Charter Oak struggles as well, not just Excelsior

[Life Long Learning]

sanantone 

Assessment Colleges go back (1971-87) before UExcels exams.  Read some of the older Dr. Bears Guides on the Big 3 he loved them.  UExcels exams came later.  The Big 3 were all "Assessment Colleges."  100% credits were transferred in.  None of the Big 3 had courses or exams.  Generally, 100% of credits came from B&M colleges.  These students just paid an annual fee and transferred credits in.  The Big 3 helped make a legit RA degree for adults who fell through the cracks like military students who moved often before the internet.  [/size][/b][/size]

You mean that no one took CLEP back then? CLEP has been around since 1968. I think TESU (formerly TESC) started offering online courses in the 1980s. They probably didn't have a lot of students, though. Did the Big 3 ever offer correspondence courses? Those have been around forever. Penn Foster is over 100 years old.

I am not sure!  100% of my credits came from 5 real B&M colleges in my first Big 3 degree.  I did have some military ACE credits but they were not needed.  I do NOT remember exam options.  Computers and internet were not around yet.  Typewriters were the norm.  Rich kids had electric and poor kids manual typewriters.   All my communications with USNY (Excelsior College first name) was by mail and took a month.  I paid an annual enrollment fee to USNY.  In many ways, USNY was much easier to deal with than Excelsior college.  Quarter hour classes were OK to meet the course standard.   I just needed to add more business hours overall.  Today TESU is a pain about this.  Not so back then.  I had a mixture of SH and QTR hours college credits.  My capstone business class (today's term not used then) was BUS 453 Business Policy & Strategy at the University of Oregon (easy class).

[miah]

sanantone 

Assessment Colleges go back (1971-87) before UExcels exams.  Read some of the older Dr. Bears Guides on the Big 3 he loved them.  UExcels exams came later.  The Big 3 were all "Assessment Colleges."  100% credits were transferred in.  None of the Big 3 had courses or exams.  Generally, 100% of credits came from B&M colleges.  These students just paid an annual fee and transferred credits in.  The Big 3 helped make a legit RA degree for adults who fell through the cracks like military students who moved often before the internet.  [/size][/b][/size]

If I am understanding what you are stating, it's sort of what I was envisioning for the 21st Century model - "Generally, 100% of credits came from B&M colleges.  These students just paid an annual fee and transferred credits in.  The Big 3 helped make a legit RA degree for adults who fell through the cracks..." - There are so many people start and restart and have had made multiple attempts at earning credit for degrees they may never have finished and in the process have accumulates a lot of credit, but then have nothing to do with it. They need someplace to turn where they can earn a degree. I know that's sort of what the Big 3 are doing, but EC isn't always the most affordable option either as you have a hefty residency fee if you take less than 12 credits, and their tuition is pricier than other options out there many times.

[Life Long Learning]

sanantone 

Assessment Colleges go back (1971-87) before UExcels exams.  Read some of the older Dr. Bears Guides on the Big 3 he loved them.  UExcels exams came later.  The Big 3 were all "Assessment Colleges."  100% credits were transferred in.  None of the Big 3 had courses or exams.  Generally, 100% of credits came from B&M colleges.  These students just paid an annual fee and transferred credits in.  The Big 3 helped make a legit RA degree for adults who fell through the cracks like military students who moved often before the internet.  [/size][/b][/size]

If I am understanding what you are stating, it's sort of what I was envisioning for the 21st Century model - "Generally, 100% of credits came from B&M colleges.  These students just paid an annual fee and transferred credits in.  The Big 3 helped make a legit RA degree for adults who fell through the cracks..." - There are so many people start and restart and have had made multiple attempts at earning credit for degrees they may never have finished and in the process have accumulates a lot of credit, but then have nothing to do with it. They need someplace to turn where they can earn a degree. I know that's sort of what the Big 3 are doing, but EC isn't always the most affordable option either as you have a hefty residency fee if you take less than 12 credits, and their tuition is pricier than other options out there many times.

Your model of the 21st century was already done.   The Big 3 were exactly that.  Sadly, they have migrated from the original charters and maybe became too big.    I hope they slowly move back?  I am not seeing it.  The Big 3 started to see themselves as real colleges which they are not.  They were better in my opinion.

[sanantone]

You can still transfer up to 114-117 credits. Almost every other college requires a 25% residency requirement. The Big 3 are also the most generous with giving credits for PLAs, ACE/NCCRS credits, military training, certifications and professional licenses, and CLEP/DSST. We still have a lot of people here who only take one or two courses with the Big 3 to finish up their degrees.

I earned four degrees from TESU without taking a single course from them. Now, students have to take a capstone course, but it could be much worse. The upside that some might be forgetting is that there are more degree offerings, and several companies have sprung up that give students more cheap options. When I first enrolled at TESU, you couldn't test out of most of their degrees. The expectation was that you would already have the credits from a B&M school. That kind of defeats the purpose of trying to save money.

[dfrecore]

You can still transfer up to 114-117 credits. Almost every other college requires a 25% residency requirement. The Big 3 are also the most generous with giving credits for PLAs, ACE/NCCRS credits, military training, certifications and professional licenses, and CLEP/DSST. We still have a lot of people here who only take one or two courses with the Big 3 to finish up their degrees.

I earned four degrees from TESU without taking a single course from them. Now, students have to take a capstone course, but it could be much worse. The upside that some might be forgetting is that there are more degree offerings, and several companies have sprung up that give students more cheap options. When I first enrolled at TESU, you couldn't test out of most of their degrees. The expectation was that you would already have the credits from a B&M school. That kind of defeats the purpose of trying to save money.

I agree. I'm not sure what the complaining is about.  There are SO many options to get a degree at the Big 3, including multiple degree choices.  When I first started, just about the only options were CLEP, DSST, UExcel, and a few TECEP exams.  If you weren't a good tester, you were screwed.  Now there are a TON of options - SL, Study.com, ALEKS, Saylor, Shmoop, ACTFL, Davar, Ed4Credit, Coopersmith, Sophia, Propero - it's practically unlimited, the number of courses you can find for less than $300 each (and most less than $100).  

People don't know how good they have it.