I'd be real interested to hear everyone's opinion on cooperation they have rec'd from their college regarding clep and dantes programs. I have always heard that Thomas Edison, Excelsior, and Ohio U. were the best in cooperating and facilitating degree earning in a timely fashion. Thoughts..pros ,cons.. suggestions on pitfalls to avoid?

Thomas Edison State College (tesc.com) is excellent as far as accepting CLEP for completing a degree. I've CLEP'ed out of 33 credits so far and all were accepted towards my degree requirements.

I think most colleges do allow a certain amount of credits to be earned via CLEP/DANTES. However, they make it very hard to find the information. They LOSE MONEY whenever a student passes an exam instead of paying for the full course.

Most places I have looked at only allow 30 credits. Penn State allows up to 60 credits. That's half a degree....pretty cool! But the pdf file detailing this policy is very well hidden within the deepest, darkest recesses of their site.

In addition, every college has different rules about which exams are acceptable, how the credits are applied within any given degree plan, what the passing score is, and how many credits are awarded per exam.

Example:
Penn State doesn't accept CLEP Biology or Chemistry at all. They award FIVE credits for CLEP College Algebra & Trigonometry. But they only award THREE credits for most of the 6-credit exams (such as Interpreting and Analyzing Literature, American Literature, English Literature, and all the General CLEP exams)

From what I have seen, it seems that CLEP is more generally accepted than DANTES.

CLEP and DANTES testing is apparently the best kept secret in the American education system. If only people knew!

Of course, not everyone can pass these exams, or study on their own. I have told several people about the potential to earn credit by exam who said that they didn't think they could ever do that. Instead, they are paying through the nose, and taking four months to pass each course. Meanwhile I have been taking exams for five months and am already half way through my degree...suckers! Heehee!

So, in many cases, even knowing about CLEP and DANTES is not enough to convince some people of the value of proficiency exams.

Fear is probably their biggest hurdle. If they could just study for and pass ONE exam, I think they would be addicted to it...and save themselves thousands of dollars and years of sitting through traditional college courses.

We're all nervous at first! I put off taking my first exam for a month after I had already studied and was amply prepared. In the end, I took the plunge and took THREE exams on that first day. Passed all three with scores of 76, 73, and 71. That was it for me...I was addicted, and I have never looked back.

You all know exactly what I mean, don't you?



Thank God for CLEP, DANTES, and the Big Three!
Snazzlefrag

My own personal experience is that Thomas Edison has accepted all of my clep and dantes at the suggested credit levels and that has allowed me to complete almost 3 yrs. of college in seven months!!! Cheaper too11

Yep, if only people knew...it could revolutionize the college industry

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Steve, Webmaster

Thomas Edison accepts all CLEP and DANTES with an 80 credit limit of undergradutate, Community college courses

Where do you get the 80 credit limit? I'm sitting at 86 credits right now and all of them have been gained via CLEP and community college. I called about the limit once and was told that the only limitation is that you have to have a certain number of upper level credits to get your degree. I'm getting those via Dantes, just like a friend of mine did who graduated in 2003. I'm just wondering if they've changed the rule and I'm not going to find out about it until I'm trying to graduate, so let me know if you have concrete information on this.

Thanks.

You can test out of your ENTIRE degree at either of the Big Three. No limit on how many credits you can earn by DANTES/CLEP etc.

Yeah, I just found this doing a Google search:

10. Can I take CLEP and other tests for credit toward a degree?

Thomas Edison State College has no limit on the acceptance of credit by examination and recognized DANTES, CLEP and Regents College Examinations. In addition the College offers over 50 examinations for credit through its TECEP program.

(From: http://www.tesc.edu/prospective/mili...llege/faqs.php )

So I think that 80 credit limit is bunk.

Excelsior College accepts DANTES, CLEP. their own exams - ECE and other college exams.