Help with BA of Psych (likely Excelsior)

[misterl]

Hi everyone! Late 40's student looking to finally get my degree...

I am trying to use CLEP exams to get as close as possible to a BA in Psychology (my intention is then to proceed to another university to get a masters). My understanding is currently Excelsior accepts more CLEP exams than TESU or COSU, so that might be the way to go.

Can someone help me figure out which university is the best choice and also which CLEP exams I need to take in order to get a Psychology degree? I have gone through the Wiki and the forums, but I'm still not quite clear on exactly which exams to take and how best to move forward.

Thanks in advance for your help!

EDIT: Updated to include pertinent information below:

Your Location: Austin, TX
Your Age: 47
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelor of psychology
Current Regional Accredited Credits: None
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: Just completed first CLEP (Analyzing & Interpreting Literature)
Any certifications or military experience?: No
Budget: Flexible, trying to spend as little as possible
Commitments: Just my partner. I'm currently self-employed part-time, work from home, so have plenty of time to study
Dedicated time to study: Flexible, some study most days
Timeline: Trying to obtain Bachelor of Psychology in approximately 1 year.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: None.

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, great intro post to get started, but it's missing many pieces of info to help volunteers assist you further. Instead of copy/pasting from a couple of threads below yours, here's a thread you need to review and to update this thread of yours with the addendum and template: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...nning-Help

[ss20ts]

CLEP is only going to work for LL courses. Forget COSC. They're not an option anymore. Have you looked at UMPI?

[misterl]

Welcome to the board, great intro post to get started, but it's missing many pieces of info to help volunteers assist you further.  Instead of copy/pasting from a couple of threads below yours, here's a thread you need to review and to update this thread of yours with the addendum and template: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...nning-Help

Thank you! I've updated my original post with the information you suggested.

---

CLEP is only going to work for LL courses. Forget COSC. They're not an option anymore. Have you looked at UMPI?

Thank you! I hadn't considered UMPI (hadn't heard of them until your reply). I had gathered that Excelsior tended to accept more CLEP credits than other options. Is UMPI similar?

[wow]

If you haven't, I suggest familiarizing yourself with the relevant information on our wiki:

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Degree_Forum_Wiki
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ch...University
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/SN...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan (I guess no one on the board has completed this degree?)

You'll also want to learn ACE, which offers the CLEPs but also many other options for alt credit:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Am..._Education

[misterl]

If you haven't, I suggest familiarizing yourself with the relevant information on our wiki:

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Degree_Forum_Wiki
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ch...University
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/SN...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan (I guess no one on the board has completed this degree?)

You'll also want to learn ACE, which offers the CLEPs but also many other options for alt credit:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Am..._Education

Thank you. I've looked into those, but if I'm reading them correctly, most of those plans would still require a decent number of courses taken at the university in order to graduate. I was under the impression that Excelsior was the university that would accept the most CLEP credits, and would thus allow me to complete my degree faster than somewhere that required me to take multiple courses/semesters directly from the university, but as you mentioned in the links above, I couldn't find an actual fleshed out Psychology degree plan for Excelsior.

Just to clarify - on the UMPI plan you linked, there are 10 courses that don't list a course provider... does that mean all of those would have to be completed while attending the university?

[wow]

If you haven't, I suggest familiarizing yourself with the relevant information on our wiki:

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Degree_Forum_Wiki
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ch...University
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/SN...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan (I guess no one on the board has completed this degree?)

You'll also want to learn ACE, which offers the CLEPs but also many other options for alt credit:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Am..._Education

Thank you. I've looked into those, but if I'm reading them correctly, most of those plans would still require a decent number of courses taken at the university in order to graduate. I was under the impression that Excelsior was the university that would accept the most CLEP credits, and would thus allow me to complete my degree faster than somewhere that required me to take multiple courses/semesters directly from the university, but as you mentioned in the links above, I couldn't find an actual fleshed out Psychology degree plan for Excelsior.

Just to clarify - on the UMPI plan you linked, there are 10 courses that don't list a course provider... does that mean all of those would have to be completed while attending the university?

You are not reading it correctly. TESU and COSC also require just two courses be taken at their universities. They also have an RA requirement—a certain number of credits need to be taken at a regionally accredited college or university—but those can be taken anywhere, they don't have to be taken at TESU.

As to the other schools, it depends how you define "decent amount of courses." As indicated at https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ch...University, most require 10 courses or fewer, which I perceive as not very much. But I guess it depends what you're trying to save money, earn a degree quickly, or trying to minimize the number of RA courses you are taking, for some reason. UMPI can be earned quickly depending on your study skills and thus be cheap.

If you are very much married to Excelsior, then your best bet is probably to look at the alt credits that transfer into the TESU psychology degree first for filling out the Excelsior one. There's a decent chance, but not a guarantee one, that excelsior would accept those as well, as long as they are part of the Excelsior degree plan listed at https://www.excelsior.edu/program/online...quirements and https://www.excelsior.edu/wp-content/upl...t_2024.pdf. Where it gets challenging is that the Excelsior psychology degree plan list several courses that are not, to my knowledge, available through alternative credit, and therefore you need to take those courses either at Excelsior or at another college or university. It also requires you to take three specific psych courses besides the capstone at Excelsior: "research methods", "psychology of diversity," and "history and systems"

[bjcheung77]

In short, TESU requires 6 residency credits, 30 RA, you can transfer in 114 credits as long as you have the RA credits (or foreign equivalent). Excelsior allows 113 credits to transfer in, 7 residency credits, 30 credits must be upper level. UMPI requires 30 residency credits, but their system is cheaper, easier, faster (if you can handle the system well enough). Skip COSC, it's a college that's gone through many changes and it's not as transfer friendly, they have specific providers they will allow transfer credit from non-RA sources even though they all 114 credits for transfer, 30 must be RA.

[misterl]

Thank you both, this has been very informative. I appreciate your patience as I'm refining my understanding of how it all works.

So, as things stand right now, it looks like TESU, UMPI, and Excelsior are my three best options.

I currently don't have any RA credits, so I'm trying to weigh the smaller number of RA credits at Excelsior and the extra required psych courses mentioned by user Wow, versus the 30 RA credits required by TESU and UMPI.

Looking at the https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ch...University page referenced earlier, as well as the specific pages for these three options, it seems that UMPI could potentially be several thousand dollars cheaper, and also bjcheung77 mentioned the potential for their system being easier and faster.

My primary goal is to complete my Psych Bachelor as quickly as possible without spending any more than I have to... (and without increasing the difficulty of achieving it unnecessarily).   Do any of these three seem like the clear best option? Is there anything else that I might want to consider before making my final decision?

Thanks again for all the help!

[davewill]

You may be analyzing this incorrectly. You are concentrating on the number of RA courses vs. the number of CLEPs or ACE courses. What you actually want to look at is the overall cost and schedule. For example, UMPI will take up to 90 alternative credits, then you have to take 30 credits from them. However, they are a self-paced institution that charges by the two month term, not by the credit. Some people have completed those 30 credits in a single $1400 term, sometimes two, bringing the total cost in at $3-5K. You can likely do the whole thing in under a year (some have done it in less).

TESU will cost you at least $1K more, and Excelsior will be a LOT more if you end up having to take more than the minimum number of courses there. If you're diligent, you can probably also finish those in your one year timeframe.

Which choice is best for you will depend on how fast you think you can work through the UMPI courses. Since you have to get 90 ACE credits, anyway, I'd start on that. By the time you've done most of those, you'll know how fast you can work through online courses, and the choice will become clear.