Free shipping on USA orders over $129!
College Without Compromise
- This topic has 21 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 7 months ago by
.
- Posts
For those of you who’ve read College Without Compromise, have any of you actually utilized the principles taught? Do you have a dc or know of one who has gotten an Independant Study Degree? I’d love to discuss thoughts and ideas related to this book, if anyone is interested. Thanks so much!
Heather
Also, anyones highschoolers do any type of duel enrollment or Credit by Examinations such as Clep & AP? Thanks!
My kids are too young, but a friend of mind has done various options like those…. she has some info on http://www.milestonesacademy.com
Heather, I’ve read the book and we’ve checked into numerous options including CollegePlus. My oldest had a consultation with them, and I belong to email lists about CLEP used for homeschool and all those things. I’m impressed by some of it up to a point–because it all depends on what your child wants to do. There are some really good ideas out there–who wouldn’t rather have their child stay home and CLEP credits? But there are some serious drawbacks as well–you need to think carefully about what your child wants to do and how his or her degree or credits will be viewed by the people in charge of hiring people with that position. For example, we decided that for my son who wants to be an electrical engineer, CLEPing would be of minimum benefit. The schools he is looking at getting his degree from are not impressed by CLEP scores and do not recognize them. They will take a few credits by AP but they don’t want classes in his major taken in this way. It is critically important for him to attend a well-recognized and accredited school because otherwise it is harder to get professional certification later–my sister-in-law is a civil engineer and she knows people who went to fly-by-night engineering programs and are still not certified. It has made a difference in their job opportunities. Also, anyone headed for professional or graduate school should consider these options very, very carefully. So should future teachers. Also there can be drawbacks to entering college with so many credits you are no longer considered a freshman–this can impact financial aid and other matters. The job market is pretty tight right now, and it only makes sense to think of how a degree will be viewed by prospective employers. At the moment, for many fields, many employers are going to prefer a student who has attended a school, worked with others in his major or degree program, over someone who got a nontraditional degree at home on a computer. They are often going to take the known quantity over an unknown one–they’ve been hiring traditional college grads for decades. The current market may not be the time for experimentation. So probably none of our children will be doing college the CWC or CollegePlus way. It just doesn’t fit what they want to do.
Our oldest child recently finished his business degree using these principals. He started with coaching from CollegePlus then worked independently for the last part. We also have friends with two boys who did dual enrollment and CLEP in high school. They will be entering college as juniors this fall.
Thank you for sharing. After finally reading College Without Compromise from front to back, praying about it, and looking extensively into all the options we have – I’m feeling peace about college for the first time. My son wants to be an engineer (he’s known for years) just not sure whether mechanical or manufacturing. Thomas Edison State College has an accredited degree for these (found out about TESC from CWC book) and will accept a variety of credits, duel enrollments, online classes, and PLA’s. I’ve been comparing what he would need for general education requirements and trying to fit that in over the next couple of years with CBE’s and Duel Enrollments classes at local GVSU College, along with a local Technical Center that has specific enginnering classes for 11th & 12th graders. So I guess my BIG question is, will it make a difference to an employer whether my son has his Bachelor in Science & Technology: Manufacturing Engineering degree through an accredited independant study college verses a traditional ON SITE campus? I know you mentioned this above, Michelle, with Online learning, but my son would be getting his credits from a variety of sources – some on-site through duel enrollment, some AP’s & Cleps, some on-line, some PLAs through First Robotics, and Kent Career Technical Center, etc. I would love to discuss more & appreciate your replies. Thanks again!
HeatherPrior to being home full time and homeschooling I worked for 2 large companies in Human Resources (this was 10 years ago) but IT DID MATTER where you attended college. When we did consider canidates from unknown or online schools they typically started at a much lower job grade an salary. Now that I know what I do it doesn’t exactly make sense to me, but that’s just how it is…..for now…..
Heather, one thing I am concerned about is I cannot find Thomas Edison on the ABET/EAC certification website. This means that in some states he wouldn’t be able to work as a professional engineer at all, and in others it’d take him four years or more to become certified. You may want to double-check this as I just did a quick search there, but they usually have pretty up-to-date information. When I was looking into engineering for my ds, I was told that the ONLY ABET accredited school that would accept working with College Plus was North Dakota State–they were the only ones that would take the amount of CBE and others and still be ABET accredited–you could do the first two years online or CBE and then had to do the last two years in North Dakota. I would get someone at TESC or the other schools you are mentioning to address the ABET certification issue to my satisfaction before spending a lot of time on this. This issue would make a HUGE difference in employability–ABET certification is a big deal. Your school can be accredited by general college certification groups and NOT be ABET accredited. I’d check into this thoroughly first!
