Excelsior College

Excelsior College is a private, non-profit college, located at 7 Columbia Circle in Albany, New York, offering degrees at the undergraduate and graduate level. The college comprises five schools: the School of Business and Technology, the School of Health Sciences, the School of Liberal Arts, the School of Nursing, and the School of Public Service.
Excelsior College was founded in 1971 by the New York State Board of Regents as its external degree program, known as The Regents External Degree Program (REX). The initial development of the program was funded by major grants from the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation. Known as Regents College from 1984 until 1998, it operated as a program of the Board of Regents (which also served as its board of trustees). In April 1998, the Board of Regents granted the school an absolute charter to operate as a private, nonprofit, independent institution. On January 1, 2001, Regents College, required to change its name under the terms of the separation, became Excelsior College (Excelsior means "ever upward" in Latin; it is also the motto of New York).

Excelsior College has more than 36,000 students enrolled in a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Excelsior College is exceptionally liberal in accepting transfer credit from other institutions. Essentially, any credit from a regionally accredited institution will be accepted, if the course(s) falls within one of Excelsior's degree programs. In fact Excelsior, then Regents College, was founded in part precisely to address this question (the non-transferability of credit, leading to uncompleted degrees). The college has recently added time limits: transfer credit will not be accepted if it is more than 5, 7, 10, or 20 years (depending on the specific degree program) prior to the date of enrollment. Even with these restrictions, this is a more liberal policy than most other colleges.

Excelsior College is well known for its flexible, non-resident degree programs.

Sources of college credit that can be used towards an Excelsior College degree program, and to which advisors will refer an Excelsior student, include Excelsior College distance learning courses, courses from other regionally accredited institutions, college-level subject-matter examinations (including CLEP exams, and DSST/DANTES exams), non-collegiate training (including corporate, governmental, and military training) that has been evaluated for college-level credit by the American Council on Education (ACE), and assessments of prior learning portfolios. Unlike most colleges, Excelsior College sets no limitations on the amount of allowable transfer credit.

Excelsior College also offers Excelsior College Examinations (ECE) which are comparable to CLEP and DSST exams and are accepted as a source of credits by many colleges in the United States.

Excelsior College is a member of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) Consortium of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. SOC institutions are dedicated to helping servicemembers and their families earn college degrees. Military students can take courses in their off-duty hours at or near military installations in the United States, overseas, and on navy ships Additionally, Excelsior College has repeatedly been nominated as a top military-friendly school by multiple organizations.

Excelsior College is one of several regionally accredited colleges operating on a model similar to Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey and Charter Oak State College in Connecticut; they are referred to in distance learning circles as "The Big Three".

Contents

1 History

2 Accreditation

3 Academics

4 Notable alumni

5 References

6 External links  

External links

• Official website