Why No All Alt Credit Schools?

[utility]

Why are no schools, pay a fee, get all of your alt credits transcribed and you have a degree?  I guess the exception might be Pierpont (which is RA)

I see the NA schools all seem to be more of a pain in the ass than RA in regards to transferring alt credits.  I'd expect them to be more lenient.

I'm surprised there are no schools that have some type of accreditation that would accept all ACE and NCCRS.  I guess they'd lose accreditation if they just handed them out but the big 3 were basically like that for years.

Why aren't NA schools more lenient?

I only posted this thread because now I have to get more RA credits to finish and it's not even the degree I wanted originally.

[bjcheung77]

Apollos University which is Nationally Accredited "used to" or "still does" on a case by case basis, they do exactly the same as what the Big 3 does - requires the cornerstone/capstone 6 credits for their Associates, 12 credits for the Bachelors at the undergrad level. For the masters, you can transfer in half the degree I recall.

Other than that, the Big 3 are still your only options to transfer in the bulk of your credits (up to 113/114), you would need to do more RA courses, but think of it this way, before the ACE/NCCRS options came out like it did the last few years, everyone was using CLEP/DSST for LL & TECEP/UEXCEL for UL at the Big 3.

People going for COSC/TESU can think of doing the same, taking TECEP/UEXCELS (8 of them for the LL) and then take the remainder Capstone/Cornerstone with the institution they decide to go for. They still take the same 114 credits through alternative means, but the way of doing things has changed - it's going back to the basics.

[rachel83az]

I think that there's this notion that degrees need to be both difficult and time-consuming in order to be worth anything. And colleges/universities want to keep up appearances this way.

[utility]

I think that there's this notion that degrees need to be both difficult and time-consuming in order to be worth anything. And colleges/universities want to keep up appearances this way.

It's still time consuming accumulating all of these credits.  Not 4 years but time consuming.

I just need 1 UL credit (working on that now) and the capstone and I'm done at TESU.  I'm just surprised there aren't more choices to just transfer all credits and trade them in with smaller schools or schools with lower level accreditation.

Why don't any NA schools (besides I guess Apollos, which this is the first time I've heard of it) fit into the old Big 3 format?

[rachel83az]

Possibly because of accreditation requirements. They don't want to look like a diploma mill.

[LevelUP]

Why are no schools, pay a fee, get all of your alt credits transcribed and you have a degree?  I guess the exception might be Pierpont (which is RA)

I see the NA schools all seem to be more of a pain in the ass than RA in regards to transferring alt credits.  I'd expect them to be more lenient.

I'm surprised there are no schools that have some type of accreditation that would accept all ACE and NCCRS.  I guess they'd lose accreditation if they just handed them out but the big 3 were basically like that for years.

Why aren't NA schools more lenient?

I only posted this thread because now I have to get more RA credits to finish and it's not even the degree I wanted originally.

It would probably be better for the U.S. education system as a whole to require students to get at least 30 credits at the school they are getting a degree from before graduating with a degree similar to what WGU does. 

However, they can do this after I graduate from TESU so I don't have to pay extra    I'm fine with the way things are now, but I could see a problem if a bunch of schools started handing out degrees for alt credits which may devalue degrees and the education system as a whole.

[bjcheung77]

Two decades ago, actually, closer to two dozen years ago... when I first looked at the Big 3, they weren't even on my list of "possible" college choice options as I didn't want to go to any college that would grant a college degree entirely through alternative or test-out credit! I wouldn't mind a small private college or public/state college as long as it had at least a few courses that you had to take at the college for GPA, graduation, learning purposes, etc.

I would recommend the Big 3 but wouldn't actually go to them as it felt weird - like I'm graduating from an RA college but having not taken a class ever. I looked back into them only because back in 2011/2012, they instituted the Capstone for some of their degree programs. That helped my decision and I knew it was because of ever changing accreditation requirements from the accreditation agencies. I looked at competency based degrees the same way...

TLDR: Basically before 2012, I thought the Big 3 were a bit "diploma mill'ish", but I know they're not... I somewhat thought competency based degree providers were a bit too easy going as well. Fast forward to now, I know institutions have to go through rigorous requirements and update their catalogs to conform to these requirements, it's not just for show nor just for monetary reasons. Changes are made (some for the better, others for the worse...)

[Maniac Craniac]

My grand idea is that the USDoE could set up "University of the United States of America" that offers no courses of its own, but accepts all credits from any accredited or otherwise approved source. Even if all they granted was a BGS, it could go a long way to help students in a bind and even to reduce student loan debt.

In practice, it would be well known that the degrees are legitimate, but that the credits could have come from anywhere. For those that care about the details of a students course of study, they could just look at the transcripts. For those that just want a box checked, a checked box it would be.

Tune in next week to see how I solve world hunger.

[dfrecore]

My grand idea is that the USDoE could set up "University of the United States of America" that offers no courses of its own, but accepts all credits from any accredited or otherwise approved source. Even if all they granted was a BGS, it could go a long way to help students in a bind and even to reduce student loan debt.

In practice, it would be well known that the degrees are legitimate, but that the credits could have come from anywhere. For those that care about the details of a students course of study, they could just look at the transcripts. For those that just want a box checked, a checked box it would be.

Tune in next week to see how I solve world hunger.

Part A is a great idea.

Part B - waiting with bated breath for that!