The Basics of Higher Education and Choosing Online Programs

[sanantone]

credits on the quarter system (I’ll explain later). There are only 3 colleges in the U.S. that have virtually no residency requirements: Charter Oak State College, Thomas Edison State College, and Excelsior College. These are unranked schools, but they are great for older students with a lot of credits and have had trouble completing a degree. Their degree programs are flexible, and they are very liberal when it comes to accepting transfer credits. In most cases, you will only have to take 1 or 2 courses with them online in order to complete your degree. Everything else can be transferred in. I completed my bachelor’s degree at one of these colleges.


Another cool thing about the Big 3 is that they accept a lot of non-traditional credits. I’m sure most people have heard of Advanced Placement exams. These allow high school students to test out of college courses. Adults can take these, but it’s not convenient. You have to find a school that will let you sit for the test, and I think the tests are only offered once a year. These tests are offered by the College Board. The College Board also offers an alternative to the AP exams called CLEP. Thousands of schools give credit for CLEP exams. Hundreds of colleges across the country offer CLEP exams year-round. There is a similar test called DSST. This was created by DANTES (a department of the Department of Defense), but they are now offered by Prometric. Again, you can take these year-round at hundreds of sites across the country. Lesser-known options are Ohio University exams (you have to find a proctor), Uexcel ECEP (formerly known as Uexcel and Excelsior Exams) taken at Pearson testing centers, and TECEP (a test created by Thomas Edison State College and you have to find a proctor). Passing a TECEP or Ohio University exam is like earning credit directly from those schools. Uexcel ECEP is approved by the American Council on Education for college credit. Thousands of schools are members of ACE. These schools will consider ACE-approved credits. ACE also approves some courses for credit from nationally accredited schools making them easier to transfer, corporate training, military training, and professional licenses/certifications. The Big 3 are liberal in accepting ACE credits too.


I sped up the process of completing my AAS and BA by self-studying and passing CLEPs, DSSTs, free courses from FEMA (the Big 3 and some CCs give credit for FEMA’s emergency management courses), and one ACE-approved course from ALEKS. After graduating with my BA, I was accepted into a graduate program at a public university in Texas. That was completed online in 14 months. I was then accepted into an on campus, PhD program in Criminal Justice at a state university that is well-known in Texas. As soon as my funding package is put together, I will be receiving a stipend to attend school, which will allow me to quit my job. If you’re curious about what my other degrees are in, my AAS is in Environmental, Safety, and Security Technologies; my BA is in Social Science (it was the easiest way I could combine my criminal justice, sociology, and psychology credits), and my master’s is in Security Studies which is a sub-field of international relations. I also have a graduate certificate in Terrorism and Counterinsurgency Studies. My master’s degree just got me a job as a criminal justice instructor at a vocational/technical college.


Just in case you are unfamiliar with the credit system, U.S. schools are either on the quarter system or semester system. Most schools are on the semester system, and several quarter schools are switching. A bachelor’s on the semester system is around 120 credits and around 180 credits on the quarter system. They both take about 4 years to complete on a traditional schedule. I personally do not like the quarter system because it’s more expensive in relation to comparable colleges. $200 per credit on the semester system is cheaper than $150 per credit on the quarter system. Also, if you want to transfer from a quarter school to a semester school, you will more than likely not receive full credits for courses. For example, a semester school will require 3 credits for English Comp I. At a quarter school, English Comp I is 4 credits. However, a semester credit is equal to 1.5 quarter credits. So, your Comp course from the quarter hour school is only worth 2.67 credits at the semester school. You’re short 0.33 credits.


I have some success stories to share from online students. You can talk to a lot of these students on these two forums.
http://www.degreeforum.net/forum.php
DegreeInfo Distance Learning - online degree forum - The Front Page
One guy that I helped with completing a degree graduated with a BA in Social Science at Thomas Edison and got a higher paying job. One woman finished a degree at Excelsior and was accepted to Texas A&M’s graduate program in statistics (I think she might be studying biostatistics). One person was accepted to a top 30 or top 50 law school (although, since the market is oversaturated, it’s recommended to go to a top 14 school or don’t go at all). One woman was accepted to a top 25 MBA program and was awarded a stipend after graduating from Thomas Edison. I think one woman was accepted to medical school (an osteopathic program) with a Thomas Edison degree. Another woman was accepted to a great international business, MBA program after completing her bachelor’s at Charter Oak. It was a bilingual program in Spain.