Excelsior Degree Plan - questions on UL credit sources

[EducationSeeker]

I am first time poster and have greatly appreciated all the valuable information so please be patient with me.

I am encouraging my wife to potentially return to get her Bachelor's in Liberal Arts or Business after 20+ years.  The key is we are paying out of pocket and do not want to use student loans.  She applied to COSC, TESU, WGU, and Excelsior.  We received the credit evaluation/advising worksheet for each institution aside from WGU and hope to receive this one soon.  We are leaning towards Excelsior as they seem to be the only Big 3 school to accept Nationally Accredited credits and she has credits from a state university and 2 year Art School that ACCSC/CHEA accredited. They are awarding her about 57 credits total.

I have the following questions:

1) If I am seeking help with specific degree plans for COSC, TESU, WGU, and Excelsior, what is the protocol to post her specific courses that will be awarded credit at each university and what courses you recommend?  I put together a spreadsheet on targeted courses for her to finish, but, want to get confirmation on the quickest and least expensive route?  Should I attach the spreadsheet or post it in the body of the thread?

2) Can you please recommend sources of UL credit at Excelsior?  After reading other posts, it sounds like Excelsior will not award much ACE/NCCRS credit for taking courses on Study.com or Saylor that are considered UL?  It looks like the HIS 306 Civil War Era is the only ACE/NCCRS course that Excelsior recognizes? It sounds like Study.com or Saylor Academy is a good place to register for the course, but, I am required in most cases to take the corresponding CBE UExcel or DSST option?  Obviously, the $50-200 month Study.com or free Saylor course is a lot more cost effective than a DSST (Cost = $85 fee + $25 Pearson Vue fee) at $110 or UExcel ($110 for most 3 hour courses +$20 technology fee + $62.83 Pearson test fee) $192.83 cost per exam? Are there cheaper ways to earn UL credits at Excelsior?

3) Are TECEP exams the only CBE exam that can taken via ProctorU at home for a fee of $250 (3 cr hrs @ $75 each plus $25 proctor fee)?

4) TESU and COSC have awarded her 41 and 35 transfer credits respectively. It seems like COSC is typically the least expensive option.  

5) It seems logical to choose the BS Liberal Studies programs that awards the most transfer credit and costs the least.  So far, the tuition amount seems to be around $4440.

Thanks,

EducationSeeker

[dfrecore]

One thing to remember: it's not about looking backwards at what you've completed and how those fit into the plan, it's about looking forward at what it will cost to complete the plan! That's much more important.

That being said, with a BALS, if those credits count, you may be better off wherever you get more credits. But, since I don't know how courses come into EC and what will work for UL there, I'm not going to be able to help there.

The UExcel exams will be the easiest to figure out where they'll apply, since they're EC's own exams. That being said, they're supposed to be harder than some of the other ones, you have to go to a Pearson VUE testing center to take them (and pay $60 per exam for fees), and I think they're more expensive ($145ish).

DSST's are $85, and then testing center fees will vary.

Study.com is $199/mo and includes 2 exams. They have a TON of UL options, but I have zero clue about how EC will bring them in. They used to follow ACE guidelines for that, I don't know if that's changed.

Saylor is free to take the course, and then $25/exam. No UL that I know of.

TECEP's are $225 for the UL courses, and there is no proctor fee (it's included if I remember correctly)

COSC is the cheapest, but that's when comparing apples-to-apples - when you take into account credits already earned, the math changes.

If you posted the courses your wife has taken, and then the 3 evals, that would probably help.

WGU is normally fast to do evals, and they take NA credit - but they don't have a BALS/BSLS. So she'd have to go business degree.

[bjcheung77]

WGU is normally fast to do evals, and they take NA credit - but they don't have a BALS/BSLS. So she'd have to go business degree.

Since you mentioned a BALS or Business - I would recommend WGU as they will accept NA credits and because of cost.
1) University status 2) Larger Alumni Network 3) ACBSP accreditation 4) Cost - if your wife can complete in 1 term.
5) Like Excelsior - Some of your wife's NA credits can be transferred over and "salvaged".

I suggest getting all the FREE credits from CLEP then the FREE ACE/NCCRS credits and lastly the SL/Study.com courses.
See link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid290602

[suzycupcake]

Another thing that you may want to consider are the amount of UL credits required from each school. TESU BALS is only 15 (this doesn't include the capstone), whereas the others require 30.

The EC capstone is also different from TESU - see post #11 here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-EC?page=2

I was considering the BSLS from EC because they took more credits than TESU (because I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and they are a partner school of EC) but changed my mind based on those 2 factors.

Congrats on your wife making the decision to do this!

[dfrecore]

It's so easy to get UL BALS credits, I wouldn't let that stop me unless you have 90+ credits and it's going to be hard to fit in those UL courses without losing a lot of other courses.

