CLEP -- transfers to 4 yrs?

[rachel83az]

The problem is that the site may say that they allow second degrees, but in practice it's not allowed. Multiple students have reported that Excelsior (which is hardly a selective school to begin with) does this. The site says yes, but then you apply for a second Bachelor's degree and they attempt to push you to a Master's program. Despite what the site says, getting a second Bachelor's degree from Excelsior is probably impossible.

[studyingfortests]

The problem is that the site may say that they allow second degrees, but in practice it's not allowed. Multiple students have reported that Excelsior (which is hardly a selective school to begin with) does this. The site says yes, but then you apply for a second Bachelor's degree and they attempt to push you to a Master's program. Despite what the site says, getting a second Bachelor's degree from Excelsior is probably impossible.

Wow. This is disappointing to hear.

So essentially, the claimed availability of the 2nd bachelors is a thinly veiled bait-and-switch for the likely far more profitable (especially if online) masters degree... I wonder if the relevant accreditors would care. At least in theory, honest marketing is supposed to be one of the necessary criteria to maintain accreditation.

[rachel83az]

I'm not sure how they get away with it, to be honest. IIRC, ss20ts wanted a BSBA after getting a BLS from UMPI. Excelsior wouldn't allow her to get the BSBA. She did, eventually, go back and get the BABA from UMPI.

[clep3705]

This is easy in Texas. If you graduate from a community college in Texas, your transcript will have a notation of Texas Academic Core Curriculum complete. If you transfer to a public university in Texas, it is compelled by state law to accept your Texas Academic Core Curriculum. CLEP credits in the core curriculum will transfer as core credits. It doesn't matter if the university doesn't accept any CLEP at all. They're not giving you CLEP credit. They are accepting your core curriculum credits. They have to accept your core curriculum even if they have a more stringent one. For example, it's possible to be core complete at Houston Community College with 3 hours of math. The University of Houston requires 6 hours of math. However, that's for students not previously core complete. It's possible to graduate from U of H if core complete with 3 hours of math from HCC.

Here's an actual example. Student had 75 hours at HCC. Only 66 hours of community college credit can be transferred to U of H. As it turned out, 9 hours of that 75 hours were CLEP credit U of H also gave credit for. Student got those 9 hours removed as transfer credit and awarded as CLEP credit by U of H. The remaining 66 hours from HCC were transferred, with about half of those being CLEP. Add the U of H CLEP to that and there were 75 hours of credit at U of H from outside sources.

[natshar]

I will say though block transfers are rare. But the most common place I've seen them is nursing. Lots of schools at least where I'm from have articulation agreements with nursing so AAS/ADN to BSN RN. It makes transferring easy.

I also went to CC and CC accepted CLEP towards my AA and then I went to Uni and got my CLEP counted their by a loophole cause I read the fine print on the website and knew what I was talking about. So definitely read the policies and know your stuff.

[dfrecore]

This is easy in Texas. If you graduate from a community college in Texas, your transcript will have a notation of Texas Academic Core Curriculum complete. If you transfer to a public university in Texas, it is compelled by state law to accept your Texas Academic Core Curriculum. CLEP credits in the core curriculum will transfer as core credits. It doesn't matter if the university doesn't accept any CLEP at all. They're not giving you CLEP credit. They are accepting your core curriculum credits. They have to accept your core curriculum even if they have a more stringent one. For example, it's possible to be core complete at Houston Community College with 3 hours of math. The University of Houston requires 6 hours of math. However, that's for students not previously core complete. It's possible to graduate from U of H if core complete with 3 hours of math from HCC.

Here's an actual example. Student had 75 hours at HCC. Only 66 hours of community college credit can be transferred to U of H. As it turned out, 9 hours of that 75 hours were CLEP credit U of H also gave credit for. Student got those 9 hours removed as transfer credit and awarded as CLEP credit by U of H. The remaining 66 hours from HCC were transferred, with about half of those being CLEP. Add the U of H CLEP to that and there were 75 hours of credit at U of H from outside sources.

Yes, that's what a block transfer is, and what we're talking about.

If Colorado has a similar process (they might), then the student may be in luck.  But they have to research to see what the policy is.

[bjcheung77]

@OP, you really need to see what the regulations are and rules for the institution of choice to see what can/cant be transferred in or if you can complete a second degree. There are ways to get things done more efficient/effectively, here's an example of what I mentioned a couple of years ago on the sister board. You need to have answers for questions, so I usually start off with those first as I did in post #24. I then follow up with options, such as my post #39, and a final post #42 to conclude my recommendation. Link: https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?thr...-ba.59124/

[jaytea89]

Every time you transfer schools, the new school looks at your CLEP transcript and awards you credit based on their own criteria regardless of what a previous school may have awarded. Whatever the new school says they award for CLEP exams, that's what you get. 

I'm in a similar situation. I could test out of ENGL 111 with a CLEP for my A.S. and it would count as credit towards the actual class. However, once I transfer to either IU or Purdue, those credits will be awarded as "unallocated elective" credits and I'd have to take the class at the school I transfer to(for a lot more money). 

Similar situation for my College Algebra and Precalculus CLEP credits. They count as actual freshman classes at my community college(College Algebra and Trigonometry), but IU only counts them as sub-100 level remedial classes that do nothing but meet prereqs to take higher math classes.

When in doubt, reach out to a school official if you can. The last thing you want is to think you're all set on classes then find out something didn't transfer and be stuck squeezing in freshman classes that you may not have planned for.