New Gen Ed requirements for those enrolling on or after 10/1/11 Excelsior

[peace123]

Not sure if this was already posted:

General Education Requirements - excelsior.edu

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General Education Requirements

General Education requirements will be changing for those enrolling on or after October 1, 2011.

Distribution requirements for general education ensure that all students develop basic competence (at least 100-level courses/examinations) in the areas of arts and sciences (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics), as well as specific abilities in written English and information literacy.


Minimum Requirements

The minimum requirements for meeting the general education requirements will remain at the 100-level. Since this is a minimum requirement, appropriate advanced-level courses and examinations at the 200-level or higher may be substituted for 100-level courses.

A student must earn at least 22 credit hours in the arts and sciences and information literacy to graduate with an associate degree in any program, including:

6 credits in the humanities
6 credits in social sciences and/or history
6 credits in natural sciences and/or mathematics
3 credits in written English
1 credit in information literacy

A student must earn at least 34 credit hours in the arts and sciences and information literacy to graduate with a bachelor's degree in any program, including:

9 credits in the humanities
9 credits in social sciences and/or history
9 credits in natural sciences and/or mathematics
6 credits in written English
1 credit in information literacy

Associate and Baccalaureate Degrees Requirements Summary

Effective October 1, 2011
AA AS BA BS
Humanities 6 6 9 9
Social Sciences 6 6 9 9
Natural Science and Math* 6 6 9 9
Written English 3 3 6 6
Information Literacy 1 1 1 1
Total 22 22 34 34

* A minimum of a 2-credit course in math and a 2-credit course in natural science.

Note:.

The Associate in Applied Science in Technical Studies (AAS) and the Associate in Applied Science in Administrative Management Studies (AAB) degrees require only 20 credit hours in the Arts and Sciences.

The Bachelors in Professional Studies in Business and Management (BPB) and the Bachelor of Professional Studies in Technology Management (BPT) require only 30 credit hours in the arts and sciences.

[Waldorfteacher]

Thanks for posting, I just saw this today and searched to see if it had been posted yet. I think you were the first. The most important change I see is the Written English Requirement (WER) going from 3 to 6 credits.

[skybirds]

There are more requirements in arts and sciences as
well. It depends on your degree plan. This limits the
options more. Might as well go to regular school if
you have time and money. Enough hassles in daily
life. Life is too short.

[NAP]

Thanks Peace123 for posting this update!

At first, it seems like a big change, but I think in many ways it will simplify things.

The AS and BS had been 9, 9, 6 for Gen Ed, plus extra Arts & Sciences.
The AA and BA had been 12, 12, 9 for Gen Ed, plus extra Arts & Sciences.

The AS, AA, and BA will actually have fewer General Education requirements now. The BS is only increased by 3 credits, which many students probably filled anyway through the extra Arts & Sciences section.

A few people will be affected by the new requirement for both math and science, but I think most people had some credits in both areas already.

It will be interesting to see, if the options to fulfill the extra 3 credits for English will be changed. If not, StraighterLine English II should still be available.

We will also have to see if the total numbers of Arts & Sciences and free electives (Applied Professional) are changed at all.

[bella2011]

i enrolled in Sept, will see how this affects me.

on another note, does Excelsior EVER accept

English Composition Composition w/o Essay

I already have an English but just want to take extra easy 6hrs credit???

or must I take

Freshman College Composition OR English Composition Composition w/Essay

[NAP]

Hi Bella!

This is why we need a new Student Guide. In the recent past, these English CLEPs were not awarded credit, (despite what the Guide said, by the way). Now that the requirements are changing, maybe this will change, too. (Note: This thought is just speculation on my part!)

Since you are already enrolled and have English credit, you have the WER completed, right?

[dcan]

I'm enrolled at TESC so I don't know EC's policies, but this may be useful if you contact them, from the CollegeBoard website:

The American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT) has evaluated and recommended the awarding of six credit hours, or the equivalent, for a score of 50 on the CLEP College Composition examination.

...

The American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT) recommends the awarding of three credit hours, or the equivalent for a score of 50 on the 90 minute multiple-choice College Composition Modular exam. If colleges elect to supplement the Modular version of the examination with an essay available from CLEP or with a writing assessment of their own, the credit recommendation is six credit hours, or the equivalent, for a score of 50.

So CC or CCM, both with 2 essays, is ACE reviewed at 6 hours and would fill both WERs.

But if EC doesn't accept the tests, why the heck not?

[NAP]

Hi Dcan!

There are other schools that accept CLEP, but not the ones for Freshman English. I was actually in a situation where I had to fight to get into a Freshman English class because the school and teacher wanted me to CLEP it. (Making a math person insist on taking an English class is really ironic!) Since I was transferring the credit, I knew that other college would not accept the CLEP despite seemingly having a generous CLEP policy. It turned out well for me since I needed the course when I ended up transferring to EC. (Note: There are exam options, too. We just do not know all of the details yet.)

All that being said, since the policy is changing, I wonder if more options like CLEP will become available. Again this is purely speculation on my part, at this point.

-----

Hi Bella!

Since you are enrolled, please ask your advisor your English CLEP and SL questions. He/she should know the answer. I am sure that many of us would like to know, too.

[podmates7]

My experience has been that EC will not, under any circumstances, accept CLEP - with or w/o the essay. They have their own Eng. exam and there may be another one or two that ACE has approved that they'll accept - maybe. Remember ACE recommends, doesn't dictate. And always get a class/exam approved before you take it.

[dcan]

I must confess I'm a bit shocked that Excelsior won't take that. I'm assuming they changed the policy recently? The BA in 4 Weeks site specifically has you go through English Composition w/ Essay to receive a BS from Excelsior.

1st year online bachelor degree by distance learning online manual - BA in 4 weeks

So what you are saying is that it is effectively impossible to 100% test out of a degree at Excelsior? That's certainly news to me.

Like I said, being enrolled at TESC this doesn't affect me at all, but I'm quite surprised that, given their reputation for generosity when granting credit, they would actually turn away something like English 101. I understand the ACE recommendation process, so it's not that I'm saying they "must" honor it, but rather I'm surprised they don't given their other "lenient" policies.

NAP, I'm in a similar thing now. I'm a programmer who wanted to take an English course I already have credit for! I have both WERs met at TESC through my CCM+essay, though I didn't realize that when I took the test -- I thought it was only 3 hours. However, since I have to take six courses (military TA), and all of them will be online and writing intensive, and given that I had never written a formal MLA or APA essay before, I chose to write off the extra 3 WER credits from my CLEP (that I didn't expect to have anyway) and take Composition 102. I see it as drilling me on writing MLA and APA essays, which can't hurt for my next five classes plus possible grad school later on. I'm now about to finish week three and so far it's working out very well.

Looking back at that last paragraph, I guess I deserve an F in this class... milelol: