Bad news, Everybody!

[wb.john]

Notify them of what? Your transcripts? The policy change?



I have some trouble figuring out what your perspective is. NAP's letter says July 1st. What's your question?

The transcripts, obviously. I put in my application. My transcripts should be there now, or soon. So .. what now? Do I just wait?

NAP's letter indeed says their policy will change on July 1st. I was actually talking about this part of NAP's post:

(WARNING – Be extremely careful with this thought I am sharing. – If you are 100% positive that you want to use a GRE for credit at EC, I wonder if you could apply and enroll now without sending in your transcripts to be evaluated, in order to get your academic policy date set before July 1st. Make sure that this would not forfeit those credits and that the transcripts can be sent later to add to your recorded credits for your degree. It would be a risk to have unevaluated credits and a big commitment of $1000. You would also have to be very carful not to make any decisions (like changing majors?) later that would cause a change to your academic policy date.)

So I guess my question is, am I going to have enough time to have my academic policy date set before July 1st?

[Kaz]

Since the option of using GREs for credit is still available to some degree, I wonder what Charter Oak’s policy is going to be.

It is interesting. They already had a completely different way of using the GREs than Excelsior did. SUNY-Empire still rewards credit for subject GREs. Don't know if they still use the same totals that have been floating around the 'Net for years or not. Also don't know if sometime in the immediate future they will drop it altogether like Excelsior. Empire has a residency requirement though so most around here don't really talk about it. Excelsior's opportunity to completely clear a major using the GREs was its big draw. You can't do that at COSC and it's next to impossible to do at Empire.

[NAP]

That is a little bit of good news, at least for us. Thank you guys for gathering this information. Has anyone been able to figure out why they made this decision? Is it a matter of accreditation or otherwise?

I have had all my transcripts sent to Excelsior. Do I need to notify them of this, or will the process continue automatically?

NAP mentioned the academic policy date. When is that set? I still need to enroll and notify them that I wish to pursue a math major. Will that be when the date is set?

I will try to find out why this is changing.

You can check the Incoming Transcript Status on your MyEC page to see what they are expecting and have received. When they had everything, I wrote to let them know, but they seemed to have already started the next step.

I can't remember/find if the academic policy date is set the day you enroll or the day they complete the official evaluation.

I am also going to ask if changing majors within Liberal Arts affects the policy date.

This post is a good synopsis of how the enrollment process works: http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...#post71627

[wb.john]

I will try to find out why this is changing.

You can check the Incoming Transcript Status on your MyEC page to see what they are expecting and have received. When they had everything, I wrote to let them know, but they seemed to have already started the next step.

I can't remember/find if the academic policy date is set the day you enroll or the day they complete the official evaluation.

I am also going to ask if changing majors within Liberal Arts affects the policy date.

This post is a good synopsis of how the enrollment process works: http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...#post71627

A ha! I don't know why I had never noticed the transcript status page before. Apparently I put ALEKS and NFA down on my application and they're still waiting for them even after getting the ACE transcript.

I suppose that issue will need to be solved with a phone call. But I might as well wait until I'm sure they've received the BYU transcript, right? Or is it going to be impossible to get approval for that credit at this point?

On the other hand, I'd rather them start now, because 2 or 3 weeks for the unofficial evaluation leaves me just 3 or 4 more weeks for the official evaluation and establishing a major. :S

[Kaz]

A ha! I don't know why I had never noticed the transcript status page before. Apparently I put ALEKS and NFA down on my application and they're still waiting for them even after getting the ACE transcript.

I suppose that issue will need to be solved with a phone call. But I might as well wait until I'm sure they've received the BYU transcript, right? Or is it going to be impossible to get approval for that credit at this point?

On the other hand, I'd rather them start now, because 2 or 3 weeks for the unofficial evaluation leaves me just 3 or 4 more weeks for the official evaluation and establishing a major. :S

I wrote a super long response to your earlier post but NAP handled some of it and the rest got too long so I decided to refocus :coolgleam: .

I wouldn't wait for every transcript from everywhere to be at Excelsior and finished before you put in your enrollment. I read some of your other posts and you shouldn't take too big a chance with waiting since you need the math GRE. Once that option is gone you'll be in a tough spot. I don't know if it'll be any help, but I'm also using the math GRE to complete a bachelor's (BA for me) in math at Excelsior in order to try and be an actuary cheersmate . Small world! In my case I saw a huge danger in waiting any longer. So I'm "locking myself in" this week, most likely tomorrow. Graduating under "grandfathered rule" is normal and it shouldn't weird you out.

