Katelyn G.
Yelp
I highly recommend Excelsior College to any student who is seeking to complete a college degree through a fully accredited online program! I began taking courses at Excelsior during the fall 2018 semester, term 2. I recently graduated with honors from Excelsior in July 2021. I obtained my Bachelor's of Science Degree in Health Sciences with an Emphasis in Public Health. I chose to attend Excelsior College for the following reasons: it's a non-profit college, is regionally accredited by the Middle States Commission On Higher Education (note that regionally accredited colleges are more prestigious, respected, established, & are more accepted than schools that are nationally accredited). It also offers most courses in 8-week terms & focuses on student success by integrating instructor-led & self-paced courses, in which professors & students communicate in the discussion section of the Canvas' course shell. Each week represents a new module with a topic, learning objectives for that topic, & a list of learning materials that students are responsible for reviewing on their own. Student performance is mainly graded through each student's response to the questions listed in that week's discussion thread section(s). Students are expected to apply the questions to the content in that week's learning materials, which forces students to think analytically about their answers & make connections between real world experiences & the course materials. Comprehension of course materials is also assessed through bi-weekly essays & sometimes exams that require students to apply knowledge, not simply memorizing information. Excelsior's degree requirements are relevant & allow for students to choose elective courses in their major that are of interest to them, as well as teach them something about a particular discipline within their major.
One of the many things that sets Excelsior College apart from other colleges, is Excelsior's focus on teaching students about the various career options that are available to them upon entering the workforce, as well as what to do/not do before, during, & after a job interview. Excelsior teaches students how to be successful in whatever job/career we choose, how to get the job, the skills desired by employers in the current workforce, how to work well with others, & how to use our knowledge to effectively promote change/improvements within the industry that we choose to work in. I have had the opportunity to experience the education provided at various colleges & I can honestly say that the best college education I experienced was with Excelsior College. Excelsior is unique in their dedication to adult learners, the high quality of online education that Excelsior provides, career readiness preparation, & how they teach students to take personal responsibility for obtaining their own degree when given the right tools/opportunity to do so.
My only issue with Excelsior is the Processing Parameters for Graduation Monthly Conferrals. Excelsior College students who complete their degree requirements, are automatically assigned a conferral date (the date that your degree is officially awarded) based on the date that the last course needed for one's degree actually ends. The problem is that the process takes about 3 months. I completed my final course (my health sciences capstone) on Sunday April 25th, 2021. However, the final transaction date (date in which the last degree requirement must be added to the student's academic record) was on Friday April 23rd, 2021 for a June 18th, 2021 conferral date (which was the last conferral date to qualified to be participate in the July 9th, 2021 commencement. Since it takes about one month, after completing the last course, for the last degree requirement to reflect on an Excelsior student's academic record, my final transaction date wasn't until May 21st, 2021. This meant that I had to wait until Friday July 16th, 2021 for my conferral date/for my degree to be awarded (since Excelsior confers degrees on the 3rd Friday of every month). My conferral date was exactly one week after the Friday July 9th, 2021 Commencement Ceremony date, yet I wasn't invited by Excelsior to participate in the July 2021 Commencement as part of the Class of 2021. It isn't fair to make us wait 15 months, following completion of our degree requirements, to walk in the following year's commencement ceremony. With this info about conferral dates in mind, I recommend calculating how many classes you would have to take at a time to qualify for a more timely traditional commencement. You really can't take more than 3 courses at once within an 8-week term if you want to successfully complete those courses on your 1st attempt. Also note, that if you take your 15-week long final Capstone course in Jan, you likely won't qualify to participate in the commencement in that same year. I still highly recommend Excelsior College, but I just want to raise awareness of this commencement issue.