CLEP exams allow any student to study a subject and “test out” of the subject at home. Doing this can result in college credit at about 78% of all colleges in universities. When you couple this with the low cost (under $100 and sometimes free) you capture the attention of budget-minded homeschool parents. I am thrilled to share Sara’s story about her son Sean and how they crushed the cost of college with just 10 exams spread over 2 years.
Sara joined our Illinois HS4CC Facebook group and immediately understood the assignment:
“Hello! We aren’t sure which school my son will attend, so I made a grid of CLEP scores required to get credit in Illinois public colleges… He hasn’t taken any CLEP tests yet, but he hopes to this winter.“
Timeline from zero to 30 college credits
- Sean takes and passes his first CLEP exam, Analyzing and Interpreting Literature. This is an exam for strong readers. Sara notes that “if you’re prepared for the ACT, you’re also prepared for the Analyzing & Interpreting Literature and College Algebra exams. There really was no extra preparation needed.”
- Sean looks backward to collect CLEP vouchers quickly. Sean and his mom picked subjects he already studied in high school to make quick work of exam prep. (Precalculus, Government, Literature, and U.S. History) to move quickly through the free Modern States courses and pick up vouchers that would pay for his exams. This is a free program open to anyone and funded by the nonprofit organization Modern States. The voucher program will pay for all of your CLEP exams if you complete a free prep course first. Sean did this quickly and focused on big gaps from his high school classes.
Sara’s Facebook post: “My son finished his last CLEP test yesterday. Our community college accepts 30 CLEP credits towards the associate degree, and this test was the last one. This saved him $4500 in tuition. and 1 year of college.”
In Illinois, free dual enrollment is very limited. Though Sara did not have access to free dual enrollment, she took the time to learn her state’s college credit acceptance policy well and used that knowledge to her son’s advantage. Since earning college credit (or a degree) in high school allows you to be exempt from traditional transfer protocol, her son will retain his freshman applicant status.
Understanding how to preserve a student’s freshman application status (by earning college credit during high school and not after) Sara was able to have Sean take the remaining 30 credits as classes at the college. They did have to pay regular tuition for those classes, but his associate degree would be finished during high school, so he would apply to the university as a freshman and 50% finished.
Sara writes: “It’s absolutely worth it to us to pay $4500 (community college during high school) and then still be able to qualify for freshman merit. My son has several full tuition+ scholarship offers to choose from because he’s considered a freshman. The scholarship offers drop way down for transfer students.”
To further Sara’s advantage, Illinois public community colleges and state universities have a transfer guarantee, allowing her son to use CLEP in his associate degree and have it flow perfectly into a bachelor’s degree program without fear of it being disqualified. Sara wrote an unofficial guide to using CLEP exams to complete the General Education Core Credential (GECC) under the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI) Guidelines for our Illinois Facebook group families. This ensures a perfect credit transfer. You can access the guide through the group’s files tab.
Spread out over 11 months, the CLEP exams Sean took:
- Analyzing & Interpreting Literature**
- College Algebra*
- Pre-Calculus
- History of the US 1
- History of the US 2
- American Government
- American Literature**
- Sociology
He graduated in May with an Associate of Arts degree and a high school diploma. He’s going to attend a local 4-year university in the fall. He really enjoyed the process, and there really was no downside. Other than one school, every public college & university in our state will accept some or all of these CLEP credits”
*I asked Sara what math curriculum they used prior to taking CLEP College Algebra. “He used Teaching Textbooks for high school math. He completed Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, and Pre-Calc.”
**Some colleges award 6 credits for literature exams while most award 3. In this case, these two exams amounted to 12 college credits.
Both my sons graduated 2000 from homeschooling. They took CLEP exams and CLEPed out of all their English and History + biology classes. They graduated in four years with double majors, plus a semester study in England
Wow Lynn that’s wonderful! What a fantastic accomplishment for your two young men 🙂