Although I am still working on my AS in Marketing at Penn
Foster College,
I have always had my eye on finishing my BA.
Last year, out of curiosity, I sent an application to Excelsior
College to see how far away from my
goal I was at that time.
I sent in my SMART transcript for my military training in
the U.S. Navy, and the transcript for courses I took at the University
of Wisconsin. The verdict:
I was still 32 credits away from my bachelor degree. I decided to keep working at Penn
Foster College
to rack up the lower-level courses I needed, particularly the general education
requirements. Another thing that held me
back was the fact that students of Excelsior
College were not eligible to apply
for federal student financial aid.
Well, apparently that is about to change. A notice on the Excelsior
College web site indicates they will
begin processing Title IV federal financial aid in January. Their FAFSA code is 014251
for those filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
This is great news. I am
interested in transferring to one of the so-called “Big Three”…Excelsior,
Thomas Edison State College or Charter Oak State College, after obtaining my AS
from PFC because those schools will allow students to transfer nearly all of
the credits required for a degree. But,
I had always left Excelsior off the list because they were not eligible for
Title IV aid.
I have always liked the look of Excelsior’s programs, although the name
of the school could use some help. They
offer the program I want (communications) and allow maximum transfer
credit. They do have a pesky Information
Literacy course they require all students to take. I don’t think the Info Lit course I took at Penn Foster College qualifies, because the
last time I looked it was one of the courses in the program not reviewed by
ACE.
Still, most of the other courses in my PFC degree program are
ACE-reviewed, and Excelsior does accept ACE-reviewed courses for transfer
credit, even though Penn Foster is nationally accredited and Excelsior is
regionally accredited. Even so,
Excelsior does have a policy in place to consider transfer credit from
non-regionally accredited institutions.
Great move, Excelsior. You’re back on my list!