Excelsior College


Excelsior College is a private college in Albany, New York. The college offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and comprises three schools: the School of Undergraduate Studies, the School of Graduate Studies, and the School of Nursing. It serves mostly non-traditional, adult working students through their online programs.

History

Excelsior College was founded in 1971 by the New York State Board of Regents as its external degree program, known as The Regents External Degree Program. The initial development of the program was funded by major grants from the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation. Known as Regents College from 1984 through 2000, it operated as a program of the Board of Regents. In April 1998, the Board of Regents granted the school an absolute charter to operate as a private, nonprofit, independent institution. On January 1, 2001, Regents College, required to change its name under the terms of the separation, became Excelsior College.
Excelsior College has more than 36,000 students enrolled in a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

Academics

History (Regents College)

Excelsior College, originally Regents External Degrees and later Regents College because it was directly administered by the New York State Board of Regents, was from its inception a college that had faculty, majors, academic requirements, and advisors, but no courses. It provided a framework for evaluating and assembling academic credits into a degree program. In some cases a degree was awarded almost immediately after application, if the student had already met all degree requirements. For students needing additional academic credits, Excelsior provided some through its Excelsior College Examinations. For other subjects, through human advisors and online tools Excelsior referred students to regionally-accredited colleges which provided the needed instruction, accessible from the student's location whenever possible.
This was done with sufficient rigor that Excelsior had no difficulty in obtaining regional accreditation. However, Excelsior students did not qualify for Federal Student Aid, which funded instruction, not the advising and evaluation Excelsior provided. Starting with its first graduate program, a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies that began in 1998, Excelsior began adding courses, delivered at a distance through various modalities, such as DVDs.
However, transfer credit remains very important. Excelsior College has from its inception been exceptionally liberal in accepting transfer credit from other institutions. Essentially, any credit from a regionally-accredited institution will be accepted, if the course falls within one of Excelsior's degree programs. In fact Excelsior was founded in part precisely to address this question: students that had completed the courses for a degree, but at two or more schools, none of which would honor the others' credits, leaving the student without a degree that documented his or her education. The college has recently added time limits: transfer credit will not be accepted if it is more than 5, 7, 10, or 20 years prior to the date of enrollment. Even with these restrictions, this is a much more liberal policy than most other colleges.

Since 1998

Excelsior College is well known for its flexible, non-resident degree programs.
Sources of college credit that can be used towards an Excelsior College degree program, and to which advisors will refer an Excelsior student, include Excelsior College distance learning courses, courses from other regionally accredited institutions, college-level subject-matter examinations, non-collegiate training that has been evaluated for college-level credit by the American Council on Education and National College Credit Recommendation Service, and assessments of prior learning portfolios. Unlike most colleges, Excelsior College sets no limitations on the amount of allowable transfer credit.
Excelsior College also offers Excelsior College Examinations which are comparable to CLEP and DSST exams and are accepted as a source of credits by many colleges in the United States.
Excelsior College is a member of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges Consortium of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. SOC institutions are dedicated to helping servicemembers and their families earn college degrees. Military students can take courses in their off-duty hours at or near military installations in the United States, overseas, and on navy ships. Additionally, Excelsior College has repeatedly been nominated as a top military-friendly school by multiple organizations.
Excelsior College is one of several regionally accredited colleges operating on a model similar to Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey and Charter Oak State College in Connecticut.

Accreditation

The college is regionally accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Its bachelor's and master's nursing programs are accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, Inc.. The School of Nursing has twice been designated a Center of Excellence in Nursing Education by the National League for Nursing. Its baccalaureate degree programs in electrical engineering technology, information technology, and nuclear engineering technology are accredited by the Technology Accreditation Commission of ABET, Inc.The bachelor's and master's degree programs in business are accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education.

Notable alumni