Did you know that you may earn half of your credits toward your associate’s or bachelor’s degree, at less than half of the cost-per-credit? University of Phoenix allows you to apply relevant learning, work and life experiences toward college credits through the Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) process.

Save Time and Money by Applying Your Past Experience Toward a Degree

You may be able to fulfill some elective, interdisciplinary and/or general education courses by going through the PLA process. In order to be eligible for PLA credits, you must be an undergraduate student who has already been accepted into University of Phoenix.  In addition, you must have submitted your transcripts to the University and you must have remaining general education or elective credits required to earn your degree.

Before submitting an application, we suggest that you contact your Academic Advisor to discuss whether or not PLA would be beneficial to you, and how credits can be applied to your degree program.

PLA credits cannot be applied to Associate and Bachelor degree programs in Education.

PLA credit costs

There is a one-time submission fee, and a fee per credit assessed and applied to your program. The one-time submission fee is $150, and the fee per credit assessed is $75.

Application to the PLA process does not guarantee credits will be applied, so please read the qualifications carefully. Speak with your Academic Advisor about whether your experience can qualify for university credit.

Get Credit For Your Experience

Professional training, such as seminars and courses provided by employers may be eligible for PLA. Licenses, certificates and transcripts from colleges and institutions may also be eligible. Certain types of experience may be eligible through writing an experiential learning essay.

Bachelor’s degree students can earn up to 60 PLA credits (30 for professional training and 30 for Experiential Essay).

Associate’s degree students can earn up to 30 PLA credits, 15 for professional training and 15 for essays. Additional state restrictions may apply.

How to Qualify For Credits

There are two ways to qualify:

1. Create a Professional Training Portfolio.
   This portfolio will include a description of an institutional or corporate training course, the date it was completed, number of hours of training and other essential information such as a course description. More information, including the type of training that qualifies, is available in the Professional Training Portfolio page.
2. Write an Experiential Learning Essay on an approved topic.
   Experiential Essays must be selected from a list of approved topics and written in the David Kolb’s experiential learning model. Review the topic list and Kolb’s learning model to find out more. 

Need more information? Please contact us at 1-866-440-4707 or email us at plac@phoenix.edu.