Inquiry: NCCRS Credit Questions

[decimon]

Generally speaking, individual credits don't matter when applying to grad school, just that you were awarded a bachelor's degree. If the grad program has prerequisite course requirements, then those courses matter, and in that case the grad school may be happy with the transcript from the school that granted you credit. They may also not accept alternative credits for their prerequisites at all, or insist on grades for them.

Thanks.

Gaining alternative credits is what this site is about so its members will be hosed if their desired grad school won't accept alternative credits other than NCCRS in the undergrad program.

[tensen]

Excelsior OneTranscriptService?

https://www.excelsior.edu/onetranscript

That doesn't help in the future, as most schools want credits directly from the source - they won't take it from a transcript.  This service is only if you really need a transcript and want all of your credits on a single one.  Even then, I'm not sure how useful this is.

https://support.study.com/support/soluti...vice-nccrs-

Apparantly in this case it looks like study.com made some sort of agreement so that the courses come from Excelsior.

[dfrecore]

Generally speaking, individual credits don't matter when applying to grad school, just that you were awarded a bachelor's degree. If the grad program has prerequisite course requirements, then those courses matter, and in that case the grad school may be happy with the transcript from the school that granted you credit. They may also not accept alternative credits for their prerequisites at all, or insist on grades for them.

Thanks.

Gaining alternative credits is what this site is about so its members will be hosed if their desired grad school won't accept alternative credits other than NCCRS in the undergrad program.

Not exactly.  If you want to go to a grad school, and you know that in advance, you should ALWAYS see what the requirements are in that school/program so that you know what you need to take to get grades in for any prereqs.  If you decide later to go to grad school after you get your BA, you can always choose a school that will just accept the BA that you have as fulfilling your prereqs.  Or, you can go back to a cheap school and take graded credits.

But, whether you used ACE, NCCRS, CLEP, whatever - if you have them on your BA transcript and you graduate, then you should be fine.  Whether it was ACE or NCCRS, it shouldn't matter.

[decimon]

Generally speaking, individual credits don't matter when applying to grad school, just that you were awarded a bachelor's degree. If the grad program has prerequisite course requirements, then those courses matter, and in that case the grad school may be happy with the transcript from the school that granted you credit. They may also not accept alternative credits for their prerequisites at all, or insist on grades for them.

Thanks.

Gaining alternative credits is what this site is about so its members will be hosed if their desired grad school won't accept alternative credits other than NCCRS in the undergrad program.

Not exactly.  If you want to go to a grad school, and you know that in advance, you should ALWAYS see what the requirements are in that school/program so that you know what you need to take to get grades in for any prereqs.  If you decide later to go to grad school after you get your BA, you can always choose a school that will just accept the BA that you have as fulfilling your prereqs.  Or, you can go back to a cheap school and take graded credits.

But, whether you used ACE, NCCRS, CLEP, whatever - if you have them on your BA transcript and you graduate, then you should be fine.  Whether it was ACE or NCCRS, it shouldn't matter.

Okay, thanks.

I think the OP should have gotten a few things to think about in this thread but the OP hasn't indicated yea or nay.

[dfrecore]

Excelsior OneTranscriptService?

https://www.excelsior.edu/onetranscript

That doesn't help in the future, as most schools want credits directly from the source - they won't take it from a transcript.  This service is only if you really need a transcript and want all of your credits on a single one.  Even then, I'm not sure how useful this is.

https://support.study.com/support/soluti...vice-nccrs-

Apparantly in this case it looks like study.com made some sort of agreement so that the courses come from Excelsior.

I'm not certain.  It doesn't say that the courses will look like they were taken at Excelsior, just that EC processes the paperwork.

I took Stats at Study.com, so the course is on my TESU transcript.  That doesn't mean that if I were to transfer to another school for another bachelor's degree, that they wouldn't want to get my NCCRS transcript, and not take it from my TESU transcript.  Just like they won't take things from other schools on my TESU transcript. They want a transcript from each school I took courses at.

[cookderosa]

From another angle, the NCCRS credits should be 'locked in' if accepted by a school for an awarded degree, no?

If I get a BA in  Moon Baying with some NCCRS credits in the mix then those credits should be as good as any when applying for an MA in Moon Baying, no?

