2 forum questions

[Tripletmom]

A couple of questions -

One of the general links directed me to the WIKI which has a lot of beneficial information for newbies.  Can a direct link be added for the WIKI from the launching page?  Or maybe I'm missing it.

A user recently posted the Math equivalencies for TESU.  Do we have or can we create a single thread as a main topic where equivalencies can be posted?  I know these things can change but I see a lot of questions asked about the transfer of courses and a single source to check would be soooooooo helpful!

Thank you all for the great resources and invaluable advice!

[allvia]

A couple of questions -

One of the general links directed me to the WIKI which has a lot of beneficial information for newbies.  Can a direct link be added for the WIKI from the launching page?  Or maybe I'm missing it.

A user recently posted the Math equivalencies for TESU.  Do we have or can we create a single thread as a main topic where equivalencies can be posted?  I know these things can change but I see a lot of questions asked about the transfer of courses and a single source to check would be soooooooo helpful!

Thank you all for the great resources and invaluable advice!

1. The link to the Wiki is included in the first post, on the first topic, of the first thread "Beginners Guide To Getting Cheap/Fast College Credit".  It is maintained by volunteers and is not actually part of this site, or its corporate sponsor.

2. This is one of the most common requests I've seen by people newer to the forum &/or starting out on this journey. I'm not one of those forum members that maintain these (must be) enormous equivalencies spreadsheets, but I completely support these volunteers in not publicly posting/sharing them.  It is just not feasible and the reasoning is really quite simple - there are too many variances depending on school, program and source; add that the equivalencies are constantly evolving (ie: two weeks ago certain SL courses where listed as UL @ TESU, and sometime by chance someone noticed the other day and posted about it here that the courses are being lowered to LL).  Also, to all those who aren't the primary keepers of those spreadsheets - Thank you for sharing all the equivalencies that you received for lessor known or new sources, no matter if it is one credit course or an 8 credit exam.  It takes a village!

The process of earning credits and a degree(s) in this method of alternative credit is as fluid as this forum - it may not always be the easiest to maneuver, but this site is the best resource and has the most helpful members of any group I've found. If after you've searched you're still uncertain on something post it and ask away (just please try to search first, to avoid the question that was just asked/answered yesterday).  Note: that this is a general request of all who read the forum, and not directed at you.

[Merlin]

A user recently posted the Math equivalencies for TESU.  Do we have or can we create a single thread as a main topic where equivalencies can be posted?  I know these things can change but I see a lot of questions asked about the transfer of courses and a single source to check would be soooooooo helpful!

2. This is one of the most common requests I've seen by people newer to the forum &/or starting out on this journey. I'm not one of those forum members that maintain these (must be) enormous equivalencies spreadsheets, but I completely support these volunteers in not publicly posting/sharing them.  It is just not feasible and the reasoning is really quite simple - there are too many variances depending on school, program and source; add that the equivalencies are constantly evolving (ie: two weeks ago certain SL courses where listed as UL @ TESU, and sometime by chance someone noticed the other day and posted about it here that the courses are being lowered to LL).  Also, to all those who aren't the primary keepers of those spreadsheets - Thank you for sharing all the equivalencies that you received for lessor known or new sources, no matter if it is one credit course or an 8 credit exam.  It takes a village!

To follow up on this, in addition to the reasons allvia mentioned, the main reason why equivalencies are not posted is that nobody wants to be held responsible if someone bases their course plan on a posted list of equivalencies and then they find that the equivalencies are wrong, no longer meet their degree requirements, or worse yet, are no longer valid credit options (though the latter is less likely.) There are some courses that are well-established and commonly recommended or included in degree plans, but that still isn't a guarantee. Given that evaluations can change and advisors can be wrong, it is always recommended that people pre-plan courses (that are not part of a transfer agreement) with an advisor if they want to be safe.

However, if you're open to some extra effort (and willing to accept the risk of being wrong), it really isn't too hard to build your own equivalency list. It was the first thing I did when I came back to the forum. It just takes time (took me about a month to cover all the major credit providers) and requires regular maintenance to keep it up to date.

To make your own list, you can start by visiting all the course/exam provider sites to see if they have an existing transfer agreement with the college you're interested in, and then make a list of the listed equivalencies. If they don't (or if the list isn't complete), you can then go to the ACE and NCCRS sites to look up the course/exam provider to find the courses that have been recommended for credit, and use the two to populate your own local database. Armed with that information, you can make a list of courses you're interested in (or all courses if you want), and for any courses that don't give a transfer equivalency (or are not obvious as to where they will apply to a degree), you can do web searches on this site to look for posts where people discuss how a college evaluated that course and/or where it was placed in their degree plan. The more recent the post, the higher the confidence level I put on information. For example, a lot of changes happened on Jan 1st, 2018, so equivalencies posted before then (partocularly for UL credits) may be suspect.

As long as you're looking for TESU evaluations, the above works pretty well. COSC and EC are not represented as well, so you won't see as many eval posts about those colleges.

[davewill]

It's a Wiki, you can add anything you like.