Ok, there is frankly WAY too much good info on this forum. So much that I can't make up my mind! The current plan for my B.S. Psychology:

-I have about 32 credits from prior B&M/ AP tests
-I plan to CLEP/DSST/ECE out of electives, LL reqs. and finish gen.ed.
-I'm already admitted to SUNY Empire State College for Fall '09 so I can take "History of Psych" and "Sensation & Perception" (to meet Excelsior's reqs)
- will transfer all credits to Excelsior for my B.S. Psych

Now, I was lurking and found someone completely tested out of a B.A. Psychology at TESC. !!!!!!

What to do, what to do. Being able to test-out 100% is very attractive. Not sure about the cost comparison, not sure it makes a whole lot of difference. My questiona are... for grad school does Excelsior look better than TESC or vice versa? Is a B.A. Psych better than a B.S. Psych (or vice versa) if I'm moving on to a M.A. Counseling?

It looks like the Psych degree plan at TESC is less structured (possibly easier) versus the new (1/07) Psych requirements at Excelsior. Would any of this make a difference if I'm going to grad school for Counseling, not Psych? My career goal is to become a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and work as a Gerontological Counselor.

So basically TESC would save me two online courses at SUNY and I could potentially finish faster. Is this a big enough deal in the long run to switch gears? Personally I would like to be done tomorrow, but I'm a stay-at-home mom so I'm pretty flexible.

Any personal opinions?????

Not only is TESC less structured, they also do not have any upper level requirements, just a limit (max of 80 semester hours) that you can transfer from 2-year schools. Meaning if you complete 40 gen ed hours via testing out you can take dang near everything else at CC's, resulting in added flexibility in relation to your scheduling. In relation to a BA vs. BS, I really have no input there. Most B&M schools I believe offer the BS though. On a side note I have been impressed with how EC has become more stringent academically. At one point I was enrolled with them but transferred over to TESC to finish up. I've considered pursuing a second BS in accounting and will likely do so once my MS is finished up, probably through EC.

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Brian in Virginia Beach, VA
MS, MIS, University of Illinois at Springfield, anticipated 12/2010
AAS, Accounting, Tidewater Community College, anticipated 12/2010
BSBA, CIS, Thomas Edison State College, 2008
AS, Business Administration, Tidewater Community College, 2004

At the risk of sounding like an academic snob, I am also impressed with EC and it's stringency. There's just this teensy little part of me that says I would fear someone researching Excelsior less than I would TESC when it comes to moving on to grad school. I don't plan to attend an Ivy League. I just need to pick an online M.A. Counseling (may have found a few already) so I'm not sure they would do any checking into the credentials or the requirements of my undergrad school. I just think I may feel better doing the slightly harder road.

If I was stopping here and already had a career in my field then I wouldn't care. At TESC you really don't have to take upper level courses? I just don't see how they can get away with that. I'll check the website out again and look into that for curiosity's sake.

Thanks for your opinion. It really helped to solidify my rationale.

Gina

I have read, on this forum, that EC is better for building a solid GPA since more types of credits receive letter grades. If you look on the Excelsior site you can find a list of grad schools that have accepted EC students. I can't find it at the moment but if I do I'll post a link. Otherwise, the one thing I like better at TESC is the name of my degree. A BBA is much more common than a BS in General Business. Otherwise, EC rules. Good luck!

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Michael

CLEP - ISCA 68, Sociology 72, Psych 73, A&I Lit 61, HG&D 65, Ed Psych 70, Marketing 72, Management 69, Macroeconomics 63, Microeconomics 67
DSST - Intro to Comp 66, MIS 61, Supervision 67, Counseling 58 - no study!, Personal Finance 67, Statistics 60, Criminal Justice 57, Ethics 58, Finance 63 (All A's at EC)
COC - 2007 (Community College) - Acctg I&II 10c, Work/Study 4c, Intro to Research (Info Lit req) 1c, Society and Rock & Roll 3c, Fund of Music 3c, Guitar I & II 4c, Bass Guitar I 2c
ECE - Ethics (A), HRM (B), Organizational Behavior (B) | CSU - Operations Mgmt. (A) | TECEP - Business Policy 80 (CR)

My Excelsior Degree Journey

Bachelor of Science in General Business, cum laude
Excelsior College
.

I've actually seen the list and it is impressive. Thanks for the reminder and the well wishes!

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Orange Coast College- Gen Ed (26)
Spanish AP (8)

Humanities- 73/50
Analyzing Lit- 67/50
English Lit- 64/50
American Lit-66/50
World Civ I- 58/50

US History I- 9/09
GRE Psychology???

and many more...

Hoping to earn B.S. Psychology (EC) by June 2010