University related questions

[frankenbenz]

I am enrolling into Illinois State University in the Fall of 2014 (already accepted). I have some transfer credits from the National Guard and from previous college courses. I seem to be limited in a max of 18 credits from exams, but plan to take some. Don't convince me to go to one of the big 3, I have a full ride for 4 years of college to any state school in Illinois, as well as Federal Tuition assistance for being a veteran. I also have my GI Bill.


Here is the .pdf from ISU for their program, the important stuff is at page 64. http://illinoisstate.edu/catalog/pdf/undergrad.pdf


I guess I'm just curious.. is it normally this restricted for a traditional university? It seems pretty apparent I need to get with one of their counselors/advisors and match up what exams I could take to speed up my degree, to see what they'll recommend/accept.

I love online learning up to a point for sure, I use khan academy, academic earth, and duolingo as often as I can.



Also on top of your thoughts for that. How do you guys find motivation to keep at it and stay focused? I seem to have a hard time with the online focus sometimes


Thanks!

[UptonSinclair]

I am not surprised to see how restrictive they are regarding exam credits. Universities are in survival mode and trying to protect their revenue streams. Every course they allow you to bypass with an exam is money lost. It is rare to see more than 30 credits of non-traditional sources allowed from what I have seen. The transfer credits from your military background may be hit and miss as well. I have 59 credits from the Community College of the Air Force and the local community college rejected all but eight.

Since you have a full ride, try not to let the non-traditional transfer policies discourage you. The biggest hurdle for most people is the cost rather than the time. If I had the post 9/11, I would be tanking as many traditional courses as I could.

I find myself loosing steam once in a while and take a couple of months off. Then I knock out half a dozen exams in a few months. As long as you are consistent, you will progress toward your target.

[cookderosa]

So read what they say VERY CAREFULLY, you can only take General Exams (there are only 5)- and since they don't take English or Math, you can only take:
US History and Social Studies
Natural Sciences
Humanities

Also, you need to do these BEFORE classes start. No exams while you are a degree seeking student.

Also, just being sure you saw the line in there where anyone with
"an honorable
discharge may receive six semester hours of elective credit.
To qualify for this credit, a copy of the DD214 should be
presented with the application for admission"

Be sure to grab that.

University restrictive? Yes. That's typical. There are 2 things you could do, neither are worth really doing in my opinion, but they are technically possibilities for speeding up.

1. Use AP exams instead of CLEP. Starting on page 66 you'll see they have a VERY GENEROUS AP exam acceptance policy. There are issues with taking AP exams, mainly that you'd probably already have missed the registration deadline AND you'd have to do them NOW at a high school willing to let you sit in.

2. Use a community college first. When you do this, enrolling in an official articulation agreement means that the university accepts your CC degree as a "block" of credit- they don't evaluate each individual credit. When that occurs, the CLEPs are swept into the block, thus, if you find a CC with generous CLEP policy, you can do use the CC's policy which will trump the university's.

[frankenbenz]

Alright thanks for all the valuable input! Definitely help me weigh what few options I will have.

Ill investigate to see if I still have time for them to accept some CLEP and maybe try to knock a couple related to history.


Thanks!