Sneak Peek: 2022 HS4CC Live Events
Category: Credit by Exam
A Little Extra Credit
If your teen is using dual enrollment this year, you may experience a large “gap” between the end of this semester and the start of the next. My son’s dual enrollment college takes a full 4-week break! If you need a break, take it, but if your teen’s break is long like ours, you may not want to sit out that long.
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Testing Out of Psychology 101
Introduction to Psychology is a favorite course for many teens, but parents are wise to use caution before enrolling. Psychology courses (depending on the teacher and textbook) can skim over mature content, slam into it head-first, or go way off topic. One way for parents to moderate the content of this course, and stay on topic, is to have your teen study at home and test out of psychology using a standardized exam.
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Credit by Exam AT HOME: a list
Credit by exam (CBE) allows your teen to study independently and then take an exam worth college credit. During the past year, there has been a huge change in WHERE and HOW tests are taken. Below is the current list credit by exam options and where you can take them.
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Cost Challenge: 4 Courses
In this challenge, I wanted to know exactly what it would cost my family to take 4 courses in 1 semester using any of the popular college credit options in the Homeschooling for College Credit. I’ve compared costs for ASU, dual enrollment, Study(dot)com, Sophia, CLEP, and several others.
Continue reading “Cost Challenge: 4 Courses”How Many Ways to Earn College Credit in High School?
How many different ways can your teen earn college credit? More than you think! But the goal isn’t just to “earn credit” because the credit only saves you time and money if it can eventually be used toward a degree. This understanding is MORE IMPORTANT for high school students than adults because of the variables at hand.
Continue reading “How Many Ways to Earn College Credit in High School?”
100 Credits and Counting
I want to introduce you to a rising 12th grader named Mary Margaret. I met her mom before COVID, back when my local public library allowed me to give free college workshops to the homeschool community in person. Since my audience is typically only adults, it’s always a pleasant surprise to meet a teen, but I had no idea…
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Report: HS Students Who Earn College Credit more Likely to Graduate College
College Board’s reports and supports what we’ve known HERE for a long time- earning college credit in high school helps teens get OUT of college! Getting IN to college is easy- it’s getting OUT that’s hard. Getting OUT is no small thing since nearly 1/2 of all students who start college never finish. (report follows)
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Parent Question: How many CLEP credits can be transferred to a college or university?
Q: How many CLEP credits can be transferred to a junior/community college or university?
A: There is no set number of credits since each college sets that number for themselves, but no matter what their number is, you should try to meet or exceed it.
Junior/Community College
A degree from a 2-year college usually consists of about 60 college credits. Since a CLEP exam is worth 3-9 credits, your cost and time savings can add up quickly. In some cases there is a list of exams that the college accepts (or doesn’t) and in other cases there may simply be a number. In every case, the exam has to apply to a degree program to “count” and can’t duplicate a course your student already took. For instance, if your teen takes French 101, they can’t also get CLEP credit for CLEP French.
On the low end, a college would restrict CLEP to the point of either not accepting the credit or capping it at about 15 credits. This represents 0-25% of the degree.
On the high end, even the most generous college will not allow you to exceed 75% of the degree, which is going to represent about 45 CLEP credits.
4-Year College / University
A degree from a 4-year college usually consists of about 120 college credits. Since all CLEP credit represents lower level credit (that earned in your first two years of college) it’s unlikely that even the most generous colleges will have classes that match up to a CLEP exam after the first 60 credits. This is more a matter of practicality than policy. In other words, once you get past the first 60 credits, there simply aren’t CLEP exams offered that meet the degree requirements for the upper levels.
Note: while CLEP exams are all lower-level credit, there are exams that you can take to earn upper-level 300/400 level college credit.
There is a layer of complexity to this question when the student intends to start at a community college and then transfer to a 4-year college. Those nuances go beyond the scope of this post, but the following posts will be especially useful to those who plan to transfer later.
Credit Laundering
Colleges are highly predictable in how they handle incoming credit, but people are exceptionally creative, and it doesn’t take long before bright parents to think they’ve found a loophole. Let’s look at that loophole.
