By Staff
The rising costs of a college degree garner much attention in the media nowadays. You would have to be living under a rock not to know that hefty tuition bills, pricey textbooks and high interest rates on loans are increasingly putting a strain on students and parents funding their child’s higher education. What is rarely talked about, however, are ways to save students some cash.
There are ways to beat the system and there are opportunities that students can take advantage of to expedite their studies, saving them both time and money. Only, these options are not well-publicized because they are not cost-effective for universities. The College Level Examination Program is one of them.
CLEP, as it is called by the few who even know of its existence, gives students a chance to bypass introductory-level courses, while still earning credit for the classes if they are able to achieve a passing grade on one of the exams. The national program, a branch of the College Board, consists of 34 exams in a broad range of studies. There are roughly 2,900 colleges that currently accept credit earned through CLEP exams, only the rules and procedures for administering credit through the program are, for the most part, left to the discretion of each institution. The University’s policy regarding CLEP, as stated in the academic bulletin, limits the number of accepted credits to 30. However, not all departments within the University treat CLEP credits the same. Students majoring in business or journalism, two programs at the University that must abide by certain rules to maintain their accreditations, may have a more difficult receiving these credits.
However, for anyone who has sat through the monotony of an introductory level course, and felt it was unchallenging and undeserving of its price tag – the CLEP could be their ticket to get to head of the class, collect their credits and move on to more advanced work. Priced around $50 to $75, these tests are a bargain compared to the amount an average Hofstra student would have to pay if they had received the credits by taking a course at the University. (An undergraduate, three-credit course in the School for University Studies is priced at $2,205, or $735 per credit.) That is a savings of more than $2,000 per course.
With its benefits greatly exceeding its costs, one would think that the chair of each academic department would be inundated with requests from students wanting to take advantage of CLEP; however, according to Dr. Gail Schwab, associate dean for Curriculum and Personnel, in the past two years she has only seen two requests for CLEP credits.
The Chronicle had a difficult time finding members of the administration who knew what CLEP was. And as for finding students who were aware of the program, the search was virtually impossible. It is not as if this program is new, either. It has been in existence since the mid-1960s. So why is a program that has the potential to save students money and time one of the best-kept secrets on campus?
The administration can argue that it pays little attention to CLEP because over time, as the University has received more accreditations, the program has become less useful and relevant for its students. However, to date, the University still accepts 22 of the CLEP tests, which means a significant portion of the student body would deem the program worthwhile. The administration might also say that by not advertising CLEP, it is actually looking out for students’ best interests – they believe that there is no substitute for the quality of education that is received when a student takes all their required classes in-residence with one of the University’s distinguished faculty members. This is an ideal situation. However, in an ideal world, there would be no price placed on education – but this is not the case.
The University should realize that students who do not have the means to pay for a four-year education, without sinking going into debt, could benefit from CLEP. Some students do not graduate at all because somewhere during their time at Hofstra, they run into unexpected financial trouble or give up because they become overwhelmed by how much their tuition will cost over four years. If these students were able to save a couple of thousands of dollars, then they could use that money toward classes that are more essential to their major. This could also allow them to graduate maybe a semester early, again saving money and time, allowing them to hold down a job outside of school. In the end, this could lessen the likelihood that these students will have to drop out before they graduate or put their studies on hold for financial reasons.
Simply put, the University has nothing to gain from informing students of this program. Since the program is administered through the College Board, and given that testing centers are off-campus, the University does not receive any portion of the fees for the test. In fact, if more students do opt out of classes, earning credit through equivalency exams, the University could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars and would even have to layoff professors who teach these courses if enrollment is too low.
The University is not required to give the same attention to publicizing CLEP as they do to advertising January and summer sessions – programs that generate additional revenue by appealing to students who wish to expedite their college experiences or catch up on lagging credit loads. But if they were truly concerned with catering to the different needs of the student body, they should be more upfront about their policies even if they are unprofitable.

by Andreas Soto