AskDrCallahan Blog

DANTES Subject Standardized Tests

DSST Exams are exam series that are college subject specific. They are very similar to the final exams offered by the course subjects should you choose to take the course.

A CLEP test is an examination you can take which, if you pass, will allow you to receive credit for a class—without having to take the class. And the cost of taking the exam is $72 (plus a few bucks assuming you buy a study book) That is substantially less than the $2-300 per class fee, not the mention—once you get a good grade on the CLEP test, you’re finished. You don’t have to go to class, take notes, pass exams, or write papers for that subject. You are walking away with an entire course’s credit hours under your belt and you didn’t even put in half the time, money, and effort that it would have cost to take the course. SMART move.

Most of the freshman level courses are called “Gen Eds” which stands for “General Education”—it is the courses colleges designate as the courses everyone at their university needs to take as a part of their college educational experience. Much of the material covered in these courses is review from high school material. Therefore, a lot of students will find it easy to CLEP out of their freshman 101/102 courses. We had a student once that CLEP-ed out of two years worth of college courses. So he ended up only have to pay tuition for 2 years, and he received a 4-year degree.

Now, every college has its own rules and regulations surrounding CLEP exams, how many you can take, etc, so be sure you check into those when considering the CLEP test, but DEFINITELY a good way to cut down on expenses (and hey, if you don’t HAVE to take the class, why take it?)

When you are headed to college there are other options besides scholarships to help you cut down the costs of college (of course, combined WITH scholarships and you could potentially create yourself an almost free college experience)

Consider taking the CLEP tests. Most schools will allow you to CLEP out of as many as 45 credit hours of school – and that is over one whole year.

For military personnel, there is the DANTES program—which helps you take many CLEP, DANTE, and ECS (called “Credit-by-examination” tests) for free. Some options are available to civilians as well, but you will need to check.

http://www.military.com/timesaving-programs/dantes-college-credit-by-examination-program

The website above is a great resource for testing information for military personnel and options open to civilians as well.

So many scholarships are missed out on because students do not put forth the time and effort to apply. Sure, some require you to write an essay or to fill out forms, but do you realize how many papers you are signing up to write when you go to college? One essay on the front end to save you thousands of dollars is completely worth it.

You will never know what you might receive unless you apply.

I had a friend in college who won a minority scholarship—full ride to an accredited private university—and he wasn’t a minority member. He had just applied for the scholarship and no one else had won.

Don’t overburden yourself with the competition factor, either. There are many people who apply for college scholarships, sure—but think about it: how many people do you know who actually received scholarships? Interested to know why?

According to scholarships.com,

“…so many of [the students] applying don’t take the time to properly read or follow the rules and answer the questions thoughtfully, or even correctly. Do everything correctly and you could be one of a small percentage of applicants who even gets considered. Here’s another way to look at it. What if you spent a total of 50 hours searching and applying for scholarships? And, after all that time and effort, you win two or three scholarships, totaling about $2,000. That’s $40 per hour, which is at least 4 to 5 times more than you can expect to get paid for doing pretty much any other activity or “job”. And that doesn’t even include the interest you’d be paying on that money, had you been forced to borrow it from a lender. Apply for as many scholarships as you can and you are bound to win something, provided you make sure to do everything you are asked and follow all of each scholarship provider’s instructions.”

There are scholarships for everybody, not just high school students. You can get scholarships for entering freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors, transfer students, undergraduate students, graduate students and even adults who have long since been out of college. Scholarships are EVERYWHERE, for EVERYBODY.

Not all scholarships are for athletes, academics, and minorities. There are many scholarships for students with a GPA minimum of 2.5 (a totally achievable GPA, I might add).

If you don’t want to do the all of the searching to find the scholarships right for you, you might consider using a service like scholarships.com to pair you up with scholarship options right for you. (Scholarships.com is totally free, whereas many others charge a fee for the same service)

Some scholarships only offer $1000 to the winner, and many students balk at the idea of putting forth a lot of effort just to get a $1000 scholarship because they consider $1000 to be a drop in a huge bucket when it comes to college expenses.

But I wouldn’t be too hasty. If you get several $1000 scholarships, you can put a nice dent in your college education, PLUS consider all of the textbooks and supplies you will have to buy–$1000 interest free would be fantastic, and it beats the socks off a bank loan—a debt most students carry on after college.