If any of that seemed cryptic read my next post. I realized something after rereading everyone's posts that I think needs to be cleaned up a bit to avoid confusion.

[NAP]

WB.John - I am not sure what you mean by approval.

Yes, call EC and discuss any issues and concerns you have to make sure that this process goes as smoothly as possible.

WB.John and Kaz - I have some information that I want to share with you. I'll try to post it in the next day or two.

[Kaz]

I can't remember/find if the academic policy date is set the day you enroll or the day they complete the official evaluation.

I am also going to ask if changing majors within Liberal Arts affects the policy date.

Kinda' neither. I believe the phrase "academic policy date" is being used with a little incorrect emphasis here. Students don't have an academic policy date. That was my confusion. The school has dates that they set academic policy on. Apparently July 1st 2010 is the next one. You get to do your degree under the policy that was in effect when you enrolled. You are enrolled as soon as you get them a completed enrollment form and they take your money. As long as you don't trigger a "re-enrollment event" (my own term) you shouldn't lose the policy you started with. Examples are dropping out and coming back or changing from the Liberal Arts school to the Business school. I don't know if changing majors would count as a re-enrollment event.

Excelsior defines enrollment and matriculation differently. Enrollment is described above. Matriculation occurs after the initial evaluation is completed. Everything I've been able to find on the policy dates revolves around enrollment, not matriculation, so not having your evaluation completely finished doesn't seem to matter. IOW, you don't have to be matriculated in order to lock-in the current academic policy, only enrolled.

https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_Coll...ndbook.pdf

[Kaz]

WB.John and Kaz - I have some information that I want to share with you. I'll try to post it in the next day or two.

Tease! :toetap:

[wb.john]

I wouldn't wait for every transcript from everywhere to be at Excelsior and finished before you put in your enrollment. I read some of your other posts and you shouldn't take too big a chance with waiting since you need the math GRE. Once that option is gone you'll be in a tough spot. I don't know if it'll be any help, but I'm also using the math GRE to complete a bachelor's (BA for me) in math at Excelsior in order to try and be an actuary cheersmate . Small world! In my case I saw a huge danger in waiting any longer. So I'm "locking myself in" this week, most likely tomorrow. Graduating under "grandfathered rule" is normal and it shouldn't weird you out.

Good point. I can't really imagine anything too bad happening without the BYU transcript being considered in my unofficial evaluation.

It's cool to see there's another person pursuing the actuarial profession on here. I'm taking the CPCU 540 exam soon. (to satisfy one of the VEE requirements)

Thanks for clarifying the academic policy issue.

WB.John - I am not sure what you mean by approval.

The BYU exam has not been evaluated by ACE. So I am not sure if they will readily accept it without some period of consideration.

[NAP]

I’m glad we have been having this conversation. I think it has been very helpful.

WB.John – If they receive your BYU transcript before they do your unofficial evaluation, they may include it in the evaluation. I took a test during the 3 weeks that I was waiting for my unofficial evaluation. They received the score the day they did the evaluation and it was included!

Tease! :toetap:

Funny! This was news to me, so I thought you would like to know about it, too.

To Kaz, WB.John, and others with Math/Computer Science interests,

While I was looking at some alternative plans, I found this post about Mercy College. They offer an entire Math major and Computer Science major through online courses. I think it is $700 per credit. Until TMW2010’s post with Idaho’s upper-level math courses and seeing this information about Mercy, I did not know that these high level courses were currently available through online or independent study.
I see 3 options:
1. Go to Mercy to get the major. (probably not)
2. Take some of the courses and transfer to EC to complete the Math major (if needed after Math GRE). (maybe)
3. Know that courses are available and look for more. (most likely)
(Independent study with a proficiency exam – Math GRE - is still the best option for me, but it is nice to see that it may be possible to complete a math major with less than an 85th percentile on the GRE.)

Mercy College post: DegreeInfo Distance Learning - online degree forum - View Single Post - Calculus 2/3 online

Also, I found some information in the same thread which could help me with learning several levels of Calculus for the Math GRE. I have not investigated further, but it looks promising. DegreeInfo Distance Learning - online degree forum - View Single Post - Calculus 2/3 online

I am already looking forward to your Math GRE feedback!