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!!