Penn Foster Non-ACE class - Did I get screwed?

[dcan]

I second what ryoder and others have said. You may be misunderstanding what they are saying. You can create an account on the ACE website, pick the Penn Foster course from a list, and push a button to request it be added to your transcript. They will e-mail the college to confirm you finished the course -- or it will tell you it is not approved, definitely.

They may have a system-to-system interface like they apparently do with ALEKS. When I requested an ALEKS course to my ACE transcript it was added literally in minutes, sometimes near midnight.

If you do this and it rejects, you could always e-mail both ACE and PF for clarification.

Here's the ACE transcript site: https://www2.acenet.edu/credit/?fuseacti...ripts.main

[Penn Foster Steve]

Hey Jam123 how did it turn out? With any college, the credit transfers are completely are up to the receiving institution. If the person on the phone told you it would, it very well might (they're on a different team than myself). For anyone reading, its always a good idea to contact the school you wish to attend, and have them evaluate your transcripts. You can also call them and inquire in general if they accept credits from Penn Foster.

[jam123]

It is definitely not ACE accredited. It has not been since 2/28/11. My school (and most RA schools) will only give credit if it is ACE accredited and that is why I asked Penn Foster on the phone before signing up for the class. I wasn't really familiar with the ACE site at that time. Penn Foster told me on the phone it was ACE accredited probably just to get my money and a commission. I have been waiting since 11/30/11 for someone named Ann Marie to call me back. I called again on 12/9/11 and left a message for her but was told she was on vacation. I even offered to accept 50% of my money back as credit on another class as long as it was ACE accredited. Pretty generous on my part. Since nobody has called me back in almost 3 weeks I decided to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the BBB. Hopefully I can prevent others from getting taken.

I would encourage everyone to stay clear of Penn Foster as they haven't been very honest or reasonable with me. With all the courses that have lost ACE accreditation this year something is going on with them. I guess they are not the organization they used to be.

[Ace_King]

Hey buddy! You should still try to give it a shot and add it to your ACE transcript. Like in my case and a few others on here, my course expired a few months after the expiration date and it's on my ACE transcript. What do you have to lose just try it?

I feel your pain though. Penn Foster's customer service is one of the worst! I always think they hired a few bogus guys off the street to pick up the telephone calls. Even some of the instructors are horrible, sometimes when I had a question wrong on the exam and tried to call and fight it, they seemed like they we're always right and we we're wrong. They go by textbooks which are outdated. I notice one thing as well, majority of the people over the phone don't know what ACE is at Penn Foster. If they do, they are just trying to make a sales pitch and say it should be ACE accredited. I even posted a thread about how an instructor over the phone told me not to worry about ACE and just send the transcripts directly to the institution you desire, he told me Harvard accepted transcripts from Penn Foster College without a problem. I almost burst out laughing, and just hung up the phone. No offense and don't take this the wrong way but next time you have to research better. I never take anyone serious on the phone at Penn Foster, as they are merely only wanting commission (after they say this long introduction on Penn Foster's history) etc. Penn Foster does have to toughen up and get it's act together. In a few years I can see Straighterline coming up big time.

But in the good side of things my friend, Penn Foster has helped thousands of students get degrees, some DETC and others that just needed a few ACE courses to complete a degree at an RA institution. I know it sounds weird for me to say this even though I just bashed Penn Foster lol, but without Penn Foster I wouldn't even be close to finishing up my degree at TESC. I made sure I did my research and looked up the course on the ACE guide before I even purchased it at Penn Foster.

Just my 2 cents.

[jam123]

I did try to add it to my ACE transcript but the ACE system said I could not because my date was out of range. The ACE accreditation expired 2/28/11 and I took the class 11/1/11.

[jam123]

I thought I might have an accidental typo in the ACE system and put 11/1/10 instead of 11/1/11.

[Ace_King]

Ah I see. Yeah my friend just wait for the Federal Trade Commission and the BBB to get your answer. Honestly I'd do the same thing. Penn Foster has to hire better telephone reps in the up coming future.

[ryoder]

Thanks for posting your experience with this. I think Penn Foster is a great option but everyone, please only schedule PF courses that are on the ACE site.
If you don't know what the ACE site is or how to access it, do not try to get any ACE credit until you learn what it is and verify that the courses you are taking are indeed ACE certified.

[dcan]

FYI I made sure to reference this specific thread in the Penn Foster entry on the new Degree Forum Wiki I announced earlier today. I think this kind of thing is vitally important for newcomers to understand before burning hard-earned dollars in a bonfire.

Sorry this happened to you, but the upside is your story is now the official cautionary tale on the unofficial wiki of these forums. Here's to your story helping others avoid getting ripped off.

[Ace_King]

When you state this "Penn Foster is regionally accredited, but only for non-degree-granting education." You are implying for the highschool programs right? Because Penn Foster College is nationally accredited, and it's highschool program is RA. By the way nice job in the Wiki page of Degree forum. You might as well create an ebook on how to earn your bachelors degree for under $10,000 and I bet you'll sale, lol.