Easiest and cheapest way to complete core curriculum?

[Kajkulahi]

Community colleges in Texas do allow CLEP/DSST/AP/IB credit by exam. Policies vary greatly. The most important thing is for the community college transcript to say Texas Academic Core Curriculum Complete or some slight variation on those words. With those words, the core curriculum will transfer in its entirety to a Texas public university. Having the actual associate's degree isn't necessary, although if you have that, you by definition are also core complete.

Odd things can happen to the core complete transfer student. A core complete student with 3 hours of math transferring to a university that requires 6 semester hours of math in a liberal arts program doesn't have to take an additional 3 hours of math. But if the student majors in science or engineering, more math will be required because those extra courses would be considered part of the major, not part of the core. If the community college accepts CLEP for a core course and the university doesn't, the university must accept the CLEP credit if the student is core complete. That's because it's no longer considered CLEP, but plain old transfer credit.

For those interested in cost, keep in mind that cost isn't just the number of credits and cost per hour, but how many calendar years does it take to get the degree. Having an associate's degree will probably shorten the time it takes to obtain a liberal arts degree at a university. But it might not do much or anything to reduce the number of years to complete what I call a sequential major. Sequential majors are architecture, business, computer science, and engineering. You have to take course 1 before course 2 which must be completed before course 3, etc. Those courses might not be available at a community college.

If you are suggesting that it is not possible to transfer into UT with 30 hours, are you sure? In general in Texas 30 hours is magic for transferring. Once the student has 30 hours, the student's high school grades and ACT/SAT scores are no longer considered.

I guess the first two years of university/college are same for all no matter what the major is. Yes, my majors will hopefully be a sequential one. There are a few courses which are certainly not available at community college, but then again aren't all core curriculum's the same or kind of alike?

I want to transfer into 3rd year (junior year) at UT hence I want to complete my core curriculum prior to transfer.

What clep3705 said is all correct.

Yes, community colleges give credit for CLEP. How much credit and which CLEPs they accept for credit is entirely CC specific. You can take CLEP along side other courses. I took mine during my summer break as I took the summer semester off as I did not have child care for my children but I could have taken them in addition to any summer classes I might have taken. Are you asking if there's a specific limit of CLEP credits allowed per semester or a limit on courses at the CC? A CC usually has a limit of 18 credits maximum per semester but any CLEPs you would take would not factor into that number. I don't see anywhere where UT says you need a minimum of 60 credits to transfer. The only thing I have seen is that you can transfer *no more* than 60 credit hours to UT as they require 60hrs of in residence instruction.

Which community college are you thinking of attending?

Yes, I am asking whether there is a certain limit to how many CLEP's you can give. Some people whom I asked told me that you can't give CLEP courses while at a community college because it is somehow against their policy, you can only do the courses they offer to you.

Sorry about that, UT mentions that you cannot give more than 60 credits. As you need to do at least 60 credits from UT itself.

I plan on going to Austin Community College, they have a handful of campuses across Austin. Plus they're directly affiliated to UT.