One of the main priorities college students deal with, apart from doing well academically, is doing well financially. This means cost saving where ever they can. When they think of cost saving what mostly comes to mind is saving on living expenses, books etc. However, what many students do not know is that they could save hundreds, even thousands on tuition costs. Students can earn credit by taking exams that count toward their undergraduate degrees. Excelsior College and Charter Oak State College both offer a significant amount of credit for taking the GRE subject exams in the given fields that allow them to complete their degrees faster and more economically.
Excelsior College
Have college credit but don’t want to spend the rest of your college career in a traditional learning setting? Excelsior College awards up to 30 college credits to individuals who score an 80% or higher on a given GRE subject. The school allows you to earn 18 credits of upper level course credit and around 12 credits of lower division course credit for your success in this exam.
Many students often use this opportunity to complete a major in the GRE subject exam of their choice, without having to take any classes in the field. Excelsior takes a non-traditional approach to demonstrating mastery in the given subject in order to earn a significant amount of credit.
This is an optimal choice for entry level college students that may choose to transfer into Excelsior College with a majority of lower level course work. Students can use their GRE exam credit along with their previously earned course credit to finish their degrees. Students just entering college with no college credit can also take advantage of this option by earning 30 credits that count toward an undergraduate degree simply by taking the GRE subject exam.
Charter Oak State College
Charter Oak also incorporates the GRE subject exams into its degree completion curriculum options. It allows its students, who have scored in the 40th percentile, to earn around 18-24 credits in the GRE subject areas. Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, and Math test takers can earn 24 college credits. Literature and Psychology test takers can only earn 18 credits. The college credits earn generally consist of a combination of upper and lower division course credit, which may depend on the student’s transcript to determine how they are exactly awarded.
This may be an optimal choice for students who have the majority of their college work completed but are lacking a few credits required to graduate. Charter Oak generally applies these GRE exam-based credits to lower division course credit. However, students are only required to complete around 15 upper division course credits.
Cost Savings
So what’s the advantage of taking the GRE exam instead of traditional courses? The difference might surprise you. The cost of taking the GRE exam comes at around $140 for U.S. test takers. Let’s compare that to the cost of taking traditional “per credit hour” courses with both of the school’s in question.
Excelsior College’s undergraduate tuition fee for courses cost $315 per credit hour. So, for 30 credit hours this would cost you around $9,450. Compare this to the $140 cost of scoring the required score on the GRE subject exam to earn 30 credit hours.
Charter Oak State College’s online course tuition for non-residents is about $265 per credit hour, not including registration fees. You could save around $6,230 for scoring in the 40th percentile on the sciences and math GRE exams, by earning 24 credits and around $4,640 on the literature and psychology exams, by earning 18 credits.
Choose Wisely
A very important thing to consider when choosing which GRE exams to take is what you have previously taken. Neither Charter Oak nor Excelsior College will award duplicate course credits for courses that have already been completed. For example, if you decide to take the GRE Literature in English Subject Exam, Charter Oak will award 15 lower division courses and 3 upper division courses. This means that, if you already have 15 credits of introductory literature courses, this may not be the exam for you.
In order to earn the maximum amount of credits for a given GRE subject exam, you will need to have the least amount of previous coursework in that area, to ensure that they don’t duplicate one’s that you might receive by taking the GRE exam.
The GRE can be a very economical resource for those looking to complete their college degree in a non-traditional way. An ample amount of course credits is awarded both by Charter Oak State College and Excelsior College for demonstration of competency when taking the GRE subject tests.
Source(s) cited:
Charter Oak State College (Exam Master List)
Excelsior College
Prescott Papers
Credit for Graduate Record Examinations
About the GRE Subject Tests
Excelsior College 2009-2010 Undergraduate Fee Schedule
Tuition for Affordable Degree Completion and Online Courses at Charter Oak State College
Literature Concentration (Major) at Charter Oak State College
GRE Literature in English Subject Exam
Fees for Tests and Related Services