Understanding Excelsior's Requirements

I read Excelsior's Technology Catalog and had a question about the AS and BS degree in CIS. They list the areas where you must obtain credit i.e., Intro to Computers, Database Management, Operating Systems. It's abit confusing on how to pick the courses you need when they use should vague areas to name their requirements. I want to obtain as much of credit as possible before enrolling but trying to find courses that might fit their requirements is become quite a pain. So could someone explain to me how they got around this situation? Thank you in advance.

Nathan

 

The basic problem you're facing is that you want to minimize cost by taking coursework ahead of enrolling, but you won't actually receive any advising until after you enroll. That said, your best bet is to take classes based completely on course name. For example, a course in a college's Computer Science department called "data structures" is a pretty safe bet to meet the "Data Structures or Data Communications or Telecommunications" requirement.

Even by looking for classes ahead of enrolling, you may have difficulty finding appropriate classes in certain areas (assembly language for example). The good news is, Excelsior (through ICCP and Ohio University exams) do have a test for every core requirement.

My experience is that Excelsior does a pretty good job of applying past courses to the appropriate slots in the degree requirements. I really didn't have any major issues with how they applied my 80-some credits which included some fairly oddball stuff.

Jeff Walker,
Excelsior BSCIS student