Earn an Accredited Degree in One Month

Get a Bachelor's Degree Via Exam Credits

Feb 8, 2010
Laura Holst

: Earn an Accredited College Degree by Examination - M00by

Earn an accredited Bachelor's degree with CLEP, DANTES, TECEP, ECE, GRE exam credits and life experience. Three accredited colleges confer degrees for exam credits.

Virtually all schools accept some credits for examination. Three accredited schools allow students to use exams for their whole degree program. Two of the schools, Charter Oak State College and Thomas Edison State College are state schools which have access to public funds like student loans and grants. One of the colleges, Excelsior, is a private institution.
These colleges offer credit for traditional and online courses and various exams. Some of them offer credit by portfolio. Though it may take longer for some students, it is possible for a student to earn a BA in a month exclusively via testing and/or life experience portfolio assessment.

The Big Three in Distance Education

Thomas Edison State College (TESC), Charter Oak State College (COSC), and Excelsior College are known as "The Big Three" in the distance education community. Each of these colleges is accredited by their regional accrediting body, and all three allow students to earn a college degree via non-traditional means.

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The big three accept credit for examination, portfolio, online coursework, and traditional coursework. It is possible to use these schools and a variety of examinations to earn a BA in just one month. Some of the exams accepted by these colleges include:

AP Advanced Placement (College Board) Examinations
CLEP (College Board) College-Level Examination Program
COSC Charter Oak State College Examination Pathways Exam Registration Form
DANTES (DSST) Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Educational Support
GRE Graduate Record Examination Subject Tests
ECE Excelsior College Examination Program (These exams were formerly Regents, ACT PEP, CPE & REDE tests of The University of the State of New York.)
TECEP Thomas Edison College Examination Program

Thomas Edison State College

Thomas Edison State College (TESC) is located in Trenton, NJ. It is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. As a state school, TESC offers financial aid and is able to accept federal student grants and loans.
TESC has its own credit by examination program called the TECEP (Thomas Edison State College Examination Program). These exams are accepted for credit at a variety of institutions of higher learning including Charter Oak State College and Excelsior. TESC also accepts a variety of other credit by examination programs including:

COSC
CLEP
DANTES/DSST
ECE
AP

TESC grants life experience credit and has a life experience portfolio assessment program. TESC also has a liberal credit transfer policy. Unlike Excelsior and Charter Oak State Colleges, Thomas Edison State does not accept credit for the GRE exams. They also do not assign letter grades for coursework by examination. This can be a problem if a student is planning to enter a graduate program which has a GPA prerequisite.

Charter Oak State College

Charter Oak State College (COSC) is located in New Britain, CT. It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. COSC accepts credit for all of the tests Thomas Edison State does. It administers the Charter Oak State College exams. Like TESC it has a life experience credit portfolio assessment program, and as a state run school it can accept government funds.
One of the advantages of COSC is that it will grant up to 24 semester units of credit for the GRE subject examinations depending on the percentile. COSC will award credits as both lower and upper division units in that subject. That is of significant benefit to students, as 24 semester units is equivalent to one full year in the subject. COSC does assign grades for some tests, but not all. As in the case of TESC, this can be a problem if a student needs a GPA for a graduate program.

Excelsior College

Excelsior College is located in Albany, NY. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. As a private school, Excelsior does not participate in the federal student grants and loans programs. Excelsior accepts credit for all of the exams recognized by TESC and COSC. Although it doesn't have a portfolio assessment program, it does accept life experience credits which have been conferred elsewhere. Excelsior college administers the Execelsior College Examinations (ECE).
One of the benefits of Excelsior, is that it offers a Registered Nurse Program almost exclusively by examination which is accepted for licensure in most states. It also has a liberal GRE subject exam credit of 30 semester units. Excelsior does confer letter grades for all exams, and assigns a GPA to students. This allows students who are seeking graduate level degrees to include programs with a GPA requirement. Excelsior also has extensive online resources including study guides for the ECE tests.
Whether choosing Charter Oak State, Thomas Edison State, or Excelsior college, it is possible for a student to earn a BA in just one month by testing out of all of the degree program requirements. Excelsior offers the quickest option because of its liberal 30 semester unit credit for qualifying GRE scores. Earning a degree quickly can be of benefit to professionals who seek career advancement or a higher pay scale, as well as those who would like to advance to a graduate degree program more quickly.
Source:
BA in 4 Weeks.com
Charter Oak State College
Excelsior College
Thomas Edison State College

