{"id":2518,"date":"2012-07-04T10:41:53","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T17:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2019-05-06T02:07:12","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T10:07:12","slug":"the-diy-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/04\/the-diy-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"The DIY Degree: Using Self-Education to Earn a Bachelor\u2019s Degree in 1 Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

“What’s the point of learning, if you don’t get a degree after?”<\/em><\/p>\n

This has been the biggest criticism of my MIT Challenge<\/a>, and honestly, it’s not an easy one to avoid. Even if weirdos like me are willing to learn a degree outside of school, the truth is the world still values that piece of paper. Unfortunately, until recently I’ve had little answer to this complaint–it seems if you want the degree, you have to suffer through an often slow and expensive process.<\/p>\n

That was before I met Jay Cross. Jay in many ways did a project similar to mine–he completed a bachelor’s degree in less time, mostly through self-study. The only difference? Jay got a real degree for his efforts.<\/p>\n

I asked Jay to write a guest post to share his method with you. Not only does it work, but it gets results in the real world as well. Jay has already had career opportunities that would be the envy of a lot of college grads, having staff writing positions for major publications and entrepreneurial ventures. Jay demonstrates that not only can self-education work, it can be a true alternative for many students hesitant about college.<\/p>\n

The DIY Degree, by Jay Cross<\/h2>\n

Today, I\u2019m going to show you a totally new twist on self-education.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve long been told that learning is an \u201ceither\/or\u201d decision. You can either spend four years in college and earn a degree…OR study on your own with no degree to show for it. But what if you could have the best of both: the credential employers crave, with the speed, personalization and low cost of self-study?<\/p>\n

You can.<\/p>\n

Using the \u201cdegree-by-examination\u201d approach, you can earn a bachelor\u2019s degree by taking tests instead of classes. It works no matter where you live, lets you graduate in one year instead of four, and costs roughly 1\/20th the price of a regular degree…with the exact same legitimacy and earning power.<\/p>\n

The problem: society DOES still value degrees<\/p>\n

Some jobs require degrees no matter how smart you are. Even in more flexible professions (like programming) there\u2019s always one or two \u201cBy-The-Book Bob\u201d types who reject non-grads on principle.<\/p>\n

This concerned me, even with all I had accomplished already. If there was any way to graduate for minimal time and cost\u2014and eliminate this potential obstacle\u2014it seemed worthwhile to try. Of all the different approaches I researched and read about, degree-by-examination was the college shortcut that actually worked.<\/p>\n

Before I explain, allow me to share the struggles that led me to this discovery in the first place.<\/p>\n

My Struggle with the Traditional College System<\/h2>\n

Lots of people ask how I discovered the degree-by-examination approach I teach on my website, The Do-It-Yourself Degree<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The truth is, it was all an accident. If my college had not been so awful, I would\u2019ve happily paid their fees and graduated the standard way. Instead, it was a classic \u201cnecessity is the mother of invention\u201d scenario where circumstances forced me to think differently.<\/p>\n

As a transfer student at the University of Connecticut, I needed 12 more classes to finish my degree. \u201cI\u2019ll be done in no time\u201d, I thought. Boy, was I wrong! I soon discovered that UConn, for whatever reason, didn\u2019t offer required classes for semesters at a time…with no notice of when they would return.<\/p>\n

Confused and discouraged, I was left with only the hope of \u201csomeday\u201d taking that Principles of Finance or Business Law class I needed. I was frozen in place: wanting to progress, but completely unable to. As someone who loves plans and schedules, it crushed my enthusiasm and made it very difficult to stay motivated.<\/p>\n

Worse yet, UConn was expensive. I had been debt-free up until now and I wanted to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

Each night, on my hour-long commute to school, I pressed myself: \u201cwhat am I going to do about this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes it was too demoralizing to think about.  I went through brief episodes of denial, telling myself I would \u201csomehow\u201d be able to pay without borrowing or \u201csomehow\u201d take the courses UConn wasn\u2019t offering. It was all I could do for a few moments of relief in a hopeless situation.<\/p>\n

