College Level Examination Program (CLEP) Advising

CLEP Language tests are a great way to earn credits – but a caution is that if a student is thinking about transferring to UM College Park, UM does not accept CLEP language credits so it’s important to discuss the big picture of a student’s academic goal.  Sometimes students earn 9 credits for a CLEP Language test and then discovering that UM will not accept the 9 credits, and if a student is getting financial aid, they cannot continue to take credits at MC to “fill in” the missing 9 credits because they have already completed a Humanities, a GEIR and an elective for the degree (in any General Studies degree, for example).

Now to make it even more complicated, the rule about using a CLEP Language Test to fulfill a Gen Ed at MC is the same as that for AP Tests, so even though UM may not accept the CLEP Language credit, UM will still consider the Gen Ed Program to be completed if CLEP credit was used, but the student still has to take elective credit to fill in those credits if they want to transfer with 60 credits.  For example, if the student uses CLEP FREN 101 & 102 to fill Gen Ed Humanities and a GEIR, then UM considers Gen Ed to be completed but the student needs to take 6 credits of transferable elective credit to be able to transfer with 60 credits completed.

As usual, when it comes to transfer, it’s never clear-cut.   UMCP does not accept Language CLEP tests, but MANY other schools do – UMBC, UMGC, and UMB School of Nursing are three big transfer schools that DO accept CLEP Language tests, so talking about the student’s transfer plan is important.  Someone asked a few years ago, shouldn’t we counselors advise all students to take the CLEP if they are native-speakers of FREN, GERM or SPAN? And the answer is – it depends!

When in doubt, search to see what CLEP credits are accepted by any school, just search “CLEP” on each school’s page and it should take you to their CLEP list – ditto for AP exams.

Anne

Anne Schleicher, Counselor (Part-time)
Montgomery College Online Advising Services