Testing out of your Major

[bat21]

I have a hypothectical question to ask about the reality of testing out of your major(Psy,Buisness)

For the people who have done that, do you feel comfortable and competant in the field(ie;your major) that you are, or would be able to hold your own compared to someone who has learned their degree from a 4 year college classroom?

I myself think it is great to be able to test out, but I am not sure that I would be very knowledgable if I came up against someone from a Ivy League or State University with the same degree, or does it even matter, since you learn more on the job than in a class setting.

Just my own humble thoughts on this.

[bmills072200]

99% of most jobs are learned on the job...the degree just gets you in the door and shows you are smart enough to read a book and dedicated enough to follow through on getting a degree...

[skyfall123]

Excellent question...I am in business for myself (since 1988) am currently a civilian contractor for the US Dept of the Army and a couple of high profile companies in the areas of video production, web/graphic design...etc....

Didn't officially earn a BS Business until this year.

In a way, I have always had to do an even better job of producing than a regular employee, because I'm payed directly based on productivity.

Lesson learned is, its not always just about what you know, it is about your ability to use what you have and produce at a consistent high level.

The structured business courses helped refine what I already knew and taught me a lot that I wish I had known earlier.....I have definitely made use of information learned through the courses that I tested out of.

It is important to carry yourself with confidence in the business world. My secret is to instill confidence in the people that I report to.

What they learn to depend on, is that I may not know the answer this moment, but I will certainly find the correct answer and ultimately always solve their dilemna. I become known as the go to guy.

If you become valuable in that way...you will always do well, either within an organization or as an independent business/contractor.

That is something that you can't always teach in school, but is vitally important.

[MISin08]

You asked people who've finished by testing out, which I haven't, but I've hired people with degrees. I think the bottom line is you can get a mediocre or outstanding education either by testing out or traditional classes. I had a person working for me last year who was really great. Her BS was in science. She was in a MBA program at DeVry. When I tried to involve her in strategic planning, she had no clue. "Aren't they teaching you this?" I wondered. I looked at her program, and nope, no strategy work.

If I were inexperienced or changing fields, I might consider taking my upper-level classes from either a B&M school or a good distance program. OTOH I reviewed the syllabi from the local university for classes I'm testing out of and I'm quite sure my self-study/testing out program is just fine.

[HawkGuy]

I'm going for a Liberal Studies degree, so I'm not really in it to learn about a specific field per se. I'm just in it to 1) Get a degree, any degree 2) Gain a foundation to allow me to attend Grad school 3) To learn.

I was watching an episode of Scrubs last night and they referenced Haldol. Well, by strange coincidence, I had just learned about that while studying for Drug and Alcohol Abuse. I was all happy I knew that they were talking about haha

I think that the quality of your education is directly proportional to what you put into it. Lord knows, there's enough idiots out there who went to Harvard or Yale on daddy's dime. Are they any smarter than someone who graduated from EC, TESC, or COSC? I doubt it, because we worked harder for it.

[bat21]

Hey Hawkguy I see you are going to TESC, I am enrolled with EC, but I noticed with EC you need at least 21-30 units of Upper Level Credit , how did you get around that with tesc, I think right now I am sitting at bout 27 units of upper level , but am running out of classes to take, any thoughts on that?

About trad Vs. Test out, I work with a "Person" from "Princeton" and all ? does all day is eat granola and veggie snacks ? is a vegetarian, but so far is kind of arrogant and standoffish, so go figure.

[PatsGirl1]

I've tested out of about 2/3 of my English major and I am 100% sure that I can "hang" (for lack of a better word) with others in my field. I've had no problem keeping up with others in my teaching program and I currently tutor/help with writing papers, so I know I a) am good at teaching, and b) have knowledge in my field.

It may be different for other professions, as it is much easier to pick up a book on your own than try to do a chemical experiment or something similar hilarious but I have to say, I'm fine with my progress so far (only thing I have left in my major is the African Lit class at TESC and then I need to study for the English Lit CLEP).

[HawkGuy]

Hey Hawkguy I see you are going to TESC, I am enrolled with EC, but I noticed with EC you need at least 21-30 units of Upper Level Credit , how did you get around that with tesc, I think right now I am sitting at bout 27 units of upper level , but am running out of classes to take, any thoughts on that?

Yeah, TESC is the same. I need 33 credits for the Liberal Studies major, but 6 can be lower level. So I basically only need 27 upper level credits. TESC is awesome as they consider anything 200 level or higher to be upper level. So I've just been rocking out the 200 level tests haha.

I'd see if EC has the same policy towards upper/lower credits.

[bat21]

I saw that with TESC last night with the exam conversions, Right now I have about 27 upper level credits done if I go with Tesc, but I am still waiting on my Official Eval from EC, to see were they plug in all my college units and so forth, But I may still pay 75.00 to Tesc and see were they can get me.

[cookderosa]

I have a hypothectical question to ask about the reality of testing out of your major(Psy,Buisness)

For the people who have done that, do you feel comfortable and competant in the field(ie;your major) that you are, or would be able to hold your own compared to someone who has learned their degree from a 4 year college classroom?

I myself think it is great to be able to test out, but I am not sure that I would be very knowledgable if I came up against someone from a Ivy League or State University with the same degree, or does it even matter, since you learn more on the job than in a class setting.

Just my own humble thoughts on this.

I think another point is that we are talking about associate and bachelor degrees, not MBAs and PhDs. Undergrad degrees are "foundations" for entering work or continuing onto a grad degree. For many people, they HAVE worked and are going back to fill in a gap. In other words, they have already been there- done that. A traditional undergrad is 21 years old working at Old Navy hilarious Sorry- but I think when you take an adult with 15-20 years in industry, there is absolutely more likelihood that the adult will be able to synthesize their learning in a more complex applied way. And test.
As a mother of 4 children, I LIVE the reality version of human growth and development.
Now, in your example like psychology- (the most popular college major in the United States) you are not doing job training where specifics will be asked of you. So, in this case, you are either doing it for personal gratification or to go to grad school. In any event, there isn't any testing beyond the undergrad level, so any gaps will likely be filled in the next 2 years of masters work and then the 5+ years of doctoral work. I don't think testing out of a psych 101 class is going to be an issue.
So....I guess my opinion is that undergrad degrees are not suposed to make you an expert at anything.