Excelsior College - Am I done yet?

[WhoaSis]

Hello! Long time listener, first time caller... looking for some help completing my final requirements in a timely manner.

I've been working on my college degree for (gasp) almost 20 years now. And by that, I mean I worked on it for about a year here and there, and not continuously, nor at the same colleges. I'm now active duty military and need to just knock this out.

After shopping around, I enrolled at Excelsior College because they seemed to accept the most amount of credits based on my unofficial credit review.

After taking into account all my transfer credits, CLEP, DSST, and military professional credits, I now have an official credit evaluation from Excelsior (along with a SOC agreement) that is showing all I need to complete for my Bachelors are the following:

2cr - Ethics
6cr - Written English
1cr - Social Science/History
3cr - Math
3cr - CAPSTONE
-----
15cr


I believe I can meet at least six of these credits via credit-by-exam, but I'd also really like to NOT take an English class right now!

I am confident that I can meet the Ethics req via DSST Business Ethics exam and CLEP out of Math (I'm open to advice on which; it's 20 years since my last math class, but I should just need a little Algebra formula review).

I am perplexed by Excelsior's 6 credit requirement for English/Writing, and seeming rejection of the CLEP English exams. I thought I could take Analyzing & Interpreting Literature to satisfy one of these, but since they are asking for "written" English, I presume they want proof you can actually write.

As for the 1 credit left for Social Science/History, that seems silly that none of my additional electives (there were a ton not applied) could have satisfied this. Any suggestions for the easiest CLEP/DSST exam which would help me satisfy this portion? Alternately, I've considered asking if my Advisor would re-review my Anthropology, Psychology, and Philosophy courses to apply a bit more transfer credit.

I'm also interested in hearing any feedback from someone who's completed the Liberal Arts Capstone course. What should I expect, how much time will be spent reading, and any estimate on how many papers (& their required length) are required?

Thank you for your time.

[hightecrebel]

I believe Excelsior accepts Straighterline English Comp for their written English. They're self paced and rather inexpensive. That being said, branches used to pay for UEXCEL's as well, and some education offices still offer proctoring for them, so I'd suggest checking As for social science, without knowing what they applied already the best I can do is suggest trying one of the remaining CLEP/DSST social science courses you haven't duplicated. If you haven't seen it,here is a link to Excelsior's CBE guide

http://documents.excelsior.edu/document/...m-catalog/

[SKMDC]

I just graduated from Excelsior this month (Liberal Arts). I second the idea of taking Straighterline for both Eng I and II. I did both with Straighterline and Excelsior accepted them with no issues, it is much cheaper than taking the classes at Excelsior.

For the Capstone it was a pretty straight forward class IMO. The project is a PowerPoint presentation on a topic you choose related to one of your fields of study. I can't see your attachments, so I don't know if they list what they considered your field of study. Mine were lit and business (they accepted business as my FOS for liberal arts). I choose to do my PowerPoint on protected classes and the EEOC. You have to write 2 or 3 additional papers (1500ish words) on issues surrounding your topic. You also have to write another few papers related to readings from the textbook. I have to say I was dreading the class, but it wasn't horrible. The instructor was the best I had at Excelsior, he really gave clear instructions and made the assignments make sense. The reading wasn't unreasonable. The capstone class required less time per week to work on than any other Excelsior class that I took (I took 7 classes).

[os4185]

I am in the third week of my Capstone at this point. I recommend taking the DSST for ethics. It takes a week of study if you follow the guidelines of this forum. I just completed the Uexcel written english requirements and they are simple but you must follow the study guides verbatim and practice your essays. Try to CLEP out of the history/social science, it should take about a week of study. I took the DSST History Civil war, History Vietnam but the required about 1.2 weeks of study because you need to read a couple of text books for each. If you are still somewhat proficient and basic math you should CLEP this and use the CLEP study guides.
The difficult part will be the Capstone. It is taking about 10 hours a day and I just put in for a month of non-vacation from work in order to complete it. You also have to put in weekends. I have a similar experience to yours and the capstone is the only real course I have attended in the last 20 years. You be be careful to follow the instructions to the tee! Also if you have conservative values do not let them show it will hurt you.

[WhoaSis]

Thank you both for your posts. I passed the DSST Business Ethics exam with a very minor review of a Quizlet flashcard page. I didn't even bother using the Instant Cert info cuz it seemed easy enough. (Hooyah, good enough)

I have to study for the Math exam (DSST vs CLEP...still debating) this weekend, and I will probably take the DSST in Organizational Behavior to complete the last Social Science credit. That leaves me with CAPSTONE and taking a UEXCEL course or Straighterline to complete the English requirement.

(Did TA cover UEXCEL exams for you @os4185?)