Teenager Testing Question

[alleycat]

Ok, so my 16 yr old son comes to me this morning and informs me he has decided he wants to pursue a BS/BA degree through testing like I did! My heart soared. He is such a bright kid and I think he will do well. He wants to start right away. Now I have a few questions for those that have kids that have tested. Are there any age minimums or anything special that must be done if they are under 18 and haven't graduated high school? Has anyone had any problem getting colleges to accept the credit if it was earned prior to graduating high school? Has anyone had a HS accept the the CLEP or DSST exams for HS credit, thus getting double credit? He should technically graduate in January, as he only has a couple of required classes left, but it would be nice if he could take some of those via testing over the summer and give him more time for testing and B&M college classes in the fall. I know there are a lot of people out there with this info. Please pass along any advice and suggestions. Does anyone recommend a specific order of testing for high school kids? I thought I would have him start with A&I Lit. He loves to read and it would be a nice jump start of 6 credits to motivate him. I'm just worried about some of the old literary words since they really don't cover much literature here. Thanks in advance for any info!

Marianne,

My son took some clep exams and they did count toward his high school credits, but this school is really geared toward people obtaining their education in many different ways. He also did fema credits which this school also excepted. But my daughter school would not hear of such things. My daughters college did take her cleps that she did during last summer before she actually attended the school. It just depends on the schools policies.

I would also recommend that he consider taking Intro to Computers since he is quite good at that. What sort of degree is he looking into? Is he in any AP classes that he could take the test and receive credit for that. Also in my state they have this program called Running Start were you take classes in high school and if you pass the final exam they are sent to the CC that accepts the credit and it is placed on a transcript. I would also recommend that he take a look at different tests and see what he has the basic knowledge and back ground in and the test out of it, like the computers test. Many of the colleges in my state take ACE reviewed course. The school I am using does not but many others do. He possible could get some of his math credits out of the way.

You do not need to be 18 to take clep exams. I would like to also point out that COSC will take anyone over 16 yrs of age with I believe it is 9 college credits. Also take a look on college boards and see the list of credits that the possible schools he might want to attend accept. Her school has very few they take, something like 9 or 10 clep exams. They all go under free electives. Her AP credits went under her gen eds. She walked into her university with almost 30 credits.

Good Luck