Help! Pursue CLEP/DANTES independent of College goals?

[GettinMyBA]

So, any suggestions you guys may have (be as biased as you want, I don't mind )

Say, "Hey, come to Excelsior, this is what it takes to transfer in general, your credit, and start knocking out these CLEP/DANTES", etc. I'm there.
I'll take your experiences (especially if many of them repeat the same thing) as expert experiences, and roll with that. And if I make mistakes, hey, atleast I'm moving forward.

So whatever advice and suggestions you guys have ...

What a truly great attitude!!

I would highly recommend that you get yourself planted into either Excelsior or TESC. You may want to check out both website and programs available to make sure you can get to the specific degree that you want. Now, I'll give my opinions on both from my experience, but note that it's very subjective... someone else's experience might 100% contradict mine.

Ok, so I'm about to finish my BA from TESC. I chose them over Excelsior because as a NJ resident, my tuition falls far lower than what it would have cost me at EC because TESC is a State school. In the years that I've been associated with TESC, I've learned that not all staff members care a lick about their students... there are only a handful of helpful people who know what they are doing. Since I began strictly only dealing with those people - it's been a great ride. I assume that every school has its share of staff members who dont give a crap about their students, so this is not something that I necessarily hold TESC accountable for. For the most part, I'm ok with my entire experience with TESC. I definitely have seen admin screw ups, professors who don't get involved with their students, etc... but again, nothing that you should expect to be better elsewhere.

Now, I recently looked more into Excelsior and I like a lot of what I see, and I hate some of what I see. Their online library and access to publications is top notch. The people are helpful (staff) from my few experiences on the phone with them. I also like their phone system much better becaue it's far easier t get to the person/department that you need. TESC's system needs help! (by the way, i know it might sound ridiculous that I'm diuscussing phone systems when comparing colleges.... I'm trying to give you a day-to-day experience comparison rather than the macro view that the schools would like for you to have. reality is that neither school is "better" - you will work hard at both, you will eventually walk with a degree from both, I doubt that any employer likes to see one over the other). So, I looked into Excelsior for the General Business degree (not offered by TESC and doing it thru EC will be less total classes than if I try to get a second degree from TESC). I like the EC program but I really feel "nickel & dimed" all over the place. Example: their business degree requires a certain number of 'upper level' courses but they define upper level as 300 and above whereas TESC defines it as 200 or above. It becomes a problem in this example - The DANTES test Organizational Behavior (at a cost of $70) is a 200 level test and therefore counts as a lower level course for EC yet it counts as upper level in TESC. So if I want the upper level (which I do... this is not a made up example), I am forced to take the Excelsior College Examination at a cost of $230!! Then, since it's a test that I also need for my BA at TESC, I have to order a RUSH transcript at $42.... bottom line $272 paid to EC for what would have been $70 at TESC (and watch this..... the $70 isn't even paid to TESC; it goes to DANTES... TESC makes $0 on this type of thing).

I hope this helps a little!