TESC vs Excelsior for Liberal Studies, Psychology/Health

[vivalagloria]

Hello all!

I thought I was all set on TESC but then I read some more about Excelsior and now I can't decide.

I had 3 A Levels (English, Theatre and Religion (grades B, B and D respectively) and an AP Psychology (4) that I'm hoping to transfer in. Plus a UK CertHE that I hope would translate to between 10-20 ish credits.

Ideally I'm looking for the quickest and cheapest way to complete a degree focussed on psychology, health, anatomy, maybe with some education courses too. I do have grad school in mind so I do want my bachelors to be relevant, so for that reason I'm not really interested in doing FEMAs.

Am I correct in thinking it's no longer possible to take the GRE subject test for credit, except at COSC? Wondering if it's worth considering COSC too, if that's the case.

And I would like to test out of as much as possible, so Excelsior would show my actual grades and give me a GPA based on my CLEP/DSST/etc scores, right? But TESC wouldn't?

Sorry for all the questions!

[EI2HCB]

Hello all!

I thought I was all set on TESC but then I read some more about Excelsior and now I can't decide.

I had 3 A Levels (English, Theatre and Religion (grades B, B and D respectively) and an AP Psychology (4) that I'm hoping to transfer in. Plus a UK CertHE that I hope would translate to between 10-20 ish credits.

Ideally I'm looking for the quickest and cheapest way to complete a degree focussed on psychology, health, anatomy, maybe with some education courses too. I do have grad school in mind so I do want my bachelors to be relevant, so for that reason I'm not really interested in doing FEMAs.

Am I correct in thinking it's no longer possible to take the GRE subject test for credit, except at COSC? Wondering if it's worth considering COSC too, if that's the case.

And I would like to test out of as much as possible, so Excelsior would show my actual grades and give me a GPA based on my CLEP/DSST/etc scores, right? But TESC wouldn't?

Sorry for all the questions!

Remember there is no such thing as a stupid question! So you have a high school diploma and A levels? you can convert two of your A levels to College credit not sure about the D in religion, but you'll need to use an evaluation service. The evaluation service depends on the particular college you attend and costs around $150-200 depending on who you use. Excelsior will use your grades for the GPA that might include the D on your A levels I'm not sure but it might be best avoided if that is the case. The only give grades to certain tests in the DSST exams CLEP is either pass or fail and so doesn't effect your GPA. As for your CertHE that will be evaluated and then an amount of credits recommended by the evaluation company. If you are male and arrived in the United States before your 28th birthday you will need to sign up for selective service in order to qualify for grants and loans should you decide to go down that route. If you arrived after your 28th birthday you will need to prove that you were not required to sign up for selective service. More than likely since you have AP scores you came much earlier and so should make sure you signed up. This caused my FAFSA awards to be delayed, although the Fin Aid at Excelsior was top notch in getting it resolved.

[sanantone]

So far, Excelsior only assigns grades to DSSTs with 2-digit scores. The remaining tests with 2-digit scores are being retired at the end of this month, so all of the tests will have 3-digit scores soon.

Unless Excelsior gives you more credits than the other two for your A levels, I don't see their advantage. COSC is the only school that awards credits for the GRE. COSC and TESC let you design your own degree plans. TESC will probably be the cheapest using the Per Credit Tuition Plan. The only downside with COSC is that they require a cornerstone and capstone that need to be taken in-house while TESC and EC only require a capstone. TESC won't transfer grades, but COSC will.

[indivinefavor]

Hate to bust your bubble, but as of 1/1/2015, there will only be 3 exams that are still 2-digit score exams. I just contacted DSST, who stated that those exams were in the process of being refreshed. Meaning, they're converting to the 3-digit scores and DSST wouldn't give me a timeframe, meaning they could change those exams out at any time.

I'm working with Excelsior to see if they'll accept the B-equivalent scores recommended by DSST for the 3-digit exams....but I'm not sure. I may have pissed them off...so they might not do anything lol! I just posted my frustrations about this. See link below.

http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...e-one.html


Here's the DSST email for confirmation. This email was as of 12/9/2014:

Good Morning,
Thank you for contacting the DSST/DANTES department at Prometric.

Listed below are the exams that are still 2-digit scoring and that have not been updated:
Business Law II (will no longer offer at all as of 1/1/2015)
General Anthropology
Intro to Modern Middle East (will no longer offer at all as of 1/1/2015)
Money & Banking
Physical Geology (will no longer offer at all as of 1/1/2015)
Principles of Financial Accounting (will no longer offer at all as of 1/1/2015)
Rise & Fall of the Soviet Union
Western Europe Since 1945 (will no longer offer at all as of 1/1/2015)

Please note that the exams are in the process of being refreshed and changed to the 3-digit scoring.

We hope this information is helpful. If or when you write to us again, please include all previous messages.

Sincerely,

DSST Team
Prometric
7941 Corporate Dr
Nottingham MD 21236
USA
877 471 9860 PHONE
651 603 3008 FAX
http://www.prometric.com

Please visit the DSST website at DSST | Get College Credit.

[rebel100]

I do have grad school in mind so I do want my bachelors to be relevant, so for that reason I'm not really interested in doing FEMAs.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, I think you would be hard pressed to find many grad schools that would care if 30 or so credits came from FEMA....maybe, but I doubt it.

[vivalagloria]

I'm not sure what you mean by this, I think you would be hard pressed to find many grad schools that would care if 30 or so credits came from FEMA....maybe, but I doubt it.

I just figured that if I was using 30 or so credits from FEMA courses that had nothing to do with my concentration subject, then it wouldn't look as good as if I had 30 credits in something I actually wanted to study, you know? Although the idea of getting credits for free is definitely tempting!!

Thanks for the clarification on DSST grades, everyone. So I guess I shouldn't think too much about getting the actual grades on my transcript.

Right now I'm looking into the COSC's General Studies Major with a concentration in Psychology, although I'm having trouble finding a full rundown of the credit distribution throughout the degree. So far I can see that I'd require:

60 Liberal Arts credits (for the BS)
40 Gen Ed credits
30 Credits for the Psychology concentration
And then electives?

The website says this:

"The GRE Subject Test in Psychology can be used as elective credit towards this requirement (18 credits: 15 lower level, 3 upper level), but does not fulfill any of the subject requirements listed above."

(The "listed above" in that sentence refers to the psych concentration requirements, by the way)

The American education system is new to me, so can anyone explain the difference between gen ed and liberal arts credits? I'm presuming that I can use credits to satisfy BOTH of those?

[vivalagloria]

If you are male and arrived in the United States before your 28th birthday you will need to sign up for selective service in order to qualify for grants and loans should you decide to go down that route. If you arrived after your 28th birthday you will need to prove that you were not required to sign up for selective service. More than likely since you have AP scores you came much earlier and so should make sure you signed up. This caused my FAFSA awards to be delayed, although the Fin Aid at Excelsior was top notch in getting it resolved.

Thanks for the tip, although I'm a 27 year old female so I guess that doesn't apply to me! I did the AP test a year or so ago when I was considering applying as a transfer student to regular colleges when I moved here.

[sanantone]

I just figured that if I was using 30 or so credits from FEMA courses that had nothing to do with my concentration subject, then it wouldn't look as good as if I had 30 credits in something I actually wanted to study, you know? Although the idea of getting credits for free is definitely tempting!!

Free electives aren't meant to be related to your major or concentration. They are meant for exploring other subjects.