TECEP and College Residency Requirement

[laughter]

When a graduate school requires that the last 30 undergraduate credits be completed at the undergraduate degree-awarding institution, would TECEPs count towards the requirement?

[sanantone]

It depends on whether or not the grad school requires those credits to be graded. Which program are you looking at? Have you contacted them?

[laughter]

No, I haven't contacted them. I have several in mind, but no definite ones yet. Generally, what would be the average number of graded credits needed? And what is the average number of credits that must be completed at the degree-awarding institution?
Do all grad schools have the requirement that a certain number of credits be completed at the degree-awarding institution?

[sanantone]

It's rare for a grad school to require a certain number of credited be completed at the degree-granting institution. However, some might want to see 30-60 graded credits. I think you will find, for the most part, that grad schools haven't thought up a policy for this. 99.9% of colleges in the U.S. have at least a 25% residency requirement, so grad schools aren't used to seeing applications from people who have less than 30 graded credits.

[OfficerA]

Southeast Missouri State University's MBA department flat out told me that they do not know how they would factor in my large combination of CLEP/DSST/TECEPs when I apply to them.

This really is unexplored territory; the most writing I've seen is for provisional acceptance into the program, but only if one's GPA falls below 3.0 I believe.

[laughter]

It's rare for a grad school to require a certain number of credited be completed at the degree-granting institution. However, some might want to see 30-60 graded credits. I think you will find, for the most part, that grad schools haven't thought up a policy for this. 99.9% of colleges in the U.S. have at least a 25% residency requirement, so grad schools aren't used to seeing applications from people who have less than 30 graded credits.

Thanks for the info!

Southeast Missouri State University's MBA department flat out told me that they do not know how they would factor in my large combination of CLEP/DSST/TECEPs when I apply to them.

This really is unexplored territory; the most writing I've seen is for provisional acceptance into the program, but only if one's GPA falls below 3.0 I believe.

Would UExcels/ECEs be more "transferrable" since they are assigned letter grades?

[sanantone]

Even though they are designated with an "X" in the code, it could be that schools can't tell it's a CBE when looking at it on the transcript. But, I think the main issue is having a degree that is more than 75% pass/fail credits, so the Excelsior transcript of graded Uexcels could help. You would submit it to the grad school just like you would any other transcript of a school you've attended even if you weren't officially an Excelsior student.

[Yanji]

Southeast Missouri State University's MBA department flat out told me that they do not know how they would factor in my large combination of CLEP/DSST/TECEPs when I apply to them.

This really is unexplored territory; the most writing I've seen is for provisional acceptance into the program, but only if one's GPA falls below 3.0 I believe.

I don't think it's "unexplored" territory, as plenty of people here have gotten into graduate programs before. As sanantone mentioned, it's more a matter of (lack of) policy at individual institutions. A few, such as Illinois, have written policies regarding residency for graduate program admission, but the majority don't. Most graduate programs have a holistic admissions process which involve some combination of essays, recommendations, test scores and GPA, and an admissions committee is not bound by rules which are not written, so it really is a matter of how the applicant presents themselves and how the adcom views the applicant. With that being said, having more letter grades on your transcript is certainly better than less.

It may actually help people with high amounts of pass/fail credit on their transcripts to take the GRE/GMAT/etc. even if it is not required for the program they are applying to, as a good test score can only strengthen your application.

[laughter]

I would have more than 30 graded credits, but am hoping to get it to about 60 graded without incurring to much costs along the way.