How to get an American higher education diploma remotely
The topic of changes in the higher education system is becoming increasingly relevant. They talk a lot about online courses as an alternative to university education. One of the main arguments for traditional university education is the lack of a diploma and real certification after completing an online course.
In fact, certification can be obtained. And not just a certificate of passing the exam after a certain course, but a very real diploma of an American college after completing a specific course program.
I want to draw attention to the fact that the information for this post was obtained from the websites of testing centers, reviews on forums and email correspondence with the organizations listed below. But I myself did not try to get education in this way in practice, and I personally do not know anyone who would try and do it.
And further. This way of getting an education is more suitable for specialties where practical exercises have a non-decisive role or can be carried out remotely. For example, for IT, business education, marketing, economics, etc. But not suitable for education in chemistry or biology. Here you can’t do without classes in the laboratory.
If you search Google for this phrase, you will find several organizations offering to pass exams in many disciplines and get a certificate. This certificate is recognized by most American colleges and you will be credited with a loan for this subject and in college you do not need to study and take it again.
Judging by the coverage of subjects and reviews on the Web, the most developed are 2 organizations - CLEP and Excelsior College .
Both companies offer to take exams in many subjects and get credit for these subjects at almost any college in the United States.
The most interesting. You can pass exams on this system for subjects from a certain program and get a bachelor's degree. This opportunity is offered at Excelsior College. After passing all the exams, you will need to listen to one additional course online specifically from this organization (as I understand it, a special course in the chosen specialty).
You can still pass all the exams at such independent certification centers and go to any college to receive a diploma. But it will be more expensive. And be sure to visit the United States. In any case, saving time and money is substantial.
The first impression is that the exam must be taken online and skeptics will immediately say that such a system cannot adequately assess the level of knowledge of the applicant, and that there are many ways to deceive the system. But in fact, the system works differently. Such organizations have many certification centers in the United States and around the world.
For example, Excelsior College collaborates with testing centers in Russia and Ukraine. Here you can look for certification authorities . Search according to Moscow, Russia, Kiev, Ukraine, etc.
But there is a condition for passing exams. Confirmation of the appropriate level of English is needed. For example, IELTS certificate.
This method of passing exams and obtaining loans is not free. But not expensive either. At Excelsior College, an attempt to pass one exam costs $ 95. In CLEP from $ 80.
To fulfill the conditions of the program, you need to pass about 30 exams. Total - the cost will be from 2500 to 5000 dollars. But if you need to fly to the USA to complete your program, you need to add the cost of the trip. It is quite comparable with the cost of studying at a domestic university.
The easiest way is self-education. Typically, such organizations provide training materials. For example, CLEP sells manuals for $ 20.
But there is an alternative way. These are open online courses which are now very numerous. Everyone has heard about courses from Coursera, edX, Saylor.org, and so on.
We go to the website MyEducationPath.com in the catalog of online courses and look for the desired course. We have in our database more than 10,000 courses from more than 30 providers. You can also use the course calendar . Some providers start courses at certain times and then close them. Others give access to the course at any time.
One of the objectives of the MyEducationPath.com project is to help you not get lost in a variety of courses, exams, providers and programs.
The purpose of the MyEducationPath.com project is to systematize information from the category of “higher education of the future” and to determine the connections between different objects and structures. For example, find online courses from different providers that are suitable for preparing for a given exam from CLEP or Excelsior. For most exams, such relationships are already defined.
Examples:
With the advent of new courses, we add them to these lists.
In addition, MyEducationPath can help build a curriculum from online courses and exams. To do this, there is the My Path tool - a planner for a personal education plan.
Finally, we have built several training programs for various specialties and continue to add new ones. Programs are not invented from nothing; we took the programs of American colleges as a basis. Here is some of them.
Bachelor of Science in Business based on exams from Excelsior. With this program and all exams, you can get a real bachelor's degree from Excelsior College.
Other programs (without exams, only courses):
Training programs for programmers:
Each registered user can create such a training plan and publish it in the public domain. For example, one user posted a Coursera Advance Diploma in Economics & Finance
The purpose of this article is to show that complete higher education can now be obtained by alternative methods. The method of obtaining a diploma of higher education of the American model is suitable only for some specialties. But, I am sure, very soon the situation will change. Following the boom of online learning, there will come a boom of secure online testing methods. Instead of a diploma there will be a passport of education . And the last moment will remain - employers should begin to trust such education passports instead of a diploma. All that is needed is a positive experience in hiring such employees. If this happens, then there will come a turning point for a traditional university.
