I need to vent! Excelsior students advice needed.

Hi,
I graduated from Excelsior a few months ago. My experience was truly 'mixed'. Several rude people nearly put me off Excelsior, but when I really needed some help with a particular problem, I spoke with someone named Penny. She was great and really went the extra mile for me. In fact, I had to call her again to see about speeding something up and she made it happen!
Just my 2 cents! All in all though, a good experience as I got my degree quickly and without too much assistance from them. All because of this forum and Lawrie Miller's.

 

GuitarMark2000 wrote:

> Print and save your e-mail responses so that if there's a
> question 6 months later when you're about to graduate you
> can pull it up.

Yup. See http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8801 for just such a situation. Excelsior can renege on even an "official" approval.

> The DistanceLearn database also provides some good info if
> you're looking for a course.

http://courses.telecampus.edu is useful too, although it's no longer updated.

> I find that my status report is updated within a week of my
> exam results being available

Recently, yes, about a week. But in 2002, the "6-8 weeks" claim seemed to be about right.

> Looking at the initials there seems to be 3 advisors working
> on my file

Advisors are not assigned to individual students. Any advisor in the faculty can work on anybody's file.

 

Wow, I must be the only Excelsior graduate who has had nothing but good experiences with the college. Whenever I had a question, I used to send my advisor an old-fashioned snail mail letter. I always received a response via regular mail within a reasonable time-frame that was both professional and courteous. When I graduated, my advisor even sent me a personal card congratulating me on my accomplishment. Granted, this was all before the internet became the great information super-highway that it is today; however, I can't help but wonder if we have not become so accustomed to instant information and answers that the poor Excelsior people just can't keep up with the demand, especially considering the fact that Excelsior is no longer the insider secret that it once was.

 

Nothing but good to say...well so far.

Though I am a new student at Excelsior, I have nothing but good to say about the service thus far. Even before I officially became a student they were very helpful to me over the phone and very pleasant in their demeanor.

Everytime I have called I have anticipated a knock down drag out fight because of what I have read in some posts, but haven't even gotten into a pillow fight as of yet. I hope my whole experience stays like this, I am totally satisfied up until now.

 

Re: There are taxpayer dollars and there are taxpayer dollars

We take the following money from Title IV - Federal Pell Grant, Federal SEOG Grant, Federal Direct Loans, Federal Perkins Loan and Federal Work-Study programs.

So does Excelsior. I fail to see the point here.

 

Well, let me re-phrase that. The University of Tampa is not a part of the state university system. As you know, tax dollars are the life-blood of the state university system.

 

UG or Research

I still maintain that no matter where the money is coming from, $60 should get you a good evaluation. And, as someone else said, there is no excuse to be rude to any student.

 

Well this is just great. I mailed the application and attachments in the envelope provided in their catalog on Wednesday. The envelope is about 6 X 8 inches in size. Today it comes back to me with a sticker that says the envelope is an odd size and the pre-printed address is too low on the front for scanners to read so I need to affix an additional 12 cents postage. Maybe this is an omen. Hmmmmm.

 

Just fax it

 

Maybe you have lazy or incompetent Postal workers where you live? I mailed mine in the same envelope and had no problem.

But then again, I did have a piece of mail mis-delivered to my house six times in a row before they finally got it right. This was even with a post-it note stuck on it, pointing to the obviously different name/address. I finally had to call the post office about it.

 

Sales pitch continues

I emailed the following question to Excelsior and COSC last night.

Can tell me if you accept the CLEP in College Mathematics as fulfilling the requirement for math in a BS? Or does it have to be College Algebra?

Here are the answers I got back:

From Excelsior:
"Thank you.
You would want to enroll to ask your Academic Advisors about course approval for the math requirement. You cannot receive course approval before being enrolled so if there is a question about a course being a good choice, you would want to enroll to be sure you don't take something that won't help you earn the necessary credits for the degree. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact our Admissions Office at 888-647-2388, 2-7. The office hours are Monday and Wednesday 8:30 am to 8:00 pm, and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, EST. Any one of our Admissions Counselors would be happy to speak with you "

They can't tell me if they take a CLEP as credit without me enrolling? Notice they mention enrolling twice in two lines.

Here is what COSC said:
"Yes, the CLEP in College Mathematics is accepted for your math requirement on a BS.

If you have any more questions, please let us know."

I'm thinking less and less of Excelsior.

