CLEP/DSST and GPA?

[cookderosa]

If I'm aggressively CLEP/DSST-ing out of stuff, is there a rule of thumb for how many GPA graded courses I should make sure to have on my transcript if my goal is a competitive grad school?

What do you mean by competitive?
Hard-core competitive? Like a PhD at Harvard competitive? Like Top 10 med school competitive? Because that's a list of about 100 colleges- there are 2,000 that many that don't care, so part of the scenario is where you want to go.

This question is a little like when someone in high school is told they have to complete "4 years of math, 4 years of English, etc..... to get into college...." which is true for some colleges, certainly not all colleges - the TRUTH is you can walk into any community college without ever having attended a single high school class, so, it's useless to apply general guidelines to everyone, because there really isn't one best path or way.

So, can you go to grad school? Yes - can you get into EVERY grad school? No. Neither can the kid who just spend $150k on his bachelor's degree from NoNameU.

I'll also be a little bold and say that you're not breaking rules by CLEPping. The college you're attending sets the rules, and assuming you are playing by THEIR rules and the college is legitimate, you should take every advantage available to you. So, if your college allows you to CLEP out of 45 credits, then CLEP 45 credits! That's called being smart!