I am a non-traditional student (I'm 41) who entered the working world after dropping out of high school due to mental illness. I quickly discovered that work experience trumps all, and I've only recently returned to school because of various factors that would take too long to relate here.

Because of my age and my own self-learning, I find that a lot of what I have learned in university so far (I'm 70 credits into my BA, I have an Associate's in Psychology) is stuff I've already either learned on the job or through my own experiences. While not a complete waste of time, college is expensive and I'm questioning its worth as I already have more than one career.

I realize that all the people who said it would be the "best time of my life" and conveyed similar sentiments were probably reflecting on THEIR own college experiences when they were younger. :)

That's the context. The point of my post is - how do I finish the degree with a minimum of fuss, bother, and money? Since I'm already 70 credits in, I want to just finish it up at this point. I'm currently in the process of trying to enroll in Arizona University (based on another Reddit recommendation) and they apparently allow some form of testing to prove that you know your stuff and will award you credit for it.

I'm interested in that and similar methods of gaining credit or bypassing courses based on demonstrated knowledge. For instance, I have been self-studying psychology for about 2 decades now, so I'm way past the BA level and the courses are not anything I don't know. I have some business knowledge (I ran a company once) I can sing and voice act. I translate professionally. It's a diverse skillset that is documented on my LinkedIn and that I have professional references for.

I have Googled this, but as it is not a common query there is not a lot of information on it. A lot of universities also have their own stipulations - some accept work experience, some don't, some grant partial credit, some...it's too individual for me to ask EVERY college I want to enroll in.

On the purely academic side of things, I heard from a professor uncle of mine that if you can write a good enough paper, you can actually bypass the BA altogether and get into a Masters program - it's a rare occurrence though.

I'd be interested in any information regarding the bypassing of courses and granting of credit due to other forms of experience. Of course, I fully expect to be asked to prove my capabilities in some capacity.

(I should have asked this BEFORE I even started my BA, but I assumed it was just the BA or bust - that's what everyone and Google told me. Oh well, live and learn.)