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EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - Printable Version

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EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - Kal Di - 05-28-2021

I got my preliminary review today from Excelsior. They reviewed my transcripts of over 100 credits and want me to take 34 credits to graduate with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts. I don't understand. I was hoping that they'd accept more than 86 credits because I planned to finish in one semester. 

They said I still need 34 credits (15 credits in lower level "arts and sciences", 15 credits in upper level "arts and sciences", and 4 credits in upper level "applied professional" or "additional arts and sciences"). They said the 34 credits must include 4 credits in humanities (2 in ethics), 3 credits in social sciences/history, their 1 credit information literacy course, 3 credit capstone course, and 3 credit cornerstone course.    

With all my credits, I thought the maximum credits that I'd need to graduate with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts was 20.

ACRONYMS: C = credits, LL = lower-level, UL = upper-level, SL = Sophia Learning, SDC = Study.com, and the others are more or less self-explanatory. 

Credits They Will Use

ENG 102 ENGL COMP II   (LL)           3 C
CSC 101 COMPUTER LIT   (LL)          3 C
HPE 170 FIRST AID/SAFETY (LL)       3 C
MUS 128 SOUND ENGINEERING (LL)  1 C
MUS 127 FUNDAMENTALS         (LL)  3 C
MUS 129 INTRO TO AUDIO REC (LL)  3 C
MTH 107 MATH 4 LIBERAL ARTS (LL) 3 C
AUT 101 AUTO FUNDAMENTALS (LL)  3 C
AUT 121 STEERING & SUSPEN    (LL)  4 C
MUS 227 LIVE SOUND RECORD   (LL)  3 C
AUT 141 E&E PRINCIPLES           (LL)  4 C
AUT 242 E&E SYSTEMS               (LL)  4 C
AUT 181 AUTOMOTIVE PRACTIC  (LL)  3 C
AUT 271 ADVANCED AUTO SYS I (LL)  4 C
AUT 272 ADVANCED AUTO SYS II (LL) 4 C
AUT 262 AUTO TRANSMISSIONS   (LL) 4 C
PSY 140 INTRO TO PSYCHOLOGY  (LL) 3 C
ENG 15  RHETORIC & COMP          (LL) 3 C
SL         HUMAN BIOLOGY             (LL) 3 C
SL         PUBLIC SPEAKING            (LL) 3 C
SL         US HISTORY 1                 (LL) 3 C
SL         DEV EFFECTIVE TEAMS     (LL) 1 C
SL         COLLEGE ALGEBRA           (LL) 3 C
SDC       ADV TECH WRITING         (UL) 3 C
SDC       GLOBALIZ & INTL MGMT   (UL) 3 C         
SDC       LEAD & ORG BEHAVIOR     (UL) 3 C              
SDC       CONSUMER BEHAVIOR       (UL) 3 C    
SDC       STRATEGIC HR MGMT        (UL) 3 C

TOTAL: 86 C

Credits They Won't Use

KINES 67 PHYSICAL CONDITIONING    (LL) 1.5 C
MUS 133 AUDIO RECORDING TECH      (LL) 3 C
AUT 111 AUTOMOTIVE BRAKE SYS       (LL) 3 C
HPE 102 HEALTH & WELLNESS             (LL) 3 C
AUT 261 DRIVETRAINS & AXLES           (LL) 4 C
AUT 253 AUTOMOTIVE ENGINES           (LL) 4 C
AUT 131 AUTOMOTIVE HEATING & AC   (LL) 3 C

TOTAL: 21.5 C

Credits They Ignored

IST 111S SEMINAR IN IST                    (LL)  1 C
SOC 001  INTRO TO SOCIOLOGY          (LL)  3 C

TOTAL: 4 C

This is my first time dealing with a big 3 school. Can I appeal their decision?


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - Vle045 - 05-28-2021

There is a certain number of credits you need in each category depending on the degree.

So just as a made up example, if you needed 6 credits in Math and 3 in electives, but you have 12 math credits, they will only take 9, because the rest are left over and don’t satisfy any more of the degree requirements. They can’t take those extra math credits and apply them to Language Arts. Does that make sense?


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - bjcheung77 - 05-28-2021

Do you have an associates? Where did you get these credits from? Have you applied elsewhere besides Excelsior?


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - Kal Di - 05-28-2021

(05-28-2021, 08:28 PM)bjcheung77 Wrote: Do you have an associates? Where did you get these credits from? Have you applied elsewhere besides Excelsior?

