Inquiry: NCCRS Credit Questions

[Lewis.Yim]

Hi Everybody,

I have mainly ACE credits (I am not concerned with the provider shutting down, as I store them in the ACE Credit Registry), but I noticed in my TESU evaluation I have a couple of courses that are NCCRS credits, and I may take some more NCCRS.  

My question is, how would I store these credits, or what is the process to do so?  Is there an NCCRS credit registry like ACE? What happens if the provider I took it with goes down?  The courses go directly from the provider to the institution, bypassing NCCRS.

From reading previous threads, several ACE and NCCRS providers have gone bust (JumpCourse, Javaonline.org, as examples for both).  I don't want to work on some courses and then, later on, have the company providing the courses shut down and lose my hard earned credits.

The only "safeguard" or option I can think of is to apply those courses to the institution that you attend, such as TESU in my case.  The drawback to this is that, it's only available for TESU - other colleges such as Charter Oak, Excelsior or WGU won't have those course information.

What would you do in your case?  For example, I want to take courses at Davar Academy who only has NCCRS courses, but they 'drop dead' next year (hopefully not, just using them as an example, not to curse/jinx them in any way).

[Merlin]

Hi Everybody,

I have mainly ACE credits (I am not concerned with the provider shutting down, as I store them in the ACE Credit Registry), but I noticed in my TESU evaluation I have a couple of courses that are NCCRS credits, and I may take some more NCCRS.  

My question is, how would I store these credits, or what is the process to do so?  Is there an NCCRS credit registry like ACE? What happens if the provider I took it with goes down?  The courses go directly from the provider to the institution, bypassing NCCRS.

From reading previous threads, several ACE and NCCRS providers have gone bust (JumpCourse, Javaonline.org, as examples for both).  I don't want to work on some courses and then, later on, have the company providing the courses shut down and lose my hard earned credits.

The only "safeguard" or option I can think of is to apply those courses to the institution that you attend, such as TESU in my case.  The drawback to this is that, it's only available for TESU - other colleges such as Charter Oak, Excelsior or WGU won't have those course information.

What would you do in your case?  For example, I want to take courses at Davar Academy who only has NCCRS courses, but they 'drop dead' next year (hopefully not, just using them as an example, not to curse/jinx them in any way).

You have it right. There is no built-in credit registry for NCCRS like there is for ACE. The only way to "safeguard" the credits is to send them directly to the college you plan to graduate from. If you fail to use them and the source of credits goes away, you could be in trouble.

You could ask the source of credits to send you an official sealed transcript for your own records which you may be able to store and use in an emergency, but there is no guarantee that a college would accept that if it doesn't come directly from the institution itself.

[Ideas]

I would pick the school you plan to graduate from, but possibly also send the NCCRS transcript to your backup, second choice school, and have them evaluate it. At some schools, you get that done for the application fee. But personally I wouldn't worry about it either way because a lot of the courses could be done at Study.com or other cheap sources if needed. I would just want to be safe for courses that are unique.

[jsd]

It is beyond bizarre that NCCRS doesn’t have a centralized transcript service like ACE. It’s so simple to implement, and could make NCCRS a little money by charging a nominal fee for sending transcripts. It frustrates me every time this comes up.

[decimon]

Excelsior OneTranscriptService?

https://www.excelsior.edu/onetranscript

[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.

[cookderosa]

This is the single reason I haven't pursued any NCCRS credit.

[decimon]

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?

[dfrecore]

Be aware that if you send a transcript directly to TESU from Study.com, it may end up saying NCCRS because some courses are BOTH ACE and NCCRS through them. This does not mean it's a problem though - you just need to make sure it's also on your ACE transcript.

I agree that the lack of an NCCRS database is a major drawback to that system.

[davewill]

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.