Plan and Costs for Associate in Science Degree at Excelsior College

[NAP]

I have not seen a lot of degree plans for associate degrees on the forum, so I thought I would post mine.

An associate degree is not required in order to earn a bachelor’s degree and is an extra expense. It is going to take me a long time to finish my bachelor’s degree through GREs, so I decided that it would be a good idea for me to take a 3-month detour to get an associate degree and officially “tie-up” the credits I have earned so far.

There are lots of ways to tailor a plan to meet your needs and interests. My degree could have qualified as an Associate in Arts or an Associate in Science degree. If you are planning to go on to a Bachelor’s degree through Excelsior College, think about how you could use the General Education Requirements of the Associate degree to meet the 2 depth requirements of a Bachelor’s degree. Here is an overview of the credit requirements for an Associate in Arts and an Associate in Science degree:

http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...#post68901


[SIZE="3"]My Transcript and Costs[/SIZE]

Course/Exam – credit – grade/score

English Composition I course – 3 credits – A

Humanities:

Spanish I course – 4 credits – A+
Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP – 6 credits – 78

Social Sciences/History:

US History I CLEP – 3 credits – 77
US History II CLEP – 3 credits – 78
Civil War & Reconstruction DANTES – 3 upper-level credits – 73=A
American Government CLEP – 3 credits – 72

Natural Sciences/Math:

College Algebra II course – 3 credits – A
Astronomy DANTES – 3 credits – 57=A
Chemistry CLEP – 6 credits – 67
Biology CLEP – 6 credits – 77
Natural Sciences CLEP – 6 credits – 73
College Math CLEP – 6 credits – 76

Other:

Information Literacy EC course – 1 credit – Pass
Orientation EC course – 0 credit

NFA Q318 - Fire Service Supervision – 1 credit – Pass

Introduction to Computing DANTES – 3 credits – 72=A

My feedback and resources used for each exam: http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...#post52148

I spent 2 years and $1875 earning my first 10 credits through correspondence courses. I was very excited when this opportunity to use exams for credit became available to me. It is unusual to be able to save time, energy, and money at once. There are lots of ways to save even more time and money than I did.

From January 2009 to March 2010, I earned 50 of the 60 credits through exams.

11 CLEP/DANTES exams plus $15 test center fees – $975
study guides and materials – $475
class ring and 11 celebration dinners – $615
Information Literacy course at EC – $335
6 transcripts – $100
application fee – $75
enrollment fee – $895
graduation fee – $480 ($495 - $15 for 1 credit course discount)

50 credits Total = $3950

I hope this information will be helpful to see what a degree could look like and how much it costs.

[MomOfMany]

Thank you!

I wonder how close I would be to an associates? I've been studying for the eng lit GRE, but that seems to be a sunk ship now.:o

[NAP]

You're welcome!

Feel free to post your credits here or start a new thread, which ever you would like to do. (If you have posted them already, please post the link again for us.) We can take a look and see how close you are. It is pretty simple, especially with CLEP and DSST. Starting to think about depths for a bachelor's degree is important, too.

Be sure to check this link for a quick look at the credits needed for an associate degree: http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...#post68901

Since we don't know yet what is going to happen with GREs, it has been nice to have my associate degree finished. I have completed that milestone.

[MomOfMany]

http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...e-out.html

Here's the link to my previously posted transcript.

So far I'm leaning towards a ss/history or literature bachelors, as these are my strengths.

I think taking the A&I and US history I would be duplicate credits for me, correct? My boys are studying for those, so if we study together that would be nice, but not essential.

TIA!

[NAP]

For this Associate Degree template, I used the Bachelor’s degree template made for you by Alissa: http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...#post74710

Associate in Science at Excelsior College – 60 credits

General Education for AS – 9 credits in two areas and 6 credits in one area

Humanities - DONE
eng comp 2
spa 1103 spanish 1
phi 1113 intro to philosophy

Social Sciences/History - DONE
pos 1113 american fed gov't
soc 1113 intro to sociology
his 1493 american history civil war era - ore

Math/Natural Science – NEED 3 credits
bio 2123 human ecology

Written English Requirement – 3 credits - DONE
eng 1113 freshman comp 1

Information Literacy – 1 credit - NEED

Arts and Sciences – 3 credits - NEED

Arts and Sciences/Applied Professional – 29 credits - NEED

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

It appears that you have all of your General Education credits completed except for 3 more needed in the Natural Science/Math category. (This would be a good place to get the math credits you will need for the Bachelor’s degree.)

