What you can do with an Excelsior degree

First my Excelsior degree got me into the Harvard ALM, which has noncompetitive admissions but requires an accredited bachelor's degree for admission. Now on the strength of my Excelsior degree and my work at Harvard, I've been admitted to the Ed.M. program in higher ed at Boston University. (Now to hear from Harvard's Ed.M. and BU's Master of Public Health...)

A lot of people here ask what you can do with a degree from Excelsior (and TESC and COSC), how competitive you can be in various settings and so forth. I have good GRE scores and great letters of recommendation, which no doubt have helped me, but my Excelsior degree has been nothing but a positive. I am as competitive as anyone else out there.

 

I just started a position on Fort Lewis, WA, and I was wandering around post the other day and stopped into the education center. There was a rep there, in a semi-permanent office, from Excelsior. I stopped in to chat and to tell them how surprised I was to see an Excelsior presence. She says that the school is popular with service people here.

 

Congratulations on your achievement alarmingidea. The more success stories of students using distance education and achieving their professional, personal, and academic goals the credibility of this educational path among the skeptics will slowly increase.

 

Thank you!

My degree includes exactly three credits from an Excelsior exam and 117 traditional classroom credits, so nobody's skepticism about distance education should be affected one way or another based on my experience. What I can say is that possessing an Excelsior degree has been uniformly a positive, or at worst a neutral for me. I don't know what my experience would be if I had earned my credits differently.

 

I finished my Excelsior degree in Liberal Arts last fall.

I've since been accepted into Georgetown University's Law Center as a J.D. candidate.

It's been a little daunting comparing credentials with people from Princeton and Stanford, etc., but I know I earned my place among them.

 

Congratulations on getting into Georgetown!

 

I compeleted my B.S. from Excelsior College in summer 2004...it automatically got me into Excelsiors MSLA program, which after a couple months I withdrew from for personal reasons.

However, it got me into Montana State University's graduate program...and I am doing well.
Set to graduate in 12 months

Cheers.

Jay

 

I brought my Bachelors degree to the beach where it got me chicks.

Then I brought it to a car dealership where it got me 20% off the purchase of my next car.

As you can see, your newfound Bachelors degree is going to make things happen, simply by having it.

 

I heard that in some States you can park for free by using it as a handicap decal.

Just Kidding.

 

progress

Congratulations to all of you!

This is very good news.

 

I cannot say enough about Excelsior. I completed a BS in Liberal Studies/Psycholgy and received the following graduate school acceptances: Boston University, Penn State and Georgetown University.

I am currently an MALS Social/Public policy candidate at Georgetown University starting this summer.

Go Hoyas!

 

Congratulations! It seems like Excelsior alums are getting into a pretty wide variety of programs. (And picking up chicks at the beach...)

 

LSAT?

alarmingidea

Would you mind telling us the score in the LSAT?

 

I think you mean to ask dividebyzero.

 

My degree isn't from Excelsior, but it's a University of Wyoming degree earned entirely by distance and CLEP/DSST testing. (I've actually never set foot in Wyoming, although I intend to rectify that someday soon) On the strength of my degree I recieved admission to several top 50 business schools, including two full-ride offers and one half tuition scholarship to a top 25 school. I ended up at Duke University, in their Cross-Continent MBA program.

I'm a cheerleader for distance education now, because I've seen it open doors for myself and many other people on these boards. What blows my mind is why more people don't do it. I know many people who have commented on the difference my degree has made in my life, and in the next breath, complained how they could never duplicate my effort because of one of the following:

1. I'm not smart enough.
2. I don't have enough time.
3. I'm too old.
4. Blah, Blah, Blah.

The fact of the matter is that any reasonably intelligent person can complete a degree by distance education. The question, of course, is how do we convince our friends and loved ones that we just decided that finishing our education was important and put aside the time to do it, and that we're not superhuman, or even special in any way?

--Fortunato

 

Thanks for the welcome. I will not be at the open house due to work obligations. The best things about the program, besides the reputation of the school, are the flexibility it offers and course choices.

 

dividebyzero,

did you finish you Excelsior degree with some sort of distinction(such as [summa, magma]cum laude)?

Dennis

 

I'm currently in a community college here in MA, and have been considering finishing my degree with Excelsior, so I appreciate all of this information (a particular thanks to alarmingidea and Arl911, since I've been wondering how the local, Boston-area grad schools view the bachelors degree fr. Excelsior).

I'm doing very well at this community college, and have been thrilled with the classes I've chosen, but since I'm an older student, I realize if I go the traditional route, I'll be out of grad school by the time most people are ready to retire! (Although, I have been told time and again that I can pass for a good 10 yrs younger than my true age... : > } ) Add to that fact, I'm not working right now, my disability income has been stopped, and I'm living off of savings that was supposed to go towards purchasing a house... aarrrggh!

I've mentioned the idea of completing my bachelors by this alternative method for advice at my college, but of course, I don't think that anyone there actually knows what I'm talking about, so I believe I've received some well-meaning, but inaccurate information.

Plus, I went to another community college in a dif. state, and while most weren't accepted in my transfer, there is a chance that Excelsior might accept more – and I could be on to a grad school even faster.

I know that grad schools look at GPA's – I have a good one now, but if I do the balance of my credits with CLEP, DANTES and possibly a GRE, does the school credit a GPA – and if not, wouldn't that hurt my chances of admission to a grad school? (I'm also toying with the idea of law school, but I'm not certain about that right now.)