I have an associate's degree in applied science (automotive technology). Most of the credits came from community colleges. A few was from Penn State University (4 year university) and the rest from online course providers (i.e. Sophia, SDC).

I applied to Texas A&M University Commerce, but they have been so slow in responding about accepting ACE credits. (I think the Credly transcript platform made things confusing for them). I submitted all my information to COSC, but I didn't pay the application fee yet. However, I think it could be my next best choice!

I strongly prefer to apply to universities who don't have an application fee. Otherwise, I'd have to face being disappointed with a university's evaluation after paying their application fee and the cost to send all my transcripts there. I wouldn't want to imagine facing that multiple times with other universities.


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - dfrecore - 05-28-2021

So, the issue is that you have to check off all of the boxes for requirements, as well as have 120cr - no legitimate school will just give you a degree for 120 credits of whatever. So you need an Ethics course, a math course, a natural science course, etc.

Also, did you sign up for the BA in Liberal Studies or the BS? If you did the BA, switch to the BS. That way they will take more "electives" than the BA (BA requires 90cr of Arts & Sciences and 30cr of Electives, and all UL must be in the A&S area; BS requires 60/60 for credits, and 21/9 for UL).

Arts & Sciences includes the Humanities, Social Sciences, Math & Natural Science. You can get these credits from Study.com or Coopersmith.

Some examples of Arts & Sciences that will work:
BUS 318: Management Ethics (this will kill 2 birds - Ethics AND UL)
Choose 2 more:
BUS 313: Organizational Communication (UL Humanities)
SOC 305: Sociology of Work (UL SocSci)
PSY 311: Physiological Psychology (UL SocSci)
PSY 316: Advanced Social Psychology (UL SocSci)

You need 2 additional A&S courses - choose easy ones from Sophia - make sure they're not electives, Sophia's transfer page will show you what works where.

Did anything come in lower than a C? If so, they won't take it. Otherwise, you're getting a BA, and you ran out of space for electives, so the switch to the BS should help. They would then bring in the remaining credits they didn't use, and you're done.

(05-28-2021, 08:26 PM)Vle045 Wrote: There is a certain number of credits you need in each category depending on the degree.  

So just as a made up example, if you needed 6 credits in Math and 3 in electives, but you have 12 math credits, they will only take 9, because the rest are left over and don’t satisfy any more of the degree requirements.  They can’t take those extra math credits and apply them to Language Arts.   Does that make sense?

Math is a liberal arts category, so they would go in the Arts & Sciences electives area.  And then into the General Electives area.


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - Vle045 - 05-28-2021

(05-28-2021, 09:12 PM)dfrecore Wrote: Math is a liberal arts category, so they would go in the Arts & Sciences electives area.  And then into the General Electives area.

This is why it was a “made up example”.   I didn’t have/know the actual info and was just illustrating the idea of how credits have to apply to the right category.  Cool


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - Kal Di - 05-29-2021

(05-28-2021, 09:12 PM)dfrecore Wrote: So, the issue is that you have to check off all of the boxes for requirements, as well as have 120cr - no legitimate school will just give you a degree for 120 credits of whatever. So you need an Ethics course, a math course, a natural science course, etc.

Also, did you sign up for the BA in Liberal Studies or the BS?  If you did the BA, switch to the BS.  That way they will take more "electives" than the BA (BA requires 90cr of Arts & Sciences and 30cr of Electives, and all UL must be in the A&S area; BS requires 60/60 for credits, and 21/9 for UL).

Arts & Sciences includes the Humanities, Social Sciences, Math & Natural Science.  You can get these credits from Study.com or Coopersmith.

Some examples of Arts & Sciences that will work:
BUS 318: Management Ethics (this will kill 2 birds - Ethics AND UL)
Choose 2 more:
BUS 313: Organizational Communication (UL Humanities)
SOC 305: Sociology of Work (UL SocSci)
PSY 311: Physiological Psychology (UL SocSci)
PSY 316: Advanced Social Psychology (UL SocSci)

You need 2 additional A&S courses - choose easy ones from Sophia - make sure they're not electives, Sophia's transfer page will show you what works where.

Did anything come in lower than a C?  If so, they won't take it. Otherwise, you're getting a BA, and you ran out of space for electives, so the switch to the BS should help. They would then bring in the remaining credits they didn't use, and you're done.


Well, I applied for the Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts and that's what they stated as mentioned in my original post. 

I don't know why they ignored my "Intro to Sociology" course as it would fulfill the remainder of the social sciences requirement. I'm going to ask them to reconsider that course. Thank you for the SDC course suggestions. 

