What graduate schools have Excelsior graduates gotten into?

[cookderosa]

1) Go to a community college on student loans for a year, move.
2) Go to a state university for a year (living on campus), drop out
3) go to ITT, graduate
4) Start pursuing ITT bachelors online, drop out
5) Take classes at devry half time for a year, drop out.

The bulk of this debt came from ITT/Devry. A very sizable chunk specifically comes from variable rate private loans gotten through ITT, which have capitalized in a very big way after raising to 9-13.25%APR depending on loan. I absolutely would not advise anybody to go for any variable rate loan, ever.

Why so many schools? Well, I have had a lot of instability in my life. Some circumstantial, a lot self inflicted. Things are getting better now, and I'm clawing my way into a proper life. Probably don't want to share more than that

By the way, Devry's fee schedule is set up so that if you go halftime, your tuition costs twice as much, so you may as well go full time. I went halftime, and even then dropped classes because I really wasn't ready to go bakc to school and was not in a good place.

I am now at my aggregate limit for loans, luckily now I can afford to pay for my expenses out of pocket, at least with the path I am checking out.
Before I learned about TESC, Excelsior, this forum, etc I had planned on taking GenEd courses at Community College to fill out my bachelors at devry, leaving a years left of actual Devry classes to take.
I am glad that I am not doing that now, as that would be a pain to pay out of pocket, especially when I need to be paying down the principle on some of those HIGH interest student loans.

Whatever I go into, I am looking for a few things:
1) Cost
2) Speed of acquisition
3) Applicability to my career. Something that will open doors.
4) Value of degree. Although everything looks promising, I worry if others might bat an eye or perceive TESC or EC negatively. But then again, it can't be much worse than the ITT/Devry's of the world.
5) Ability to get into a graduate program at a state University. The idea is once I get my bachelors, to continue my education, albeit half time. This prevents interest from being capitalized on my loan so I can pay down principle quicker, while getting a higher degree

I think that's a good plan, and you've found the right place. My TESC from 0-122 credits was somewhere in the neighborhood of $7000 total (paid for) but my current grad school has necessitated some borrowing. The non-degree grad classes I've taken I've also paid cash. If you hang around, you'll certainly find ways to earn your BA for as financially savvy as possible. I also want to suggest you poke around an consider various online grad programs that are in the "under $10,000" range. There are many.

Regarding value of degree. I think there is a place for branding, and I think there are industries that require a brand. That said, everyone has an opinion. It may or may not matter in your life, but I also believe that consolidating your credit and enrolling into a program that has an incredibly generous transfer / CLEP policy shows smarts. It says, I've had some missteps, but this is the smartest path for me to take given my situation. People like "up by my bootstrap" stories, so I would encourage you to find your story- and take pride in the degree, even if it wasn't your first choice, and don't hesitate to state your case firmly whenever in the face of nay-sayers. You're not there yet, and as you know, it's not hard to GET INTO college, it's getting OUT of college that's the trick. Doing what you need to do to get the job done- it's really a very good character trait, so don't sell yourself (or the degree) short. Also, good luck!!

[GokkunMilkshake]

Ok guys, so I have settled on my goal for a graduates degree:
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering

To that end, I will be pursuing the BS in Electrical Engineering Technology at Excelsior College
Since this program is ABET accredited, it will qualify me for entry into the EE masters program at ASU.
Although it will be pricey, it will be worth it. I can take my entire masters program online with them, so if I move out of state it is no biggie.

Professionally I am looking to broaden my horizons, and possibly get out of IT. The BS and MS in EE would set me up for that. However even if I stick with IT (by choice or not), such a degree would give a very good impression to prospective employers.

The endgame would be to get into the robotics industry, which would be a cross section of several disciplines: Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science.

Unfortunately not many schools offer specific degrees in robotics, but usually provide it as a specialization of EE or ME, called "Mechatronics". I may either pursue a program with this specialization or just minor in ME while majoring in EE.

I am going to track my progress through all of this in the following thread:
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...llege.html

[Yanji]

I'm not an expert in the EE field, but as far as I know, EE Tech and EE proper are very different degrees. I'm not sure if you could get into a MSc in EE with an EE Tech degree, but I could also be very wrong. If you want a BSc/BEng in EE, Stony Brook University recently started offering an online BSEE programme, but I don't think it's ABET accredited yet, which could be an issue for Masters admissions.

[GokkunMilkshake]

I'm not an expert in the EE field, but as far as I know, EE Tech and EE proper are very different degrees. I'm not sure if you could get into a MSc in EE with an EE Tech degree, but I could also be very wrong. If you want a BSc/BEng in EE, Stony Brook University recently started offering an online BSEE programme, but I don't think it's ABET accredited yet, which could be an issue for Masters admissions.

Thank you for the info, I see Stony brook is fairly giving with the amount of credits that can be transferred in (88). I have e-mailed them to see if they have any specific limitations on how many of those can be obtained via ACE/CLEP/DSST.

Yes, after graduating I would need to take some BS level EE classes at ASU before starting Masters level EE classes. The EE has a few more advanced math and physics class, in addition to classes that place more emphasis on theory and design.

If Excelsior had an EE proper degree I would pursue that. The big push for Excelsior is that they are quite generous with the percentage of credits they allow you to obtain via CLEP, Straighterline, DSST, Aleks, or transfer. I may have to take additional classes for the MS, sure. However I am saving time by not repeating things I have taken/passed multiple times before. Provided I can get into an MS program, I should only have to take 5-7ish additional classes to bring myself up to par with someone with an BS in EE.

Here are the requirements for admission into MSE program for EE (At ASU):
"Applicants must submit an online Graduate College application.

The decision to admit a student who has earned a bachelor's degree from a program accredited by ABET to a master's program in electrical engineering is based on a number of factors. A minimum requirement is an undergraduate GPA of 3.00 (out of 4.00) in the student's last two years of undergraduate work. A student whose undergraduate degree is not from an ABET-accredited program must have the equivalent of at least a 3.50 GPA in the last two years of undergraduate study and score at least 720 on the quantitative portion of the GRE and a good score on the writing portion.

Students interested in applying to this program must submit an online application to the Graduate College. In addition, an applicant whose native language is not English must demonstrate proficiency in the English language by meeting the English proficiency requirements stated on the Graduate College's website. International students seeking teaching assistantships must demonstrate proficiency in spoken English by scoring at least 26 on the speaking portion of the iBT or 50 on the ASU administered Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK).

The admissions deadline for the fall semester is the preceding Dec. 31; for the spring semester, the preceding July 31.

A student whose undergraduate degree is not in electrical engineering may need to take appropriate undergraduate courses to establish a baseline of knowledge in the discipline."

[GokkunMilkshake]

I'm not an expert in the EE field, but as far as I know, EE Tech and EE proper are very different degrees. I'm not sure if you could get into a MSc in EE with an EE Tech degree, but I could also be very wrong. If you want a BSc/BEng in EE, Stony Brook University recently started offering an online BSEE programme, but I don't think it's ABET accredited yet, which could be an issue for Masters admissions.

They are ABET accredited however their costs are through the roof: $675 / credit hour as a nonresident.