Questions for those who've taken numerous tests

[Deantoir Ceol]

Knowing how many home school parents are on here, the following will be unpopular. I truly hate seeing so many home school parents putting their kids through TESC/ECE/COSC to graduate them at home. Don't get me wrong, I plan on having my daughter take CLEP/AP/DSST exams to save some money and get her ahead; but I definitely will be encouraging her to maximize her education to better prepare her for the future.

The big 3 are intended for adult learners looking to "check a box". There are no internships, work/study, research opportunities and these degrees help mid-career adults with experience get that promotion/new job etc.

As an employer, even if the student's parents adjusted their child well, I would have doubts about such a candidate. What does this graduate offer to a prospective employer? CLEPS are knowledge/effort equivalent to a C student (even with a high score); very little writing, original research and vigor (we can all admit this). This person will also be handicapped on their graduate school prospects. A tier 3 online-school, little to no graded credits, no vigor (FEMA?), most likely zero recommendations from professors, no TA experience, etc...

In addition, why did your son not create an account on here and have him conduct his own research/plan his own degree? I think it’s great seeing all these bright kids on the forum planning/conducting their own education.

I don't question the proposed effectiveness or ineffectiveness of home schooling, home-schooled kids are usually intelligent and respectful individuals. You worked so hard to provide the best for your child, why handicap them at such a pivotal point in their lives?

What an excellent question... I'm so glad you brought it up. If I may, allow me to address the major concerns that you presented.

I am a 20-year-old college student about to graduate with a B.A. in English from TESC in a few months. The reason I chose to do what I'm doing (and I chose it for myself-- my parents didn't choose it for me) with respect to earning my Bachelor's degree is not because I wasn't smart enough or was too lazy to be accepted at a "regular college": my strong desire throughout high school was to attend colleges such as Wheaton, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Harvard, etc. and I could easily have done that with my academic record. However, even with good scholarships, the debt burden that I would have accumulated after four years of school/living expenses would have likely been uncomfortably substantial. Additionally, through observing the standard college experiences of many of my peers, the academic advantages that they had over me were minimal at best and disadvantageous at worst. If you'll notice, a great many 'regular' college students nowadays (not all of them, mind you, but many of them) do not appear to be focused on the internship opportunities available to them or the better employment chances they'll have with strong grades and hard work. That said, I am definitely a fan of your idea of creating your own degree plan/doing your own research on here: from what I've seen, anytime that you have to think things out on your own and do the work yourself, it serves you well.

Regarding employment potential and the likelihood that employers will hire someone that has tested out of their degree rather than attended a conventional college, I will say that that was definitely one of my biggest concerns as well, until I heard the words of the experts (including potential employers): in a day and age when so many young people do not possess either the skills or the self-motivation necessary to excel, more employers-- even those at top-ranked, high-profile corporations- are looking for employees that are ethical, hard-working, willing to learn and respectful than they are people with traditional four-year degrees. Not to mention, in this economy, there are some employers that appreciate having workers that aren't burdened with exorbitant student loans that they're trying to slowly pay back. Most CLEP students, from my experience, fit the qualifications that employers are looking for; if there really are jobs that require a higher level of learning, usually you're talking about a position that requires a graduate degree rather than a Bachelor's, and CLEP students that go to a good graduate school are just as qualified for those positions as 'standard' college students.

Through this CLEP/DSST/overall test-out-of-your-degree experience, I have had the time to do extra academic research and activities that I would not have had the time to do if I was sitting in a classroom enduring Basics courses that I already completed in high school, and if I take the initiative to look for them, there are many job internship programs available to me, regardless of where I am getting my degree. I have worked through school and will have, when all is said and done, paid for this entire degree myself and will be completely debt-free; when I complete my Bachelor's this summer, I will be pursuing a study abroad program through Oxford University for my Master's degree. Please, don't think of this as 'handicapping kids at such a pivotal point in their lives'-- even coming from the perspective of someone who would have loved to have gone to a "prestigious school", this way of completing a degree has not put anyone that I've ever seen at any sort of disadvantage, whether in the work force, in graduate school or any other path that we might take.

Blessings,
Paris Anderson