Excelsior Question

[jec959]

I am thinking about transferring from umuc to excelsior as there is a requirement that the last 30 credits at umuc be taken only with them. This sucks as I took almost all courses with them, and the few I transferred in are to old now etc. etc. As I now have around 85 credits (counting cleps recently taken) or so with them I can't test out too many more. My academic advisor is very unresponsive to questions doesn't return phone calls and rarely replies to emails so I am getting frustrated in trying to map the 10 courses I would need anyway.

I applied to excelsior and got the follow unofficail eval

gen ed component
45 credits in arts & sciences
- at least 42 in arts & sciences
- at least 3 in humanities
- 3 in social sciences
- macroeconomics
- microeconomics
- college algebra
- statistics
- 3 credits free electives

business component ( i am lacking here because my umuc degree was information systems management and the excelsior degree will be business with information systems management concentration)

at least 6 credits in business subjects to include
- intro acct I & II (mine were disallowed as the college I took them at was new england acredited and not regionally acredited)
- business law (same with this course)
- managerial finance or financial management
- intro to marketing (will clep at end of this week)
- intro to mgmt
- production/ops management
- business policy

(seems like a heck of lot more than 6 credits though doesn't it)

Organization behavior that will be applied to social sciences

I didn't send my clep transcript until later so will add freshman comp, principles of mgmt, info systems & computer apps, and american government to the mix.

I am looking for feedback on whether it seems crazy to transfer or not. I could just finish where I am (courses cost around $1300 a piece). But it seems from what I have been reading here I could finish faster and cheaper with excelsior than umuc.

[mjno]

Hey jec959,

I myself recently transferred to Excelsior from Regis University and it was primarily to save both time and money. I transferred in with about 51 credits from Regis (mostly testing) but would still have to take 12 courses at about $1,000.00 a course and with my schedule it would take another 18 months; so transferring to Excelsior will save me almost ten thousand dollars and a year of my life. My goal is grad school so an undergrad degree (at my age) is more of destination and not really a journey (although it has been), so I think it depends on what your own goal is. I am not suggesting whether you should transfer or not because your situation is different than mine but either way just know that regardless of what you decide that you will find (like I did) a lot of good people in this forum to really help you.

I have a question, (maybe I am not understanding) but I would think that since you have 85 credits that your unofficial eval would be considerably less? When I transferred in they took all 51 credits and deducted them on my eval and a lot of those were arts/science. You may want to talk to someone at Excelsior about you unofficial eval (my apologies if I am misinterpreting what your saying).

Hope I helped
Mike

[jec959]

No you aren't misunderstanding I found out that a lot of my general education requirements weren't good at umuc that new england accrediation issue and most of my old jobs would pay for job related not general ed credits so that is what I need. I plan on giving excelsior a call. I new that I would need the business courses but thought a lot of my ifsm courses could go for electives.

I also finished my associates in new england in 1980, so lots of stuff is over 20 years old. I was hoping to finish up within the year and that isn't looking possible at umuc either considering I can't even get a good response on what I should take to graduate in the least possible time and I work full time. My kids and I thought it would be fun if we could all graduate from college this year (one from grad school one from undergrad). Yes sadly if I do the umuc route I would also have 3 high tuitions this year.

I may have to take a day off of work and drive the 1 1/2 - 2 hours down to Adelphia and have a face to face with the advisor but I am not impressed to say the least and figure it would just be a giant waste of time.

[jec959]

Well I feel much better now I called excelsior they are taking 69 transfer credits and they have my clep transcript and there are 15 credits worth on that. She wasn't sure they would take the freshman composition definitely not for any writing credits but maybe as electives but couldn't be sure.

I was told do not take acct I & II or business law until after the official evaluation because I still may get credit for them, don t take a socal science or intro to mgmt as my cleps cover them and don't take any free electives. My advanced professional courses are all covered as well.

Actually what she finally said was if I may going to test out of things take macro & micro economics, college algebra, stats, marketing, organizational behavior (will send me the test info), and finance (world religions was also alright since I need 3 credits humanities, don't take anything else until after I enroll and get my official evaluation. She also reminded me about the 9/1/2007 business policy change. I am much happier now and will most definitely be transferring in after my exams of course.

I do have another question, I saw in some of the other posts that there was a fee for adding additional credits to your evaluations I don't see this in any of the documentation that was sent to me.

[mjno]

Hey jec959,

Great news!

They are not charging me any additional fees for adding credits, unless they mean the $20.00 transcript request fee you will have to pay clep to send them to Excelsior, which is the only thing I can think of.

Mike

[Greggy_D]

jec, what is wrong with your freshman composition class?

[Kiwi Lover]

I do have another question, I saw in some of the other posts that there was a fee for adding additional credits to your evaluations I don't see this in any of the documentation that was sent to me.

jec,

They only charge a fee for adding additional credits if it is after your diploma has already been conferred (and you want the additional credits to also show on your transcript).

JoAnne

[jec959]

The freshman comp wasnt a class but a clep test and she wasn't sure they would accept it as they no longer used that as a writing requirement class. Doesn't matter as I have engl 101 and business writing as well.

[chromo]

She also reminded me about the 9/1/2007 business policy change.

Hi all, I have taken a number of CLEP exams and I eventually plan to obtain a BGB from Excelsior. This statement piqued my interest - what policy has changed?

Good luck,
Chris
68 credits

[jec959]

Rather than duplicate the info all is explained in the excelsior business strategy course thread after 9/1/2007 you must take theirs if not already enrolled.