Transfer credits from Columbia Southern University to Excelsior

[bornsupercharged]

I've been a lurker on this forum and a few others for a while, and I've never really found solid answers to my questions.

Let me preface this post by saying I am primarily concerned with having a DETC accredited degree because school districts and colleges require regionally accredited degrees, and I may one day want to be a teacher or professor. Right now, I am a software engineer writing code for managing commissioning, maintenance and decommissioning of cloud servers, among many other things. I've worked for a wide variety of companies, and I've had plenty of job offers without having a degree at all - currently I'm fine where I'm at and get paid a very respectable amount that I am fortunate to earn. My degree isn't to get my more money, but to future proof myself so that the proverbial "box" is always checked.

I earned 12 credits (4 courses) from a local regionally accredited community college, as well as 9 credits (3 courses) from Ashford University. I have completed 4 credits (2 courses) at Penn Foster: Information Literacy (1cr ACE) and Math for Business and Finance (3cr ACE). I also completed 9 credits (3 ACE courses) through StraighterLine: Business Ethics, Business Law and Organizational Behavior.

At Columbia Southern University (CSU) I am currently doing 3 courses, and once done I will have completed 75 credit hours with them. In addition, I was awarded 9 credit hours for 3 certifications w/training. A quick side note: of the schools and courses I've taken, CSU is by far the most work intensive. My community college courses were a breeze, they really didn't require any writing at all. Ashford barely took any effort, and the courses only lasts 5 weeks each. Penn Foster & StraighterLine are also quite easy, being open book I think you'd have to TRY to fail one of their classes. At CSU, more than half of my classes have had case studies, research papers and proctored final exams, plus discussion boards which vary between requiring 1 and 2 responses to other students. The quizzes even make you do APA citations for the written answers, which most of my classes require between 2 and 5 200word questions along with typically 10 multiple choice answers. The workload is, again, far greater at CSU than anything else I've taken - online or in person. My wife also graduated from B&M schools, with her bachelors from University of Texas at Arlington and her masters at Amberton University, and she has commented on more than one occasion that my workload is more than what she had to do during at UT@A and comparable to Amberton, though her masters did require some longer research papers. It annoys me to read online that nationally accredited degrees do not get placed on par with regionally accredited degrees, when I'm having to do a lot of work to get mine. But I digress.

My total earned through colleges is 96, plus 22 through ACE/Certs, for a total combined of 118.

Today I sent over my ACE transcript to CSU; assuming they take everything per ACE recommendations, I just have to take one final course at CSU, and I will be able to get my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Information Technology. Based on the aforementioned courseload CSU requires, it would absolutely suck to have to take Business Law, Business Ethics and Org. Theory and Behavior at CSU. So my fingers are crossed that they transfer in 1:1 without question.

With all of that said, there is that tick in my brain that makes me worry about DETC national accreditation. I wonder if there will be a day that I don't get a job because my bachelor degree is not regionally accredited. Again, I do software engineer/programming and it's not having the degree has never been an issue for me to date. But reading all the negative things online, coupled with my experience trying to get into a regionally accredited graduate program, has really made that voice in my head drive me batty.

I applied to Excelsior and requested my HS diploma + all 3 of my colleges + ACE to send transcripts. My primary motivations for getting the degree through Excelsior are to open up my master's degree options, and so that I will be eligible for any job that absolutely REQUIRES a regionally accredited degree. I'm worried that only a fraction of my CSU credits would transfer over; there's some verbiage in their student handbook that says something about 25% maximum for non-regionally accredited schools, which would drop me from 75 CSU credits to 30 or worst case, zero.. I know that the only way to find out is for Excelsior to actually get the transcripts and do their evaluation, which may take 3-4 weeks.

Has anyone had any experience with CSU credits moving over to Excelsior? I would hate to move only 30 over and miss out on 45 credits, though I realize I would still need 30 unique credits to get my second bachelor's through Excelsior (I would take them through Penn Foster/StraighterLine and then just do the capstone at Excelsior).

[mrs.b]

Just a few years ago, I would say most employers did not know the differences between the various forms of accreditation. Today, more and more employers are becoming educated, however. Most large employers now make that distinction and will only recognize RA degrees. Government and public or higher education most certainly know the difference. If you want to be certain the proverbial box is always checked, then you are most likely better-served by getting a RA undergraduate degree. The importance of an RA graduate program gets fuzzy depending on the field (if that were something you ever considered), but for undergrad? I would always recommend RA, even if it means cutting some losses to do it. One never knows what the future holds, and keeping as many options open as possible seems prudent.