Hmmm, this puts a whole new spin on things, Michelle. I wonder why they did not mention this in CWC. I’ll be researching more….. Thanks, youre a wealth of info!
Michelle, I did just find that Excelsior College is on the ABET website, which is another independant college we’ve been looking into, however not extensively yet. Though Excelsior is listed on the website, I’m having a hard time finding which programs are ABET certified from the college. Are you able to help me navigate this? So far all I’ve found is this from the Excelsior website, which at the end of article states the electrical engineering program is ABET certified.
Thanks again
Heather, many non-engineers don’t KNOW about ABET–I didn’t before my sister-in-law told me! And CWC’s main emphasis is college in GENERAL, not necessarily specifics like manufacturing engineers or veterinary-school applicants or. . . also their point is to sell a point of view (and a book)–I’m not saying their POV isn’t useful–it IS–it just very much depends on what your child wants to do. And schools themselves can be a terrible source—how many law schools advertise the fact that only 20% of last year’s grads have jobs??? They aren’t going to tell you “Come here, do this degree, and you won’t be able to get a job”–they want your student to come and spend $$.
Excelsior sounds better if they are ABET accredited–check the specific PROGRAM because some schools have SOME specialties accredited–like electrical or mechanical–but other programs won’t be–maybe their chemical program. So check carefully. Just asked my SIL earlier and she said NO engineering degree is worth the paper it’s printed on if it’s not ABET accredited. Friend of mine who is an engineer and involved in engineer hires at John Deere here in town says he would not hire a grad from an unaccredited independent study school. There are too many applicants that ARE from accredited schools.
Thanks so much for your council, Michelle. This is making sense now. Thomas Edison stated it was an “accredited” college, however I failed to look at the details of their accreditations
. You’ve opened my eyes and reminded me to check CAREFULLY as we embark on this journey. I may be going back to our first plan, which was a few CLEPs and AP’s lined up with requirements from a local ABET certified university (Grand Valley State University) and beginning their duel enrollment in 11th to give him a head start. After reading CWC, I seriously was doing a happy dance thinking we’d save all this time, money and possible heartache that campus life may bring. However, God is good and will provide. Thanks again, sister!Heather
Yes, I felt the same way after reading it. My oldest was considering veterinary school, and I asked on a list if there might be problems and I was so glad (although shocked at first!) when someone told me just how small a chance of admission to vet school an “alternative” degree would have.
One other thing, Heather. I know college can seem very scary but it does not have to be. There are going to be things on almost any campus that a parent might object to–but that is also true of life in general. I still have panicky moments as that “drop off at college day” gets closer, but I have to remind myself that I’ve been praying for this child every day for over eighteen years already, I have already turned his life over to the Lord, and He is faithful. If I do my part of prayerful preparation, then I believe the Lord will help and guide and protect my son, whether in college or in life afterward, and I try to remind myself not to fear. It’s hard, but I am at times starting to get excited for the opportunities and possibilities he will have during college. (I will need someone to post this back to me the day before we drop him off, though!!!!!
) Thanks once again for the encouragement, Michelle! I have another Q, hope you don’t mind. You mentioned the following in above post….
When I was looking into engineering for my ds, I was told that the ONLY ABET accredited school that would accept working with College Plus was North Dakota State–they were the only ones that would take the amount of CBE and others and still be ABET accredited…..
Can I ask for the link to North Dakota State? I wasn’t sure if it was NDSU you were referring to or UND. UND seems to be the one in ND that has a mechanical engineering degree that is ABET certified. Is that the one you were referring to? Thanks again!
Hmm, I’m trying to remember now–we didn’t spend a lot of time on this option. The counselor assigned to us at College Prep told us about it and sent us some basic info, which my son spent about three minutes looking at, then announced he’d rather spend four years in just about anyplace on earth rather than two years at home and two years in North Dakota (sorry ND fans!) so we didn’t look into it any further. If you want to be absolutely sure, you can register with College Plus with no commitment, talk to a counselor, and then you aren’t obligated (although they WILL call and email you for a while afterwards!) My recollection is that it was North Dakota State but I can’t swear to it, sorry!
Heather
. You’ve opened my eyes and reminded me to check CAREFULLY as we embark on this journey. I may be going back to our first plan, which was a few CLEPs and AP’s lined up with requirements from a local ABET certified university (Grand Valley State University) and beginning their duel enrollment in 11th to give him a head start. After reading CWC, I seriously was doing a happy dance thinking we’d save all this time, money and possible heartache that campus life may bring. However, God is good and will provide. Thanks again, sister!
) - The topic ‘College Without Compromise’ is closed to new replies.