Which colleges allow 100% test-out of all courses

[The_Professor]

Hello – I am new to this forum. I’m starting to take my various CLEP exams to apply towards a BS Business degree. I have researched and applied to a number of colleges with fully online programs and have narrowed my shortlist down to either Excelsior College or Columbia Southern University. Excelsior will let you test out of up to 90% of the required coursework, and CSU’s limit is 75%. I have seen a number of posts from people working on testing out of the entire required curriculum and I’m wondering if you can tell me which reputable institutions out there will permit testing out of 100% of the required coursework. Thanks for any insight you can provide.

[martialartist]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Testing.

The 3 top schools are Tesc.edu cosc.edu and of excelsior.edu which I'm a aprt of.At Excelsior you can test out of everything with exception of one course.

Check out bain4weeks.com it has very good information though a few changes have been made by excelsior since the site was last updated.

[The_Professor]

Thanks for the info... I applied to Excelsior and they advised that they would allow test/transfer credits up to 90%, which would potentially leave only 4 courses to take in their undergrad program. However, I have numeorus IT and Professional certifications of which I have been granted more transfer credits from Columbia Southern than Excelsior, however CSU's test/transfer limit is 75%, leaving 10 courses to take. Not sure which way to go, so for now I'm going to start chipping away at some of the CLEP's while I'm making up my mind. BTW, wasn't very impressed with TESC's customer service and response to my application. Thanks again...

[retake]

Another option, and a school that I'm considering, is Bellevue. I don't believe they place a limit on the amount of CLEP/DSST credits that can be transferred in, but there is a residency requirement. It's more than four classes though. I don't remember how many exactly.

They have a B&M campus too, which is nice.

[cookderosa]

Only 1 USA regionally accredited college allows 100% testing out- and that is Thomas Edison State College. (Charter Oak and Excelsior both have a course requirement, but it is tiny)

Points to consider-
*testing out is allowed, but it doesn't always fit. For example, some majors simply don't have tests that fit, so if testing is your primary goal, you'll need to choose a major that works.
*when using only tests, you have less flexibility for choosing subjects. For example, in Social Science (my major) if I wanted to use only tests, I would have had to take a ton of history exams and fewer subjects that were interesting to me like sociology and psychology.
*the cheapest tests are CLEP and DSST. TESC counts many of these exams as 200 level (in major). TESC offers their own exams (TECEP) and you may need one or two- but they are quite a bit more money. This is a huge perk when you consider the cost necessity of using TECEP or ECE exams at the other 2 schools.
*find a testing center, be sure it's near you and the hours will mesh with your schedule. Find out the fees too, all centers are different.

Good luck to you!

[The_Professor]

Excellent info... Thanks Jennifer!

[bkbarden]

I am getting my degree from TESC and have fully tested out. I just have one test left and once it's done, I will have gone from zero credits to graduation in approximately nine months. If you are looking for a degree fast and with no classes necessary, TESC is definitely the way to go.

I haven't had the greatest customer service with them either. It seems to me that if you know what you want, it's not that hard to deal with them. If you're wanting advice, they're not so great.

Either way, I do highly recommend TESC if you are looking for a way to knock out an undergrad degree fast.

[The_Professor]

More excellent info… It looks like it’s a tossup between Excelsior and TESC which will depend on which institution offers more transfer credits for my various professional certifications. CSU has gotten my attention as well, however they restrict their testing limit to 75%, leaving a minimum of 10 courses to be taken. At $195 per credit this remains relatively affordable, just need to do this on a fast track and as frugally as possible. Thanks again for all the great feedback…

[zefrench]

The amount of test out depends a lot of what tests are available. What degree program are you looking at either schools ?

[The_Professor]

I'm interested in a BS in Business with an IT specialization. It woudl be either:

a BSBA/MIS with Excelsior
or a BSBA/CIS with TESC
or a BSBA/IT with Columbia Southern

It looks like I would be able to synch up exams for most if not all of the courses required by Excelsior with a combination of CLEP, DSST, ECE and TECEP (they allowed 21 transfer credit for my various IT and professional certifications, which is not bad).

Haven't reviewed TESC yet; still waiting for their evaluation report from my application a couple of months ago (they say they're working on it).

And as I mentioned I would need to take 10 courses with CSU and the rest can be covered by transfer credits/tests (they have allowed 18 transfer credits for my certs).

This entire ongoing process of applying for and analyzing the various programs has become a real project in itself, that's for sure, but I'm getting there...