Do any decent colleges grant transfer credit to students with an AS from a nationally accredited school?

Question

Yes, I know -- I'm dumb. I went to a nationally accredited school for my Associate of Science. My degree is costly and meaningless. It was a for-profit school, too. Now I'm taking classes online from a regionally accredited for-profit school. I want out of this online and "for-profit" stuff.. I want to go to a REAL college. I live in Virginia and I'm wondering if there's any decent colleges that will possibly accept my transfer credit -- I don't wanna start all over again!

Answer 1

It depends entirely upon which college you went to and which college you want to transfer into. No college is ever required to accept transfer credit from any other college. Generally speaking, a regionally accredited college won't accept credit from a nationally accredited college but there are exceptions.

If the courses you took were reviewed for credit by the ACE then you may be awarded credit at an RA. Also, if you actually learned the material in those classes (in which case it's not meaningless) then you could simply use CLEP/DANTES/ECE exams to validate that knowledge in a way that most RA colleges will accept. (caution: some schools limit credit by exam to 30 hours)

There are plenty of low-cost, public and private colleges offering online courses that you may find more satisfying than the for-profit you're attending. You might want to look into the offerings at Brigham Young U or Louisiana State U for example if you want to continue to take classes online.

If you go the route of CLEP/DANTES/ECE or ACE evaluation of your courses, then one of "The Big Three" may be a valid option for you - they don't limit transfer credit amounts but they will require the credit be RA.

http://www.Excelsior.edu Excelsior College
http://www.TESC.edu Thomas Edison State College
http://www.COSC.edu Charter Oak State College

good luck....

Answer 2

Have you looked into John Bear's books about alternative education? There are quite a few good [meaning real and fully accredited, able to give you govt financial aid] colleges in there that are designed for adult students, people who work, and most of them have seen people like you who were talked into a less than adequately accredited college.

[don't feel too bad - I was talked into a seminary program, got credentials and "degrees" as a minister and counseling pastor - I had to start over at age 40, when I found out they weren't really accredited by any real organization!]

I don't know if what you would consider decent, but I do know that your work will be fairly evaluated and credit towards BA given by Union Institute and Universities -- my brother was in a similar situation, he paid big bucks for AS from a specialty college. He went to UIU, got credit for all his work [more than the normal 60 units of community college level work were accepted for transfer. He was accepted into and completed one MA in Education, is currently working on another -- both from regionally accredited schools.

UIU is regionally accredited, just the same as Stanford, Yale or any of the thousands of regular state colleges and universities. It was also ranked in the US News ranking of colleges, see link following.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_10923_brief.php

Whatever you choose to do, bear in mind that if you are planning to get a graduate degree, most people won't really pay much attention to where your BA came from -- if you're considering a PhD in Psychology somewhere down the road, there are real / accredited schools that do not require you to have Master degree to enter; most do not require BA in Psych either.

Best of luck!