 

Excelsior has been privatized; Charter Oak is public. The advice you got from Charter Oak was courtesy of the pockets of Connecticut taxpayers.

Excelsior's current business model is to get income from students through (1) enrollment fee, (2) annual maintenance fee, (3) graduation fee. What a student gets in exchange for the annual maintenance fee is academic advice and course approval.

Clearly, everyone here dislikes this model. They want to avoid the annual maintenance fee by enrolling at the last minute, and they think advice should be free.

So how should Excelsior change its business model? Should it drop the annual maintenance fee, give free advice, and jack up the enrollment fee and graduation fee to compensate?

Or maybe it should just refuse to accept the results of challenge exams taken before the student enrolls?

Right now, to protect the annual maintenance fee, the Admissions Counselors are obviously instructed not to say anything that sounds like course approval. That's not my department, says Werner von Braun.

 

Just for questions

>>Excelsior's current business model is to get income from students through (1) enrollment fee, (2) annual maintenance fee, (3) graduation fee. What a student gets in exchange for the annual maintenance fee is academic advice and course approval.

Clearly, everyone here dislikes this model. They want to avoid the annual maintenance fee by enrolling at the last minute, and they think advice should be free.<<

I don't consider a yes or no question to be advice. You can call here to the University of Tampa, a private college, and ask the test center if a CLEP will be accepted and they will answer you. You don't even have to pay the application fee to get this kind of information.

This kind of information, to me, is like asking how many English credits do I need for a BLS. It is a very basic question that should not require a lot of work to answer.

>>Right now, to protect the annual maintenance fee, the Admissions Counselors are obviously instructed not to say anything that sounds like course approval. That's not my department, says Werner von Braun. <<

Excelsior pushes the exam option yet they can' t tell you what exams apply? It wasn't like I was asking if they accepted credits from some unheard of college, something that needed to be researched.

It is actually kind of interesting. The philosophy here at UT is: we're private and more expensive, so we have to give better service, even extra service. Excelsior seems to have taken the opposite track: we're private and cheaper so make them pay before we tell them anything.

 

Deb writes:

> I don't consider a yes or no question to be advice.

I'm afraid most of the advice that Excelsior has to charge for isn't very complex.

> You can call here to the University of Tampa, a private
> college, and ask the test center if a CLEP will be accepted and
> they will answer you. You don't even have to pay the
> application fee to get this kind of information.

You already admitted that University of Tampa makes most of its money from tuition -- not an option for Excelsior.

> This kind of information, to me, is like asking how many
> English credits do I need for a BLS.

-- to which the correct answer is "Read the catalogue."

> Excelsior pushes the exam option

They make money from Excelsior College Exams. They don't make money from CLEPs.

> It wasn't like I was asking if they accepted credits from
> some unheard of college, something that needed to be
> researched.

Yeah, that's the ticket: a sliding fee. They could charge $1 per credit to accept CLEPs, and $100 per credit to accept coursework from obscure colleges.

 

I don't see it that way.

I've expereinced both Excelsior and COSC and I chose COSC.

The information they would be divulging by giving a straight answer to a straight question is kinda proprietary isn't it?

I mean say you ask Excelsior if they would accept a CLEP, they tell you yes, you run out and take the CLEP and then enroll in Harvard. Harvard won't give you the credit. What do you do, compalin that Excelsior told you to take the test and now Harvard won't accept it for credit?

I think what Excelsior does is great but I think they need a lot of help on the customer service side. If they were more definite and forthcoming I think they'd actually enroll a whole lot more students. I paid Excelsior $60 for an evaluation. I got an evaluation that was full of holes, totally overlooking course on the transcript, etc.

I paid COSC $175 for an evaluation. They had a question about 1 course. They told me what the question was, I got it answered for them the way they wanted answered. I asked a few more questions and got prompt straight and courteous answers. The taxpayers of CT are out nothing for what COSC did for me.

Every time I called Excelsior I got a different person and got differeing answers to the same questions. The "free" information they give out cannot be relied upon. I think you should email them with ANY questions.

Everyone I dealt with at COSC knew exactly what they were talking about. They each gave detailed references to their website and or e-literature for the answers they gave and all followed up with emails confirming our conversation and offering assistence should I have any further qustions..

