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Comment by timtadh | Hacker News Reader

This is highly dependent on the professor of the class in question. Professor's will sometimes offer a student the option of testing out of a class. It of course depends on the institution exactly what goes on the transcript in these cases, but usually it will not count towards the GPA an will be treated in a manner similar to AP credit.

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Actually, it usually depends on the department not individual professors. In some departments you can test out of classes for credit, in others you can test out of prerequisites so you can move directly to more advanced classes but you don't get credit, and in others you can get credit for some classes but not others. From what I have seen, credit tends to be most available for math classes, many computer science courses will let you test out of lower level (especially language) prerequisites but often won't give you credit for them, and engineering departments will often let you test out of math and science and lower-level departmental courses, but limit the amount of credit you can earn this way. And some courses, especially English and other humanities, sometimes actually take roll and penalize you if you aren't filling a seat.

That's exactly right. It doesn't seem right that one can receive credit hours for knowledge previously held. The only value added by GWU in that instance is some form of verification/certification. It seems more appropriate that if you already know the material you be placed into a higher level course, otherwise the educational system runs the risk of stagnating at a base level of knowledge rather than challenging students to excel.

>. It doesn't seem right that one can receive credit hours for knowledge previously held.

Sure it does. It shows you've met a bar of learning.

That's true, I suppose. But in a perfect world, I don't think universities should just be signing off that you understand a subject. They should be promoting the growth of their students. In my opinion, one shouldn't leave university the same person they were when they entered (plus a diploma).

> I don't think universities should just be signing off that you understand a subject.

There are many more considerably more transformative experiences than hanging out with a bunch of same aged young adults having lots of sex, parties, and experiences with new subjects.

You're not going to GW for the first two, and honestly, if you have valid knowledge about the degree, why shouldn't you be able to get it accredited somehow? Why must you use years of real life to sit in classrooms with protoadults who don't work?

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