COSC Questions Answered Here :)

[burbuja0512]

Thanks!
Sounds like I'll be looking into the BA in Liberal Studies at TESC. I had initially had my sights set on Excelsior because I've read they assign transcript letter grades to test scores:
Which online College to choose - BA in 4 weeks degrees by examination and distance learning

However, I later read that grades are transcribed under the name of the test anyway, so I figure if I pass them, the GPA is not a huge issue, since I'm not really trying to fool anyone into thinking I got graded on actual coursework.
My goal is graduate school. I've heard that as long as the BA is complete, the amount of CLEP credit on it is not a big deal for graduate admittance. Hopefully that holds true for GPA as well.

TESC calculator says about $6000 for a scenario like mine.

A couple of things to think about:

1) Do you have any specific graduate program in mind? If so, you'll want to make sure that you meet the pre-requisites for the program and also give them a call to see if they'll have an issue with a non-traditional transcript. Many graduate programs don't care about the testing, but some will, especially if you're looking at very competitive schools. If you're not particular, you WILL be able to find something and yes, even many "good" schools don't care. (I had no problems getting accepted to my MBA program)

2) Don't feel like you're "fooling" people with a transcript full of CLEP/DSST. I've taken B&M classes that were much easier than some of the CLEP's I've taken. It's just a different, self-paced way to learn the same material.

3) I don't know how TESC and EC grade CLEP/DSST, but I believe that both of them will recognize ECE's and TECEP's with letter grades. These will give you a GPA for sure. I never took a TECEP, but was pleased with the one ECE I took. It cost $250, so a little bit more than a CLEP or Dantes, but it was UL credit, so well worth it. Even if you only have a few graded tests or classes, you definitely will need a GPA for many grad schools even if they don't care about testing credits. I'm also pretty sure that TESC requires a GPA, though this isn't my area of expertise

4) Another way to get a letter grade is through Straighterline. If you haven't looked at it, check it out if there is a topic that you don't want to test out of. For $99 bucks a month plus $39 for each class, you can get a letter grade and a three credit class. It can be a little bit more tedious than studying for a test, so I only did this for classes that I didn't want to (or couldn't) test out of.

Good luck and let us know if you have questions on the degree planning, though I know that you'll probably find at least a few TESC Liberal Arts plans if you do a forum search.