NAP, you would be correct. Thomas Edison will not accept any GRE Subject Exams. Excelsior and Charter Oak will. It is safe to assume that the General Education requriements and electives can be tested out of at all 3 colleged. It is the Biology curriculum that presents the most problems. Here's a quick break down of the differences between the schools concerning a Biology degree:
Thomas Edison (
Thomas Edison State College | BA in Biology Credit Distribution)
The GRE Biology will NOT be accepted at Thomas Edison. Eight lab courses are required. Biology 1 (lab) you already have. So Biology 2 (lab), or Botony (lab) would still have to be taken. Also, Physics 1 and 2 with lab, General Chemistry 1 and 2 with lab, and Organic Chemistry 1 and 2 with lab. The lab requirements cannot be tested out of, though you may be able to get away with a Prior Learning Assesment given your background.
Some of the actual Biology components can also be tested out of. Anatomy and Physiology come to mind (6 credits), Microbiology (3 credits), Pathophsiology (3 credits), Science of Nutrition (3 credits), and maybe a couple more.
The big hurdle will be all those lab requirements. On the plus side, the 27 Free Electives can be fulfilled with FEMA courses for no additional cost.
Excelsior (
https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_Coll...beral_Arts)
Excelsior College WILL accept the GRE Biology. Given your background, let's assume you can get over the 80%ile. This will land you 30 credits with them.
Pulling info from a reliable source: (
Earn a Bachelor degree major using the GRE subject examination)
You would need in addition to the 30 credits:
Special lab requirements for the certain Science majors
Biology : 2 courses, at least one upper division
You already have one lab done. You would have to take one additional upper level lab in order to complete the major. FEMA courses can also be used at Excelsior, but its going to cost a lot. It's easy credit to earn, not so cheap to get into the school. There are other threads that explain this.
All in all though, you'd have to take one upper level lab and max out the GRE Biology exam. BTW, GRE Subject Exams are $140 and offered in April, October, and November.
Charter Oak (
Biology Concentration, Major - Charter Oak State College)
First off Charter Oak doesn't offer a major in Biology, they offer a concentration. They also accept the GRE Biology exam for 24 credits so long as your score at the 40%ile or higher. The actual concentration is 36 credits. You'd still need 12 additional credits.
Quoting info from their catalog avaible here on pg. 52 (
http://www.charteroak.edu/PDF/Official%20Catalog.pdf)
The GRE Subject Test in Biology, evaluated at 24 credits (15 lower, 9 upper), and at least 12 additional credits that must include two upper level laboratory courses.
You would have to take 2 upper level lab courses to complete the concentration. Charter Oak also accepts FEMA courses with the same requirements as Excelsior. It's an easy source of credit, but can be expensive to utilize besides Thomas Edison.
The advantage at Charter Oak is the 40%ile required score. That score at Excelsior would only be worth 6 credits. Charter Oak gives you 24.
Given your background, I'd probably go with Excelsior. As long as you can blow the GRE Biology away, it really makes the most sense for your situation. You already have 1 lab knocked out. You'd have to do one more upper level lab and call it a day for the major.
Should you decide to go Chemistry instead, the same general trends apply to the GRE Chemistry exam for both Excelsior and Charter Oak.
Lastly, I am not sure if Excelsior will accept the GRE Biochemistry. I was told by the Admission staff at Charter Oak that they will not accept it. They have never evaluated the GRE Biochemistry, so that is the one GRE exam that won't get you anything from them. I also don't think Excelsior has Biochemistry offering, so I'm not sure how that would plug in to a degree.
As always, take all this with a grain of salt. The advisors are the one's who know. I'm just tossing off some thoughts here.
![[-]](https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/images/collapse.png)
