Just Getting Started

[KristyAnn4793]

Aloha all!
     My husband and I are both looking at getting our bachelors with DANTES & CLEP amount other methods. He is looking at getting his degree in Liberal Arts because we have read that Liberal Arts is the absolute fastest method. We’re looking at the big three but we’re struggling to figure out which of the big three is the best. As well as a degree plan with which cleps/ Dantes to take. He’s active duty and would like to utilize cleps/Dantes as the first attempt is paid for by the military. However were more than willing to pay for study.com and other websites. 
Another question is do you apply for the college before or after you have accumulated the credits? 
As in do you take the cleps without being attached to the college and after you’re done taking them transfer them in or take the cleps while enrolled in the big three? We’re very interested but so confused! We would love any info you may have on how to get liberal arts ASAP! And what cleps to take. Thank you so much!

[ss20ts]

DANTES is now DSST. Before you get too attached to either DSST or CLEP, are there testing centers open where you're located. I see you're military so you may have better luck than most of us with this right now. I ask about the testing centers being open because most have closed due to COVID. They've been closed for months and most won't be opening anytime soon.

Do either one of you already have any college credits? You need to really pick out which degree you'd like to earn and see which schools offer that degree. Then you can make your degree plan. Keep in mind that you may need to be flexible because changes happen every year at schools. Sophia.org, Study.com, and StraighterLine.com seem to be the most popular and depending on which school you select, these may be the easiest to transfer in. Every school - even the Big 3 - don't accept credits from all sources of alternative credits.

The Big 3 are:
Excelsior College
Thomas Edison State University
Charter Oak College

There other options for competency based programs such as Western Governors University, Purdue University Global, Northern Arizona University, and University of Maine - Presque Isle.

Welcome to the forum!

[LevelUP]

Aloha all!
     My husband and I are both looking at getting our bachelors with DANTES & CLEP amount other methods. He is looking at getting his degree in Liberal Arts because we have read that Liberal Arts is the absolute fastest method. We’re looking at the big three but we’re struggling to figure out which of the big three is the best. As well as a degree plan with which cleps/ Dantes to take. He’s active duty and would like to utilize cleps/Dantes as the first attempt is paid for by the military. However were more than willing to pay for study.com and other websites. 
Another question is do you apply for the college before or after you have accumulated the credits? 
As in do you take the cleps without being attached to the college and after you’re done taking them transfer them in or take the cleps while enrolled in the big three? We’re very interested but so confused! We would love any info you may have on how to get liberal arts ASAP! And what cleps to take. Thank you so much!

A Liberal Arts degree is not necessarily the fastest.  A business degree is fast too and a lot more useful.

If speed is a priority for you, then you be doing it wrong with CLEPS/Dantes.  Sophia would be at least 2x faster. 

The only thing I would take a CLEP for is English comp or something I could pass with zero studying which wouldn't be much.

[bjcheung77]

My recommendation for the schools would be TESU for all Active service people and their spouses, not only because they're a University, have a public/state university image, but is the cheapest/easiest/fastest and has the most value. If you're looking at a BALS or the BSBA, they are the easiest degrees as only 2 courses are required and 18 credits by TECEP (online exam similar to CLEP/DSST) for a total of 24 credits residency requirements. If you're into competency based degrees, then WGU and the other providers would do as well, but if you're looking for the Big 3, it's TESU, Excelsior, Charter Oak, in that order for active service people... for civilians, it's a different story.

[rachel83az]

Aloha all!
     My husband and I are both looking at getting our bachelors with DANTES & CLEP amount other methods. He is looking at getting his degree in Liberal Arts because we have read that Liberal Arts is the absolute fastest method.

Liberal Arts can be fast but that doesn't necessarily make it the best choice. Personally, I'm working on a Computer Science degree and it shouldn't take me that much longer than it would take me to get a Liberal Arts/Liberal Studies degree. What are you two wanting to do with the degree? A BALS degree is very generic and doesn't open as many doors as a specific degree would. I'm not trying to knock people who do decide that a BALS is right for them but you need to look at more than just ease when it comes to getting your degree.

A Liberal Arts degree is not necessarily the fastest.  A business degree is fast too and a lot more useful.

If speed is a priority for you, then you be doing it wrong with CLEPS/Dantes.  Sophia would be at least 2x faster. 

The only thing I would take a CLEP for is English comp or something I could pass with zero studying which wouldn't be much.

I second LevelUP's suggestion. A business degree can be had relatively quickly, especially with the use of Sophia. With TESU, 70+ Lower Level credits can be gotten from Sophia. COSC and Excelsior also accept Sophia credits, but TESU is generally better for military personnel as stated by bjcheung77. Sophia can be completed in 4-6 months very easily (possibly even faster, depending on how much time you have). That'd be $316-$474 for each of you ($79 per month/each). You not only have to consider the financial cost of Sophia but also your time/stress investment. With the pandemic still raging on and test centers mostly being closed, you're going to be saving yourselves a lot of headaches and hassles by getting your general education credits (and some business credits!) done through Sophia rather than trying to schedule CLEP/DSST testing.

[BBryant165]

Aloha all!
     My husband and I are both looking at getting our bachelors with DANTES & CLEP amount other methods. He is looking at getting his degree in Liberal Arts because we have read that Liberal Arts is the absolute fastest method. We’re looking at the big three but we’re struggling to figure out which of the big three is the best. As well as a degree plan with which cleps/ Dantes to take. He’s active duty and would like to utilize cleps/Dantes as the first attempt is paid for by the military. However were more than willing to pay for study.com and other websites. 
Another question is do you apply for the college before or after you have accumulated the credits? 
As in do you take the cleps without being attached to the college and after you’re done taking them transfer them in or take the cleps while enrolled in the big three? We’re very interested but so confused! We would love any info you may have on how to get liberal arts ASAP! And what cleps to take. Thank you so much!

Your husband needs to collect his JST Transcripts and his VMET as a beginning. Although a BALS or BSBA may be fast it is entirely possible for him that a degree within his career field (depending on MOS?) as he will likely receive credit for his Advanced Individual Training (AIT). Secondly, with him having access to a CAC card he should look to use military/government options for training on .mil or .gov sites (Defense Acquisition University/DAU, Joint Special Operations University/JSOU, Federal Emergency Management Agency/FEMA, etc as many of these organizations have ACE certified courses or articulation agreements with schools such as the Big Three. As others have pointed out TESU is a good option for military, Excelsior is as well. Excelsior waives the application fee for military, accepts tuition assistance (TA), and also only requires you take 2 classes with them, 3 if you count info literacy but that course can be completed self-paced in a short period of time without a grade affecting GPA. If you enroll under the partnership program you will have to take 12 credits with excelsior as opposed to the multi-source program which only requires the cornerstone, information literacy, and capstone among other things such as graduation fee, enrollment fee, etc.