Excelsior no longer offers its own examinations. The UExcel and Excelsior College Examinations were retired in 2022, and any online advice that tells you to register for one is out of date. Credits from exams you passed before the retirement still count and remain transferable, so nothing you already earned is lost. For new credit by examination, Excelsior now recognizes the national exam programs: CLEP, DSST, AP, and a set of information-technology certification exams from providers such as Cisco, CompTIA, Microsoft, and Oracle, alongside its ACE and NCCRS transfer routes and credit for prior learning. Programs cap how much credit you may earn by examination, so confirm your program's limit with the Registrar before you build a plan on it.
What happened to UExcel
For decades Excelsior, then Excelsior College, ran its own bank of credit-by-examination tests, first as Excelsior College Examinations and later branded UExcel, covering everything from anatomy and physiology to statistics, psychology, and business ethics. Those exams are gone. Excelsior stopped offering them in 2022, and the university's own guidance is direct about it: the exams are no longer available, but credits from exams taken previously are automatically entered in your records and can still be applied to an Excelsior degree or transferred to another school. In its own words, you can still apply UExcel credits to a degree program at Excelsior or transfer them elsewhere. So if you hold old UExcel credit, keep it, request the transcript through MyExcelsior when a school needs it, and remember that other colleges are not required to grant the full amount Excelsior awarded.
The current exam menu
Testing out is still a real lever at Excelsior, it just runs through national programs now rather than a house-brand exam. The recognized routes are the standard ones adult learners already use elsewhere.
| Exam program | Best for | Note |
|---|---|---|
| CLEP | General-education and some lower-division credit | Excelsior's CLEP institution code is 2899 |
| DSST | Lower-level credit, widely used by military members | Excelsior's DSST institution code is 9370; offered through DANTES testing |
| AP | College credit for high school Advanced Placement exams | Score minimums apply per subject |
| IT certification exams | Technology credit from earned certifications | Providers include Cisco, CompTIA, ICDL, Microsoft, Oracle, SAS, and Sun |
Caps, scores, and course levels
Two limits shape an exam plan. First, each exam has a minimum passing score and a defined credit value, and many carry lower-level rather than upper-division credit, which matters when a requirement specifically needs upper-division work. Second, programs place a ceiling on how much of a degree you may satisfy by examination, commonly in the range of thirty semester hours at institutions like Excelsior, so exam credit clears the front of a degree rather than all of it. Because both the score rules and the program cap can change and vary by degree, the honest move is to confirm your exact limit and the specific exams your program accepts with the Registrar before you register for anything.
Planning it without the myths
- Ignore any source that tells you to take a UExcel or Excelsior exam: those are retired
- Match each CLEP, DSST, or AP exam to a specific open requirement, and check whether that requirement needs upper-division credit
- Confirm your program's credit-by-exam cap so you do not test past the ceiling
- If you already passed a UExcel exam, request the transcript and apply it rather than retaking anything
- Weigh each exam against simply taking the course, because a failed sit costs the fee and the calendar
Where exam preparation fits
Our lane on the exam routes is preparation and the go-or-wait call around it, never the sitting. For a CLEP, DSST, AP, or certification target, we decompose the exam's content outline into a study map, build condensed notes and practice questions in the exam's format with the answer logic explained, and give you an honest readiness read before you book. The exams are proctored and identity-verified, so you sit every one yourself, on camera, alone. When the smarter move is the course rather than the exam, we say so and carry the coursework instead, and the credit-by-exam desk maps the whole fork with you for free.
Prep the right exam, or skip it
Send your remaining requirements. The current-exam map and a readiness read come back free.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official sources, and exam acceptance is worth confirming with the Excelsior Registrar for your program:
- excelsior.edu transfer your UExcel credit: the university's own statement that its exams are retired and how old credits apply
- excelsior.edu transfer more credits: the current CLEP, DSST, AP, and IT certification exam options and institution codes
- clep.collegeboard.org Excelsior policy: the College Board record of Excelsior's CLEP acceptance
- www.msche.org: the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the institutional accreditor