Just got word Excelsior is not accepting 48hrs of my credits so I need your help.

[dr504]

Community,
Over the past year I have been advancing toward a BPS Business with excelsior. I am a Paramedic by trade, so my first step was to obtain my AAS degree from a local community college. It was my hope to obtain the full 60hrs and transfer that into Excelsior. I was able to knock that out quickly and within budget. After completing that degree and transferring the credit into Excelsior, it was ruled that the 48hrs of credited EMS courses will not count for Excelsior. The situation is complicated as the college offers two options for those to become a Paramedic. Option 1 is a Certificate only program, and Option 2 is a AAS Degree. I originally took Option 1 and sought credit for the degree. This leaves me questioning my original plan, so I thought I would tap into the massive wealth of knowledge that is the Degree Forum Community.

My objective remains the same....Obtain the quickest, and best value, Bachelors level Business degree. I have paid the student services fee for Excelsior but by no means do I have to stay there.

My current credits are as follows.

Credits Applied by Excelsior
Community COLLEGE
2002/FA CPMT*1411 INTRO COMP MAINTNCE 4.00 BPC L
2002/FA ITCC*1302 LAN DSGN/PRT CISCO I 3.00 BPC L
2002/FA ITSC*1317 PC OP SYSTEMS-DOS 3.00 BPC L
2002/FA ITCC*1306 BASIC RTR CNF CISCO2 3.00 BPC L
2003/SP ITCC*1342 LOC AREA MGT CISCO 3 3.00 BPC L
2003/SP ITNW*1264 PRACTICUM-BSNT 2.00 BPC L
2003/SP ITSC*1313 INTERNET/WEB PAGE DEV 3.00 BPC L
2003/SP ITCC*1346 WIDE AREA MG CISCO 4 3.00 BPC L
Community COLLEGE
2014/SP HIST*1301 U S HISTORY I 3.00 S L
2014/SP HIST*1302 U S HISTORY II 3.00 S L
2014/SP MUSI*1306 MUSIC APPREC 3.00 H L
2014/SP SPCH*1315 PUBLIC SPEAKING 3.00 H L
2015/FA ENGL*1301 COMPOSITION I 3.00 W L
2015/FA HITT*1305 MED TERM I 3.00 E L
2015/FA MATH*1342 ELEM STATIST METHODS 3.00 N L
2015/FA GOVT*2306 TEXAS GOVERNMENT 3.00 S L
EXCELSIOR COLLEGE
2015/SP CCS*100 EC STUDENT EXPERIENCE P 0.00 L
Total Credits Completed 48.00
Excelsior College Grade Point Average n/a

CLEP Credit not yet applied, but earned:
Principles of Management
American Government

EMS courses applied toward AAS in Emergency Medical Technology from a local CC but not accepted toward Excelsior degree plan.

EMSP 1147 Pediatric Life Support CR 1.00
EMSP 1149 Trauma Life Support CR CR 1.00
EMSP 1160 EMT-Basic Clinical CR CR 1.00
EMSP 1165 Pract-EMT Paramedic CR CR 1.00
EMSP 1166 Pract-EMT Paramedic CR CR 1.00
EMSP 1438 Intro Advanced Practice CR CR 4.00
EMSP 1455 Trauma Management CR CR 4.00
EMSP 1456 Patient Assessment & Airway Manage CR CR 4.00
EMSP 1471 Anatomy & Physiology for EMS Prof CR CR 4.00
EMSP 1501 Emergency Medical Technician-Basic CR CR 5.00
EMSP 2135 Advanced Cardiac Life Support CR CR 1.00
EMSP 2167 Pract-EMT Paramedic CR CR 1.00
EMSP 2168 Pract-EMT Paramedic CR CR 1.00
EMSP 2237 Emergency Procedures CR CR 2.00
EMSP 2243 Assessment Based Management CR CR 2.00
EMSP 2248 Emergency Pharmacology CR CR 2.00
EMSP 2330 Special Populations CR CR 3.00
EMSP 2338 EMS Operations CR CR 3.00
EMSP 2434 Medical Emergencies CR CR 4.00
EMSP 2444 Cardiology CR CR 4.00
Term Totals : 49.00

Any help as I pivot to my next step is greatly appreciated.

