New, advice for Excelsior, pursuing AA

[Aloraborealis]

Hello! I am new to the forum, as well as to the 'alternative education' pathways. So, I have a lot of questions, and need some encouragement. First, let me say, I am SO happy to have found this forum.

I am recently married to a military man. Before we got married, I was attending a University in Nevada, where I was pursuing my Bachelors of Arts in English. I was there for a year and a half and acquired 47 credits. Then I got married and moved to Oregon, where I thought I would be able to just get my associates at a community college; take the remaining classes, finish up, easy peasy. NOT SO. I was naive and didn't realize that the requirements for degrees change regionally and I would have to retake almost half of my classes.

So now I am looking into enrolling in Excelsior College and hopefully finishing much faster than I would by going the traditional route.

For people that have been in my position, just trying to finish an associates, in your experience, were most of your credits transferred? And how many of the classes were you able to test out of? I realize that the 1 credit class that is required of them must be taken.

Any advice, BTDT, encouragement would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much

[TMW2010]

As long as the school is regionally accredited, EC will accept all the credits. But, its a matter of how they place those credits towards the required areas. (For example, you need so many science/math, social science, & humanities credits, and so on).

They'll accept all the CLEPs, DSSTs, and such that you throw at them (except for the English comp ones.. ) and you don't have to take any classes through them for the AA (you DO need to fulfill the Info Lit class, but you DON'T have to fulfill it through EC).

If you had a list of your credits (and the name of the school you're bringing them from) its fairly simple to determine what would go where (in theory - its all in the hands of the evaluators when it comes down to actually giving the ok on them.) If your old school is not RA, you still may get credit for classes, depending on how EC feels.

Good luck.. You're a stone throw away from getting your AA. Hopefully it can be made to fit where you can get away with doing two or three tests and knock it out in no time.

Oh, one warning.. The time between being accepted for graduation and actual graduation is painful and slow... 6 weeks never felt so long..

[Aloraborealis]

Thank you!
I posted all my classes in my signature, and they're all from University of Nevada, Reno. (Math and Bio were actually from Western Nevada College).

[NAP]

Welcome to the forum!

As long as your credits are semester hours and not quarter-hours, you should be very close to having your degree finished.

So you can see what you still need, here are the requirements to create a degree plan:

Associate in Arts at Excelsior College – 60 credits

General Education for AA – 12 credits in two areas and 9 credits in one area

Humanities
Social Sciences/History
Math/Natural Sciences

Written English Requirement – 3 credits

Information Literacy – 1 credit

Arts and Sciences – 12 credits

Arts and Sciences/Applied Professional – 11 credits

An optional Area of Focus is awarded with 15 credits in a single Arts and Sciences discipline.

This post will help you categorize your current credits:

http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...mmies.html

Feel free to post the results, then we can check it for you and suggest some ways to get the rest of the credits, if you'd like.

[NAP]

.....
Oh, one warning.. The time between being accepted for graduation and actual graduation is painful and slow... 6 weeks never felt so long..

Congratulations! Enjoy your break. You will be starting school again soon enough.

[Aloraborealis]

Thank you!
So, it looks like I just need another science/math credit, which I'm pretty sure I can find a CLEP test to cover, and the one credit informational class I have to take through EC.
Does that sound about right?

[Aloraborealis]

And perhaps another Humanities course...I know it all depends on whoever evaluates my classes, and where they decide to put the credits I've already earned. I think I'm going to apply on Friday and send in all my transcripts and see where I'm at. They say it takes 4 to 6 weeks.

Because I'm a military spouse, if I enroll within 6 months of my application, $50 of the $75 application fee goes towards the enrollment fee. Also, because I'm a milspouse, the enrollment fee is only $740. Also, normally it's $335 per credit hour but being a milspouse, it's only $250 per credit hour. And milspouses can take all CLEP tests for free (the first time, no free retakes) through DANTE. Unfortunately I haven't found any discounts for the annual fee or the graduation fee...but I'll take what I can get!

Just wanted to add this in there for any military spouses that may have stumbled upon this thread and are new to everything as well.

[Aloraborealis]

I just looked at it more closely and realized, I need one more natural science, one more social science, and one more arts elective (unless I can use the 300 level class I took? I'm not sure).

[NAP]

That's great that the tests will be free for you! EC also has a scholarship for military spouses. The annual fee (student service annual fee - SSAF) is only for continuing your enrollment beyond a year. You won't be needing to pay that one, at least not for your AA.

If you have 47 credits, you will need 13 more. Are all of your classes 3 credits? Yes, you can use your UL credits, too.

[Aloraborealis]

3 Written English Requirement
-ENG101
12 Arts & Sciences electives
-SPAN111
-SPAN112
-ENG102
-ENG282
12 Humanities
-CH 201
-CH 202
-PHIL 201
-PHIL 213
12 Social science/History
-SOC101
-HIST101
-HIST102
9 Natural science/Mathematics
-MAT120
-BIO101
11 Additional Arts & Sciences
-ENG298
-ENG205
-MUS121
-ENG303
1 EC required course

Need:
Natural Science, Social Science, EC required course.
And I plan on taking the Natural Science and the Intro to Psych CLEP tests.