Then you need 3 credits in Art & Sciences (same categories as Gen Ed) and 29 credits in Arts & Sciences or Applied Professional (free electives), plus Information Literacy to complete an Associate in Science Degree.

If you are interested in an Associate in Arts, this would be a little different since more Arts & Sciences are required.

The degrees have been designed so that all of the credits used for the Associate degree can be used toward a Bachelor’s degree.

It is my understanding that Psychology and History majors can be completed mostly through exams.

I am not sure how much of a Literature major can be completed through exams, but I think there are lots of correspondence courses available. (The Literature GRE did not duplicate the A&I Lit CLEP for Ruddigore. That could mean that you could take the A&I Lit exam for credit, even if you are going for the Literature major at EC.)

I think that TESC offers a degree in Social Science, but I do not think EC offers one.

I am not sure if your American History course for the Civil War Era will duplicate the US History I CLEP for 1500 through Reconstruction.

Since we do not know what is happening with the GRE policy, keep an eye on that thread for new announcements. There may be a way for those of us who would still like to take that exam for credit to be able to do so.

I hope this helps!

[MomOfMany]

I think it might have to be in arts rather than science. Science intimidates me a bit, but I might surprise myself I suppose.

I sure do like seeing all those "DONE" words!

Thanks!

[NAP]

Okay, well let’s look at an Associate in Arts template:

Associate in Arts at Excelsior College – 60 credits

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

Humanities - NEED 3 credits
eng comp 2
spa 1103 spanish 1
phi 1113 intro to philosophy

Social Sciences/History - NEED 3 credits
pos 1113 american fed gov't
soc 1113 intro to sociology
his 1493 american history civil war era – ore

Math/Natural Science – NEED 6 credits
bio 2123 human ecology

Written English Requirement – 3 credits - DONE
eng 1113 freshman comp 1

Information Literacy – 1 credit - NEED

Arts and Sciences – 12 credits - NEED

Arts and Sciences/Applied Professional – 11 credits - NEED

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

There may be a reason that you would want to specifically choose either a degree in “Arts” or a degree in “Science”. (For instance, since I am interested in math and science majors, I usually only see the option of a Bachelor of Science degree being offered.)

At EC, the difference is not necessarily a reflection of more Arts or more Science credits. Basically the difference at EC for an Associate in Arts is an extra 9 credits in General Education and fewer Applied Professional credits (free electives). Also for a Bachelor of Arts, both depths would need to be Art & Sciences disciplines.

I had so few free electives and just enough Humanities and Social Science/History credits that my degree would have qualified for an Associate in Arts.

There are lots of exams in Humanities, Social Science, and History available. I would expect that you could build a degree that reflects your interests.

Having several marked DONE on the plan is very encouraging; however, just because this plan does not have as many, does not mean you are farther away from your goal. All of your credits can be used in both degrees. The 2 exams you mentioned (A&I Lit and History) would make 2 DONEs in this plan.

[MomOfMany]

thanks!:hurray:

I'm going to study the US history 1 and A&I lit with my boys!

I need to stay up late and fill out a degree chart of what tests would go where on those degree plans, so I have a visual blue print.

[NAP]

You're welcome!

By creating a free account, you can use the Student Guide to Credit by Exam:
https://www.excelsior.edu/pls/portal/doc...atalog.pdf

It will show you all of the exams that are available and how they fit into each category.

I would expect that you will find lots of exams that meet your interests. You should be able to complete either type of associate degree through CLEP and DSST exams.

[MomOfMany]

Ype! I've already printed it out and am working on filling in a degree plan now!

You're welcome!

By creating a free account, you can use the Student Guide to Credit by Exam:
https://www.excelsior.edu/pls/portal/doc...atalog.pdf

It will show you all of the exams that are available and how they fit into each category.

I would expect that you will find lots of exams that meet your interests. You should be able to complete either type of associate degree through CLEP and DSST exams.