just a coupon for tuition into an aid funnel to a loan application and that proved correct. His financial aid awards ranged from $15,000 at a state school to $35,000 at one of the private schools with as I correctly predicted loans to go along with it. Even after the $35,000, the private school would still be another $25,000 a year on top of it. I've been to the town where that school is and there is nothing there to do anyway.

By then the virus closed high school for the remaining portion of his senior year. And of course, this has converted many of the colleges to online campuses where you still live on campus and pay your 12 month lease while sitting in a dorm for your classes. We did consider going to one college his friends were going to as a guest student to complete his remaining requirements to transfer in. However, he would have lived off campus away from his friends who would have been required to stay in the campus dorms their freshman year (guest students can't live on campus). A stupid rule that helped me understand that the colleges are not only in the education business but the housing business as well.

Ultimately, with all the uncertainty surrounding college campus this year, he decided to continue the path he was previously on to complete his degree after taking about a year off to go through that entire process.

At that point though, we had to reapply to Excelsior and get the credits re-evaluated again. In the meantime, they had also added the cornerstone course requirement. Excelsior counted 97 credits to his degree map which was essentially what they had approved before. We looked for a corporate partner to obtain a tuition discount and he joined the Georgia Peacekeepers Assn for about $20 to take advantage of their partnership.

After that, he enrolled and become an official student at Excelsior and was now a college senior before he got his high school diploma. We decided that for the remaining degree requirements except for one, he would take all of the courses online at Excelsior instead of transferring in anymore credits from other sources.

The first two Excelsior courses he registered for were the Cornerstone course and International Business. Those started at the end of June and he has just finished his first 8 week term getting an "A" in both classes.

Here on out, his senior year is a very light load of classes with his advisor already approving all of the final classes he needs to complete his map.

Fall 1:

International HR
DSST Astronomy

Fall 2:

Managing Diversity
Business Leadership

Spring 1:

Principles of Finance

Spring 2:

Strategic Management Capstone

I think commencement is July 9, 2021 and he should receive his Bachelor's degree in Human Resources Management.

Anyway, I'm excited to share his continued progress with you and it looks like it is all downhill from here.

 

It's all downhill from here. I'm glad to hear that he has a very light load to complete the rest of his degree. Is he still considering law school or has his plans changed?

 

Thanks GLGAmerica. I've begun looking at similar options for my two children.

Your generosity in detailing this journey is very much appreciated!!!

 

We aren't sure yet.

It's funny because my best friend is an attorney. When I told him my son was thinking about law school, he said "I thought he was smart?"

So we will see. Some work experience would probably be helpful at this point to see what he might like.

 

Another quick update.

My son finished another course about a week or so ago. This was International HR. He got another A in this class and is now enrolled in his next two classes.

Managing Diversity
Business Leadership

Anyway, everything is going according to plan on the degree map.

This last term he also got his insurance license and is working as a benefits counselor helping employees enroll in their benefit during the 4th quarter which is a nice tie in with his degree is Human Resources Management.

 

Wow this was like reading a movie. It was awesome an awesome read!

 

Congratulations. Great story. Are you overall satisfied with Excelsior? I'm considering it for my 11th grade 16 year old. She has completed 62 credits, mostly Sophia and the College Comp CLEP.

 

I think all in all it has been fine. The toughest part was finding out what mapped over properly before we enrolled. You can't really get that information easily until you get an advisor which you can't get unless you enrolled. We were able to piece enough info together though and everything mapped over exactly as expected. My son's experience with the Excel courses now that he is enrolled has been good. I think our only mistake in the process was that the UExcel exams count toward your GPA which pulled my son's GPA down a little. Otherwise, he has aced each actual class he has taken so far by getting an A in all of the courses he has taken so far.

Update on his progress:

He just completed Managing Diversity and Business Leadership and got an A in both courses. I just enrolled him in Principles of Finance, he has to pass the DSST exam in Astronomy and then has his Capstone and he will be finished.

On the job front, he worked as a benefits counselor assisting employees with their benefits in the 4th quarter and did a great job. Since his degree is in Human Resource Management, Excelsior is a partner with SHRM and so he has become a member of SHRM and plans on taking the CP SHRM certification exam soon.

I guess the next major hurdle is finding him a great job.

Anyone hiring lol?

 

I know some schools practice grade forgiveness if you retake a course. A community college I attended years ago did this. Have you asked them about the possibility of replacing the UExcel exam grades if the corresponding Excelsior courses were taken?

 

We had checked into that initially but were told they didn't allow it. Being so close to the finish line, I'm not sure even if they did that we'd do it at this point. We calculated that if he got an A in all the classes he took at Excelsior, he would end up with a 3.3. So far he has gotten an A in all of them and is on track to do that. While it would be great if it was a 4.0, the reality is other than schools, no one really cares about the GPA and it's likely good enough even if someone would.

Thanks for the info. I have a friend who works at Amazon in another state and she seems really happy there. Hopefully you will get on board there!

Another update!

So my son just completed Principles of Finance and today he starts the final term to complete his degree. He just has the Capstone class remaining and a DSST astronomy exam. Those are the final two requirements to finish his degree!

A lot of work involved in the Capstone compared to the previous courses so we will see how that goes but I'm sure he will be fine.

Also, since his degree is in Human Resources Management, we noticed the Society of Human Resources Management offered a student discount for Excelsior students to join SHRM and a discount on the HR certification program CP-SHRM. He was qualified to take that certification exam and passed last month. He is now CP-SHRM certified too which will be great to add to his resume.

He's also been going to the colleges his friends go to on the weekends to get some college campus experience in.

Anyway, it's the last leg of the journey and it's exciting to see the final goal in site!

 

Another update!

My son passed his DSST Astronomy exam today. He now just has to finish the Capstone class and has just 5 weeks left to complete all of his degree requirements!

In addition, we got him placed in a job in the employee benefits industry. He starts on April 1.

Interesting story happened in his Capstone class. In that class they have a group project. One of the members in his group is a 17 year old girl who said she followed essentially the same path he did. On top of that, she said she is one of three triplets and all three followed the same strategy. She went on to say that all three are currently in the Capstone class and will finish together. Anyway, it was an impressive story and I think he thought it was cool that he wasn't alone and they were even younger than he is. He is 19 now.

Only five weeks left!

 

Just five more weeks -- WOW! That's incredible! And he already has a good job lined up too. I wish I had things figured out even half as well as he does when I was his age.

Another career option to consider -- working with Salesforce software.

I recently made the acquaintance of a young man in his mid-twenties who just accepted a position with a company as a Salesforce administrator. They offered him $130k plus incredible benefits. He only has an associate's degree. It's a remote position too, so he gets to work from home.

He took an entry-level position with a company working with their Salesforce software 2-3 years ago and got some Salesforce certifications. The certs plus experience was all it took to quickly climb the salary ladder -- and he's still a VERY young man.