No straight answers for 14 yo seeking credit

Discussion in 'CLEP, DANTES, and Other Exams for Credit' started by NEDad, May 13, 2020.

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  1. NEDad

    NEDad New Member

    School is out and I want my son to take some courses online he would find interesting.
    He is a bright 14 year old and can do college level courses. I want him to earn some regionally accredited college credit for the future but I am having a hard time getting any answers. I have spoken with COSC, Excelsior and TESC but they all refuse to let him enroll because of his age. Even worse, they will not tell me which credits they accept through testing or other online courses when the actual time to enroll comes.

    He is interested primarily in a humanities track and I would like him to eventually earn a BA through one of the big three. My search of prior posts wasn't particularly helpful for him. Let me know if you have any clear answers on where I should be looking for him to get his credits (looks like this have to be primarily done through online testing). My main concern is that while he can take CLEPs or other tests, non of the universities will confirm if they will transfer by the time he can enroll.

    Thank you,

    N.E. Dad
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2020
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    My kids are 15, 19, 20, and 23, and all are in various points along the road of amassing this sort of college credit.

    Right now through 31st July (I believe) Sophia.org is offering courses for free that will transfer to the Big Three. Look there first. Although a 14 year old should be planning specifically for Charter Oak, since they admit 16 year olds, whereas the others have much higher age minimums.

    You will also want to get a book called Homeschooling for College Credit, which is hands down the best comprehensive guide to this. I even recommend it to adults who just want to learn more about amassing credit for the Big Three:

    https://www.amazon.com/Homeschooling-College-Credit-Resourceful-Planning-ebook/dp/B07HQXLDPY/

    When it comes to degree planning, you may also want to check out DegreeForum.com, a different forum which specializes a little more closely in this area.
     
  3. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    The big three generally accept any credits from anywhere as long as they are either regionally accredited or ACE/NCCRS recommended as well as CLEP, DANTES etc. Asking them "which will you accept?" doesn't work because it depends on the program. If you try to transfer in English Comp I and II that will be accepted by them as long as its from a source they accept. Those courses apply to almost every program. if your son shows up with coursework from all over the place in different fields and all at the 100-200 level, it's going to be of minimal utility in the long run.

    I don't see any reason why they wouldn't accept CLEP when he's ready to enroll. They've been accepting CLEP for years. I can only really attest to how TESU works though, as Steve notes, COSC is probably the better option given his age. But the key, and this could be tricky given his age and how his hopes, dreams and interests may change, would be focusing on a program to which you hope to transfer said credits. The general ed stuff should be fine no matter what. But gathering a whole bunch of CompSci work if he intends to major in fine arts is not the way to go.

    I would also check with community colleges both locally and those outside of your area offering online learning. Many of them have lower (if any) age requirements for non-matriculated students. Again, you'd need some higher level courses in the long term but that could keep the lad busy for the next two years until he can formally enroll.
     
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    The good news is that there's no need for a quick decision. The Associate degree and Bachelor degree at Charter Oak have the same 40 credit general education requirements. Start with those and 20 more credits of whatever for an Associate degree. That will take a while, but all of it will nicely dump into any Bachelor degree there (if nowhere else, as electives).

    Community colleges are a great deal relative to four year schools, but in most states aren't great relative to options like the S's (Saylor Academy, Study.com, Sophia.org, StraighterLine, and Shmoop). If a kid wants to take a few community college courses to meet people near their own age and to get out of the house, that's not unreasonable -- my 20 year old has done that. But Sophia.org is literally free right now but not for long, so at least for a few more months anything else is only for people who hate money.
     
  5. NEDad

    NEDad New Member

    Thank you. I have started going through the HSCC guide, which is very useful.

    Right now it seems that proctoring is the achilles heel of online testing (at least with CLEP, have not seen any info on Sophia about it).

    Is Sophia continuing to offer proctoring unaffected (I am assuming the assessments are proctored)?
     
  6. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    When a student registers for a Sophia course, they're asked to twice type a sample sentence in an applet in their web browser. They'll be asked again before taking Milestone summative tests. Sophia's software compares the keystroke dynamics. You'll want your student to register for each course from the same device and about the same seating position they'll use to take the Milestones.
     
    SteveFoerster likes this.
  7. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    What Jonathan said. My daughter just got credit for Art History I that way without a problem. Now on to Art History II....
     
    Jonathan Whatley likes this.
  8. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Most of the non-traditional schools like the Big Three do not accept prospective students under a certain age because their mission is educating adult college students. Have you looked into local or state colleges/universities with distance learning programs? Eugenie de Silva graduated from the American Public University and began her graduate school at Harvard University Extension School at 13 years old.
     

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