The affordable college track

Create a free account (age 13+), attempt all the Check for Understanding quizzes, earn a quiz average of 75% or better (which unlocks the final), then score 75% or better on the final exam. A voucher-request button then appears in the course, and most requests are approved automatically within seconds. Retakes are unlimited, so a first-try miss isn't fatal. One thing that trips people up: the "Content Progress" percentage only counts pages you've clicked and has no effect on voucher eligibility; check the Grades page for your real quiz average. Use the code when registering for the matching CLEP exam at College Board. Test centers may charge a separate administration fee (often $15–40); Modern States reimburses that too if you submit the receipt, score report, and voucher number within a year of the exam.

Video lectures by university professors, broken into short sections with a quiz after each, plus suggested supplemental readings if a topic needs reinforcing. Everything is self-paced with no deadlines: a motivated student can finish a course in a few weeks, or stretch it across a semester alongside other work. Because quizzes gate your progress, you get a running signal of whether the student is actually CLEP-ready before any exam is scheduled.

A completed Modern States course is a defensible entry on the homeschool transcript in its own right: a structured, college-level curriculum with graded assessments. Pair it with the CLEP pass and you've documented one effort twice: high school credit on the transcript, college credit at the destination. (See the Transcripts page for how to record it.)

Most exams run about 90 minutes (a few, like College Composition, run longer), computerized and mostly multiple choice. Scores for most exams appear immediately. A score below the college's threshold simply earns no credit, and because CLEP credit is posted without a letter grade, a low score cannot pull down a college GPA. Students may retake the same exam after a three-month wait. Do note that a score is not automatically withheld just because it fell short: see "Sending scores" below for who receives it and how cancellation works.

Start with Modern States (above): it exists precisely to prepare students for CLEP, and finishing its course earns the voucher that makes the exam free. Beyond that, plenty of tools can round out prep: College Board's own official study guides and practice questions, REA's CLEP prep books, Peterson's practice tests, and Khan Academy for shoring up the underlying subject. A timed practice exam is the best readiness signal; when your student is comfortably clearing the passing threshold at home, schedule the real thing.

At a test center (many community colleges host one) is the simple path: show up with ID, they handle the technology. Remote proctoring at home is legitimate but noticeably fussier. At the time of writing it requires a Windows laptop meeting College Board's specs, a quiet and tidy room you can 360°-scan on camera, a government ID check, and your phone positioned as a second monitoring camera for the whole session. None of it is hard, but it's not "click and go," so read the current requirements well before exam day. If a test center is within reasonable driving distance, it's usually the lower-stress choice.

Iowa Valley Community College District administers CLEP exams at Marshalltown Community College (MCC) and Ellsworth Community College (ECC) in Iowa Falls. Students create a CLEP account, purchase the exam from College Board, then schedule the sitting through MCC or ECC, and bring the CLEP registration ticket plus a government-issued photo ID on test day.

Cost there: the $97 exam fee is paid to College Board, plus a $40 test administration fee paid to the testing location. If the exam was purchased with a Modern States voucher after completing the matching course, Modern States will reimburse that test center fee: submit the test center receipt, the score report, and the voucher number within one year of the exam date (reimbursement arrives by check, typically 8 to 10 weeks later). Between the voucher and the reimbursement, the whole exam can end up costing nothing out of pocket.

Iowa Valley accepts a score of 50 or better on roughly two dozen exams, mapped to specific MCC/ECC courses (American Government, College Algebra, both halves of U.S. History and Western Civilization, Introductory Psychology and Sociology, Principles of Macro- and Microeconomics, and more). Note their cap: no more than 30 CLEP credit hours may be applied toward an Associate of Arts degree, a good illustration of why the destination's policy matters. Not every CLEP exam is on their approved list.

Other Iowa community colleges administer CLEP as well, and this pattern (a modest administration fee, a published list of accepted exams, and a credit cap) is typical. Search for the nearest test center on College Board's site, then confirm the fee and accepted exams with that college directly.

Iowa Valley CLEP details (PDF) · Modern States reimbursement form

When your student registers, they can send scores to two colleges for free; additional transcripts ordered later cost $20 each (per institution). Note that a designated recipient receives the score whether or not it met the credit threshold. The only way to keep a score from being reported is to cancel it at the end of the exam, and that choice must be made before viewing the instant score report; once the score has been seen it cannot be canceled, and canceled scores are erased permanently with no way to retrieve them.

A lower-risk approach: skip the free sends at registration, then order a transcript later only for the exams your student passed. That costs $20 per school, but it guarantees no college ever sees a score that fell short. College Board keeps scores on file for 10 years from the test date.

