How to Earn a Bachelor’s Degree in High School

IT’S POSSIBLE TO EARN A BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN HIGH SCHOOL

One way to accomplish this is through the help of the College Plus program which is now called Pearson Accelerated. This education program coaches students through a series of CLEP exams in order to gain the credit needed to transfer into a four-year school as a college junior or senior. The program prepares students to apply to online colleges that accept all CLEP credits as well as Straighter Line and DSST exam credits.

Completion of a BS or BA can be done online by the end of 12th grade. Essentially, four high school years become four college years. The first 60 credits are done with CLEP exams in 8th – 10th grades. The final 60 credits are completed through an online college during the 11th and 12th grades.

OUR STORY: DO IT YOURSELF

Another way to earn an early bachelor’s degree in high school is to do it yourself. Without using the services of College Plus, my older daughter started taking CLEP exams in the 8th grade and earned enough CLEP credit by the end of 10th grade to be accepted into the online program at Thomas Edison University. These credits granted her the opportunity to start as a college junior in the 11th grade. Once accepted, though, she had to weigh this option against other, more traditional options. At that time her violin skills were blossoming, so she opted against an online school. It made more sense to push out college, gain more music experience, and apply as a freshman to a four-year school. She decided to forgo the bragging rights to say she earned a BA or BS in high school. The CLEP credits she earned were not a loss. They helped her win scholarships, knock off general education requirements, and enjoy priority scheduling at college.

Below is her actual CLEP transcript which spans from 8th grade – 10th grade. Please note that certain 6-credit CLEP exams are now only 3-credits. That’s a bummer for my younger son! She was able to pull this off by cramming many exams using the online Instantcert facts over a short period of time. Some were full high school courses supplemented with study guide material like biology, algebra, and Western Civilization. Please note that English is her forte which allowed her to cram painlessly for the literature and humanities exams. For complete information on how she tackled each exam, read my posts for each exam. You may also be interested in reading how to do a Short Cram Plan like she did. For a gentler approach be sure to read the paragraph under this transcript.

Test Date	CLEP Examination Title	Credits
6/19/14	Analyze and Interpret Literature	6
1/09/15	Introductory Psychology	3
1/23/15	College Composition Modular	3
5/12/15	Introductory Sociology	3
5/19/15	Western Civilization I	3
6/30/15	College Algebra	3
7/01/15	Biology	6
10/21/15	English Literature	6
10/28/15	Principles of Marketing	3
11/04/15	Humanities	6
12/15/15	Principles of Management	3
12/16/15	Intro to Educational Psychology	3
10/03/16	American Literature	6
		Total Credits	54

A GENTLER APPROACH

My older daughter is super-organized and super-motivated. Not all people are wired this way. My younger kids earned fewer CLEP credits over a longer period of time. If you are not driven to earn a bachelor’s degree by the 12th grade, earning 30+ credits (one year of college) is within reach for the semi-motivated student. Read how we approach this: Which CLEP When: How We Tracked from Middle School to High School. For a sample high school transcript on how to squeeze in 50+ CLEP credits over five years download the PDF below.

PROS OF EARNING AN ONLINE BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN HIGH SCHOOL

• General education credits (first 60) can be earned through affordable CLEP exams.
• Certain families may wish to avoid liberal professors for the general education courses.
• Motivated students can avoid taking filler courses at college and move ahead.
• A high school student with a promising forever job can secure a degree sooner than later.
• Entrepreneurial students can earn a basic degree and then work on a business idea sooner.
• Mission-minded students can earn a degree and get on the mission field sooner.
• CLEP exams and online courses allow younger students to earn a degree at home.
• Educating at home can be a good fit for students with health issues.
• Students transferring in as college juniors won’t need ACT or SAT scores.

CONS OF EARNING AN ONLINE BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN HIGH SCHOOL

• Online courses are expensive.
• Online courses have a lot of busy work.
• A student has to decide on a major at an early age. (10th or 11th grade)
• Majors that require skill building like music and art need four years of live experience.
• Online courses don’t offer internships.
• A high school student would be the youngest in these online adult education courses.
• A student would miss out on the four-year campus experience.
• A student would miss out on meeting classmates in a live setting.
• Connections with college staff would be shallow.

TO SAVE MORE MONEY

A student can transfer into a four-year college as a college senior instead of as a junior. To save more money, you can take the junior level courses online through Straighterline instead of at a more expensive online four-year institution. Once the general education credits (first 60) are earned through CLEP, a student would then take the necessary junior level courses (next 30 credits) through Straighterline or even through DSST exams.

All these credits could then be transferred to the school that will eventually grant the bachelor’s degree. Another option is to transfer 90+ credits into a local school that accepts them all including the Straighterline credits. Christian colleges tend to accept a lot of these credits.

MINIMUMS FOR A DEGREE

Colleges have a minimum number of credits a student must take at their school in order to be eligible for a degree. Find out that number in advance. This will help you tailor the number of transfer credits to earn. The general rule is that 25% of courses must be taken at the school granting the degree. There may be other graduation requirements as well. Check with your target school for accurate information. To learn more read College Credit Transfer and Graduation Requirements.

WHICH CLEPS TO TAKE

Look at your target college’s website for the degree you want. They usually publish a four-year schedule of classes for each degree program. Then figure out the CLEP exams that will fulfill each course. College websites sometimes publish course equivalencies. Make sure to find out which CLEP exams the school accepts. For information on how to find CLEP lists read my post Locating College CLEP Lists.

Your state college system may have an articulation agreement with its community college system that allows students to transfer CLEP credits not “accepted” at the four-year school if an associate degree is first earned. In other words, the state four-year college has to accept the same CLEP credits that the community college accepted for the associate degree which essentially waives all general education courses. It may present the opportunity to waive certain general education requirements. For example through this agreement, one four-year school waived the ethics requirement for my daughter. I have heard of students getting the foreign language requirement waived if they fulfilled global credits through other courses at the community college or through credit by exam. Read about North Carolina’s Articulation Agreement.

A MYTH ABOUT CLEP CREDITS

A school will calculate a GPA based on credits earned at the school. Credits and grades from other schools do not enter into the calculation. If you only take 30 credits at your final school, the GPA will be based on those 30 credits only. Read CLEP Myths.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

It is possible to earn a bachelor’s degree by the end of 12th grade. The company mentioned in this post makes a business of helping students do this. With some research and elbow grease, you can accomplish the same goal on your own.

My experience with CLEP testing. I have coached my kids and their friends through 16 different CLEP exams over a period of 9 years. Collectively, they have passed 39 CLEP exams and earned over 156 college credits. I’m still coaching my younger son through his CLEP journey. My high school graduates have received full-ride merit scholarships.

Musing: a period of reflection or thought. As such this post reflects my thoughts, opinions, and experiences on the topic. The choice to home school and the methods you choose are yours to determine.