Test Out Of College Classes: Graduate College Debt Free

If you’ve started looking into a college education, you already know it comes at a price. Most people wonder if there are ways to cut the expense. If you’re frugal, you’re wondering, “Can I can find a way to graduate debt free?” There is, but it takes planning, budgeting, and work on your part.  You may be able to test out of college courses.

Tuition will be one of your two greatest expenses in college. In the US the average cost per credit hour is almost $600. Granted that figure allows for quite a spread if you take into consideration all types of colleges. Region, residency, two-year or four-year, public or private, brick and mortar or online—there are a number of factors that figure into the cost per credit hour. (Housing is the other major expense.)

You may not be able to reduce the cost of the per-credit-hour for classes you take, but there is a way to reduce the cost of some classes: Test out of the course.

I remember some students who were testing out of classes when I went to college. They did so for a variety of reasons: They wanted to finish school quicker so they could start their new careers, or they wanted to save money by avoiding the expense of unnecessary tuition and books. And of course, there were a few who (if they could) just wanted to take something different, and couldn’t afford the time—or more particularly the money—to do both classes. (You already know you’ll need to be frugal and use your funds wisely: Just because you have money in your pocket/bank account now doesn’t necessarily mean the best thing you can do is spend it now. Believe me, you’ll need it later. The same is true about any credit that may be available now—except when you save money now, it’s highly likely you’ll have it to use later. If you use credit now, what you have later is debt, and debt tends to lead to more debt.)

You can test out of college classes and receive the same amount of credit as if you had taken the class

Test Out Of College Classes: Graduate College Debt Free

To take advantage of the process to test out of college classes, you need to know there is more than one administrative body that offers and oversees the process:

1) The college you attend may have tests you can take (for a price) to receive credit for specific courses. At the college I attended tests were available for any of the freshman level classes. If you took a test—say for first year English—depending on a high score, you could enroll in second year English, English 201. A lower score got you into the second semester Freshman class (English 102). If your score was really low, you were left taking the originally required class, English 101.

2) There are CLEP (College Level Examination Program) exams, administered by the College Board at a number of testing facilities. The College Board is a non-profit organization that prepares and administers standardized tests for college admission and placement. They have a total of 33 exams within these categories: Writing and Literature, Foreign Languages, History and Social Sciences, Science and Mathematics, Business. CLEP credit is for lower level classes. If you go to the College Board site, you’ll find that as of this writing a CLEP test costs $87.

Note: The College Board is not the only testing authority.

3) If you are in or have served in the military you may be eligible to convert your military experience into credit for college classes. Life/work experience may be eligible for this also. Usually, this requires testing. It depends on the policies of the school you are applying to.

There Are Other Ways To Test Out Of College Courses

Here are links for the College Board (CLEP tests) and some other testing authorities: CLEP Tests

AP Tests
Most colleges and universities grant credit for taking and successfully passing AP (Advanced Placement) tests.

International Business
The IB program offers classes and tests. Their tests can be taken independent of their classes, and if passed can be converted to credit at a number of schools. Here is a link that you can learn more about IB This website has a section dedicated to location of schools that participate in the IB program.

DSST (Dantes Subject Standardized Tests)
DSST formerly known as Dantes (Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support) was originally designed for military personnel with schedules not convenient to the traditional classroom. Since 2006 the tests have also been available to other students pursuing a non-traditional route to a degree. DSST offers over 30 tests some of which, if passed, give credit to higher (third and forth year) classes.

Here is a link for Active duty military and veterans.

ACE (American Council on Education)
This authority can help active duty military and veterans translate experience into college credit.

Conclusion 

If you choose to test out of college courses you will save a lot of money, because you won’t be paying the tuition for the classes you test out of, nor will you be buying the books for those classes.