Need college suggestions!

[cookderosa]

I'm thinking out loud, and looking for ideas, so feel free to bounce suggestions at me. My son is still considering a military career upon high school graduation (he's a junior) but he does sometimes get wishy-washy, and I really (really) want him to focus on credit earning between now and then. I also am a type-A plan for all things mom. <cough>

I'm an old pro at the schools we talk about here, but what's going on in my mind is to find a state/public school that has dorms. If I can run him up into 30- 60-90 credits before he's done with high school, he can either head to the military or finish his degree. If he opts to finish his degree, I'd like him to get up into the 90 cr range and then head to the dorms for 1 year of "college" and he'd be done. I feel that this would give him the shared "experience" his peers are having (and let's not even go there, I know full well what it is/isn't) as well as saving tons of money using what I've learned here tempered with a good dose of online / butt in seat.

This brings me to a different kind of search. I'm going to try and build a good list of 2-3 schools (4 year only) that have amazing CLEP policy (going for 30cr.), possible ACE acceptance (to use ALEKS maths), and offer online options, and allow him to enroll as a special student without a high school degree. I'm not going to factor in cost just yet, because I think that will come later when the list is made.
I predict that my list will be short- very short. But, I'm still going to hunt for at least 2-3.

If you know of a school that you think I should look at, throw it out. Of course I'll share my findings here So, once again, the criteria:

1. 4-year state/public university
2. CLEP/DSST policy 30 or more credits
3. ACE acceptance
4. Online classes
5. Enroll before/without high school diploma
6. B&M Campus with dorms


...I'm off!

[ryoder]

I would ask that he consider getting an apartment right beside the school instead of a dorm.
Benefits include nobody asking questions when you bring girls home at any hour of the night and the cost is lower than a dorm if you have a roommate. I honestly don't know why anyone would want to live in a dorm where you don't get to choose your rommate and you have to share a small space with them. If these dorms were apartments nobody in their right mind would ever pay to live there, but since its part of the college experience, people think they have to do it.
I have been in dorms a few times and its really not cool. People act like children and make noise at all times of the day so its hard to study.
Its like living in the army barracks. I know because my friend was in the 82nd airborne and also lived in the dorms for his first semester of college.
Every time I spoke with him on the phone at the barracks I could barely hear him because people were hollering, cursing, coming in and out of rooms etc. As a quiet person I could never live in that environment.

Make sure he gets to see the dorms for real before choosing to live that way. He should make friends at the local state school and spend a little time in the dorms to see what I'm talking about.

[rebel100]

Great thread!!!

My first thought is the University of Wyoming. They require at least 30 credits UL at UW, but the other 90 are pretty open...University of Wyoming | Office of the Registrar | Credit Available to Undergraduate Students

I had this same thought with my daughter, though she is seeking an alternate route. I'm anxious to see what comes up.

[cookderosa]

I would ask that he consider getting an apartment right beside the school instead of a dorm.
Benefits include nobody asking questions when you bring girls home at any hour of the night and the cost is lower than a dorm if you have a roommate. I honestly don't know why anyone would want to live in a dorm where you don't get to choose your rommate and you have to share a small space with them. If these dorms were apartments nobody in their right mind would ever pay to live there, but since its part of the college experience, people think they have to do it.
I have been in dorms a few times and its really not cool. People act like children and make noise at all times of the day so its hard to study.
Its like living in the army barracks. I know because my friend was in the 82nd airborne and also lived in the dorms for his first semester of college.
Every time I spoke with him on the phone at the barracks I could barely hear him because people were hollering, cursing, coming in and out of rooms etc. As a quiet person I could never live in that environment.

Make sure he gets to see the dorms for real before choosing to live that way. He should make friends at the local state school and spend a little time in the dorms to see what I'm talking about.

Tisk tisk, you didn't see that I'm not going there lol. Besides, I lived in dorms for 2 years in New York, I'm not ignorant to all that goes on. :p

[cookderosa]

Illinois State University

Illinois State University

4 year public university

CLEP policy- 18 credits raw, however, an AA/AS from any (yes ANY) RA community college awards full transfer of all 60 credits. (sweet deal). This means the CLEP policy is of the cc, not ISU. This is a win, since I would use TESC for the AA/AS in this situation.

ACE policy- none accepted

Online degrees- yes, many

Enroll without high school diploma- maybe. They allow you to enroll as a special student (non degree seeking) however, if one focuses on a TESC AA while in high school, third year could be completed online at home, and 4th year on campus in a dorm.

Dorms- yes

This is NOT an open enrollment university.

[rebel100]

If one has a Florida AA/AS, all the 4 year (Public Florida...(edit)) schools will accept that as a block transfer. Most CC's here will allow up to 45 hours via CLEP. I would point out also that one could CLEP more difficult subjects like Math, and take the remaining credits via online or in class, the credits taken via class could be the easier courses to increase a GPA. Homeschooling my oldest we used the local CC for courses like Chemistry with a lab and Foreign Language, stuff we couldn't teach as easily at home.

[cookderosa]

If one has a Florida AA/AS, all the 4 year schools will accept that as a block transfer. Most CC's here will allow up to 45 hours via CLEP. I would point out also that one could CLEP more difficult subjects like Math, and take the remaining credits via online or in class, the credits taken via class could be the easier courses to increase a GPA. Homeschooling my oldest we used the local CC for courses like Chemistry with a lab and Foreign Language, stuff we couldn't teach as easily at home.

All 50 states (I believe) have AA/AS to university articulations for instate, but Illinois seems to be unique in that your AA/AS doesn't have to be from an IL cc. I'm still checking out Wyoming.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Any of the state universities in Illinois that had "Board of Governors" nontraditionally B.A. programs, most or all of which still exist but may have been renamed, like Board of Trustees or General Studies programs, would be places to look.

Generally, traditional B&Ms that also have programs good programs for adult learners, where the flexibility with transfer credit and online courses would either be in those programs or those programs would have brought that flexibility to the entire undergraduate school. "University Without Walls" site:.edu, or a 90s edition of Bear's Guide when it listed nontraditional residential programs, would also be places to look.

I'm not sure how this would work with his scheduling, but likely prospects might also include upper division colleges that only offer or mostly only offer the junior and senior year themselves, or colleges that were upper division but converted, because those would all be built on transfer students. Wikipedia has a list of colleges in this tradition. Sadly Governors State University, which is has both an IL BOG-descendant program and is still an upper division college, doesn't have dorms!, pfft.

[LaterBloomer]

Caveat: Information 26-years old. Back in Army basic training in '85, if you had some college credits, you went in at a higher rank. Also, in basic, some folks were pulled and were told about going from enlisted to officer. I always suspected that it was the ones who had college credits.

So, whether he goes to college, or he goes into the military as an enlisted person, the college credit is an advantage.

[Jonathan Whatley]

and allow him to enroll as a special student without a high school degree.

"dual enrollment" site:.edu would be another search strategy to find these.