The U.S. Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires website operators to obtain parent or guardian consent before collecting personal information from children under 13 years of age. That’s no problem, once you get the form on file, your tween is good to go!
Continue reading “Under age 13? CLEP and AP are still options.”
We’d like my daughter to take AP Biology next year. She can do it either through SC Virtual or through Modern States. Modern States probably offers higher quality and certainly offers more flexibility, what do you think?
Continue reading “Parent Question: Modern States for AP?”
The last day to register for an Excelsior College UExcel exam is June 30, 2022. No word as to whether or not a new exam product is being developed. Updates to follow as they roll out.
Excelsior College will no longer offer UExcel exams after the Summer 2022 trimester. If you are interested in taking a UExcel exam(s), the deadline for registration is Thursday, June 30. The last day to take a UExcel exam is Sunday, August 21.
UExcel Exams—Excelsior College Exams Limited Transfer http://www.Excelsior.edu UExcel exams (credit by exam) let you earn credit by exam rather than by taking a course that requires you to complete assignments and take multiple tests on a schedule. You don’t have to enroll in a degree program at Excelsior College to take UExcel exams. FORMERLY ACE: […]
One saves you time and money, while the other saves neither. Do you know the difference?
Continue reading ““Testing in” vs “Testing out””
DSST, the “other” CLEP test, offers several other exams you can use to add to your CLEP schedule. If you’re thinking about DSST tests, you’ll really love this resource for several free DSST prep guides!
Continue reading “DSST Prep Guides: Online and FREE!”
Though CLEP exams don’t generate a letter grade at your college, it feels good to know what grade it might have been if it were assigned a letter grade. This table tells you.
Continue reading “CLEP Score: What’s an A? B? C?”
Let’s talk about CLEP scores and what you need to know.
Continue reading “CLEP Scores: FAQ”
Last fall, I took a CLEP from home and wrote a review on how it went. Since then, my daughter has taken three CLEPs from home. Do we love the convenience? Yes! Have there been issues. A few. Today I will share the steps you can follow to take a CLEP at home for FREE!
Continue reading “Steps to CLEP Home Proctoring”
Perks of my job: getting special email invites from universities offering to share their education goodies to with my audience. <oh how things have changed in 10 years> This is a GREAT pilot program offer for any of you who have been studying or working in Cybersecurity and want to try for a credential. Open to any anyone- parents too!
Continue reading “Calling Cybersecurity Students”
Does that sound like a crazy question? Not so fast! In today’s post, you’ll learn how to know it your teen has college credit….or potential college credit.
Continue reading “Does my Teen have College Credit?”
Yes, your teen can go to college for free. Seriously. Let me show you how to extract the most out of what they’re offering so your teen can grab this deal.
Continue reading “Starbucks College Achievement Plan”
Super rare thing for me to write about here because, frankly, very few of you are going to be in a situation where you exhaust your credit earning options for the first two years of college (60 credits). But every now and then, a parent will ask about upper-level credit options.
Continue reading “Upper-Level Credit in High School”
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.
Continue reading “A Little Extra Credit”
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.
Continue reading “Testing Out of Psychology 101”
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.
Continue reading “Credit by Exam AT HOME: a list”
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 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?”
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…
Continue reading “Mary Margaret’s Story: 100 Credits and Counting”
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)
Continue reading “Report: HS Students Who Earn College Credit more Likely to Graduate College”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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?”
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.
Continue reading “Family Member in a Union? Free College”
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!
Continue reading “Good to Know: UL and LL Credit”
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!
Continue reading “Math before College Algebra?”
Homeschooling for College Credit 