You do not get locked into the enrollment fee by sending in your application. The person that posted that review actually enrolled with Excelsior, then wanted to cancel their enrollment. Excelsior actually has the lowest enrollment fee of the Big 3. It sounds like the reviewer did not have a good understanding of how Excelsior works as all of the Big 3 have enrollment fees. That is the price you pay to be able to have such great flexibility with transferring in credits.

For example, the school that I am currently enrolled in - American Public University, has no enrollment fee. However, you have to take atleast 30 credits through the school at $250.00 each (books included). I love APU, the school is great and the price is great (especially since it includes books), but it is still going to be cheaper and faster for me to transfer to Excelsior to finish up my degree - even with the enrollment fee. That is due to the fact that I can take more Clep, Dantes, and ECE's than I could with APU.

I think it all depends on exactly what you are trying to do. If you want to test out of a bunch of credits the Big 3 is the way to go. If you want to take more classes I would go with a more traditional online school.