The Solution: Degree-by-Examination<\/h2>\n

But when I came to my senses, I knew that was total BS. There was no \u201csomehow.\u201d Either I could afford it or I couldn\u2019t. Either the classes were available or they weren\u2019t. The gods of wish fulfillment were not going to munificently protect me from hard numbers or school policy. It was time to be brutally honest with myself. If I stayed at UConn, I\u2019d pay a ton of money and probably wait two more years to graduate. What I needed was a solution: a realistic plan that acknowledged these obstacles and overcame them.<\/p>\n

All options were on the table: alternative degree programs, different schools, even a new major, if that would help.<\/p>\n

My quest started out pretty aimlessly. I Googled things like \u201cget my degree faster\u201d and \u201cfaster ways to get college credit\u201d\u2014anything that seemed relevant.<\/p>\n

Most of what I found was totally worthless. Scams, diploma mills, shady online colleges and all the usual garbage that discouraged me from looking into this sooner. But persistence paid off, and a few weeks later I found an article by Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having read his excellent articles on entrepreneurship, I knew Josh wouldn\u2019t even be writing without practical, real-world advice to share.<\/p>\n

I was right.<\/p>\n

What Josh explained is that you can \u201ctest out\u201d of a degree just like you can test out of a class. Most schools won’t force you through a semester of College Algebra, for example, if a placement test says you\u2019re ready for Pre-Calculus. It\u2019s a great time-saver, but schools aren\u2019t eager to tell you about it. They would rather you take College Algebra anyway, because you stay longer and spend more.<\/p>\n

By using the approach Josh outlined, you can literally earn an entire degree this way. Instead of attending dozens of courses, you study on your own and take an exam for each subject. Rather than taking English 101, for instance, you take a 3-hour exam covering an entire semester of English material. Same goes for psychology, accounting, and the other required courses in your degree program.<\/p>\n

No homework, no class attendance, no school bureaucracy or BS. My frustration melted away, replaced by surging confidence and the knowledge that a solution was at hand.<\/p>\n

The exams are affordable\u2014between $80-$200 apiece\u2014and can be taken at virtually any college or testing center in the country. Study materials are available at websites like Free CLEP Prep<\/a> and InstantCert Academy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Each exam is worth 3-12 credits (depending on the subject.) Once you pass enough exams to obtain a degree\u2014typically 120 credits for a bachelor\u2019s\u2014you transfer them all to a distance learning school like Excelsior College. Although not famous, Excelsior is a legitimate, regionally accredited college, just like any state school or private university.<\/p>\n

(Not everyone can accept the trade-off of saving years\/tens of thousands of dollars by attending an unremarkable college. If you are one of them, check out my guest post<\/a> on I Will Teach You To Be Rich. It covers the psychology of putting effectiveness before ego\u2014a core concept I teach my readers. And it just might change your mind!)<\/p>\n

After paying Excelsior\u2019s admissions\/graduation fees, you become a graduate of that school and receive a genuine bachelor\u2019s degree to proudly display on your resume.<\/p>\n

These subject exams offer the highest ROI in all of higher education. Here\u2019s a cost-per-credit analysis I assembled for my blog readers. The third row shows the average costs of degree-by-examination:
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Sources: CollegeBoard<\/a> and DIY Degree<\/a><\/p>\n

Best of all, degree-by-examination is totally self-managed. You study for the exams you want to take and take them when you are ready. If you fail one, you can take it again in 3-6 months and take others while you wait. No guessing games or waiting for the school to offer the subjects you need.<\/p>\n

These schools aren\u2019t new. Busy adults have been graduating from colleges like Excelsior with online courses for more than fifteen years. What IS new is the approach of earning your degree with exams instead of coursework. Most traditional colleges allow credit-by-examination as well, but with strict limits (for example, \u201cmaximum of 20 credits earned via examination.\u201d) These limits help colleges force you to buy credits in the more expensive \u201cclassroom\u201d format.<\/p>\n

Yet unlike UConn (and most other schools) Excelsior has no exam limit. I simply transferred all the credits I had earned so far, took exams for the ones I still needed, and finished my bachelor\u2019s degree in four months instead of two years.<\/p>\n

How Can You Do the Same?<\/h2>\n

Josh\u2019s article on \u201chacking\u201d a college degree was superb, but there\u2019s only so much territory one article can cover. It soon dawned on me that there were lots of details which would only become clear once I clarified them:<\/p>\n