Thomas Edison State College

[94W]

I noticed several people in the posts say that they were students at TESC. I have been with them for almost a year and they are O.K. I am currently working towards my Bachelors in History. I have seven more Cleps & DSSTs to get my degree.
When I decided to stop taking classes and test out I experienced some frustration with the advising department. I had to call and say OK, how will this one fit in. Then I found what I was looking for.

http://www.tesc.edu/catalog/pdf/catalog.pdf

It lists on page 120 and 121 each test and how they award credit. Why the advisor didn't advise me to look there I will never know. I hope this is useful!

[sirjake]

Yeah, I too didn't find that until I was already enrolled. If I had found that before I had enrolled, things would have been heck of a lot easier (and I probably would have received my degree last year since I'd have known what each exam was worth and could have scheduled easier). Ah well. At least we can let people know. Good post.

[rjc311]

I had the same situation with St. Petersburg College too. I emailed someone who forwarded the email to another person....like 5 people later I get a reply with an attachment showing all the tests they accept and what you get for them. It is like they want to keep this stuff hidden...

[Frank]

Hello there, I'm also enrolled at TESC.

TESC students look for Guided Study courses, TECEP exams, or epack courses that your interested in taking. Then check the Undergradute Registration bulletin or the college catalog and see if that course is available as a CLEP exam. They will have the same course title.

[anar579]

I waited to enroll until I had already taken about 7 CLEP exams, and always had the intention of testing out the entire degree. When I enrolled in Jan-06, I e-mailed the advisement dept. my degree plan with only exams from beginning to end. The advisor was very helpful and nice, and I never felt "resented" for not taking courses. Since enrolling, I've changed my mind on several exams, mostly from recommendations and insights from other folks on this site (i.e. changed from ECE Ethics to DANTES Ethics in America exam), and they've been nice and prompt every time. Even when I changed from their ECE exams to other ones, they seemed unfazed.

On waiting to enroll until you've taken several exams, I took this advice from Lawrie Miller's site (bain4weeks.com); he said as long as you send your results to the intended school when you take the exam, the school will hold the results until you enroll.

[sirjake]

On waiting to enroll until you've taken several exams, I took this advice from Lawrie Miller's site (bain4weeks.com); he said as long as you send your results to the intended school when you take the exam, the school will hold the results until you enroll.

I'm not so sure about that... I took about 60 credits worth of CLEP exams last spring ('05) and had them all sent to TESC. Yet, when I enrolled earlier this year, I had to have my CLEP transcript resent because they did not accept my CLEP scores since I wasn't enrolled. Maybe others have a different experience, but that's how it was for me. Not really a big deal since it was only 20 bucks to have my transcript sent, but it would have been nice had they actually held them at TESC.

[anar579]

I'm not so sure about that... I took about 60 credits worth of CLEP exams last spring ('05) and had them all sent to TESC. Yet, when I enrolled earlier this year, I had to have my CLEP transcript resent because they did not accept my CLEP scores since I wasn't enrolled. Maybe others have a different experience, but that's how it was for me. Not really a big deal since it was only 20 bucks to have my transcript sent, but it would have been nice had they actually held them at TESC.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I didn't have a problem myself at Excelsior, and I think the advice I followed was geared toward Excelsior. I'm not sure how TESC works, but Excelsior charges about $1000 to enroll and $500 at the 1 year mark for each additional year to remain enrolled. This was my reason for waiting, to give myself some room for error, if you will.

Excelsior does have a time limit of accepting exams prior to enrollment; they must have been taken within the last 6 months before enrolling.

[Frank]

TESC will hold your transcripts from colleges or CLEP/DANTES etc. for 1 year provided you have filled out the application fee and mailed them the 75 bucks with the application.......You have one year to enroll in the college or start the process over again.

[Sammy]

TESC sent me 3 catalogs when I requested info and one of them had all the clep and dantes exams they accept. Took me a quarter to figure out that I should just clep/dantes out of my remaining courses. My employer paid the first annual fee so I need to finish the degree before the year is up (July 8th). My first advisor didn't only hinted about testing out of my remaining courses but the second advisor was very up front by saying "So are you going to test out of your remaining courses?" Didn't seem to mind at all. I guess that is why different people have different experiences with colleges. They often speak to different advisors.

[nqt1976]

I enrolled at TESC also.
I dont know do I register at TESC or can I register at my local college ?
thank you for any help.