Newbie looking for the best option

[cookderosa]

rmakings sent me this same question via private message, but I'll share my reply here since this comes up a lot.

Thanks Ryan, I came up with the phrase "credit laundering" back in March 2008 and it stuck. What you're trying to do isn't uncommon, students have tried to "launder credit" probably since the 70's. The reason the term fits, is because the intent is to move the credit through an entity that cleans it up and gives it a new name - one accepted by their university- and the lengths that people are willing to try are great. Unfortunately, the likelihood of pulling this off is exceptionally tiny. The reason, is that colleges want credit traced back to the source. When students send credit to a college, it almost always has a "tell" in the way it's documented on the transcript, so when the second college receives the transcript, they will evaluate each course individually.

There is a 100% legal credit transfer option that does work, but not at every school. Many community colleges have articulation agreements with universities. In states where this is required, students can complete an AA or AS at the community college and then the ENTIRE degree is guaranteed transfer- none of the credits are evaluated individually. This is a great way to push through loads of CLEP or in some cases Prior Learning Assessments and other non-traditional credits.

So, in short- unless you're wrapping those CLEP exam credits into a degree that Embry Riddle accepts wholly (there may or may not be that option- you can check) you can expect the 15 credit by exam policy to apply.

EDIT TO ADD: Embry Riddle has articulation agreements, but I can't find a list. On their website go to search and type in "articulation agreement" and also try "Education and Cooperative Agreements" you'll get some help understanding what they are, but you should for sure contact them for a list. Since this is the school you want to attend, this might be worth a little investigation. Good luck!!

EDIT again TO ADD: I had another thought, since most of your credit is in applied science, I had a similar situation I want to share. My applied science credits didn't transfer into a BA, and I couldn't find a BA in culinary arts - so what I did was earned my BA from TESU quickly and cheaply and then picked a graduate program that appealed to me. Bachelor's degrees are at least 120 credits, which means more moving parts. If it gets to be too crazy, you could complete an undergrad via one of the big 3 and then use Embry Riddle for a Master's degree.