Excelsior students - payments and length of program.

NC Girl BSN · Jan 19, 2009

Before you do anything. I recommend paying $75 and applying to the college. Then have them to evaluate all your trascripts and tell you what you need to take. Then you can come up with a plan to tackle all the things that you need. I paid for my test one at a time. I would work a little overtime and pay for the test. The $895 enrollement fee can be broken up into 5 payments. That is how I paid for it. I tackled the test one at a time. The CPNE can also be broken up into payements. They do not accept financial aid but they do award some scholarships. .You can apply for private loans to pay for the education. Hope this helps.

Apolli1 · Jan 19, 2009

Thank you! It helps alot. It looks like the fees for enrollment, tests and CRNP are all separate. That's what confused me. Did you do your general education credits thru Excelsior too? Did you CLEP anything? It looks like it may be less expensive to CLEP? How long did it take you to get through?

DebanamRN, MSN, RN · Jan 19, 2009

You can do CLEP and DSST. I had my GE credits thru the local CC, as well as my pre-reqs. As for EC, I'm on the payment plan. I just started by it's cheaper then my local CC and more flexible.

CLEP:

http://www.collegeboard.com/

DSST:

http://www.getcollegecredit.com/

NC Girl BSN · Jan 20, 2009

Thank you! It helps alot. It looks like the fees for enrollment, tests and CRNP are all separate. That's what confused me. Did you do your general education credits thru Excelsior too? Did you CLEP anything? It looks like it may be less expensive to CLEP? How long did it take you to get through?

Yes, all the test are separate and you pay as you go. No bundle fees like College Network and other publishing companies that you should stay away from. Plenty of people on here have cleped out of courses. Its fairly inexpensive. Also you can test by exam through EC. They have all the general ed classes by test which cost $235 plus cost of the book.

NC Girl BSN · Jan 20, 2009

It took me almost a year to complete the program from top to finish. I was 5 days shy from the 1 year mark. I was very aggressive at taking the test. I took one test about every 3 weeks. I also failed 2 test and had to wait 60 days and repeat them but I like EC because they allow you to continue taking other test while you wait. This program cost me about $8500 out of pocket. It would have been about $1000 less if I had not had to repeat 2 exam and I splurged and bought all the practice test for all 8 exams for $480. IMO they are a must and measure how prepared you are for the test. I also spent $415 on online conferences in preparation of the CPNE and went to a workshop for $500 plus travel expenses to my CPNE site. All that is included in the $8500.So with all that said,You could spend about $6000-6500 with no frills and no help for workshops. Thats about as bare as it gets.

EC is not accepted in every state and some states have restrictions so check and make sure your state is EC friendly. That is one of the downsides to this program but that didn't stop me.