Univ of Alabama thumbs nose at DL

Let's look at this with fairness to U Alabama (and other state schools).

The private EC awarded letter grades for your testing option credits and used those in calculating your GPA at EC. These were not however earned grades but instead were equivalency grades. Most schools do not award letter grades for test-out options (even CLEP). That's reality.

Now, U Alabama took a look at your transcript and considered (as would most) that only those grades in earned courses at EC would be calculated into your GPA -- they accepted that the CLEP etc credit had been applied to your degree but did not accept that test-out options such as CLEP can provide a grade for GPA purposes (they are allowed that opinion).

Then, once they recalculated your GPA (which was a collegiate GPA calculation and not an EC GPA calculation); they determined that your overall collegiate GPA was lower than they'd like.

See, although EC is more than permitted to use whatever method they'd like in determining your GPA -- they were not the sole provider of your earned credit. U Alabama will probably be more than happy to concede that you do in fact have an acceptable GPA at Excelsior but you must then concede that graduate admissions requirements are almost always based on overall collegiate undergraduate GPA and not on the GPA reported by one of many schools/providers you've attended. U of Alabama simply does not accept CLEP tests as an enhancer or detractor when it comes to GPA.

This is probably good since EC and others don't include failed tests in GPA calculation either. Further, these grad schools are fully aware that we students are able to manipulate our degree GPA by simply asking that some transfer courses not be reported on our transcripts. Most schools are more than happy to not transfer a course if you ask -- they just won't leave off courses you took with them.

Imagine for a minute - you go to Outback State University for a semester and fail every class - 15 hours of F. Now, you go to EC or COSC and do very well and get a 3.5 from then on. What is the effect of that failure at Outback? Nothing, because EC won't transfer those failed courses.

In the eyes of U Alabama - is it reasonable to consider your failed experience at Outback? I think it is....

What we have then is apples and oranges. We have your Institutional GPA at EC which is higher then your Collegiate GPA that includes a much wider interpretation of work done.

I have 65 hours transcripted at EC with a GPA of 3.0 because there is only one course on that list with a grade. I have one transcript pending evaluation at EC from a state university that has a GPA of 3.81 on 118 hours.

I have some school transcripts (Stanly Community College and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in NC) with a GPA of 4.0

When calculating the Collegiate GPA every single grade I ever got after high school will be counted. 225 semester hours worth. But EC is not going to use all 225 hours in my BS-LS, The EC GPA will only represent those grades I use in that degree program. The Institutional GPA.

Now, since I know my grad ap package is very different from the norm -- multiple undergrad degrees and many universities -- I know that I need one kicker in there to make sure that no admissions committee is ever overwhelmed by the evaluation. I intentionally make it easy on them by providing an MAT and GRE score for them to consider.

I've never had a school tell me I can't take any course I want. Though I've only applied to one MSc program - admissions was a breeze.

 

Perhaps, your comments should be copyrighted and included in EC's orientation package.

Although my U of A application remains open, pending receipt of MAT or GRE scores, I have moved on with my pursuit of a graduate degree. Having never placed all of my "eggs in one basket", I have a couple of other programs under consideration. One of which requires a single transcript...that of the "degree granting institution".

I will get into a graduate program...one or the other. The name is not important, just as it wasn't when I enrolled in EC.

 

Sounds like you were leaning in that direction anyway since you were raising red flags in your post.

As a consumer, you have the ultimate say as to where your resources for education should be expended. When in doubt, don't.

 

Sounds like you were leaning in that direction anyway since you were raising red flags in your post.

When in doubt, don't.

 

Sounds like you were leaning in that direction anyway since you were raising red flags in your post.

When in doubt, don't.

 

Most of that isn't an EC issue though -- it's very common practice throughout academia.

It remains that every college and university handles transfer of credit a little differently and sometimes those differences benefit us as students and sometimes they hamper us.

One of the recurring comments on this site is that The Big Three are far more generous with transfer of credit than almost anyone else. It shouldn't come as a surprise then that some schools will not be as generous when looking at transfer/qualification coming out of these schools.

Anyone planning on graduate study following a degree from one of the Big Three should keep in mind then that the GPA reported on their transcript and their cummulative collegiate GPA may well be different animals altogether.

We should also each expect that the generally accepted admissions tests will be required of us and that we may well have to make our case a little stronger than someone with his BA from Big Name State U.

On the other hand, our case as DL undergards going for a DL grad is often made for us -- in that we already obviously know how to stay motivated and effective in the world of DL.

Good luck.... I hope you find and enter a program you're truly happy with.

 

Out of curiosity, in what field would you use this particular degree?
Thanks.

 

It would be used in DL training, either corporate or private education.

http://iit.ches.ua.edu/