ALEKS College Algebra - Completed, but not Accepted by Coastline

[kjmacaraeg]

As the title of the thread states, I completed the ALEKS College Algebra course and sent the transcript to Coastline. I have a SOC agreement with them and ACE directly e-mailed the transcript to the military contrast/Ed e-mail address that ACE has on file in their system. After about almost a whole week of asking this person if the ACE approved course was going to count, she said that "Your ACE transcript is not accepted because it is not regionally accredited; therefore we are not able to consider any credits from it." Has anyone else have any issue with getting their ALEKS course transferred or accepted for credit by their school, or if anyone who is enrolled with Coastline have any issues with transferring an ACE approved course? I don't see how it is not regionally accredited when it's approved by ACE.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

[Life Long Learning]

ACE’s CEAI Resource Center provides services to assist you in the application of your ACE credit recommendations. If a college has denied your request to transfer your ACE credit recommendations, you can contact the Resource Center for assistance by completing the online form.

For further assistance, call the Resource Center's toll-free number at 866-205-6267.


Using Your ACE Credit Recommendations

[sanantone]

ACE is not an accrediting body. It is a college credit recommendation service. Actually, ACE recommendation is specifically designed for courses and tests that do not come from accredited colleges. Its purpose is to help people get college credits for training outside of colleges in professional settings. Thousands of colleges do not accept non-military, ACE credits. By looking at Coastline's website, it appears they only accept ACE recommendations for military training in addition to CLEP, DSST, and ECE (now called Uexcel).

The regional accreditors, which are recognized by CHEA and U.S. Department of Education, are listed below.

Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC)
Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Higher Learning Commission (HLC)

Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE)

New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC-CIHE)
Commission on Institutions of Higher Education

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC)

WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC)

[TrailRunr]

We need to do a better job of putting disclaimers for non-traditional credits like ALEKS stating that most colleges will not take accept these in red and large font at the very beginning. Nobody should be wasting time and money on PF, ALEKS, SL, etc. without knowing that these credits are not very portable and the vast majority of colleges will laugh at you for sending ACE transcripts to them.

Assume your college is going to reject the non-traditional credits until you get written documentation stating otherwise. Just because ACE put a bow tie on the box doesn't mean anything.

[dfrecore]

We need to do a better job of putting disclaimers for non-traditional credits like ALEKS stating that most colleges will not take accept these in red and large font at the very beginning. Nobody should be wasting time and money on PF, ALEKS, SL, etc. without knowing that these credits are not very portable and the vast majority of colleges will laugh at you for sending ACE transcripts to them.

Assume your college is going to reject the non-traditional credits until you get written documentation stating otherwise. Just because ACE put a bow tie on the box doesn't mean anything.

I always tell people that if we're not talking about The Big 3, then YMMV - but I would always assume that a college would NOT take ACE, unless I got confirmation that it did. I don't think anyone here has advises people to take ACE-recommended courses without first asking if their school accepts them. That is almost always the first question when new people come onto this forum and ask a question - "what school do you want to go to?" Then people can figure out if they should recommend ACE courses, or CLEP only, or whatever the school will take.

[TrailRunr]

It would be better to say "if you're not getting a degree from the big 3, it's very likely these credits are worthless rather than YMMV." I agree CLEP and DSST are YMMV, but we've gone away from them since SL, ALEKS, and others are easier and more convenient than on-site testing.

[nnahh]

As the title of the thread states, I completed the ALEKS College Algebra course and sent the transcript to Coastline. I have a SOC agreement with them and ACE directly e-mailed the transcript to the military contrast/Ed e-mail address that ACE has on file in their system. After about almost a whole week of asking this person if the ACE approved course was going to count, she said that "Your ACE transcript is not accepted because it is not regionally accredited; therefore we are not able to consider any credits from it." Has anyone else have any issue with getting their ALEKS course transferred or accepted for credit by their school, or if anyone who is enrolled with Coastline have any issues with transferring an ACE approved course? I don't see how it is not regionally accredited when it's approved by ACE.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

I take classes at Coastline as well. They only accept DSST, ASSET and CLEP and make so very clear on their website. They even have charts for how things will transfer. The info available on their site:

CLEP Exams military.coastline.edu/files/Military/NonTraditionalCredits.pdf
ASSET Math Exams (Applicable to military students only) military.coastline.edu/files/Military/ASSET%20Chart.pdf
DSST Math Exams military.coastline.edu/files/Military/NonTraditionalCredits.pdf

I tried transferring ALEKS credit there in May just to try since it's ACE and received an email saying:
We have received the request for an update to your offical SOC agreement and we have received the ACE transcript for Aleks however, we do not accept ACE transcripts towards transfer credit

Instead of taking a math class there, they let you take a Math Competency test for credit and then you do not have to take a Math class at Coastline to finish your degree.

The test isn't hard- especially after ALEKS. It's less than 60 questions over 3 sections and free to take. You may want to ask.

[dfrecore]

It would be better to say "if you're not getting a degree from the big 3, it's very likely these credits are worthless rather than YMMV." I agree CLEP and DSST are YMMV, but we've gone away from them since SL, ALEKS, and others are easier and more convenient than on-site testing.

Feel free to say whatever you'd like.

[sanantone]

The most accurate statement would be to check with your school's policy and how it will evaluate the course/test. That applies to every situation where one wants to take a course or test for transfer, even credits from regionally accredited schools. One of the worst mistakes one can make is to pay several hundred to over $1,000 dollars for a course at a regionally accredited school that ends up not transferring as expected. So, one should contact the school, regardless.

It's possible that someone could be attending one of SL's partner colleges. It's possible that a school that is not the Big 3 accepts non-military, ACE credits, in general (I know of at least a few schools that do, but there are probably more). I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from contacting their school and finding out about cheaper ways of completing degree requirements. Even at the Big 3, there are limitations to be aware of. For example, Excelsior has a limit on the number of ACE credits that can be used for the nursing degrees, and TESU limits the number of credits from one source.

[Zachcleigh]

It is unfortunate that you were unable to get credit for ALEKS College Algebra. However, if your school takes clep credits.. I would highly recommend taking the CLEP College Algebra exam. If you've already learned the material, don't let that time be wasted. Get credits out of it.

Best of luck.