DR504

[dmjacobsen]

What specifically do you need help with? Are you trying to appeal the non-transfer of those credits, or looking for other options for credit?

Unfortunately, AAS degrees -- as you would expect -- have a lot of Applied Sciences credits. These credits don't transfer very well to other programs, except as elective credit.

Did you get a report indicating what else you need to complete for the degree? Ex: X hours of humanities, X hours of natural science, etc?

[Old Guy]

See what COSC and TESU will offer. COSC accepts a whack of FEMA credits and your credits are in all aspects superior.

[dr504]

dmjacobsen,
If I thought an appeal would work I would give it a shot, but I have already held my ground and didn't get a different answer. At this point, I just want a plan that gets me moving again.

Please see attached credits needed for BPS degree.

[sanantone]

COSC will award credits for the paramedic certification, alone. The problem is that these will just be free electives for a business degree. The issue is not that it's an AAS. If this were an AS in paramedicine, you would have the same issue. On the other hand, if this were an AAS in CJ, the CJ courses could be used toward a BA in CJ and some courses might even count as social sciences.

[rebel100]

Charter Oak took the bulk of my Paramedic and even EMT-B (around 30+ hours). It was the bases for my second concentration in "Health Care" I added the DSST Substance Abuse, a Nursing Ethics course from CSU_Pueblo, and I forget what the third UL was for that concentration. The rest were Organizational Leadership/Business courses for my primary concentration.

[GoodYellowDogs]

My LVN was certificate as well and was taken at a Regionally Accredited Community College. On Excelsior's original assessment they did not give me credit. However, on my second assessment they put it into Applied Professional, gave me credit for the whole thing, and then I made a depth out of it by taking one upper level nursing course.

[dfrecore]

I agree with Sanantone - the problem is not that it's an AAS, it's that they are not the credits needed for the degree you want. If you had taken 49 credits of Literature or History or whatever, they wouldn't work well for a Business degree.

If you had gotten a AA in Business from your college, most if not all would have been applied to the BPS. If you were trying to get a different degree at EC that had anything to do with paramedics/health/nursing/something like that, a lot of your credits would work there as well. The problem is that you switched degrees. That will be difficult to transfer in the best of circumstances.

[dr504]

I agree with Sanantone - the problem is not that it's an AAS, it's that they are not the credits needed for the degree you want. If you had taken 49 credits of Literature or History or whatever, they wouldn't work well for a Business degree.

If you had gotten a AA in Business from your college, most if not all would have been applied to the BPS. If you were trying to get a different degree at EC that had anything to do with paramedics/health/nursing/something like that, a lot of your credits would work there as well. The problem is that you switched degrees. That will be difficult to transfer in the best of circumstances.

So with my current status and state how would y'all recommend I proceed? Is the BPS with Excelsior the smartest way to continue?

Dr504

[cookderosa]

AAS programs are typically 80+ credits, and typically only about 15 are general education. In your case, you actually have a LOT of general education, so that's a good thing. As everyone has explained, you simply don't have a slot for EMSP classes to fit into. An EMSP class can't meet a requirement for history or math, so it's just sitting there unused. My AOS degree in culinary didn't contain ANY gen eds lol.

Anyway, don't look at it as a loss. Your AAS is very useful and helpful in your field. EMTs know what an AAS is, and it's an industry standard. Having an AAS is better than just the EMT certificate- so what if it won't all double dip? That just means you'll need a few more credits on the new degree.

You can get the MOST yield by finding a program with the most elective options, or building on a professional studies bachelor option. I'm not the best person to guide you with that since I'm not up on all the degree distributions any more, however, if you look big picture- pick the degree you think will be the most helpful/useful instead of the one that will give you a handful more credits. At the end of the day, you can test out of those credits, and a slow degree vs a fast degree really only comes down to a month or two difference; pretty much a wash.

Keep us posted what you decide to do!

EDIT: one final thought, see if your community college has an articulation agreement with a college in your state that DOES accept all those credits in transfer. That might be something to consider....