Transfer Credit for the Win
Understanding transfer credit makes a big impact on the overall cost of college. Through resourceful high school planning, parents learn to understand how to make a college’s transfer policy work in their favor.
Am I a College Freshman or a Transfer Student?
HELP! Is my teen is applying to college soon, and I’m not sure if she should select the box for a freshman application or for the transfer student application? Earning college credit in high school can lead you to wonder if your teen is an incoming freshman or a transfer student- good question! Your student […]
How Many Ways to Earn College Credit in High School?
How many different ways can your teen earn college credit? More than you think! But the goal isn’t just to “earn credit” because the credit only saves you time and money if it can eventually be used toward a degree. This understanding is MORE IMPORTANT for high school students than adults because of the variables at hand.
Continue reading “How Many Ways to Earn College Credit in High School?”
Family Member in a Union? Free College
We see lots of programs come and go, but this one is STILL available and running strong (since we first shared about it in 2016), so we HAVE TO keep letting our parents know – especially now that we have a HS4CC graduate from this program! If ANYONE in your family is part of the union, your teen may have access to a totally free associate degree. Zero out of pocket, really.
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Good to Know: UL and LL Credit
Sometimes members use the shorthand “UL” or “LL” to indicate upper-level or lower-level credit. If you’re wondering what the difference is and why anyone cares, let’s take a look!
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Math before College Algebra?
While College Algebra tends to be the “starter” math for dual enrollment, College Algebra requires (at a minimum) your student finish high school algebra 2 first. What if your teen is ready for college credit by not finished with Algebra 2? There are options!
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Learn Turkish
I have a guiding principle- never “just” look something up for myself. When Valerie, a HS4CC parent in New Jersey, asked for help finding a Turkish language program for her teen, I exhausted my normal “go to” resources. At that point, I knew I’d have to share my work with you. Zevk almak!
Continue reading “Learn Turkish”Free Virtual Conference this Sunday
Jennifer Cook-DeRosa, author of Homeschooling for College Credit, is a featured speaker this Sunday, December 6th at the virtual homeschooling conference “Homeschool to Unschool: How to let your child’s unique genius shine.” Her session presentation is titled “How Self-Directed Learners Earn College Credit at Home” and will focus on how independent learners or unschooling families can find a pathway that works for them.
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Brain Dump
Brain Dump: A strategy used by people to pass their CLEP exams.
Physical Sciences that Won’t Break the Budget!
If your high school student needs to study PHYSICAL science this year, you know that online sciences can be EXPENSIVE! I have some great online courses and lab resources to share that are very low cost! These courses all generate high school credit, and I’ll show you how to use each of them for college credit too! Continue reading “Physical Sciences that Won’t Break the Budget!”
College Credit & Social Distancing
We’re in full social distancing mode, but even with so many businesses closed, earning college credit is still possible for most of our audience! The following list shows you which college credit resources are still alive and well! Continue reading “College Credit & Social Distancing”
Brain Dump
Brain Dump: A strategy used by people to pass their CLEP exams.
CLEP Prep in 2020
Kicking off the new year with CLEP or DSST exam plans? There are a zillion ways to prep for a CLEP exam – so let me lead with this: It is my opinion that “CLEP Prep” is easiest AFTER your student finishes a homeschool class (not instead of). Just as you wouldn’t expect an SAT test prep book to teach your son algebra, my opinion is that a CLEP prep product isn’t designed to teach a subject “from scratch” either.
CLEP in Your Homeschool
Homeschoolers love CLEP! If you’re just starting to wonder what the hype is all about, these quick FAQs can get you started.
The Hardest CLEP Ever…..or not
The Humanities CLEP has a reputation for being one of the hardest CLEP exams. It is, after all, an extremely broad test covering literature, poetry, art, architecture, philosophy, and music that spans over two centuries. That is a lot of material to cover! (A description of the exam is located at the end of this post.) Continue reading “The Hardest CLEP Ever…..or not”
THE 1st CLEP
The first CLEP exam is always nerve-wracking. You just don’t know what you don’t know! Below are a few tips to help you feel more prepared. Continue reading “THE 1st CLEP”
Homeschooling for College Credit 