College Degree Planning

You can work in the day and have a full time job and then study for the rest of the evening. You can also be a full time mother and study at your free time. Or you can just simply study the whole day.

The key is to understand first the anatomy of a college degree in the US. I mean, what is the normal? Some colleges have 4 credits per course. Other universities have 3 credits. But, what I will explain below is for the typical 3-6 credits that you can earn in most universities.

As a reminder, you have to always check your target college first before embarking on this program or your efforts will be futile. For example, you may test out for American Literature and your target college does not list this and cannot grant credits for the CLEP test that you just took.

For example, in the website of Belmont Abbey College, they list down that they accept CLEP test for English Literature but not American Literature. So, please be careful.

In planning for a college degree that you can take at home, you must first check out the college and university that you intend to enroll. Look at their syllabus and curriculum. Then, check out their CLEP policy.

CLEP is just one way to test out. There are other ways to get college credits by enrolling in Aleks and Straightliner through their partner colleges. Remember, these are not bogus courses. They are regionally accredited through ACE which stands for American Council On Education. ACE credits are accepted by many colleges and universities.

Why?

Because ACE is an organization that includes membership of presidents and chancellors of all types of U.S schools granting degrees. This also includes community colleges, four-year public and private institutions. ACE has a leadership role in higher education issues in the US.

Before we go any further, it is time to find out what are the course or subject requirements to get a college degree in the US? How many credits do you need to obtain a college degree? How do they categorize these courses?

College Degree in the US in a Nutshell

A typical four-year degree in the US has more or less a basic anatomy.

General Education Requirements

Colleges and universities require you to take two years worth of general education courses. It ranges from 48 to 60 credits.

Free Electives

Colleges and universities also assign Free Electives that can be spread out throughout the four years. The average is about 18 to 27 credits from any subject area.

Thus, general education requirements plus free electives gives you approximately 66 to 90 credits.

Major or Core Courses

The rest of the credits to finish up a college degree is in the "core concentration" or majors. This is about 33 to 60 credits.

Total Credits for a US College Degree

On the average, a US college degree requires 120 credits for completion.

The 3 Legitimate Colleges that Grant Degrees from Home

Now, before I go on, you have to understand that some colleges and universities in the US accept some CLEP tests to fulfill their course requirements. However, the following 3 colleges are the only ones that can give 100% credits from proficiency exams or tests or online courses.

For doubters, you may also like to know that these colleges are used by the military to get their college degrees. Also, two of these colleges are state-funded. One is a private college. Thus, this is not in anyway "cheating" the system. These colleges found a "niche" in the educational system of the U.S.

1. Thomas Edison State College

2. Excelsior College

3. Charter Oak State College

Start Now or Enroll Later

Yes, really. This is what you call "Credit Banking".

This is how it goes:

When you take the CLEP Test, be sure to put "college not listed" in your choice. In this way, Collegeboard puts all the credits that you earned from testing in their database that you can retrieve even after 20 years.

If after a year, you finally are ready to enroll, just call Collegeboard and let them know that you are now ready to transfer these credits to your college of choice for a small fee.

SBI!