There are some programs where CSU is considered quite reputable (fire science, I think?). I've heard rumors that CSU is trying for regional accreditation, but that's quite an uphill battle and who knows how long it would take if it is truly on the burner. That said, Excelsior (and both of the other Big3) are not likely to accept the credits earned through them unless or until they do make that achievement. Workload and intensity are, unfortunately, not taken into the equation.

[cooperalex2004]

I know TESC doesn't take NA credits but it appears you are correct in saying Excelsior does although their policy to pay a fee and hope for the best along with a 25% cap of the credits sounds a bit odd to me (see Excelsior College | Transferring Credit From Non-Regionally Accredited Schools). The choice is yours to make. If you are already nearing completion it may make more sense to go after a second degree with an RA school and utilize your knowledge through assessment programs, PLAs, or in this case transferring some of the credits over.

[smf6824]

Go to a RA grad school that accepts NA degrees such as APU or WGU.

[bornsupercharged]

I am definitely finishing my DETC bachelors at CSU, seeing as how (assuming the ACE courses transfer in fine, which I expect will) I'm just one course shy.

My options really rely on what Excelsior is going to give me for my CSU credits. In an email from my admissions counselor at Excelsior:

With regards to Columbia Southern University, you are correct, it is not regionally accredited. However, we have approved certain courses for transfer from this specific school even though it is not regionally accredited.

I do not have an answer for you right up front without the official transcript to look at and see what courses you have taken and whether or not the courses you have taken have already been approved by our faculty.
As you stated, since the transcript is already en route, we have a review committee that produces the preliminary reviews for all of our students BEFORE actual enrollment. So when the transcript does arrive along with your other transcripts, we will provide a preliminary review to show you where you stand with regards to degree completion.

Should there be a case where we have not approved certain courses from Columbia Southern that you have taken, there is a possibility to go through our "non-regional appeals" process where you can appeal certain credits.
However, we will not know until the official transcript arrives and we can match the courses you have taken to the courses that have been faculty approved.

I replied back requesting clarification on the 25% max, if it applies to CSU or if they'd be willing to work with me on it and maybe (re: hopefully) bring in more than that. How many credits they give me will determine if I go there or not to get a second bachelors degree, with the sole purpose of just being able to say I have the regional bachelors.

@mrs.b & @smf6824 - I do plan to go for my masters, though it will depend on whether I get the Excelsior RA bachelors or not.. since no B&M school around me will recognize DETC for entry into their graduate program, my options are pretty limited to online schools like Bellevue, CSU, Walden, etc.

[sanantone]

For graduate programs, I would stick to regionally accredited non-profits unless it's APUS or Patten. Most of the regionally accredited for profits are very expensive and have poor reputations. Liberty University has its controversies, but it's non-profit, regionally accredited, and affordable. They accept NA credits and degrees. I would tell you to look at the list of HETA members, but it's no longer available.

[bornsupercharged]

Update:
CSU accepted my courses from ACE Credit Transcript, no problems.

Excelsior also responded back to me:

With regards to accepting credits from non-regionally accredited schools, we do have a policy that we can only accept a max of 30 credits from non-regionally accredited schools, so what you read is actually correct. I do apologize but keep in mind that we are regionally accredited and are making exceptions for non-regionally accredited schools to transfer a max of 30 credits. Here is a link to our website :
Excelsior College | Transferring Credit From Non-Regionally Accredited Schools

You would not be able to transfer all of your 75 credits from Columbia Southern to our program, however, you have other transcripts coming is as well.

Yes, you can utilize the ACE transcript service to send us your Penn Foster credits and StraighterLine credits.

So basically, if I want a second degree (re: one that is regionally accredited) through Excelsior, I will need to take 14 more courses through SL, 2 through PF and 2 through Excelsior (global business & the capstone course). Not bad I guess, far less costly and less time consuming than trying to make up 10 courses through traditional means. I will have to think about it heavily and decide if it is worth it.. will probably end up doing it though.

[mrs.b]

Go to a RA grad school that accepts NA degrees such as APU or WGU.

Just wanted to highlight smf6824's suggestion of checking into APU and WGU, both of which are RA and accept NA credits as readily as RA.

APUS: What's Accepted-Undergraduate

WGU: Transferring Credit to WGU | WGU Transcripts | Western Governors University Online

[smf6824]

Regional accreditation, I believe, is worth it.

[bornsupercharged]

Okay, I'm a little anxious now for Excelsior to receive my transcripts and do the evaluation.. it looks like for BPS in Business Management, they want 9 upper level Art & Science. Seeing as how they're limiting me to 30 credits from Columbia Southern University, I dont know how they will pick and choose the 10 classes to use. If the upper level requirements aren't fully met, that's going to really suck. I'll update as I get feedback.