Experience transferring from the big 3?

[cannoda]

Hello,

I have no college credit and am interested in testing out of a bachelors degree in psychology or business and moving to a masters program in Marriage and Family Therapy. My only options for a advanced degree in MFT are from Northwestern University, Capella and Northcentral. I have asked all these schools if they would accept students who graduated from these schools and they give me cookie cutter answers, "We consider any student who has the minimum required GPA from a regionally accredited school."

I'm curious how they actually judge these 3 schools and if I test out of most of the degree, if that makes a difference. Does anybody have any experience getting into a good masters program after testing out of a bachelors degree from one of the big 3?

PS. I may want a Bachelors in business instead of psychology because I can see the benefit of having a business degree if I choose to open a private practice.

First, let's get some terminology out of the way. You do not transfer from an undergraduate program to a graduate program. The undergraduate degree is simply a requirement for admission to a graduate program.

To answer your question, it depends. I'm pretty sure that Capella and Northcentral will have no problem with a Big-3 degree. Northwestern, maybe.

I believe that a Big-3 degree is no less of a problem than a degree from any fourth-tier school. However, the source of credit used for the degree may be an issue.

Would your Big-3 degree consist solely of coursework from RA schools? Would it include or depend heavily on credit-by-exam, FEMA, ACE-evaluated proprietary courses and other less traditional sources of credit? Do you have a significant employment background? What do your GRE scores look like?

I'm pretty sure that Northwestern takes a close look at every graduate application and will consider all of the above in an admissions decision. You may also have to deal with the personal biases and misconceptions of the graduate program's admission committee.