Life Experience Credit

School of Professional Studies students

What is 'Life Experience Credit?'

Life experience credit, or "prior-learning credit," is credit earned when a student demonstrates learning he or she has gained outside a traditional college classroom. This type of credit is often referred to as “credit for life experience,” even though the credit is awarded based on the learning that resulted from the experience—not the experience itself. Since prior-learning credit is nontraditional, evaluation has to be done very carefully to ensure that it meets George Fox University’s standards for quality.

Personal and Professional
Assessment Class

Through our class MGOL 260 Personal and Professional Assessment, you are able to earn up to 30 elective credits (essentially your entire junior year) through credit earned from learning resulting from life experience. Different from other universities, George Fox doesn’t charge you for any elective credits you receive from this class. You simply pay the tuition for the class (for which you receive 3 credits not counted within the 30) and then are you are able to continue to earn elective credits without cost.

Within the Personal and Professional Assessment class, you will write 3 essays according to a pre-formatted structure that enables you to analyze significant life-experience in order to draw out the learning associated with that experience. The essays are submitted to faculty evaluators who assess the learning from those experiences and then award you elective credit based on the learning demonstrated. You are able to continue to submit essays throughout their time at George Fox.

Additionally, you are also able to submit professional training, continuing education units (CEUs), professional certificates, or licenses to be evaluated for elective credit. These credits that you receive will count towards the 30 maximum credits you are able to earn from life-experience.

If it is not cost effective to take the Personal and Professional Assessment class, you are still able to submit professional training for evaluation, but you cannot submit essays for evaluation. Credits earned from professional training that are submitted without a student taking the Personal and Professional Assessment class will cost a student $50/credit earned. This is the only time that a student will be charged for earning elective credits for life-experience/professional training experience.