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Every day, more and more smart college students are finding out about terrific opportunities to earn credit through testing. The CLEP and DANTES programs offer quick, inexpensive and legitimate options to amass credit toward your degree.

Problem is, the process seems a little daunting. Not only do you have to study and pass the exam, you have to navigate the process of applying that credit to your degree plan.

That process can seem confusing and even intimidating, populated, as it often is, by inflexible policies and menacing bureaucrats.

Well, fear not. With a good plan and some simple organization, you can easily navigate the whole process. And the rewards make it very worthwhile. Let’s get started.

Step 1 – Review your Degree Plan

Your degree plan or curriculum is the center post of your entire academic experience at college. It outlines the requirements for graduation, identifies prerequisites, and provides the breadcrumbs you’ll follow to graduation.

Most students have a, shall we say, casual relationship with their degree plan. You should put yours on a “steady” basis. It will be your priceless companion in saving tuition dollars and precious time.

Generally, your degree plan will show you several things that will help you earn credit through CLEP or DANTES testing:

• Your “general education” requirements – General Education courses are the backbone of the contemporary liberal arts system. They include the English, math, science and, increasingly, technology discipline areas. They are common to nearly every college and university, so they offer great opportunities for CLEP or DANTES credit.

• Your major concentration – The courses in your major will be specialized, no surprise, to the area covered by your major. These are surprisingly common from college to college, but must often be taken in-house at your degree granting school. They are normally not a great source of CLEP or DANTES opportunity.

• Your elective credits – Most likely, your degree plan includes a block of credit that you may fill in with electives. In traditional academic numb-speak, these courses are supposed to help you “broaden your horizons.” Well, yippy Skippy. Usually, they’re a complete waste of time and end up being spent in dodge ball class or something. Take as many elective credits through CLEP or DANTES as possible.

Step 2 – Visit your Registrar

Your school’s Registrar is the official keeper of records. Usually ensconced in the Registrar’s Office, Records Office, or sometimes the Admissions Office, they are the official guardians of transcripts and, more important, of transfer policy.

You need to make a friend on the Registrar’s staff.

The Registrar’s staff can save you immense amounts of time and frustration. They can make your entire experience sail along smoothly. Or they can make your life miserable. It depends on you.

 Like your own, the Registrar’s life revolves around that degree plan. Only they’re on the other side of it. It’s their job to see that you comply with the plan, and the policies surrounding it.

So make it easy for them. Get them involved as early as possible in your CLEP and DANTES experience. Stay in touch with them as you CLEP and DANTES your way to oodles of credit. And confirm your credit award with them once you’ve earned it.

Do all this proactively and with friendly professionalism, and you might be surprised at the good things the Registrar can do for you.

Here is my recommended plan for working with the Registrar’s office:

• Visit in person (or by phone if you’re an online student). Contact them and make an appointment to visit with someone about your transfer options. That’s what you’ll be doing in their world: They’ll think of your CLEP or DANTES credit as transfer credit.

• Take a copy of your degree plan. They’ll have their own, but will be impressed if you bring yours, especially if it’s obvious that you’ve studied it.

• Ask about any relevant CLEP or DANTES policies. They should be able to tell you about required scores, transfer limits and the transcripting process. They should also be able to tell you about any special policies; for example, at some schools, certain courses must be taken in-house, no matter their discipline or place on your degree plan. You will not be permitted to transfer CLEP or DANTES credit to replace these courses, so you might as well not waste time taking the exams. Your Registrar’s staff should be able to give you a heads-up about these kinds of situations.

• Ask them to make recommendations. They most likely have extensive experience with the transfer process, including CLEP and DANTES. They may very well be able to let you in on a few secrets; for example, some courses are sequential (like: Dodge Ball I leads to Dodge Ball II, etc.). In those cases, it might be a disadvantage to take exams for the first course in the sequence, if it leaves you at a disadvantages for later courses. Your Registrar’s staff should be on top of these kinds of issues.

• Ask them about the transcription process. Normally, they’ll just ask you to send the official score report from the College Board (CLEP) or American Council on Education (DANTES). But if there are any exceptions or special policies, you want to know about them upfront.

• Try to get some form of documentation. It may be inconvenient to simply demand that everything be put in writing. But you can be subtle about it: They might be able to write out recommendations for you. Or you can always pull the old “follow-up note” trick. After your meeting, send a very kind  follow-up “thank you” note, and mention that “I want to be sure to confirm that we agreed that I may take English I by CLEP to receive credit and fulfill my degree plan requirement.” That last part is important: Credit is one thing; credit that counts toward your degree plan might be something else. You want to be sure you get the kind that counts toward your degree plan.

That’s a good start. Every Registrar’s office is unique. Some are very friendly. Some, not so much. But they’re the gateway to saving you a lot of time and money; so it’s worth getting to know them.

Step 3 – Choose your CLEP or DANTES exam, study and pass it.

We address these topics more completely all over this site, so I’ll keep my comments to a minimum here. Hey! Stop cheering!

Step 4 – Complete the reporting and transfer process

This part should be easy, if you follow the original instructions from the Registrar’s office. Most likely, you’ll need to have the official CLEP or DANTES sent to them and they’ll handle applying the credit to your transcript.

The important part for you: Making sure the credit is applied properly and as agreed in your meeting with the Registrar. (See? Documentation’s important.) You can do a quick, polite follow-up by phone or email, just to establish that your credit has been accepted and applied to your degree plan.

If they can also send you a transcript, that’s great. Even if they charge you a few bucks, it’s worth it for the peace of mind. And you’ll still be saving big money compared to paying their tuition!

Well, that’s a step-by-step introduction to the mechanics of credit by exam. It’s for recommendation purposes only, of course. Your situation might vary. But this should give you a good start.

* 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.