How early to start working on college credits?

[clep3705]

Not all schools accept a block transfer of an associates for general ed courses like WGU does. I'd guess MOST schools don't. Heck, even TESU doesn't (unless the AA is from within the NJ state school system, I believe). So even if you get an ACE-style AA and then go to a traditional school for a BA, if that BA school doesn't accept ACE, you'll be repeating much of your AA over again as traditional courses. It's still a gamble. AP/CLEP are a little different though, since AP is pretty much accepted everywhere, and CLEP isn't too far behind.

Actually there is at least one exception to getting ACE accepted by a school that doesn't accept ACE. In the state of Texas, if you obtain an associate's degree from a public funded community college and transfer to a state funded baccalaureate institution, your core courses will transfer. Your core including any from ACE will by law transfer to the state university even if the state university doesn't accept ACE credits. It's not because of the associate's degree per se. Anyone who graduates from a Texas community college with an A.A. or A.S. is by definition core complete. By law, once core complete, always core complete in a transfer situation. You can be core complete without having an A.A. or A.S.

There may be similar rules in other states.