Excelsior College - General Business

Not For Busy Adults, but Great Education

By: Anonymous (In Progress) on February 5, 2008

Materials:		Teachers:
Institution:		Support:
Value:		Technology:

Review:

I was matriculated into Excelsior hoping to get a second BS in a different area than my first degree.  I chose BS-CIS.  They accepted my undergrad courses and examinations that I took.  So I had less than 10 courses to complete in order to get my degree.

Between then and now, I moved 3 times, changed jobs 3 times, and had 3 babies.  I completed courses as my schedule permits.  They added an Ethics requirement after my matriculation.  After I took the Ethics exam, I thought I had completed all the requirements, but I was wrong.

Two months before my Ethics sitting, Excelsior had changed the degree name to BS-IT.  The old BS-CIS degree is done after Nov 2007.  I did not know there were new requirements because the communications did not specify any.  On top of that, I kept checking my evaluation summary to see that the Ethics requirement was all that was needed to graduate.  Nothing indicated that I would need to do anything more than to complete this requirement.

Well, several weeks after my Ethics completion, I logged on to check my status, and there were 5 new requirements for the new degree.  I found out the new requirements after logging on.  They do not tell you unless you ask.

What I have a problem with Excelsior College is not their education.  I enjoyed and learned a lot from their online courses.  I have a problem with their changing requirements on a working adult.

Quote from their website:
"Excelsior College helps busy working adults earn the degrees they need with flexible distance education programs."

I missed the Ethics requirements by two months.  I was busy with a change of jobs, a move, and my third child.  I could have taken the Ethics exam earlier if I had known that I would be imposed with new requirements.  Like I said earlier, there was poor communication on their part.  
I contacted Excelsior about this and their attitude was "Too bad."  Why would I want to spend more money and time if I don't have to?

It seems to me that if you are busy, as I have been, you will not be able to graduate even if you meet all your old requirements.  I understand that things change, but to not be flexible about it, I don't think that's right.  In theory, you could be in a perpetual cycle where you almost finish all your old requirements, but then the college decides to add more requirements.  And then you take more of your busy schedule to finish them and then there are more requirements.  They are willing to accept your money, but not willing to be a little lenient.

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[Update]
 Several days after my last contact with Excelsior, my file was reviewed and was granted a degree.

I had only one exam requirement missing that I had scheduled in advance to complete.  I missed the degree expiration by two months because of some miscommunication.

Now I felt like they did right.  I can say that the college is great for busy adults and you can get a great education.  Whew.