GRE Subject Tests

[Kaz]

If that's too much writing, basically I'm saying that I think the Biology GRE is something more people should consider because unlike other natural science GREs, you can pass Biology just by memorizing individual facts. This obviously isn't going to get you into a ranked MS Biology program, but 24 credits in one shot is still a huge step towards getting a degree.

I more or less agree up to the last sentence. Here is the "problem" with COSC's awarding of credit for the GRE: it looks like it would really help someone who wants a concentration in that subject, but realistically it doesn't help much. The reason is two-fold:

1. the "quantitative" GREs will only fulfill two-thirds of the credit requirements for a Concentration and the non-quantitative fulfill only half
   
2. almost no other college will recognize subject GRE scores as "good enough" for waiving of prerequisites for upper level courses
   

Those two things together create the problem: you clear two-thirds of a concentration with one GRE test, but that final third will require several upper level courses that you will have to take at a school other than COSC, and that other school most likely will not consider your GRE test as "good enough" to waive the pre-reqs for whatever you want to take. It is further complicated by any labs that are needed.

Example: biology. You take the bio GRE and get, say, 63% or so. Nice! You get 24 credits in biology (15 LL/9 UL). Now you need another 12 credits, all UL, that include 2 UL lab courses. In order to fulfill that you have to take the courses at some other college and practically speaking distance, upper level labs are tough to come by on their own, but additionally you have to get all of the pre-reqs waived as a non-degree seeking student based off of a 63% subject GRE score. No mean feat.

Granted, almost no one tries this, so we have very little data to draw on in this forum for this scenario. If we found one or two colleges that are amenable to this scenario and several users here had success attempting this then we would have a pretty cool option here. As it stands now however very, very few people go the subject GRE route anymore since Excelsior changed its policy, so I doubt we ever get such data.

It isn't helped by the fact that COSC doesn't have majors in any of the subjects covered by the GREs, only concentrations. I imagine few people want to kill themselves on the chem GRE, then scour the digital countryside searching for multiple upper level chem labs, only to be rewarded with a bachelor's in "general studies" :ack: