Tip for college students

I finished my college degree in 2003 at age 46 and have a tip to pass along to anyone, young or old, who is in or contemplating college.

There is a program called CLEP (No, it's not a STD) that stands for college level examination program CLEP Home page . This is similar to challenging courses except that it is administered by a nationally recognized organization and is independent of any one college.

Here's how it works, you pay a non-refundable fee of around $50 to take the test, and then sit at a computer terminal for 90 minutes taking a multiple guess test. If you pass, you are awarded 2 to 7 semester credit hours that are recognized by all the regional accreditation organizations. If you fail, the failure DOES NOT become part of your record and you can re-take the test in 6 months.

I CLEP’ed 24 semester credits for a cost of $270 in around 2 months. That’s my entire junior year! I took mine at George Fox and Mount Hood Community College but most Community Colleges will test you. The only gotcha is that if you are in a degree completion program, some courses may duplicate your course material and may not be accepted by the program so check with your advisor.

I bought a study guide and studied it for several months before taking the humanities test. After I took the first test I could not believe how easy the tests are! My advice is don’t knock your brains out studying, just roll the dice and take the test. If you want to study, you will only need the highlights.

I suggest that you take all the writing and math courses and CLEP all your elective credits with stuff like Management, American History, Psychology, Marketing and Sociology.

Good Luck!