CLEP/DSST and GPA?

[retro]

I've googled and searched the forum and I'm still confused about how CLEP/DSST impacts a student's GPA. Are both CLEP and DSST PASS/FAIL?

If I have a ton of CLEP/DSST credits on my transcript, how does that impact my GPA at the "Big Three?" Are PASS grades "neutral" leaving only courses that give a letter grade to impact my GPA? Or, is having a pass the functional equivalent of some other letter grade? I keep seeing stuff about "B-grade equivalent scoring" that I can't make sense of and it's confusing me. Thanks in advance for clearing up my confusion.

[jsd]

At TESU, you only get CR for passing and it does not impact your GPA negatively or positively.

I'm believe this is similar at both COSC and Excelsior, but I don't have experience with those schools.

[cookderosa]

At TESU, you only get CR for passing and it does not impact your GPA negatively or positively.

I'm believe this is similar at both COSC and Excelsior, but I don't have experience with those schools.

That's correct- though once upon a time, Charter Oak awarded letter grades for DSST, those days are gone and I haven't seen a college award letter grades in a long long time (if someone knows of one, please share!!)

So to answer the first question, yes they are neutral - they do not add or take away, they amount to nothing.

[retro]

Okay, thanks for clearing that up!

Assuming I do very well in my remaining GPA courses, is there anything I should know about CLEP credits on my transcripts and my chances of getting into a grad school worthy of the name farther down the line?

[dfrecore]

I've googled and searched the forum and I'm still confused about how CLEP/DSST impacts a student's GPA. Are both CLEP and DSST PASS/FAIL?

If I have a ton of CLEP/DSST credits on my transcript, how does that impact my GPA at the "Big Three?" Are PASS grades "neutral" leaving only courses that give a letter grade to impact my GPA? Or, is having a pass the functional equivalent of some other letter grade? I keep seeing stuff about "B-grade equivalent scoring" that I can't make sense of and it's confusing me. Thanks in advance for clearing up my confusion.

Someone brought up the B-grade equivalent scoring recently, and DSST used to publish that.  But it was years ago, and they no longer publish that info.  Also, while schools are allowed to do whatever they want with CLEP and DSST exams, I haven't heard of any that give grades (C, B or otherwise) in years and years.  The only thing that makes a difference in P/F or CR/NC for those is the 3 foreign language CLEP exams - where a certain score will get you 6cr, and a higher score will get you 9cr - at many schools.  But again, schools are allowed to do whatever they want with those scores, and while many follow the ACE guidelines for these 2 scores, not all do.  Some schools make you get a certain score just to get any credits at all.

[cookderosa]

Okay, thanks for clearing that up!

Assuming I do very well in my remaining GPA courses, is there anything I should know about CLEP credits on my transcripts and my chances of getting into a grad school worthy of the name farther down the line?

In my opinion, when I built my degree, I made sure to take classes in my major, and I would still do that if I were doing it again today.
If you're going into anything STEM for grad school or nursing/med/dental/pharm- your CLEP sciences don't have lab credit, and that'll be a problem. Otherwise, they are strictly 100 and 200 level classes- leaving you plenty of time to get out of the gen eds quickly and get on with learning higher things.

[jsd]

I haven't seen a college award letter grades in a long long time (if someone knows of one, please share!!)

This college (that I otherwise know nothing about) claims they do and gives a breakdown for CLEP score necessary for each grade level, but who knows if it's up to date and still applicable (I think i saw something referencing 2006 on there!)

http://www.panola.edu/admissions/credit-by-exam.html

[Ideas]

Assuming I do very well in my remaining GPA courses, is there anything I should know about CLEP credits on my transcripts and my chances of getting into a grad school worthy of the name farther down the line?

Yes, some schools will wonder if you have too few graded credits. Sometimes they accept a student provisionally if they don't have the required GPA.

I believe they will look at your grade at the source. For example if you had community college credits transferred to TESU, TESU will show no GPA since it's transfer. But the grad school can still look at your cc transcript and see the grades. 

They will make their own calculation and not go by TESU's calculation.

[retro]

Good to know! Thanks.

[retro]

If I'm aggressively CLEP/DSST-ing out of stuff, is there a rule of thumb for how many GPA graded courses I should make sure to have on my transcript if my goal is a competitive grad school?