Excelsior - working my last nerve!! One more thing and I'm moving to TESC.

[indivinefavor]

OMG!! Where do I start. After all of the TESC recommendations, I chose to go with Excelsior since they will accept 30 NA credits and also, because they give out grades for some DSST exams. I know, I know...plenty of people have TESC diplomas without a GPA and are doing just fine...but just for my own peace of mind...I wanted a GPA. But anywho, with the announcement that DSST is getting rid of 5 exams, I did some digging and realized that 98% of the DSST exams have now been converted to the 3-digit scoring model.

The problem is this...per Excelsior's catalog, they only have grade equivalencies for the 2-digit scoring tests. This is major for me because on 1/1/2015, they will only have 3 tests that still have the 2-digit scores and that I can get a grade assigned to it. The biggest issue I guess is that remaining 3 tests are not appealing to me (General Anthropology, Rise/Fall of Soviet Union, and one more I can't think of right now). And if Excelsior is going to start giving grades for all of the 400+ exams, then I'll have a lot more options. So I contacted Excelsior to see if they'd be giving grade equivalencies for the 3-digit scores. I kept getting these generic replies from my Academic Advisor, but in true Danielle fashion...I laid out exactly what the problem was. THE 2-DIGIT EXAMS ARE DISAPPEARING AND YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY GRADE EQUIVALENCIES FOR THE 3-DIGIT EXAMS? Simple enough question, right? Well after my fourth email (yes, I know it was a bit much, but my question was never answered..so I kept asking the same question in different ways lol)...I got a not so nice reply stating that they don't make the tests or assign grades...they only do as ACE recommends.

So I CALLED ACE...who then stated that they do not assign grades, they only approve a course and recommend a minimum passing score. Hmmm? So who's confused here...ACE or Excelsior?? I'm going to go with the latter. The lady from ACE, then said that if anyone were to assign grade equivalencies, then it would be the vendor of the exam (i.e. DSST/Prometric). Well I scoured the DSST website and what do you know??? I FOUND B-EQUIVALENT SCORES FOR ALL THE 3-DIGIT SCORES and this data sheet is effective 4/8/2014. Sooo, it's not new information? Right??? Which means...someone dropped the ball here and it wasn't me.

My main issue is that if a student asks a legitimate question, do your homework people before giving me some kind of idiotic blanket response. I understand that I'm just now working on my Bachelor's degree and that my advisor has a Master's...but does this mean that I'm incompetent?? No, I'm one of the youngest property managers in Chicago for a very large housing complex. Most of my peers are twice my age. My mother refused to let me skip in school, but I received all "post high-school" marks when I was in the 6th grade? So I'm far from stupid. I should have a Doctorate by now, but poor life choices brought me to where I'm at today.

I just feel like I was completely dismissed. And why do I have to contact ACE and contact DSST to find information you all should already have, when I have an academic advisor?? I haven't received my official evaluation as of yet...i think that's about a week out, but I'm tempted to just say BITE ME and you can keep your 30 NA Credits and just transfer over to TESC??

WOOSSAHHHHH!!!!

[rebel100]

Or jump ship to COSC, they offer letter grades for the older DSST, take FEMA free of charge (makes up for your lost NA grades maybe?), and they will provide a GPA for Cornerstone and Capstone at the very least.

[indivinefavor]

I've seen alot of posts (well kinda) on FEMA, but never officially looked into it...Is FEMA credits only applicable toward a certain type of degree or does it just go into the GenEd credits? I'm not looking for anything specific, just want to major in Business or Lib Arts...which ever is the easiest path to a degree.

[rebel100]

I've seen alot of posts (well kinda) on FEMA, but never officially looked into it...Is FEMA credits only applicable toward a certain type of degree or does it just go into the GenEd credits? I'm not looking for anything specific, just want to major in Business or Lib Arts...which ever is the easiest path to a degree.

They would likely only count as free electives, you could likely use close to 30 applied as some sort of liberal art, probably less for business...COSC is pretty particular about their requirements for business, less picky for a build your own or liberal arts type plan.....it is probably worth the $75 application fee to have your existing credits evaluated and see where you stand. You could possibly see FEMA credits included in a homeland security or emergency management degree plan, but the UL credits needed to complete that would be difficult.

[indivinefavor]

Ok, thanks...I'll definitely look into it.

