How CLEP and DANTES Testing Save You Money and Time

According to the College Board, tuition now averages over $23,000 per year at private US colleges; over $6,000 at public institutions. Around 56% of students enrolled in 4 year colleges and universities are on the hook for over $9,000 per year.

That’s just tuition, not including books or the ever-increasing mystical “fees.” Don’t even think about room and board, travel expenses and the occasional night out.

Let’s set aside for a minute the debate about whether college is a “cost” or an “investment.” Let’s also set aside the obvious question: “Where does all that money go?”

The simple bottom line: Tuition costs have outstripped many students’ ability to enjoy the benefits of college education.

Families that have planned and dreamed of college education for their children have to watch those dreams die. Or, alternatively, everybody ends up elbow-deep in student loan debt (not to mention parent loan debt).

Is there an alternative?

There are many. You can plan as strategically for college as you would for a business venture or residence relocation. And it doesn’t have to involve tedious, intricate planning or special programs (planning helps; it just doesn’t have to be tedious).

We support every effort to reduce the cost of higher education: Scholarship searches; careful school selection; saving in advance; internship. There are many great ideas for conserving tuition.

But at the end of the day, costs are racing ahead fast. At some point, you have to meet the tuition dragon head-on.

We support a simple idea for reducing the cost of college: Earn low-cost college credit.

That might seem an obvious solution, but you would probably be surprised at how many people are unaware of it, or ignore it.

Almost without exception, every college student has the opportunity to earn low-cost credit. The options include:

  • Local community colleges
  • Correspondence study from land grand universities
  • Credit for life experience learning
  • Credit for testing

Each of these is absolutely legit, as long as they meet your school’s requirements. Each has its advantages and drawbacks. Among them, we like to focus on the last.

In my opinion, the testing programs offered by the College Board (CLEP) and the Thomson Prometric (DANTES) are the best bang-for-your-buck bargains available to the average college student today.

CLEP is the name given to the College Board’s College Level Examination Program. It offers students the chance to earn full-blown college credit by taking and passing one or more of its 34 exams.

DANTES originated with the military and sounds like it: Defense Activities for Non-Traditional Education Support. DANTES is now administered by testing firm Prometric which has made its 37 test titles available to civilians.

The advantages of earning credit by testing are not limited to money, but that’s a great place to start.

Cost

CLEP’s testing fee: $70

DANTES’ testing fee: $70

You might spend some money on test preparation materials (that would be very smart of you!) and your school might charge a fee to process the credit (check with them in advance and see our article on the subject).

Still, compare that to the cost of 3 credit hours at your school. Put the difference in your pocket, not some college bureaucrat’s.

Time

It’s easy to say “imagine passing a college course on a single afternoon.” And there is some truth in that: Your “course” will last only as long as the test session. Exams offer terrific opportunities to accelerate your progress toward a degree.

However, there are a couple of important caveats:

You’ll have prep time involved. You wouldn’t go take an obviously tough final exam without studying. The same will be true for your CLEP or DANTES exams.

Also, CLEP and DANTES results are based on passing the exam, not just on taking it. No “polite C’s” in this game. If you blow off studying and then fail the exam, you’ll have wasted your time, money and energy. At best, you’ll need to start all over.

You’ll want to study; you’ll be very smart to find some study materials; and you’ll invest some time.

But it’s almost a cinch that you’ll invest less time than you would in a course. And you’ll avoid the drudgery of lectures. That’s worth something, yes?

Compression

Believe it or not, you might actually learn more studying for an exam than you would in a regular course. How’s that?

Due to a brain function we call “compression,” people sometimes find that intense focus on a single topic is great for long-term retention. Given focus and an engaging topic, the brain sometimes will compress the experience into its deep recall. You pass the exam, and actually retain more than you would from a semester-long course.

This is a little bit controversial and probably flies in the face of your school’s rigid 15 week semester grid. So we’ll leave it at this: You might very well enjoy learning through test prep much more than by sitting through a full course, whether in real space or virtual.

The Process

You can read more detail about the CLEP and DANTES processes all over this site. But, briefly, here’s how it works:

  • Check with your college to learn their credit by exam policies
  • Find a CLEP or DANTES exam that matches a requirement on your degree plan
  • Study for and pass an exam
  • Transfer the credit to your transcript

Repeat again and again, until you either reach your school’s limit, or finish your degree!

Then count the savings.

* CLEP & DSST are registered trademarks of the College Board and Prometric, which were not involved in the production of, and do not endorse, this information.