I came away with the feeling that if I had a problem or difficulty with something after I enrolled, I'd get the help I'd need. So, I matriculated. I might have gotten a better deal in the long run if I'd chosen Excelsior, but I'll never know because they wouldn't answer questions with much other than the stock answer.

Excelsior is a great choice for many people. I think it'd be a great choice for many more if they'd modify thier approach to prospective students. For example I'd have paid them $250 for an official evaluation and 30 days of unlimited email consultation.
I'd have a substantial investment and not be as quick to walk away from it and I'd have gotten more value than I beleive I got for my $60 which dosen't look like much of a bargin to me now.

 

My point was that this question should have been easy to answer, should have been very simple. If it had been something complicated I would have accepted the answer that I had to enroll first.

Are they going to charge me to use their webiste next?

 

Re: I don't see it that way.

[>> I mean say you ask Excelsior if they would accept a CLEP, they tell you yes, you run out and take the CLEP and then enroll in Harvard. Harvard won't give you the credit. What do you do, compalin that Excelsior told you to take the test and now Harvard won't accept it for credit?<<

I think both colleges understood I was asking about their program.

>>I think what Excelsior does is great but I think they need a lot of help on the customer service side. If they were more definite and forthcoming I think they'd actually enroll a whole lot more students. I paid Excelsior $60 for an evaluation. I got an evaluation that was full of holes, totally overlooking course on the transcript, etc. <<

And you got more than I did - which was one page saying "you need 27 upper credits."<<

>>I paid COSC $175 for an evaluation. They had a question about 1 course. They told me what the question was, I got it answered for them the way they wanted answered. I asked a few more questions and got prompt straight and courteous answers. The taxpayers of CT are out nothing for what COSC did for me.<<

Not only did it not cost them, they profited because you became a student. Everything keeps coming back to customer service. All customer service is an upfront gambled expense. The customer might say no and go to another store no matter how much help you give them. Or they could love your service, buy it and bring in their friends.

>>Every time I called Excelsior I got a different person and got differeing answers to the same questions. The "free" information they give out cannot be relied upon. I think you should email them with ANY questions. <<

As you can see from my originial posting, emails don't get must more information. It would be interesting to see if I got a different answer if I send it again.

>>... I might have gotten a better deal in the long run if I'd chosen Excelsior, but I'll never know because they wouldn't answer questions with much other than the stock answer.<<

Bingo! Thank you. That is exactly the point - no information to base a decision on leads you to enroll somewhere else.

>>Excelsior is a great choice for many people. I think it'd be a great choice for many more if they'd modify thier approach to prospective students. For example I'd have paid them $250 for an official evaluation and 30 days of unlimited email consultation.
I'd have a substantial investment and not be as quick to walk away from it and I'd have gotten more value than I beleive I got for my $60 which dosen't look like much of a bargin to me now. <<

Agree. I would pay at least what I did at COSC, $175 to get some decent information. As it is, I feel I wasted $60.

 

Gunsmoke wrote:

> The information they would be divulging by giving a straight
> answer to a straight question is kinda proprietary isn't it?
> I mean say you ask Excelsior if they would accept a CLEP, they
> tell you yes, you run out and take the CLEP and then enroll in
> Harvard. Harvard won't give you the credit. What do you do,
> complain that Excelsior told you to take the test and now
> Harvard won't accept it for credit?

Yes, clearly Excelsior's free advice would not be usable elsewhere. But Excelsior must be plagued by people seeking advice who then enroll at Excelsior just before they're ready to graduate, thus not paying Excelsior's annual maintenance fee. I'm sure that's why Excelsior responds the way it does.

> Every time I called Excelsior I got a different person and got
> differering answers to the same questions. [...] Everyone
> I dealt with at COSC knew exactly what they were talking
> about.

For what it's worth, I got different answers to the same question from Charter Oak. One person told me foreign credits would be accepted so long as they appeared on a transcript from any US college; another person told me foreign credits had to be submitted to one of the two private evaluators that Charter Oak uses. (I believe the latter is correct.) They did try their best to be helpful, though.

> For example I'd have paid them $250 for an official
> evaluation and 30 days of unlimited email consultation.

OK, good; now we're getting some positive ideas. What bothered me about earlier posts here was an apparent failure to see things from Excelsior's point of view.

 

I still say they are overcharging for the unoffical evaluation and that some questions should be answered without having to enroll.

Positive ideas - accept that good customer service is costly but pays for itself in the long run.