Excelsior Associates Degrees

[snazzlefrag]

I've found out something that is somewhat distressing, but it is tempered by another realization:

I found out today that my one year at a non-accredited college will count on my Law School Data Accumulation Services GPA. This college, New St. Andrews College, is notoriously difficult and does not believe in inflating GPA's. As such, despite my best efforts, in my 34 credit hours there, I only had a 3.01 GPA (helped largely by failing the ridiculously difficult science course). Anyway, I found out that I HAVE to report those credits and that they will be listed as part of my GPA. Now, considering that I have a grand total of 8 other credits with a GPA, my GPA is only going to be 3.19. Not very good for someone wanting to go to an excellent law school (need great LSAT and 3.5+ approx GPA normally).

So, I was thinking that I would need to get my bachelor's through Excelsior. Why? Excelsior assigns a GPA to several of the examinations that I've taken. I was considering doing this anyway... But, then today, I read that ANY credits gained prior to earning your first bachelor's are calculated in a student's LSDAS GPA. SOO, the long and short of it is that all I need from Excelsior is for them to take my current exams, give me the grades for them, which should up my GPA to a more respectable 3.56 or so, and send my transcript to LSDAS. Which should take care of my problem. I don't even know if I would need to actually graduate. Just being a current student with the grades would work.

So, my research on Excelsior's lousy (in my opinion) web site has left me with quite a few questions:

First, they say that they offer several different associates degrees. Most cost 895, but they do offer an "Associates in Applied Science" that is substantially cheaper (one in administrative/management another in technical studies, and another in aviation). I cannot find ANY information on this degree beyond that it's flexible (and cheaper). It's driving me nuts. Does anyone have any information on what the requirements for this degree are? Less money is much better in my opinion. If I can make that work, that'd be outstanding.

I'll restate the main point here for anyone skimming: Does anyone have any information on the Associates in Applied Science degree from Excelsior College? Or perhaps a business catalog PDF that explains it all? The business catalog is nowhere to be found on their publications page (:-P). I know I could make the normal associates in science work, but I'm not rich.

Oh yes, feel free to email me if you want to send me a PDF catalog from Excelsior. My address is my username here @gmail.com

Thanks!

SirJake,

Why would non-RA credits need to be reported? It doesn't make ANY sense at all. But if it doesn't matter where you earned the credits, why don't you just take a few courses at the Snazzlefrag International Academy of Pennsylvania and bump up your non-RA GPA. I'm sure you would earn a 4.0 by tomorrow morning, and since ALL credits from ANY source must be reported, you would be obliged to also report these new credits.
hilarious

I'm joking of course...but geez! Is New St Andrews accredited by DETC or something? It would make more sense to me if they were. But if not, and the law school is still requiring you to report them and factoring them into your GPA...well that's just silly!

Okay, moving on....I think Excelsior's Applied Science degrees are specifically for Military personnel.

You could certainly get an Associate in Arts degree in Liberal Studies without any further study based on your current credits. Just pay the fee and you'll have a legitimate GPA (prior to your Bachelors). You'll need to make sure you use as many GRADED exams as possible (mostly DANTES and a few CLEPs). You need 60 credits for an AA, but I think you can go over if you have more credits that you want to include in it.

Let me know if this interests you and I can certainly email you all the info you will need.

Best of luck,
Snazzlefrag