S24 is thinking about taking 1 or 2 CLEP tests this summer to meet the few GenEd requirements he hasn’t already met through DE or AP classes. He would do the Modern States free course and then take the test using their fee waiver, so it would be almost free.
Here are the pros and cons I can think of. Am I missing anything?
Pros:
He is coming in with almost enough credits to graduate a year early. Getting out of a couple more classes would allow him to either graduate in 3 years or take additional electives that interest him.
He has to take a number of honors classes and if he still has GenEd requirements, he is supposed to take his honors classes to fulfill those. However, the GenEds he has left to take are his least favorite subjects (history, and literature if he does not get a high enough score on the AP test next month) and he’d rather take Honors classes on topics he is excited about. If he has already met the GenEd requirements, he is allowed to choose any honors classes to meet the requirements.
Getting credit through the CLEP tests would bump the number of credits he is coming in with up so that he would be able to register for classes earlier, making it more likely that he will be able to get the classes & schedule he wants, starting with registering for spring classes
Cons:
It is likely he will learn less & not be stretched intellectually taking the CLEP test compared to a college course. (Although, I have definitely seen people talking about Gen Ed fulfilling requirements that seem more like busy work than intellectually stimulating classes, so I think it really depends on what class he ended up actually taking.)
I don’t want him to feel like since he can finish in three years he should finish in three years. I think it would be better for him academically, socially, and career wise to take a little bit longer and take advantage of his time in university.
Any thoughts on this, or any angles I’m not seeing?
Does he plan to use the modernstates study material. If so, it is basically a full college lecture in the class, so I don’t think it would be less intellectually stimulating. Plus collegeboard says that research shows that CLEP passers actually know more on average in most subjects than the comparable college course. I believe this is because CLEP covers a wider range of material than most classes in college since in college, the prof is able to cut or add certain things while clep needs to be the same for all.
Maybe, if he wants the forth year, he could do a double major or a minor or two. Both are ways to improve a resume for job or grad school.
I think the CLEP is a great option, especially for courses in which the material is not related to classes that will be taken later on.
I have 2 engineering kids - one is a college senior - one an high school senior. For us, CLEP has been nothing but great. They have no real interest in a lot of the gen ed classes so CLEP was a great way to get “out” of some of them. But then minors and other classes have been picked up instead. Along with early graduation, grad school, and study abroad.
BUT… the honors program my kids do/ did - allowed for the minor and gen ed classes didn’t need to be used for that. It was, instead, a specific program that they dug into deeper. My high school senior looked at some schools where the honors program requires certain number of gen ed classes to be taken there in order to be considered honors - so he wouldn’t have been eligible as he’d already completed these either via Dual Enrollment or CLEP.
Another reason some choose to not do it is so that their kids have “easy” classes in the midst of the engineering to either pad the GPA or to just not be too engineering heavy.
But we’re big proponents of it and have found it a great fit for our family.
Also depends on the school. My kids’ school is very accepting of CLEP credits. And for them they can also take them at any point. So my college senior has an engineering senior friend who is taking a CLEP exam just a few weeks before graduation to complete her science requirement.
He might want to consider his internship opportunities. In some fields, the better internships are offered after the third year, but you have to still be a student…not a graduate.
If I were in his shoes, I would stay a fourth year and take more elective engineering design classes. He will be very thankful at his first job! There is so much to learn.
But for my kids, they were able to take a lower-class load (12 to 14 hours credits, vs the normal 15 to 16 credit hours), while still graduating in four years. They spent the extra time joining student groups, design teams, doing undergrad research, working on a minor, etc.