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Excelsior Depth Requirements - MaMichelle - 04-06-2015

I'm just wondering what I can choose for my Excelsior depth requirements.

I have a lot of English/writing credits from my actual brick & mortar school days, but the course numbers/titles are largely Honors Program, (for example, HON300-Advanced Writing, etc) rather than plain "English" in the titles-- i.e. ENGL300-Advanced Writing. Are these going to be ok for a depth requirement in English?

Also, many of my existing UL credits are in Religion. Can I use Religion as a depth?

If I want to do a depth in History, can I count any Religion credits towards those? For example, a "Religion 357: History of Christianity" course? or "Religion 324: World Religions"? (I'm just making up course numbers because I'm too lazy to look up my actual transcripts right now and see what the real numbers are.)

Finally, can I do a depth that combines two related areas? For example, could I combine Religion and Ethics courses into one depth? What about Sociology and Ethics?

I have SO many earned credits (132.5) but they're spread between three universities (BYU, Kenyon College, Western Governor's) and two testing types (Advanced Placement, DSST) and fortunately they do seem to fill all the GE and LL/UL requirements; I'm hoping I can complete a degree at Excelsior with pretty much just a capstone and their information literacy requirement.

Thanks for your help; I've learned SO much by reading these boards. Y'all are amazing!


Excelsior Depth Requirements - SuZQ2 - 04-06-2015

Check out Excelsior's Liberal Arts Catalog (begin on page 12) - it explains about the depth requirements. If you're going for a BA your 2 depths must both be in Arts & Sciences, if you're going for a BS, one depth may be in an "applied professional area". They do not want the two depths to overlap, but if you accumulate enough credits in one subject you can apply them to an "area of focus".

https://my.excelsior.edu/documents/78666/102207/Liberal_Arts_Catalog.pdf/b559591a-1fde-4135-a958-e29c855b7826

I switched from a BA to a BS just to get more flexibility with my course choices...my first depth turned into an "area of focus" in Psychology (minimum of 21 credits in one subject - 6 credits UL), my second depth is (tentatively) in history.

I never thought to ask if you are already enrolled at EC? If you're not, it might be a good idea at this point as EC will tell you exactly where all your accumulated courses fit in, and what courses you need to complete your degree. My biggest fear before I officially registered - taking exams/courses that EC would ultimately not accept - YIKES!!

Hope this helps! Confusedeeya:


Excelsior Depth Requirements - MaMichelle - 04-06-2015

SuZQ2 Wrote:I never thought to ask if you are already enrolled at EC? If you're not, it might be a good idea at this point as EC will tell you exactly where all your accumulated courses fit in, and what courses you need to complete your degree. My biggest fear before I officially registered - taking exams/courses that EC would ultimately not accept - YIKES!!
I have an application in, but I'm still waiting for them to complete my transcript evaluations. Apparently, since I have AP credits, I have to wait 15 business days, plus old fashioned snail-mail time, for the College Board to send those archived scores to Excelsior. Excelsior won't complete my application until they have those. So...ugh...I have to wait.

In the meantime, I'm trying to make an educated guess at which DSST's I should take. I know I'm actually going to need just a few upper level credits. What I don't know is whether I have enough credits in different areas to fulfill my depth requirements. I don't want to wait to take the DSST's; I just want to get them over with, but I want to be sure I'm making intelligent choices with which exams I take. I suspect I've got enough to fill two depths, so any upper level credit will be fine, and I can go ahead and take some of the easier DSST's.


Excelsior Depth Requirements - GoodYellowDogs - 04-07-2015

I did one depth in Psych and one in Applied Professional. They actually said I could use my upper division Sociology test to complete my Psych depth - I guess considering it all Social Science? I ended up taking three more upper division psych classes so I chose not to do it that way.