Lindagerr Wrote:You say you are in the tri state area. If you are in NJ TESC is much cheaper. If you go to their home page and click on tuition cost calculator it really will give you a great estimate. You do not need to take a course from TESC to graduate, but if you want a GPA on your transcript you need to take one course. If you are only going for an AA GPA is not important. Do not give up on a BA I started out only interested in an AA for my own satisfaction now I have gone on for the BA and am working on a second AAS, BA and considering a Masters.

Learning this way is not easy but it is easier then sitting in classes for me. If you are a person who has had autonomy and responsibility at work I think working at your own pace and not doing useless work or listening to boring lectures makes this method great

RA808 Wrote:A little background: I did some college out of high school and decided it wasn't for me at the time. I had started my own business and was successful. I later applied that experience and worked a few jobs at larger companies and have worked my way up to a managerial position. I'm now doing very well for myself and manage a team and do work for Fortune 500 clients.

I would like to complete a degree more for my own achievement and peace-of-mind. The majority of my colleagues have degrees as well. I consider myself highly intelligent, and the reason I have become successful in my field is my ability to self-learn. I've always been good at tests. Discovering the CLEP program has renewed my faith in my ability to finish a degree, despite having a very demanding job.

I started my education at a local state university. It's been a while, but I know I have no more than 10 credits there. However, I'm only interested in completing a Liberal Arts AS at this time. The only catch: the school only allows for 30 credits via CLEP for an AS, and the specific classes that translate to credits are somewhat limited. Each CLEP test is worth 3 credits.

Should I pursue the degree at the state university, it would mean that I would need to attend roughly 20 credits worth of online or evening classes, and a gym class (ugh). The campus is less than an hour from my current location, so it is doable.

My curiosity as a newbie here is regarding other options. Do most schools limit the amount of credits you can earn via CLEP toward an associate's like at my school? I'm wondering if I should look at other schools.

The other thing I'm looking to learn from this forum is which CLEP's to take and which not to, but I can glean that info myself by reading back threads.

Thanks all!

cookderosa Wrote:My suggestion is to look closely at your college's associate degree program to see if they have a formal articulation agreement into a bachelor's degree program that can be completed online. I would be happy to help you with this. Why? Because an agreement means that those 30 CLEP will be 100% accepted into a 4-year degree, which you want. That program, when you decide to do it (you will) should be online to keep your life easy.

If none of this can happen, skip all that and do your degree via one of the big 3. I did mine from scratch and it took me 18 months of classes/exams.

To answer your other question, some schools accept more CLEP but most accept less. It's not unusual for a school to accept 15-18 only. OTOH, the CC I work for accepts 45 toward an AA, so it really depends.