Earn Up to 30 College Credits by Taking the GRE Exam

Save Thousands by Earning College Credit from the GRE Subject Exams

Excelsior College

Have college credit but don't want to spend the rest of your college career in a traditional learning setting? Excelsior College awards up to 30 college credits to individuals who score an 80% or higher on a given GRE subject. The school allows you to earn 18 credits of upper level course credit and around 12 credits of lower division course credit for your success in this exam.

Many students often use this opportunity to complete a major in the GRE subject exam of their choice, without having to take any classes in the field. Excelsior takes a non-traditional approach to demonstrating mastery in the given subject in order to earn a significant amount of credit.

This is an optimal choice for entry level college students that may choose to transfer into Excelsior College with a majority of lower level course work. Students can use their GRE exam credit along with their previously earned course credit to finish their degrees. Students just entering college with no college credit can also take advantage of this option by earning 30 credits that count toward an undergraduate degree simply by taking the GRE subject exam.

Charter Oak State College

Charter Oak also incorporates the GRE subject exams into its degree completion curriculum options. It allows its students, who have scored in the 40th percentile, to earn around 18-24 credits in theGRE subject areas. Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, and Math test takers can earn 24 college credits. Literature and Psychology test takers can only earn 18 credits. The college credits earn generally consist of a combination of upper and lower division course credit, which may depend on the student's transcript to determine how they are exactly awarded.

This may be an optimal choice for students who have the majority of their college work completed but are lacking a few credits required to graduate. Charter Oak generally applies these GRE exam-based credits to lower division course credit. However, students are only required to complete around 15 upper division course credits.

Cost Savings

So what's the advantage of taking the GRE exam instead of traditional courses? The difference might surprise you. The cost of taking the GRE exam comes at around $140 for U.S. test takers. Let's compare that to the cost of taking traditional "per credit hour" courses with both of the school's in question.

Excelsior College's undergraduate tuition fee for courses cost $315 per credit hour. So, for 30 credit hours this would cost you around $9,450. Compare this to the $140 cost of scoring the required score on the GRE subject exam to earn 30 credit hours.

Charter Oak State College's online course tuition for non-residents is about $265 per credit hour, not including registration fees. You could save around $6,230 for scoring in the 40th percentile on the sciences and math GRE exams, by earning 24 credits and around $4,640 on the literature and psychology exams, by earning 18 credits.

Choose Wisely

A very important thing to consider when choosing which GRE exams to take is what you have previously taken. Neither Charter Oak nor Excelsior College will award duplicate course credits for courses that have already been completed. For example, if you decide to take the GRE Literature in English Subject Exam, Charter Oak will award 15 lower division courses and 3 upper division courses. This means that, if you already have 15 credits of introductory literature courses, this may not be the exam for you.

In order to earn the maximum amount of credits for a given GRE subject exam, you will need to have the least amount of previous coursework in that area, to ensure that they don't duplicate one's that you might receive by taking the GRE exam.

The GRE can be a very economical resource for those looking to complete their college degree in a non-traditional way. An ample amount of course credits is awarded both by Charter Oak State Collegeand Excelsior College for demonstration of competency when taking the GRE subject tests.

Source(s) cited:

Charter Oak State College
Excelsior College
Credit for Graduate Record Examinations
Charter Oak State College Exam Master List
About the GRE Subject Tests
Excelsior College 2009-2010 Undergraduate Fee Schedule
Tuition for Affordable Degree Completion and Online Courses at Charter Oak State College
Literature Concentration (Major) at Charter Oak State College
GRE Literature in English Subject Exam
Fees for Tests and Related Services

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Earn an Accredited Degree in One Month