Also, two things to keep in mind for the BALS/BSLS (I think these will be the biggest differences between TESU and EC/COSC):
1) TESU doesn't make you choose a concentration, while EC and COSC do, so it's easier to plan your degree at TESU and you're free to take any UL courses you'd like that will fit in the general category; and you have to get your concentrations approved at EC/COSC; and they are able to say no and make you rethink your entire concentration, and make you take additional courses; and

2) it really depends on what kinds of credits you bring in as to which is easier to complete, the BALS, vs. the BSLS. For instance, if you have a lot of business courses, or Education, or Fire Science, or other non-Liberal Arts courses, you can bring those into the BSLS, and even into the concentration, possibly with room to spare. COSC/EC both allow 60cr of non-LA in their BSLS, so you have a lot of leeway there; TESU doesn't have a BSLS, and only allows those 27cr of Free Electives to be non-LA in the BALS.

[Life Long Learning]

WGU is normally fast to do evals, and they take NA credit - but they don't have a BALS/BSLS.  So she'd have to go business degree.

Since you mentioned a BALS or Business - I would recommend WGU as they will accept NA credits and because of cost.
1) University status   2) Larger Alumni Network   3) ACBSP accreditation   4) Cost - if your wife can complete in 1 term.
5) Like Excelsior - Some of your wife's NA credits can be transferred over and "salvaged".  

I suggest getting all the FREE credits from CLEP then the FREE ACE/NCCRS credits and lastly the SL/Study.com courses.
See link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid290602

1) University status? 
2) Larger Alumni Network than the Big 3?  How many graduates?

[mysonx3]

WGU is normally fast to do evals, and they take NA credit - but they don't have a BALS/BSLS.  So she'd have to go business degree.

Since you mentioned a BALS or Business - I would recommend WGU as they will accept NA credits and because of cost.
1) University status   2) Larger Alumni Network   3) ACBSP accreditation   4) Cost - if your wife can complete in 1 term.
5) Like Excelsior - Some of your wife's NA credits can be transferred over and "salvaged".  

I suggest getting all the FREE credits from CLEP then the FREE ACE/NCCRS credits and lastly the SL/Study.com courses.
See link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid290602

1) University status? 
2) Larger Alumni Network than the Big 3?  How many graduates?

I can't speak to 2), but as for 1) I believe he's referring to TESU and WGU being "universities" while Excelsior and COSC are "colleges"

[Life Long Learning]

Quick Google

Excelsior College (Big 3) 1971-present (48-years) 170,000 degree alumni
TESU (Big 3) 1972-present (47-years) 50,000 degree alumni
COSC (Big 3) 1973-present (46-years) 15,000 degree alumni

WGU (Comp-based), 1997-Present (22-years) 135,000 degree alumni


WGU is the mass producer in half the amount of time.

[bjcheung77]

Close enough... Excelsior last year had about 173,000... TESU has over 65,000... COSC has more than 16-17,000
WGU has been amazing, I think this year they will Tip the scale and become the #1 spot for most online students, dropping U of Phoenix to #2, SNHU also is gaining ground on these two, currently at #3.

[EducationSeeker]

One thing to remember: it's not about looking backwards at what you've completed and how those fit into the plan, it's about looking forward at what it will cost to complete the plan!  That's much more important.

That being said, with a BALS, if those credits count, you may be better off wherever you get more credits.  But, since I don't know how courses come into EC and what will work for UL there, I'm not going to be able to help there.

The UExcel exams will be the easiest to figure out where they'll apply, since they're EC's own exams.  That being said, they're supposed to be harder than some of the other ones, you have to go to a Pearson VUE testing center to take them (and pay $60 per exam for fees), and I think they're more expensive ($145ish).

DSST's are $85, and then testing center fees will vary.

Study.com is $199/mo and includes 2 exams.  They have a TON of UL options, but I have zero clue about how EC will bring them in.  They used to follow ACE guidelines for that, I don't know if that's changed.

Saylor is free to take the course, and then $25/exam. No UL that I know of.

TECEP's are $225 for the UL courses, and there is no proctor fee (it's included if I remember correctly)

COSC is the cheapest, but that's when comparing apples-to-apples - when you take into account credits already earned, the math changes.

If you posted the courses your wife has taken, and then the 3 evals, that would probably help.

WGU is normally fast to do evals, and they take NA credit - but they don't have a BALS/BSLS.  So she'd have to go business degree.

I am going to list the ECE, COSC, and TECEP credit evaluations in following posts along with attaching a sample degree plan.

I am wondering if there any nearly free or free sources of UL credits that Excelsior accepts?  The academic counselor mentioned that ACE/NCCRS courses typically are considered lower level credit.  This seems to contradict the process I thought they used of automatically taking the ACE/NCCRS recommendation for UL/LL credit.  Not having a standardized credit granting policy is extremely frustrating for students trying to accurately figure out costs.  Has anyone had experience with getting UL Saylor or Study.com courses approved? This makes the process of taking only limited Study.com or UExcel exams cost about $1000-1500 compared to a lot cheaper price on 

Although having a Pearson test center at a local university helps, it also is nice to not have to go the University to take a CLEP, DSST, or UExcel exams for UL credit.

It looks like DSST is one of the cheapest sources for UL credit?  After looking on the DSST site, these are the UL exams I found:

Money and Banking 3 cr.  
History of the Soviet Union, 3 Cr
Introduction to Law Enforcement, 3 cr
Substance Abuse, 3 cr
Fundamentals of Cyber Security, 3 cr

Is Fundamentals of Cyber Security hard for non-IT Professionals?

Thanks,

Education Seeker