Hi,

I want to enroll in an online college within the next year to study for an Associates Degree.  As a mother with a full time job I'm not entirely confident in my ability and availability to be a student.  I've had difficulties picking up the learning material in high school but have done extremely well learning in everyday environment.  I don't want to dive into college and find myself discouraged and disappointed.  I was thinking of starting small, perhaps by studying for CLEP.  If I do well I'll move ahead with college.

Will I encounter problems with transferring the CLEP credits if I don't choose an institution and consult their CLEP policies prior to taking the tests?  What are the maximum credits one can expect to transfer?  Are the credits filtered and selected by major?

 Thanks for your help,

Frieda   

 

In general, CLEP test can be taken without being enrolled in any program and most places accept them as transfer credits without any problems.

UoP lets you transfer in a maximum of 30 credits from CLEP, but before comitting to too many tests I would look around and contact a few schools that interest you and ask them their policies.

baldman:

In general, CLEP test can be taken without being enrolled in any program and most places accept them as transfer credits without any problems.

I would say many rather than most, and not all those that do follow the ACE recommendation for credit. 

UoP lets you transfer in a maximum of 30 credits from CLEP, but before comitting to too many tests I would look around and contact a few schools that interest you and ask them their policies.

I would do that before taking any tests -- asking is free.

-=Steve=- 

Some less expensive schools that also accept CLEP to my knowledge are Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State College and Charter Oak State College.  Be sure to double check before pulling the trigger though.

Hi Frieda,

 

You shouldn’t encounter too many problems if you enroll with an independent study college (for example, Thomas Edison State College). I took a bunch of Clep tests on my own before I enrolled with TESC. They all transferred over just fine. The great thing about Cleps is that if you don’t pass one, you don’t have to send that bad score to your school, so it won’t even go on your record!

 

I transferred at least 45 of my credits from Cleps to TESC. That specific school accepts up to 80 credits from regionally accredited community colleges and up to 120 credits from regionally accredited 4-year schools.

But again, it's always good to do some research before you start anything!