Part 3
specialize in accepting credit by examination, are familiar with ACE recommendations, accept ALEKS, and are all partners with Straighterline.
The first of the three is my alma-mater, Charter Oak State College. Charter Oak is part of the State University System of Connecticut. They are overseen be the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (ConnSCU). Charter Oak maintains very high standards requiring writing intensive Cornerstone and Capstone courses. Other than those six hours however they will accept credit from all the sources listed above and any existing regionally accredited college work completed. Charter Oak awards Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees, the Bachelor of Science in Individualized Studies makes the most of available test out options.
http://www.charteroak.edu/Thomas Edison State College is located in Trenton New Jersey. Many of their degree programs do not have any residency requirement, and they have a long list of specific degree plans.
http://www.tesc.edu/academics/What-You-Can-Study.cfm. Thomas Edison offers courses of study in topics such as Nuclear Science, Nursing, and Education. In addition to outside exam credit Thomas Edison also administers an in house, for credit, exam program called TECEP. These exams are available to the general public for around $100.00
Excelsior College is a regionally accredited private college in New York. In addition to liberal arts, the college offers several innovative degree programs including a unique bridge from Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) to Registered Nurse. The Bridge is exam based, not unlike a CLEP or DSST and finishes with a single long weekend for the student to complete the practical portions of their degree. Like Thomas Edison, Excelsior has their own standardized exams that are often accepted by other colleges. Error: need cookies Excelsior requires a Capstone course for most degree plans.
http://www.excelsior.edu/All three of these institutions are properly credentialed and understand the alternative credit possibilities and process. Graduates of these programs have gone on to senior positions and personal success as well as advanced education at other colleges. Thomas Edison even touts a graduate that went on to medical school. Among the alternative education crowd Charter Oak, Thomas Edison, and Excelsior are affectionately known as “The Big 3” a designation that expresses the unique nature and progressive thinking that makes them each a leader in alternative education.
A final source for credit is the federal government specifically the Federal Emergency Management Agency or, FEMA. These credits are mentioned last because they are really a niche application. Only a handful of schools other than the Big 3 accept these credits. The courses are typically worth a single credit each and cover emergency management topics. While the courses are well known to Police, Fire, and EMS, the fact that they can be used for credit, and are available to the general public is essentially unknown. Topics covered span all phases of the response to emergency process. Titles include; A Citizens Guide to Disaster Assistance, Leadership, Diversity Awareness, Exercise Design, Ethics, Safety, and around five dozen other titles. Completion of FEMA courses is self paced, straightforward, and absolutely FREE! Thomas Edison State College and Charter Oak State College will accept a transcript of your work directly from FEMA at no cost. While the courses only equate to general electives or specific professional credits the cost savings is still substantial.
FEMA is also partnered with Frederick Community College of Maryland who will accept FEMA credits for a fee of around $77.00 per credit. Once Frederick has accepted your FEMA credits they are available on a FCC transcript and might be accepted by many institutions…check with your school to see if that’s a possibility.
Clackamus College of Oregon, Guam Community College, and Red Rocks Community College all offer Associate's degrees that utilize FEMA credit. Primarily the FEMA credit will be used to fill out a major with supporting work in traditional undergraduate fields such as English and Math.
Knowing about a subject is not the same as using what you know about a subject. To support what we have learned above I would like to share some places and techniques to actually put the alternative college credit method into practice. The first place to explore alternative credit is the website
http://www.free-clep-prep.com/. This website is maintained by a former service member who stumbled upon CLEP and DSST while serving our country. Since military members can take many of the exams for free he started testing. He reports amassing college credit at a blistering pace and eventually attaining his Bachelor's degree. Free Clep Prep is his way of helping others achieve their dream of college graduation. The site is chocked full of lists on what credit is available, how hard the exams are, exam study guides, and success stories. There are also details on Straighterline, ALEKS, and FEMA. There are links to other websites and tools to make the most of your study time and to lead the reader to success. There is no cost associated with the site, it's a free labor of love from the owner. On that site is a link to perhaps the best “secret” in alternative testing available….The Instant Cert Forum.
Instant Cert is three things. First it offers inexpensive, though invaluable, study aids in the form of online flashcards. The cards cover the material found on dozens of CLEP and DSST exams. Hundreds, possibly thousands of students have used the flashcard service to study for and pass their exams. The service, which costs $20 a month for unlimited access, would be a great find on its own...but there is so much more. The second great thing about instant cert is the access t the instant cert forum. The main forum is free and open to anyone at
http://www.degreeforum.net/forum.php . Some of the learners here know more about alternative learning than a college guidance counselor (often a lot more). The community is warm and welcoming and just about any question regarding the topics discussed in this article can likely be answered here. I could not have completed my own Bachelor's degree journey without the guidance and support of this online community. The third and final important part of instant cert is a special access that is only available to members paying for flashcard access. This piece is a supplement to the free forum called “specific exam feedback”. In this area are found hundreds of post's on each CLEP and DSST exam. No specific test questions or unethical behaviors are tolerated, but readers will receive an overview of the exam, and feedback from others who have actually taken each exam. Typically the posts include the score received, and the primary study aid used to achieve that score. For example by reading through the specific feedback on the American Literature CLEP my daughter learned that the best study guide was an out of print book called “The complete Idiots Guide to American Literature”. A quick visit to Amazon.com and a $15.00 purchase later she was reading a kindle copy of the book. Within a few weeks she was confident enough to sit for the exam and scored her second highest marks to date while earning six college credits for $77.00. The face of education is changing. Free clep prep and instant cert are just two examples of exam prep help. The idea of testing out of all or part of a degree is very big in some home school circles.
One home school group has taken the guess work out of preparing for exams the old fashioned way. They created lesson plans to teach the material required to pass the exams using cheap older editions of textbooks. The plans come complete with a breakdown of what to study, weekly lessons, and various tips on testing. Best of all the lesson plans are free to use, though the site owners do ask for any small donation to help keep the site free of any required cost. LESSON PLANS.
“We created the lesson plans while teaching our oldest daughter how to pass individual CLEP subject exams. The thought occurred to us that many parent-teachers could probably benefit from our efforts, so we decided to share them here.”
http://clepprep.tripod.com/cleplessonplans/id4.html These lesson plans are an excellent resource. The site above is full of relevant advice on alternative education and credit by exam. This work would be incomplete without a road-map. Knowing exactly where you are going eliminates any guesswork.
The first road-map is for an Associate of Arts degree at Florida Gateway College. A small accredited school in North Central Florida. The requirements here essentially