Degree Forum Wiki

Welcome to the Degree Forum Wiki
Welcome to the unofficial wiki of the DegreeForum.net community. This wiki contains information on how to accelerate your degree completion through transfers and test-outs at "The Big 3" schools and complete your degree for as little as $5,000-$10,000 from scratch. This wiki is the collected wisdom of the many great people on the DegreeForum.net message boards.

'''NOTE: This wiki is NOT officially attached to, nor endorsed by, the owner of DegreeForum.net and InstantCert.com. He provides a fantastic service on his own. This wiki is entirely community-developed. As such, no statements found here should be seen as official statements from InstantCert.com.'''

'''NOTE 2: This wiki is NOT a discussion forum. All discussion features should be disabled. Any discussion should take place at the DegreeForum.net site. It is an excellent resource and the wiki will only augment it, not take away from it.'''

What? I can test out of my degree?
In a word -- YES! It is entirely possible to get a fully-accredited bachelor's degree from a state school without taking a single class! Many people have gone down this route before and blazed the trail for you. One DegreeForum.net user reported earning 89 credits in one month using various test-out options! And all of these are 100% acceptable as transfer credit at most regionally-accredited schools.

However, purely test-out is not the only option available. The Big 3 have generous transfer policies, allowing you to transfer in all 120 credits to complete a degree. They were designed specifically for the adult career learner who may have credits from a variety of sources (community colleges, universities, industry certifications, etc) but not enough to fill up a "traditional" degree. This wiki and DegreeForum.net can show you how to fill up the credits to get you a real, regionally-accredited degree.

How does it work?
There are currently three universities that allow you to transfer in all 120 credits towards a bachelor's degree: Thomas Edison State College (TESC), Excelsior College (EC), and Charter Oak State College (COSC). These are often referred to as "The Big 3" schools. These schools specialize in providing education opportunities to busy, working adults who may have a collection of credits or creditable experience from multiple sources. Thanks to their generous policies it is possible to earn a bachelor's degree without taking a single college class. As long as you know how to do it, understand the policies, and are willing to put in the work, that is. This site, and the DegreeForum.net community, can help with the first two, but the third is entirely on you!

These are not "Life Experience" degrees
The Big 3 are all regionally-accredited public state universities that offer their own classes. Regional accreditation is the highest level of academic accreditation with the strictest academic standards. You can earn all 120 credits by some combination of the following: taking classes at these schools, taking classes at other schools, taking classes from alternative sources, or passing class-equivalence tests.

Note: While one school (Thomas Edison) currently offers "portfolio" credit -- a means to prepare a portfolio of your actual work in a particular course, have it reviewed, and be tested (written or oral) and/or interviewed by a qualified teacher from a local college to receive credit for an actual course -- this route is actually frowned upon by those who have walked this path before. For the same cost of a "portfolio" (around $450 and 3 months, with no guarantee you will get any credit) you can take 3 CLEP tests and get 9-18 credits!

List of Topics

 * Common Acronyms and Terms
 * Common Misconceptions
 * The Basic Approach
 * Accreditation
 * Degree Costs
 * General Academic Policies
 * General info on transfers (e.g. no credit laundering)
 * ACE recommendations are not requirements
 * Things to avoid, or things that simply aren't possible / will cause you lots of problems
 * Sources of Credit
 * Study Guides
 * The Big 3
 * Thomas Edison
 * TESC-specific policies
 * Example TESC Degree Plans
 * Excelsior
 * EC-specific policies
 * Example EC degree plans
 * Charter Oak
 * COSC-specific policies
 * Example COSC degree plans
 * The "Lesser Schools" (in terms of flexibility / credits accepted)
 * AMU/APU
 * WGU
 * etc