Basic Questions

[barcotta]

I told the advisor at Excelsior that I didn't feel it was ethical for them to have informed me that I had 50 units (so that I choose to enroll with them because I believed I could get 70 units through these tests within the next year) and then after they have my money, to give me such different information. That just doesn't seem right to me... Is there any other school that might be easier to deal with? Easier to get my degree from. Has anyone had experience with Thomas Edison? I just want this process to be as straightforward and uncomplicated as possible.

I would have liked this to be a straightforward and uncomplicated process as well--but its not. I would also have liked it if someone would accept my quarter units as semester units--but I don't believe you will find any accredited institution that will. This is not an ethics issue (once you study for Ethics--you'll see!). Here's a common saying that I promise will add years to your life:

Never assume malice where ignorance will suffice.

It was an error. Semester units are more common than quarter units. They have 30,000 students. 30,000! Anyone would have a hard time producing mistake-free, $75 unofficial evaluations on that scale. Why assume malice and ethics violations? If you want straightforward and uncomplicated--go to your local college where they don't have a fraction of the credit sources to evaluate and they'll tell you what you need. Easy. Of course, I've heard more than one horror story from people who went that route and discovered as they were about to graduate that they were missing some requirement that their guidance counselor didn't tell them about or made a mistake on--and they were tens of thousands of dollars into the process and needed to get their degree to go get a job because they were broke! It didn't help that they now had to delay their graduation by a whole semester because they only had one option.

I think that your quest for a mistake-free process will ultimately be frustrating and unsuccessful no matter where you go. Suspecting the motives of one of the longest-running, least-expensive accredited institutions from which one may obtain a degree is not productive, IMHO. I would just ask them to suspend my enrollment for six months or so--or work with them to see if you can find some other solution. They may even agree to a refund if you explain your position politely and you don't accuse them of ethics violations over a simple error. That normally is not an effective negotiation tactic.

If you believe me and reconsider, I think Excelsior would be a great place for you to carry on. If not--you'd probably be doing yourself and Excelsior a favor by moving on.

[MISin08]

<snip>...If you believe me and reconsider, I think Excelsior would be a great place for you to carry on.

And in any case if you need the credits we'll have a lot of good advice on how to get them.

[Anastasia]

Thanks MISin08, as I mentioned, I really do appreciate the support. It helps a lot. I will need that help figuring out a game plan!

Barcotta - I'm not sure how you read into what I wrote that I assumed malice. Nor did I ever expect quarter credits to be counted as anything other than they are - I didn't know how to figure out the credits I had, that's why I paid for the evaluation. I simply expressed on this thread how I felt when I found out what I did about my credits yesterday - after I had agreed to pay the enrollment fee based on the misinformation I was given - which was a shock.

I also guess you and I have a different understanding of ethics; I taught an ethics course for mind/body therapists for many years. In my understanding, when someone enters into an agreement based on false information, that is an ethical matter. If you don't agree, so be it.

I'm up for a good, clear discussion with the appropriate person at Excelsior - in fact I finally got in touch with that correct person late this afternoon and we plan to continue the discussion later this week. Clearly though, I personally would not continue to do business with any person or institution with whom I did not trust. In my experience that's just not good sense.

[NAP]

Thank you so much Perrik! I knew you would have an excellent answer.

I think that depending on the situation taking the GRE instead of classes can be a risk, since we don’t know the future. That challenges my belief in the equality of testing to courses, though, since I also think that the GREs are such an excellent opportunity to show what has been learned independently and should count equally.

I am planning to send the GRE topic summaries with my application, so that they can better understand my transcript. I hope that will help.

(I am not taking psychology and it will be a long time before I am ready to apply to grad school.)

Barcotta – I really like your idea for Anastasia of requesting a 6 month delay in enrollment.

[Anastasia]

Yes, when I speak with someone at the school, I may just ask for that delay. I didn't think of that as an option.

[Anastasia]

The Ombudsman from Excelsior is a truly nice woman. We will talk on Monday and figure something out.

Meanwhile, I got my toes wet by taking - and passing - my first two tests today: Substance Abuse and HTYH. Two down and about twenty-five to go! hilarious

Can anyone who has taken Dantes, Cleps, and ECE's comment on how they compare difficulty-wise? Thanks.

[Chebasaz]

This is purely my own opinion, but I've always found them to be in this order of difficulty:

CLEP > DANTES > ECE

Now there are exceptions to the rule, but if I had to categorize the different kinds that would be it.

CLEP's tend to be lower level credit, while DANTES has quite a few upper level exams. ECE's are just brutal for me.. I have no idea why, but they take me the longest to study for. Totally passable with IC and the suggested study material in the exam feedback thread, but make sure you study it. I tried to wing my first one (World Pop) and got a "D" on it. After that I learned to take them a bit more seriously.

[Anastasia]

Chebasaz, I really appreciate the feedback. I find these threads to be unbelievably helpful in the way we can get feedback from those 'who have gone before'.

In your signature, it looks like you have a boatload of credits. Did you get them all from testing? Since you got your BS a few months ago, what made you decide to knock out another BS degree? What are you going to do with them?

[Chebasaz]

There's one or two folks running around here that have more than I do, but most of the credits (around 130 of them) are from testing. I didn't really get started until I found this place. The study material and the people in the community really make it a great motivator to get things done.

As for why? Well, the sad truth is that I started having fun As I'm sure you know; there's nothing quite like walking out a testing center knowing that you just gained three to six credits in less than three hours. I have about 20 credits that will never be used, but the tests were fun to take and there's not much else to do here.

I'm planning on pursuing a graduate degree in the near future (MBA with a concentration in Information Assurance) so the Business degree is just for knocking out prereq's.

As you can see from my sig, I'm taking my time with this one. I've told myself I need to start the graduate degree (or at least get the ball rolling) before the new year so we'll see how it goes.

Hope you stick around. This is a great place as you've probably already seen. Looks like you're off to a good start and congrats on the passes! Keep it up!

[Anastasia]

I will definitely stick around until my mission is accomplished. One thing about those of us who do well with independent study is that when we set goals, we stick to them. This community is priceless for getting the job done.

I just saw that you are in Cuba. So, there's nothing else to do there but take tests, ah? I'll be checking in on you and want to hear good things as you begin your graduate program.

The tests I'm most looking forward to are the ones involving history. To me it's a luxury to have time to learn history in detail.

Oh, and thanks for the kudos. Yes, it does feel good!