In fact, certification can be obtained. And not just a certificate of passing the exam after a certain course, but a very real diploma of an American college after completing a specific course program.
I want to draw attention to the fact that the information for this post was obtained from the websites of testing centers, reviews on forums and email correspondence with the organizations listed below. But I myself did not try to get education in this way in practice, and I personally do not know anyone who would try and do it.
And further. This way of getting an education is more suitable for specialties where practical exercises have a non-decisive role or can be carried out remotely. For example, for IT, business education, marketing, economics, etc. But not suitable for education in chemistry or biology. Here you can’t do without classes in the laboratory.
College credit for what you already know
If you search Google for this phrase, you will find several organizations offering to pass exams in many disciplines and get a certificate. This certificate is recognized by most American colleges and you will be credited with a loan for this subject and in college you do not need to study and take it again.
Judging by the coverage of subjects and reviews on the Web, the most developed are 2 organizations - CLEP and Excelsior College .
Both companies offer to take exams in many subjects and get credit for these subjects at almost any college in the United States.
The most interesting. You can pass exams on this system for subjects from a certain program and get a bachelor's degree. This opportunity is offered at Excelsior College. After passing all the exams, you will need to listen to one additional course online specifically from this organization (as I understand it, a special course in the chosen specialty).
You can still pass all the exams at such independent certification centers and go to any college to receive a diploma. But it will be more expensive. And be sure to visit the United States. In any case, saving time and money is substantial.
How to take exams.
The first impression is that the exam must be taken online and skeptics will immediately say that such a system cannot adequately assess the level of knowledge of the applicant, and that there are many ways to deceive the system. But in fact, the system works differently. Such organizations have many certification centers in the United States and around the world.
For example, Excelsior College collaborates with testing centers in Russia and Ukraine. Here you can look for certification authorities . Search according to Moscow, Russia, Kiev, Ukraine, etc.
But there is a condition for passing exams. Confirmation of the appropriate level of English is needed. For example, IELTS certificate.
Cost
This method of passing exams and obtaining loans is not free. But not expensive either. At Excelsior College, an attempt to pass one exam costs $ 95. In CLEP from $ 80.
To fulfill the conditions of the program, you need to pass about 30 exams. Total - the cost will be from 2500 to 5000 dollars. But if you need to fly to the USA to complete your program, you need to add the cost of the trip. It is quite comparable with the cost of studying at a domestic university.
How to prepare for exams
The easiest way is self-education. Typically, such organizations provide training materials. For example, CLEP sells manuals for $ 20.
But there is an alternative way. These are open online courses which are now very numerous. Everyone has heard about courses from Coursera, edX, Saylor.org, and so on.
We go to the website MyEducationPath.com in the catalog of online courses and look for the desired course. We have in our database more than 10,000 courses from more than 30 providers. You can also use the course calendar . Some providers start courses at certain times and then close them. Others give access to the course at any time.
How MyEducationPath.com Simplifies This Way of Getting Education
One of the objectives of the MyEducationPath.com project is to help you not get lost in a variety of courses, exams, providers and programs.
The purpose of the MyEducationPath.com project is to systematize information from the category of “higher education of the future” and to determine the connections between different objects and structures. For example, find online courses from different providers that are suitable for preparing for a given exam from CLEP or Excelsior. For most exams, such relationships are already defined.
Examples:
With the advent of new courses, we add them to these lists.
In addition, MyEducationPath can help build a curriculum from online courses and exams. To do this, there is the My Path tool - a planner for a personal education plan.
Finally, we have built several training programs for various specialties and continue to add new ones. Programs are not invented from nothing; we took the programs of American colleges as a basis. Here is some of them.
Bachelor of Science in Business based on exams from Excelsior. With this program and all exams, you can get a real bachelor's degree from Excelsior College.
Other programs (without exams, only courses):
Training programs for programmers:
- Java Developer (Associate)
- PHP Developer (Associates)
- Software development
- Software Development Degree with Coursera Starts Sep 2013
Each registered user can create such a training plan and publish it in the public domain. For example, one user posted a Coursera Advance Diploma in Economics & Finance
Finally
The purpose of this article is to show that complete higher education can now be obtained by alternative methods. The method of obtaining a diploma of higher education of the American model is suitable only for some specialties. But, I am sure, very soon the situation will change. Following the boom of online learning, there will come a boom of secure online testing methods. Instead of a diploma there will be a passport of education . And the last moment will remain - employers should begin to trust such education passports instead of a diploma. All that is needed is a positive experience in hiring such employees. If this happens, then there will come a turning point for a traditional university.