College at Home

Read the Disclaimer Notice In this roadtrip to getting your college degree at home, the key is to understand that in order to reach your destination, you need sort of a plan.

In the article College Degree Planning and US College Degrees in a Nutshell, an overview of ACE credits is discussed briefly also explaining why ACE credits are accepted by many US colleges and universities. The anatomy of a US College Degree follows this above-mentioned article. It generalizes the number of credits that a student is expected take to obtain a college degree.

After reading these two articles, you can go ahead and start finding out how to do college degree planning. Even though it is really easy to navigate, there are still roadblocks that you need to be aware of.

Roadblocks to Getting Your College Degree at Home

It depends on your determination or how important your destination is to you.

In the same way, in studying at home for college, there are roadblocks. Hopefully, our research will give you some new routes when you experience the same roadblocks as we have. But, if your mind is set on getting a college degree at home, you will find that these roadblocks are placed by colleges and universities for their convenience.

Offering college courses for $300 to $3,000 per credit is a profitable venture. You can only get around this and get it cheaper if you do not stop and give up when there is a roadblock in front of you.

What are the most common roadblocks in getting your college degree at home?

1. Process is confusing and unclear

You will seldom find a college or a university that will put the road to get a college degree at home in their home page. Why? Because it is competition. Due to your ignorance of the other roads to get college classes at home to obtain your college degree, the college and universities reserve this information for determined individuals.

Are you determined to find the road to get a college degree at home even if there is a roadblock in front of you? These colleges know that you are ignorant and most people do not think "outside the box".

2. Refusal to help you until you enroll

Colleges and universities will not assist you with your inquiry unless you are enrolled. You are treated as a 2nd class citizen because they work for the school and not for you.

Imagine construction workers in a roadblock. These workers are employed to beautify the school and the premises. They are busy. How many of these workers will take time to spoon-feed you about the information you need?

Either they are too busy or they are ignorant themselves of the policies of the university with regards to obtaining college credits. They just think inside the scope of their job description.

3. Treat the course as electives

Some colleges will even treat the course you took just for electives. For example, you may have taken CLEP Biology and passed it. But, the head of the Biology Department might protect the so-called quality standards of their school and just disallow it. They will claim that the CLEP Biology does not meet their course requirement especially if they have a lab component in their course offering. They will treat this major course as an elective instead. They could even treat it as a 3 unit course rather than 6 college credits.

4. Evaluation of courses take 3 weeks

Colleges usually assign only one person for CLEP. Thus, it may take this employee several weeks to give you an assessment. They are unmindful of your intent to beat time in taking these courses. This evaluation is time-consuming for the college employee, thus, it is not prioritized. Sometimes, the student is met with cynical employee that resist to think outside the box to help you.

5. The College's discretion

The most annoying of all these roadblock is when a college or university simply refuse to allow it because they said so. You then have no choice but to reach your destination with another road.

For example, you took CLEP American Literature for 6 college credits but in the school's English Department, they only will credit CLEP English Literature.

Or, like any Ivy League schools who admission is very restrictive, then these CLEP courses will not even be taken seriously. Why? Because they said so.

All you need is to target the university that will accommodate your vision. Thus, it is important to research and talk to your target college choice before embarking on this program. You either have to be flexible or you just cannot make it in this route.

If a university tells you "no", look for another university. There are hundreds high quality ones out there.

Humps in the Road

You might be met with resistance initially. Even if this route is a sure way to obtain a college degree, your high school student may prefer to attend a "brick and mortar" college like their peers.

The traditional route is our comfort zone. Thus, there is a certain discomfort when we choose to reach our destination in an alternative route. Lack of knowledge with the new system creates a reasonable fear which you can only conquer by researching more on this idea.

You probably also know your child very well that you feel that he or she will not yet be ready for this kind of "out of the box" route to earn a college degree. Your children might be uneasy with test-taking. The dry college textbook or reviewer might be unappealing. The subject matter of college courses is too wordy and detailed. The concepts being studied may be hard to visualize. The college courses may require too much study time. Your children squirm at this new idea.

Obviously, there is a "pressure". It is not easy. But, it is doable. You just have to change your mindset. This is now college level subjects that your children will be handling. It is important that you check the materials before hand so you can evaluate any topics that may be against your faith and values.

Do not be discouraged. Once, they pass their first challenge test, they will be addicted to this strategy.

Attitude counts in making "college at home" work. If you have begun your "study at home" journey by using the "teach yourself" method, your student will be able to handle all these humps and be confident test-takers.

If you are ready, perhaps you can start familiarizing yourself with the CLEP exams.

CLEP Exams - Everything you need to know about CLEP exams is in this article.

Read about how to actually Plan a College Degree at home.

SBI!