Now, graduation day is more than a just light at the end of the tunnel, it is a brighter reality. As part of the University of Akron’s "Express to Success" program, relevant class material learned through life experiences (in the military and workplace, or through Advanced Placement classes and online courses) can easily translate into college credits.
This faster track to graduation is simple. Students refresh their knowledge with a Test Prep Tutorial (TPT) class, and then earn credits through Credit by Exam (CBE). The cost to students is minimal – just $100 per TPT course, which then can be applied to the full cost of a three-credit CBE. This translates to an average savings of more than $1,000 for an Ohio resident completing a three-credit course, and a $2,100 savings for a non-resident.
"We know that students often come to our campus today with significant life experience already under their belts,” says Bill Lyons, acting assistant dean in UA's Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences and political science professor. "We set up these test prep tutorials because want to help them earn credit for their prior learning in a workplace, online, or through military service. Test prep tutorials accelerate their path to graduation and lower their costs, getting them into their careers, and contributing to the economic vitality of Northeast Ohio, sooner."
Courses offered in summer
UA will offer up to nine two-week test prep classes this summer in areas such as mathematics, statistics, psychology, sociology and communication.
On completion of a class, each student will have three options:
- take the CBE to “test out of” the course;
- choose to enroll in the course out of which he/she originally had hoped to test and apply the $100 TPT fee toward tuition for the course; or
- decide to not take the test or take the course, since participating in the test prep class made the student realize that he/she was either not ready for or not interested in the course material.
For students who pass the test, the information that will appear on the student transcript is indistinguishable from the information that would appear if they had taken the actual course.
Signing up for the test prep classes is the first step in the process. To sign up, or for more information, visit http://www.uakron.edu/express.
See also:
- Akron Beacon Journal: University of Akron to offer innovative path to college credits
- Chronicle of Higher Education: University of Akron to Offer Tutorials for Credit-Bearing Exams
Media contact: Sarah Lane, 330-972-7429 or slane@uakron.edu.