Let's say I took those exact courses to get my 15 more UL credits. They're still saying I need 15 more credits in LL "arts and sciences", but I don't understand why they wouldn't consider my MUS 133 AUDIO RECORDING TECH (3 credits), HPE 102 HEALTH & WELLNESS (3 credits), AUT 131 AUTOMOTIVE HEATING & AC (3 credits), AUT 111 AUTOMOTIVE BRAKE SYS (3 credits), and one of the other 4 credit automotive courses. Surely, those lower-level courses would be considered as arts and sciences. 

When I compared all my credits to this recent sample transfer guide (https://www.excelsior.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Study.com-to-Excelsior-C-BS-Liberal-Arts-Guide-03.21.pdf), I thought they'd accept at least 98 of my credits.


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - rachel83az - 05-29-2021

The credits that they won't use or that they ignored: are any of these from a local technical school that maybe isn't fully accredited or are they from a community college?

If all of these are RA, TESU might be more expensive but could be the easiest one to complete the requirements for. I think you have enough UL credit. I think almost everything else could come from Sophia. The exception would be American Government from InstantCert. That would certainly be the fastest way to completion but you'd have to pay about $7k in tuition & fees beyond that.

COSC would be cheapest of the big 3 but they (along with EC) require 30 credits of ULs. There are at least a relatively good number of UL credits at SDC to choose from when it comes to SDC. There are fewer ULs that count at SDC for EC but EC also accepts Coopersmith and TEEX.


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - Vle045 - 05-29-2021

Something else that I don’t know if it was mentioned, did you earn a grade of C or better? Most schools won’t transfer in classes with a D or F


RE: EC Wants Me To Do 34 Credits Despite Having 100+ Credits - ss20ts - 05-29-2021

(05-29-2021, 01:25 AM)Kal Di Wrote:
(05-28-2021, 09:12 PM)dfrecore Wrote: So, the issue is that you have to check off all of the boxes for requirements, as well as have 120cr - no legitimate school will just give you a degree for 120 credits of whatever. So you need an Ethics course, a math course, a natural science course, etc.

Also, did you sign up for the BA in Liberal Studies or the BS?  If you did the BA, switch to the BS.  That way they will take more "electives" than the BA (BA requires 90cr of Arts & Sciences and 30cr of Electives, and all UL must be in the A&S area; BS requires 60/60 for credits, and 21/9 for UL).

Arts & Sciences includes the Humanities, Social Sciences, Math & Natural Science.  You can get these credits from Study.com or Coopersmith.

Some examples of Arts & Sciences that will work:
BUS 318: Management Ethics (this will kill 2 birds - Ethics AND UL)
Choose 2 more:
BUS 313: Organizational Communication (UL Humanities)
SOC 305: Sociology of Work (UL SocSci)
PSY 311: Physiological Psychology (UL SocSci)
PSY 316: Advanced Social Psychology (UL SocSci)

You need 2 additional A&S courses - choose easy ones from Sophia - make sure they're not electives, Sophia's transfer page will show you what works where.

Did anything come in lower than a C?  If so, they won't take it. Otherwise, you're getting a BA, and you ran out of space for electives, so the switch to the BS should help. They would then bring in the remaining credits they didn't use, and you're done.


Well, I applied for the Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts and that's what they stated as mentioned in my original post. 

I don't know why they ignored my "Intro to Sociology" course as it would fulfill the remainder of the social sciences requirement. I'm going to ask them to reconsider that course. Thank you for the SDC course suggestions. 

Let's say I took those exact courses to get my 15 more UL credits. They're still saying I need 15 more credits in LL "arts and sciences", but I don't understand why they wouldn't consider my MUS 133 AUDIO RECORDING TECH (3 credits), HPE 102 HEALTH & WELLNESS (3 credits), AUT 131 AUTOMOTIVE HEATING & AC (3 credits), AUT 111 AUTOMOTIVE BRAKE SYS (3 credits), and one of the other 4 credit automotive courses. Surely, those lower-level courses would be considered as arts and sciences. 

When I compared all my credits to this recent sample transfer guide (https://www.excelsior.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Study.com-to-Excelsior-C-BS-Liberal-Arts-Guide-03.21.pdf), I thought they'd accept at least 98 of my credits.

The automotive classes are not liberal arts. They would go into general electives. Liberal arts are natural sciences, math, humanities, etc. Even that music class may not be considered a liberal art because it's a tech class.

Even the BS has a minimum number of liberal arts credits that are required in each category of liberal arts.