Just received Excelsior Evaluation for New Student

[CoreyH]

Hello forum,

I just received the following evaluation for the BS in Marketing Degree offered by Excelsior College. I was hoping that someone more experienced in working with Excelsior could assist me in determining the quickest or most efficient way (i.e. classes, CLEP and other testing) to achieve my degree goals from my current evaluation of 56 credits transferred in. When I finish with Excelsior, I would like to have the following degrees completed:

1. Associate Degree in a Business Program (on the way to the BS)
2. BS in Business with a Marketing Concentration
3. Then potentially also complete a BS in Political Science Degree

Below is what my evaluation states that I still need to complete:

General Education Component
You need at least 22.00 credits in arts & sciences
- at least 6.00 credits in social sciences electives
- Macroeconomics
- Microeconomics
- Statistics

Information Literacy Requirement
There are several ways to satisfy the Information Literacy requirement. As the universe of information grows and technology continues to transform learning, information literacy (accessing academic information electronically, selecting credible resources, etc.) becomes increasingly important. You may demonstrate competency in this area by successfully completing the Excelsior College course "Information Literacy" (INL 102) or an approved course from the regionally accredited college of your choice. You must earn a minimum of one semester hour in Information Literacy with a grade of C or higher in order to complete the requirement. Please visit http://www.excelsior.edu and click on the Excelsior College courses link for information pertaining to INL 102.

II. Business Component
You need:
at least 19.00 more credits in business subjects to include:
- Introduction to Accounting I (Financial)
Please Note: ACCT*205 Acct Prin I will be reviewed upon enrollment for the Acct I requirement

- Introduction to Accounting II (Managerial)
- Business Law
- Managerial Finance or Financial Management
- Introduction to Marketing
- Business Policy**
- 3.00 credits of advanced business electives
-15.00 credits in BMK subjects to include:
(of these, 9.00 credits must be at the advanced level)
- Consumer Behavior
- Marketing Management
- Market Research
- Approved Marketing Electives

**Please note that the Business Policy core requirement must be completed by taking Excelsior College's on-line course, Bus 495: Business Strategy.

Ethics Requirement
You have not yet satisfied the ethics requirement. Credits from your course or examination in ethics will be applied to the humanities (arts and sciences) or business electives, depending on title, number, level and content.


Organizational Behavior Requirement
You have not yet satisfied the organizational behavior requirement. Credit from your course or examination in organizational behavior will be applied to the social sciences (arts and sciences) or business electives, depending on title, number, level, and content.

_________

Thank you in advance for any advise you can provide...

[barcotta]

You probably haven't seen any responses yet because not everyone checks this thread regularly and your question is VERY broad. Most of us have logged hours trying to figure out this stuff for ourselves and are aware of all the contingencies that crop up--so it would take quite some time to dig into your situation to answer you question properly.

However, it'll only take a few minutes to throw a few things out there to save you a little time in the process, so here goes:

For starters, obtain all the relevant Excelsior reading material. You need the catalog for your area of study (I believe it would be the Business catalog) and there's a Guide to Credit by Examination that is essential to mapping out your plan. Both are available on the Excelsior site. To answer your first question, the quickest and most efficient way to complete your degree, in my opinion, is testing out of as much as possible. I cannot really recommend which tests to take, other than the obvious, because I don't know which tests will duplicate what you already have.

I initially planned an associates degree along the way, but decided against it as I didn't see the value in spending the extra money.

General Education Component

I would take the CLEP Macro and Microeconomics exams for those requirements and, assuming they don't cover the 6 social science credits you still need (they may--you'll have to ask), you can take any two of the four psych related CLEPS (Sociology, Psych, Ed Psych, HG&D) for those. If you want a GPA, you should always look at DSST tests first, though, since they are graded by EC and CLEPS are pass/fail. DSST has a Statistics exam for that requirement. The rest you can fill in with tests that you like from that category in your Guide to Credit by Examination. DSST Criminal Justice is very doable--even though it's tough to score high it should be easy to pass.


Info Lit you can do at a local community college for cheap (see the link in my signature below) or Penn Foster, I believe, has an on-line option, or, if you have the money, it can be completed through EC very quickly. Some have done it within a day or two--but it's around $300.

You'll have to go somewhere for Accounting--at least Managerial. CLEP still has a Financial accounting exam. Again, Penn Foster probably has something. My local community college had two 5 credit courses that satisfied the Financial and Managerial Accounting requirements which, while difficult, were cheap ($20 per unit in California) and satisfied the requirement and gave me ten units.

Business Law and Marketing are CLEPs and you're going to have to go out and find those other Marketing classes you need unless Excelsior or Thomas Edison have tests for them.

It's easy to find lower level alternatives and more challenging and expensive to find upper level alternatives, so I would advise you to take upper level whenever it will help satisfy your upper level requirement, whatever that is. It could be all in Marketing.

I would strongly suggest that you take EC exams for Organizational Behavior (I'm studying for that one now) and Ethics. In fact the DSST Ethics exam does not duplicate the upper level EC exam, so, if you need it, you should take both. You can study for both at the same time (I even took them on the same day) and you kind of get a two for one. The lower level DSST will count as Arts and Sciences credit. Org Behavior and Ethics EC exams will fulfill the requirements AND count towards the number of upper level credits you need.

So, again, to be clear, these are just ideas based on my experience and LIMITED knowledge of your circumstance. ALWAYS have your plan verified by a counselor. Email works great. I've been enrolled for a year and have consistently received prompt responses. If you send them a broad question, it'll likely take longer. I usually made mine very specific.

Finally, here's a link to my plan for a general business bachelors degree through EC. I've completed Acctg, Macro, Micro and ECE Human Resource Management since I last updated this, but it'll give you an idea of how I put my plan together.

If I were you, I'd sign up for InstantCert (if you haven't already) and start studying for some of the REQUIRED exams NOW. As in, RIGHT NOW. There's no reason to delay. The beauty of InstantCert is that EVERYTHING is available as soon as you register so you can just pick and choose and, most importantly, START.

Good luck and have fun!

[CoreyH]

Michael,

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with some of the courses you have taken. I believe that I will sign up right away for InstaCert as you recommended.

I know my question was fairly broad, but your answer helped give me some direction to start with. When I spoke with Excelsior after receiving my evaluation they were not very helpful with any of my questions, but I am sure that will change once I officially enroll.

I just wanted to begin some type of a game plan for moving forward.

[CoreyH]

Michael,

I noticed that you had the following credits:

1c, Society and Rock & Roll 3c, Fund of Music 3c, Guitar I & II - 4c, Bass Guitar I - 2c

How did you accomplish these? I have played guitar for 20 years and I didn't think of using that knowledge to fufill some of the requirements.

Thanks again.

[barcotta]

Click here for a full explanation. Also, if you click on the Acctg I&II link in my signature below you'll find some more info. FYI--it's been my experience that bass players don't think of guitar players who also play bass as REAL bass players--so it took a little doing to convince him to test me. I was quite certain that I could play bass as well as someone who NEVER played and took a 2 UNIT community college class--but he gave me my only B of that semester. At least I got a couple of credits.

Michael,

I noticed that you had the following credits:

1c, Society and Rock & Roll 3c, Fund of Music 3c, Guitar I & II - 4c, Bass Guitar I - 2c

How did you accomplish these? I have played guitar for 20 years and I didn't think of using that knowledge to fufill some of the requirements.

Thanks again.