Penn State & ACE Example

[Learningnow]

I am currently in the process of transferring to Penn State University. So far, some of my credits from the American Council on Education (ACE) have been accepted by Penn State. See screenshot below


If you're curious about how other specific courses may transfer, you can check Lionpath - it shows how all of my previous credits were assessed. For some classes, they initially show up as "TRN XFRPEN" meaning the evaluation is still pending. In my experience, Penn State has been receptive to accepting these credits if you submit the course syllabus showing the content.


I've found that it can be helpful to speak with an academic advisor at Penn State to ensure certain classes are applied correctly to my intended degree program. For example, my Google UX Design Certificate initially transferred in as a computer science credit, but after consulting with an advisor I was able to get it counted towards a digital media design degree instead.

[bjcheung77]

@Learningnow, Do you happen to know how many credits can be transferred into the Bachelors at Penn State? They have residency requirements, are they 30 credits or 25% of the degree program? I wonder if there are other requirements, they should be similar to most of the institutions we recommend and accept at least 75% into their undergraduate degrees...

[LevelUP]

I am currently in the process of transferring to Penn State University. So far, some of my credits from the American Council on Education (ACE) have been accepted by Penn State. See screenshot below


If you're curious about how other specific courses may transfer, you can check Lionpath - it shows how all of my previous credits were assessed. For some classes, they initially show up as "TRN XFRPEN" meaning the evaluation is still pending. In my experience, Penn State has been receptive to accepting these credits if you submit the course syllabus showing the content.


I've found that it can be helpful to speak with an academic advisor at Penn State to ensure certain classes are applied correctly to my intended degree program. For example, my Google UX Design Certificate initially transferred in as a computer science credit, but after consulting with an advisor I was able to get it counted towards a digital media design degree instead.

You can type in "American Council on Education" for the institution to see Sophia, SL, and Study.com courses they accept.

@Learningnow, Do you happen to know how many credits can be transferred into the Bachelors at Penn State? They have residency requirements, are they 30 credits or 25% of the degree program?  I wonder if there are other requirements, they should be similar to most of the institutions we recommend and accept at least 75% into their undergraduate degrees...

They accept 84 credits as I recall. It will still cost you 20k+ to go there.  It's a better option than ASU if you want a flagship school.

[sarahmac]

@Learningnow, Do you happen to know how many credits can be transferred into the Bachelors at Penn State? They have residency requirements, are they 30 credits or 25% of the degree program?  I wonder if there are other requirements, they should be similar to most of the institutions we recommend and accept at least 75% into their undergraduate degrees...

They do not have a cap per se, because if you are double majoring or have minors you'll need more than 120 credits.

The rule is 36 of the last 60 credits must be from Penn State. 

So if you need 120 that means 84 can be transferred, if you need 150, 114 can be transferred, and so forth. I actually joined this forum while helping my husband do this at Penn State, and he had upward of 100 transfer credits applied toward a BS with two minors. Mostly CLEPS and DSST's though, nice to know about the Google certs.

They specify "of the last 60" because a lot of people carry on taking summer courses from community colleges etc. even after enrolling, or CLEP prereqs later on in their degree. It isn't like UMPI where you have to get advisor permission once enrolled. You can also transfer things in to get majors or minors not normally offered via World Campus.

In terms of cost, there are two groups where it works out not too bad. The first is people eligible for full Pell, the second is military affiliated folks (applies to active duty, guard, and reserve for all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, and their spouses).

For military affiliated folks there's a massive tuition discount (works out 360 bucks a credit). If you're eligible for TA (not GI Bill) that covers most of that cost, and then if you also get any sort of Pell you can actually make money. 

For everyone else, tuition for 12 credits or more is a flatrate 8.2k a semester. People eligible for full Pell it works out around $5k after deducting Pell. If you maintain full time enrolment in the fall and spring, they also give you full Pell for the summer, so total cost of around $15K.

For everyone else, the total cost is almost $25k and probably not worth it.

A lot of people join the Air National Guard (at least in Pennsylvania) to get the tuition discount though. It's a one-weekend-a-month commitment, and PSU doesn't require you to have been "in" for a specific length of time to qualify for the discount. There are rules for TA eligibility that vary by state for guardsmen, but at $360 a credit it's not so bad even without it. The smartest thing I've seen someone do is go guard for a cyber-related field--he got the discount, graduated PSU in 2 years, and the military paid for his certs and his security clearance while giving him weekend job training. He quit the guard after graduating, took his degree and his clearance, and walked straight into a 120k job at age 21.

[bjcheung77]

That's not too bad, I guess it's more expensive than the Coursera/Georgetown Bachelors of Liberal Arts completion offering, I recall a post on that before, something like $400/credit and have to do at least the last 30 credits with them for residency... I was just curious on what this degree can offer that's not available 'cheaply' elsewhere...

[sarahmac]

That's not too bad, I guess it's more expensive than the Coursera/Georgetown Bachelors of Liberal Arts completion offering, I recall a post on that before, something like $400/credit and have to do at least the last 30 credits with them for residency... I was just curious on what this degree can offer that's not available 'cheaply' elsewhere...

In terms of what it "does" I'd argue one of the major selling points is that World Campus is just campus, not a separate college. World Campus was just a way of collecting their online degrees together in one hub. And there are a lot of them too, similar number to ASU (but in different things).

Graduates get a Penn State degree the same as if they'd attended University Park (main campus), and WC students can attend classes from other campuses if they want. A lot of folks did during COVID. 

That puts it ahead of places like PUG, UMass Global etc. as an option.

But, PSU's goal was never to be like the Coursera Georgetown offering, which is a BLA for adults who need a degree, any degree from a good university. 

PSU ha've been doing online ed a long time in one form or another and it's mostly so that rural Pennsylanians can get a degree without having to go away for college and pay for the privilege. If the degrees in agribusiness, turfgrass science, and parks and recreation weren't an indicator. A lot of people start at 18, there were people from my husband's hometown (few thousand folks, mostly farmers) in some of his classes. It's just targeting a different market.

I think it's what UMPI wanted to be for rural Maine folks before the internet at large discovered Your Pace...

[indigoshuffle]

That's not too bad, I guess it's more expensive than the Coursera/Georgetown Bachelors of Liberal Arts completion offering, I recall a post on that before, something like $400/credit and have to do at least the last 30 credits with them for residency... I was just curious on what this degree can offer that's not available 'cheaply' elsewhere...

In terms of what it "does" I'd argue one of the major selling points is that World Campus is just campus, not a separate college. World Campus was just a way of collecting their online degrees together in one hub. And there are a lot of them too, similar number to ASU (but in different things).

Graduates get a Penn State degree the same as if they'd attended University Park (main campus), and WC students can attend classes from other campuses if they want. A lot of folks did during COVID. 

That puts it ahead of places like PUG, UMass Global etc. as an option.

But, PSU's goal was never to be like the Coursera Georgetown offering, which is a BLA for adults who need a degree, any degree from a good university. 

PSU ha've been doing online ed a long time in one form or another and it's mostly so that rural Pennsylanians can get a degree without having to go away for college and pay for the privilege. If the degrees in agribusiness, turfgrass science, and parks and recreation weren't an indicator. A lot of people start at 18, there were people from my husband's hometown (few thousand folks, mostly farmers) in some of his classes. It's just targeting a different market.

I think it's what UMPI wanted to be for rural Maine folks before the internet at large discovered Your Pace...

$20k for Penn State degree isn't bad at all. It's probably a little more than some folks are willing to pay for an undergraduate degree, but still, not bad.