Also, this Thomas Edison College they tout is an online institution. It is an extreme outlier, for example in terms of how many credits it'll accept from CLEP exams. I think that there's nothing wrong with getting an education solely or mostly online, but it would curtail some opportunities after that point.
Yes, I agree. Also, I think it is important to distinguish between online programs that more mirror a traditional experience (professors, assigned work, tests, papers, classmates, etc.) from this cram for exams approach. They are totally different.
Then if time and money could be saved with CLEP tests and the like, I'd just help my child enroll in the tests and prepare for them. (Of course the total money savings might be less than $15,000 if the CollegePlus "tuition" includes exam fees, but I didn't read far enough to determine that.)
I agree this would be much less expensive. The College Board has an easy to use tool to help find out what CLEP credit colleges will accept.
http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_clep/searchCLEPColleges.jspWhile CLEP tests are much easier than APs, personally I would encourage gifted students to look instead to APs. They are much more equivalent of taking a college course as the exams are harder and require writing. Reflecting this difficulty they are much more helpful for college admissions and more likely to earn credit (though they still won't at highly selective colleges). This tool is an easy way to get an idea what sorts of AP credit your student may be able to earn at the colleges they are considering.
http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/apcreditpolicy/index.jsp