Also know that some colleges cap total credit-by-exam credits, e.g., "no more than 30 hours by examination toward a degree." The cap lives in the academic catalog, and it's one more thing to confirm with the registrar before planning a big exam stack.

File the FAFSA; meet the Student Aid Index (SAI) cap for that aid year; enroll at least half-time in a program on the state's high-demand jobs list right after completing your homeschool program (or at age 20+). The SAI cap changes by year: it was $20,000 for 2025-26 and $30,000 for 2026-27, so look up the current figure, since some college pages still display the older number. The program list is the big constraint: it's built around workforce needs (healthcare, IT, trades), not general transfer degrees, and it changes year to year. Books and program supplies aren't covered.

The current list leans heavily toward: healthcare (nursing, EMS/paramedic, dental assisting, radiologic technology), information technology (networking, cybersecurity, software development), skilled trades (welding, HVAC, electrical, automotive and diesel technology, construction), agriculture, early childhood education, and select business/accounting programs. Each community college maps the state list to its own programs, and the list changes year to year, so check the current one at your college before planning around it.

You don't necessarily have to live near the campus: some Iowa community colleges offer eligible programs fully online; Northwest Iowa Community College (NCC), for example, is known for its remote programs. For a rural family, that can mean a nearly tuition-free, in-demand credential earned from the kitchen table. Ask each college which of its Last-Dollar-eligible programs can be completed remotely.

CLEP proves knowledge with one exam; dual enrollment produces actual college grades on an actual college transcript. Some colleges that are stingy with exam credit take transfer coursework readily, and a strong DE grade also doubles as evidence for your homeschool transcript. The tradeoff is cost and a semester of committed time. Budget for course fees and textbooks on top of the per-credit rate, and buy used where you can: ThriftBooks, AbeBooks, and campus buy/sell boards can cut textbook costs substantially.

Colleges typically open dual enrollment to juniors and seniors, and some allow younger students by permission; each school sets its own floor, so ask. But there's no rule anywhere capping how early college credit can be earned, and CLEP sets no minimum age for testing at a test center. Some families start a capable middle schooler on a Modern States course and let them take the CLEP whenever they're ready. One catch: remote proctoring requires the test-taker to be 13 or older (18+ for Illinois residents), so a younger student has to test in person. If your student can do the work, starting early spreads the load across more years and takes all the pressure off senior year.

FBBC has offered a $99 dual-enrollment class special in the fall: a complete college course for less than most textbooks, making it one of the cheapest real college credits available anywhere. Beyond the credit, it buys a genuine college experience, even in the online format: a professor, deadlines, classmates, and a transcript. It isn't guaranteed every year, so check with admissions in late summer, and take advantage if it's running.

Course recommendation: The Family. Worth taking even if your student will never attend Faith: a Biblically grounded course on marriage, family, and the household that serves a young person for life, whatever their degree ends up being.

Iowa families can access tuition-free dual/concurrent enrollment through their local public school district (Senior Year Plus), and some homeschool families use it. Before you do, weigh the whole ledger, not just the tuition line.

If your family homeschools so your children are formed by a Biblical worldview rather than the prevailing one, remember that the formation happening in a secular classroom doesn't pause because a student is only there for dual credit. High schoolers are still very much in formation. Free credits are a poor trade for a shipwrecked faith. As Voddie Baucham has put it, we cannot keep sending our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.

That doesn't automatically rule out every public option: a single online course with parents engaged and reading alongside is a different exposure than full-time immersion, and families land in different places here. The point is that the worldview question belongs in the decision at full weight, right next to the price tag. Options like FBBC exist so the choice isn't "free but formative in the wrong direction" versus "nothing."

FBBC isn't the only option. Cedarville University, Bob Jones University, Colorado Christian University, and Grand Canyon University all run online dual-enrollment programs with solid reputations among homeschoolers, and many denominational colleges offer one too, so it's worth asking any Christian college on your student's radar. Compare per-credit rates, course selection, and (as always) how the credits will transfer to the likely destination.

CLI has a formal partnership with Liberty University: CLI credits can transfer into Liberty's online bachelor's programs (their B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies is a flexible landing spot), and CLI degree-holders can use them for Liberty graduate admissions. Liberty permits a large share of a bachelor's degree to arrive as transfer credit, so families stack cheap CLI credits and finish an accredited degree at a fraction of sticker price. Credits must still meet Liberty's normal transfer rules: grade, content, fit with the degree.

Honest caveat: outside CLI's partner schools, transferability is limited. Treat CLI as a targeted play: great if Liberty or another partner is the destination, not a universal credit bank.