AF AU-ABC Program worth it?

[mtbkr02]

I'm wondering if any Air Force Members are participating in the AU-ABC program. I was thinking of doing this with Excelsior towards the Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts. I have a decent amount of credits and mostly just have upper level to go along with orientation and information literacy.

I was talking with my education counselor trying to figure out how the system worked as far as transferring my CCAF degree. I noticed they used 1 of my 6 credits from Freshman College Comp CLEP towards an elective. I was asking to have it changed before my degree is awarded, to pull the credit from what excelsior considers applied professional. This way I could use the leftover 3 Freshman College Comp credits towards arts and sciences in the BSLA. She told me it didn’t matter where CCAF put the credits and that it wasn’t written in stone, Excelsior could just move them around when it came time to completing the bachelor. Anyone know if that’s correct?

I was only confused because normally Excelsior only takes the credits towards English if it’s the CLEP w/Essay, like English Comp w/essay or Freshman Comp w/essay. The CCAF already accepts these tests without the essay portion.

If they don’t care what the CCAF did with the credits, what are the benefits of the AU-ABC program? It seems like I could just throw all my transcripts at Excelsior now without waiting for them to award my 2 CCAF degrees. I cross trained and have filled all the requirements of my two AAS degrees just waiting for the transcripts to arrive and all that. I’ll have Aviation Maintenance Technology, and Health Services Management.
Sorry for the super long post, pretty good for my first one... I've been watching the forums for a while and really learning a good bit from just browsing/searching. I appreciate all the info and experience that is give on
these forums.

Thanks for any input or advice!

-Phil

[mtbkr02]

I’ll answer my own questions to help anyone else who may have been wondering the same thing...

If you've looked at the AU-ABC Program on the AFVEC you've seen the templates they have showing you what credits they will give you when you transfer your CCAF over. It shows that the writing requirement is fulfilled by the CCAF degree which is a little misleading because in my situation it wasn’t filled. There should be an asterisk there or something to let you know the requirements. They don’t accept Freshman College Comp for this, or even English Comp w/Essay unlike the CCAF.

My other question was if the credits got locked in depending on where they were used in the CCAF, answer is no. Probably sounds strange, but trying to figure out my first question is what got me to this strange mode of thinking in the first place.

Well I ended up enrolled with Excelsior ($130 not covered by TA) prior to completing my CCAF which they were fine with of course and they waived my initial evaluation fee, and set me up with the Military Pricing options. I switched to BS Business instead of the BSLA. Its $250 a credit hour, (Max TA) and you have to take 12 credits worth of courses through them, ECE exams do not count.

You also have the multisource option to bypass the 12 credit excelsior course requirement, but you have to pay a higher enrollment fee and graduation fee.

It only took one day to complete my evaluation after receipt of all my transcripts, although I reviewed it carefully and noticed one course missing, but it was quickly updated after I notified them.

[reir]

I was considering the AU-ABC with them also so I wouldn't have to do another English exam. I know on the AFVEC website it lists them as a CAT 1 which is supposed to guarantee that you will have no more than 60 credits to complete the degree program. They then should be classified as a CAT 3 school where you may have to complete additional requirements, like Embry-Riddle. Sounds like a bunch of BS though, I would have raised a stink about that.

Thanks for posting this though, I had already decided against the BSLA with excelsior and went with TESC, this only increases my confidence that I made the right choice.

[BurnieGirl]

I’ll answer my own questions to help anyone else who may have been wondering the same thing...

If you've looked at the AU-ABC Program on the AFVEC you've seen the templates they have showing you what credits they will give you when you transfer your CCAF over. It shows that the writing requirement is fulfilled by the CCAF degree which is a little misleading because in my situation it wasn’t filled. There should be an asterisk there or something to let you know the requirements. They don’t accept Freshman College Comp for this, or even English Comp w/Essay unlike the CCAF.

My other question was if the credits got locked in depending on where they were used in the CCAF, answer is no. Probably sounds strange, but trying to figure out my first question is what got me to this strange mode of thinking in the first place.

Well I ended up enrolled with Excelsior ($130 not covered by TA) prior to completing my CCAF which they were fine with of course and they waived my initial evaluation fee, and set me up with the Military Pricing options. I switched to BS Business instead of the BSLA. Its $250 a credit hour, (Max TA) and you have to take 12 credits worth of courses through them, ECE exams do not count.

You also have the multisource option to bypass the 12 credit excelsior course requirement, but you have to pay a higher enrollment fee and graduation fee.

It only took one day to complete my evaluation after receipt of all my transcripts, although I reviewed it carefully and noticed one course missing, but it was quickly updated after I notified them.

Thank you so much! I had the same questions!:ack: You saved me a lot of time!:patriot:

[mtbkr02]

Glad I could help you guys out

[BurnieGirl]

"If you look at the degree breakout for the AU-ABC on Excelsior's page, it shows that Eng is completed and 0 hours remain, so if you did it with CLEP essay or not, they have agreed to take the credits albeit under *that* degree plan"


Hmmm......banghead

[NutsAboutGolf]

Before the AF AU-ABC program, you'd work on and complete your CCAF...You than applied to a college to start your four degree and assumed they would take all the credits. You then realized they only accepted half. The AU-ABC program ensures that all CCAF credits be transferred for a four year degree. This greatly benefits folks who had long tech schools with blue collar jobs...I believe it's maintainers and sat-commer are like 4-5 course from a CCAF upon graduation of tech school...

[smokey2011]

I know all most maintainers need is management and the gen ed's after tech school. Least that's what I needed, and I'm avionics.