[GoodYellowDogs]

I had a wonderful experience at Excelsior. I think that you should go to a college where you feel like you are having a wonderful experience, and for your that might not be Excelsior.

That being said, each College has it one, usually inflexible, rules that you have to follow to get your piece of paper. I was able to get some flexibility (not with grades) from Excelsior.

You should also be aware that you will have a grade point average at Excelsior. I have one GPA for the classes/courses taken outside of Excelsior and one GPA for just the two courses and two tests (ECEs) I took at Excelsior. On my transcript it shows both GPAs.

[sanantone]

Or jump ship to COSC, they offer letter grades for the older DSST, take FEMA free of charge (makes up for your lost NA grades maybe?), and they will provide a GPA for Cornerstone and Capstone at the very least.

If COSC only awards grades to 2-digit DSSTs, then the OP will be in the same position. I guess the good part will be using FEMA to make up for the lost credits. TESC also will award a grade for its capstone (except for the BSBA if you test out or transfer in). If GPA is really a concern, all one has to do is take a course at TESC. TESC even has some 1-credit courses. But, I think the FEMA will make COSC the better deal.

To the OP: I don't think you should jump ship. You spent a lot of money on those Westwood College credits. Might as well get some use out of them. TESC's advisors are wrong all the time. COSC has better customer service, but do you really want to lose those 30 credits? Excelsior has a required capstone that comes with a grade. You also have the option of taking some Uexcels. Wouldn't Excelsior transfer your grades from Westwood College?

[bluebooger]

advisers aren't perfect
there was a post
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...ities.html
a couple of days ago about someone asking if they could get credit for a course taken at uml
UMass Lowell Online and Continuing Education Certificate Programs

and the adviser at TESC said no

they had to go back and ask a 2nd adviser who then said yes

so you can see advisers aren't perfect (even at TESC)
they make mistakes
they don't know everything
they're probably just going off some equivalency sheet the school has

changing to a different school is not going to solve every adviser problem

just take the exams you're interested in
if you get a letter grade, fine, if you don't then appeal it

even ACE isn't up to date
if you go to their site
ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training | Find a Course or Exam
and search for
SQL Server exams
you'll only find exams for sql 2005 and sql 2008
even though those aren't offered anymore

the exams for sql server 2012 and 2014 aren't even listed

so Excelsior (just like ACE) sometimes has and uses outdated information
and Excelsior adviser's (just like TESC's) get it wrong sometimes

[sanantone]

advisers aren't perfect
there was a post
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...ities.html
a couple of days ago about someone asking if they could get credit for a course taken at uml
UMass Lowell Online and Continuing Education Certificate Programs

and the adviser at TESC said no

they had to go back and ask a 2nd adviser who then said yes

so you can see advisers aren't perfect (even at TESC)
they make mistakes
they don't know everything
they're probably just going off some equivalency sheet the school has

changing to a different school is not going to solve every adviser problem

just take the exams you're interested in
if you get a letter grade, fine, if you don't then appeal it

even ACE isn't up to date
if you go to their site
ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training | Find a Course or Exam
and search for
SQL Server exams
you'll only find exams for sql 2005 and sql 2008
even though those aren't offered anymore

the exams for sql server 2012 and 2014 aren't even listed

so Excelsior (just like ACE) sometimes has and uses outdated information
and Excelsior adviser's (just like TESC's) get it wrong sometimes

ACE continues to list old exams because you can still get credit for them. If they aren't listing new exams, it's because they haven't been evaluated yet.

[indivinefavor]

Thanks everybody for your help and guidance. I plan on taking the info literacy and at least the capstone, so I guess even without the DSST's I know that I'll have a GPA...I guess I was just pissed at the super poor customer service. And to top it off, they just emailed and said that they looked into it and even though DSST recommends B-grades for all scores of 434+...they won't be honoring it. But I could've sworn, they went on and on and on in previous emails about only granting grades based on ACE and DSST. But now they're recanting?

I'm still waiting for the official evaluation...I guess I should be receiving that in the next week or so. But I swear if they give me a hard time about these NA's, I'm just going to say forget it. I have a 100+ NA's from westwood and there's no reason why they shouldn't give me 30 credits, but I'm not fighting anybody for it. If they give me 29 credits...I'm out the door. Seriously!