Quickly passing a BA with CLEP as an international student

[Moonsorrow]

Hi all,

I'm kind of a noob to this but I've done a decent amount of research. Please excuse my ignorance or any misunderstanding.

I'm a 31 year old guy from the UK currently living in Japan (been here for a good few years now.) But I'm interested in getting a degree as fast as possible.

I'm interested in the online BS course that TESU provides:
https://www.tesu.edu/ast/programs/bs/it
And I've done a little research into CLEP accreditation too.

I was wondering, is it possible to get the entire degree from scratch at TESU using as much CLEP or Sophia as possible in a short time? I know it's asking a lot but I'm really prepared to dedicate myself in doing it as much as possible. I work full time in Japan but willing to spend all of my free time doing this. Is there anyone who knows of a similar situation?

How much did it cost? How long did it take? Realistically how quickly could I get this done? Also is there an alternative method or different university where I could do this?

Much appreciated, thanks.

[rachel83az]

Sorry, you're not going to be able to take CLEP exams. There are ZERO testing centers in Japan. You can check here: https://clep.collegeboard.org/clep-test-center-search IIRC, there is only one public location in all of the UK. Maybe two? Unless I am mistaken, those are the only two public testing centers in most/all of Europe.

Fortunately, Sophia.org exists. For people not in the USA (and for many inside of it!), Sophia is faster, easier, and cheaper than most CLEP exams. You'll probably be able to get most of the required Sophia courses completed in just 1-2 months.

Second bad news: the BSIT is an expensive degree. It requires some very specific courses that you can't get cheaply elsewhere. Your best bet would be to get the Computer Science degree. If you MUST have a Bachelor of Science degree for some reason, Organizational Leadership or Professional Studies are possible. Possibly also Technical Studies, but that one is a bit dubious.

There are degree plans on the wiki: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap

But, do you have any A-levels? Those can be worth US college credit, too. So, you might not be starting entirely from scratch.

[bjcheung77]

@Moonsorrow, Welcome to the board, that's a great introduction but it's missing the most important information for us to assist you better... You really need to provide more details by following the last post addendum and template here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

You should continue to keep your options open, are you wanting a degree for employment or immigration purposes?  If I recall correctly, you need a degree to teach in Japan, are you working in a different field?  There are a few recommended institutions including a couple of competency based degree providers that might fit your needs.

Excelsior U/TESU allow a max of 113/114 credits transferred in, you can go for a different degree, such as a BSLA/BALS or their BSPr.  UMPI has a BABA PM & IS, or BLS MIS minor, PUG has the BSIT, SNHU also has the BSIT.  Basically, these mentioned allow a max of 90 alternative credits, 30 has to go through them for institutional residency purposes.

I would start accumulating credit that can be used for all of these institutions, since you're going to transfer to them anyways.  I would decide which degree/school is better for you. You can make your final decision on which school to go for if you're having trouble.  Again, start with Sophia.org instead of CLEP for lower level credits and Study.com or another provider for upper level.

[dfrecore]

TESU is definitely not the place to get a BSIT, unfortunately (they used to be at one point).

Now, I'd consider Purdue Global (if you don't mind writing a LOT of papers), SNHU, Wilmington University, UMGC (if they still offer the OnlineDegree scholarship), or Franklin University.