Generally speaking, individual credits don't matter when applying to grad school, just that you were awarded a bachelor's degree. If the grad program has prerequisite course requirements, then those courses matter, and in that case the grad school may be happy with the transcript from the school that granted you credit. They may also not accept alternative credits for their prerequisites at all, or insist on grades for them.

I agree with Dave. Don't use NCCRS for any prereqs if you have the foresight to avoid it. It's not totally impossible that a grad school might ask for a specific course's transcript from the original provider, which wouldn't be a big deal unless the NCCRS course happened to be the one they asked for AND the company went out of business. If they are still in business, no problem. The likelihood is very very small, and I don't know that it's worth the attention we're giving it in this thread, but that said, I think moving forward it should be a consideration for *new* credit you consider. Also, you're never hosed. There is always something you can do. Don't let this be anything other than a blip on your radar.

[davewill]

I agree with Dave.  Don't use NCCRS for any prereqs if you have the foresight to avoid it.  ...

Actually, I don't see any significant downside to NCCRS over ACE for this. If you can avoid alternative credits for prerequisites in general that's the most flexible, but... If grad school isn't in your immediate plans, or if you know the program you're targeting doesn't have prereqs, or will accept the alternative credits, then go for it.

As always, the best program is the one you'll complete, and if worrying about NCCRS, or prereqs for a possible master's is going to be an obstruction to getting your bachelor's, best to set those concerns aside and just get it done the easiest way you can. There's always a path forward...as long as you keep moving in the right direction.

[cookderosa]

I agree with Dave.  Don't use NCCRS for any prereqs if you have the foresight to avoid it.  ...

Actually, I don't see any significant downside to NCCRS over ACE for this. If you can avoid alternative credits for prerequisites in general that's the most flexible, but... If grad school isn't in your immediate plans, or if you know the program you're targeting doesn't have prereqs, or will accept the alternative credits, then go for it.

As always, the best program is the one you'll complete, and if worrying about NCCRS, or prereqs for a possible master's is going to be an obstruction to getting your bachelor's, best to set those concerns aside and just get it done the easiest way you can. There's always a path forward...as long as you keep moving in the right direction.

Yes, that's true. It's really just a judgment call. I know that the new provider OnlineDegree has free NCCRS credit, but I had my high school son use SL instead simply because if these guys go belly up before he graduates and enrolls somewhere, he's lost that credit. My earlier comment was specific to undergrad - which I think has more cause for concern than grad.

[decimon]

Question: Have any of the defunct companies gone out of business without warning? One day you have a boatload of NCCRS credits and the next day there's no boat?

[dfrecore]

Question: Have any of the defunct companies gone out of business without warning? One day you have a boatload of NCCRS credits and the next day there's no boat?

Yes, they seem to just disappear.  Here one day, gone the next.  Hasn't happened to me personally, but I can tell you some companies where this has happened:

AlignDegree/DreamDegree/LowCostGenEd.com - changed names a few times, a bunch of courses expired in 2016, but they still have some courses that don't expire until later this year, and also 4/30/19.  They also were free for a while through DD & LCGE, then they switched to a new model, with new courses, but they cost $399, which is the most expensive of the providers on here, and boom, the website was just gone one day.  They were an ACE provider, so you could have put the credit on your ACE transcript and it would be safe (they're still listed on ACE as of now as well).

JumpCourse - I started a course with them, they were fine, I just didn't finish because I got busy.  It was $99 for the course, and I liked that it was 4 months instead of 1, and you paid by the course rather than a monthly membership.  If I had finished and wanted college credit, I could have paid an additional $50 fee to have it sent to ACE.  All courses expired 9/30/16, and they never renewed, just went away.  They are still listed on ACE.

JavaOnline was an NCCRS provider where you learned Java, from beginner to advanced, up to 9cr.  It was a true course, taught by a professor and you could contact him for help, so it was more expensive than other options, but looked to be worth it.  It was up for years, and then one day it was just gone.  It was NCCRS, and is no longer listed on their website.  I'm not sure what you could do if you'd had credits from them that you wanted to send out.

Those are the only ones I know of here on the forum from the last 5 years or so.  But I'm sure there will be a few more to go away, and new ones will come in to take their place.