First off, thank you for this amazing site! I've been browsing and searching topics for days now. The helpfulness I see from the members here toward one another is second to none.

Sorry, I didn't fill out the template as there's not much to say. Two different scenarios, both with zero college credits. We live in Texas.

So, as the title suggests, we are a homeschool family. Our daughter is 15 and starting her sophomore year, so I'm looking at options to get her on the right track going forward. In the process, I have discovered this whole world that began when I researched dual credit, looked into CLEP, and which finally led me to this community. I'm also looking at furthering my own education on the same, or similar, route. It would be great to take classes together but I'm also willing to lead the way. I'm hoping that it would both challenge and encourage her on her journey to see the old man doing it, too. 

Now, about the old man. I'm 52 with zero college credits behind me. I was always academically at the top of my class, but college was not in the works for me at the time for various reasons. By God's grace, I've done very well in comparison to my classmates who took the college route and, through hard work and financial prudence, was able to be debt free by the time I was 41. There have been a few jobs I have applied for, though, in which I am sure that not having a degree placed my resume in the File 13 stack. I've always wanted to pursue a degree but there was always work, family, and ministry that took priority. 

In practical terms, I would be looking at more of a "check the box" degree for myself. If anything, something like a business path would probably be most beneficial. I am interested in furthering my theological education but I already have an accredited mDiv program (actually, a bDiv with the option of qualifying for an mDiv) that I could go into without a Bachelor's. But I'm considering going ahead and going the traditional route by getting my bachelor's first instead for my daughter's sake. I may roll into the mDiv program at that point. I'm very goal driven and once I finally make up my mind to pursue something I generally pour myself into it relentlessly until it's complete. 

My daughter is 15 and currently showing the greatest interest in graphic design. Although, her primary goal in life is not to be a career woman but a wife and mom, we do want her to have an avenue for income by utilizing her gifts. 

Homeschool in Texas is incredibly flexible. Essentially, she is deemed a high school graduate whenever we say she is. We could graduate her and issue her a diploma today if we decided she had the foundations she needed and colleges would accept that. She would still have to meet other entrance requirements, of course.

We started talking about dual credit in local schools but that was before I found this community. She has been homeschooled her entire life and a couple of years ago we had to switch to an online format because my wife lost most of her vision, so she is already used to self study and online coursework. I think she could transition seamlessly into starting down this path. I don't want to shortcut her education but make sure she has everything she needs, but she has a solid foundation under her already.

So, here's where I really show my ignorance. Where do we start? I understand we may be on different paths, but do we both just jump in with Sophia for general education and see how that goes first? Where do Modern States, Study.com, and others fit in? All the options are pretty overwhelming for a newbie. I was first looking at something like TESU for both of us but have seen UMPI referenced as the easiest "check the box" degree for someone like me and, perhaps, SNHU for graphic design. I don't know that she needs, or even wants, a bachelor's for graphic design but, regardless, I would like to have her LL credits out of the way so that path is open to her. I think even having an AS would benefit her greatly for what she's wanting to do. Rather than working an 8-5 job, I envision her doing freelance work from home for the most part to generate some income. 

Regardless of her degree path, we still need a plan to get started with some self study classes and testing for both of us. I appreciate advice for a newbie on where to start. Thanks again for this amazing site!

Hi everyone,


I'm looking for advice on transferring courses from Sophia to UMPI. I have almost 50 Sophia courses and I'm hoping to transfer as many credits as possible.
This is my first time applying to college, so any help would be greatly appreciated. The UMPI page on the Sophia website doesn't have any information and while I've found some transfer equivalencies online and on the UMPI website, there seems to be conflicting information.

I'm confident that I have more than 90 transferable credits, but I haven't submitted anything yet.

My goal is to finish my degree in one semester. To do this, I want to transfer the most challenging courses and take the easiest ones at UMPI. I could really use some help figuring out the best combination of courses to avoid any overlap. Also, I don't want to pay Parchment for courses that are unnecessary.

Here's a list of the courses I've taken at Sophia. Thanks in advance for your help!


1. BUS 1105 Business Communications
2. Business Law
3. Financial Accounting
4. Introduction to Business
5. Macroeconomics
6. Microeconomics
7. Principles of Finance
8. Principles of Management
9. English Composition I
10. English Composition II
11. Calculus I
12. Career Readiness
13. College Readiness
14. Conflict Resolution
15. Critical Thinking
16. Developing Effective Teams
17. Foundations of Statistics
18. Human Biology Lab  +LAB
19. Introduction to Chemistry +Lab
20. Introduction to Ethics
21. Personal Finance
22. Precalculus
23. Project Management
24. The Essentials of Managing Conflict
25. Visual Communications
26. Workplace Writing II
27. Approaches to Studying Religions
28. Introduction to Information Technology
29. Introduction to Nutrition
30. Microbiology
31. Public Speaking
32. Spanish I
33. U.S. Government
34. U.S. History I
35. Workplace Communication
36. Introduction to Sociology
37. Ancient Greek Philosophers
38. Art History I
39. Art History II
40. College Algebra
41. Introduction to College Mathematics
42. Environmental Science
43. Human Biology
44. Introduction to Statistics
45. Business Ethics
46. Introduction to Networking
47. Lifespan Development
48. Managerial Accounting

I saw a Reddit post that said D492 was Data+, but I don't see it anywhere on the WGU site. I mean the actual class, not transfer credit. I am supposed to take D492 soon.

Hello,

After a lot of consideration I decided on SNHU over TESU because of the cost. A person I know online said they got 65% scholarship, which swayed me. I spoke with a sales person and they said they only offer 30%, and this has been running for 30 days. They claim it ends today, in an hour and a half from now... I feel like they are trying to pressure me into a sale. Has anyone else felt like that? Is SNHU India definitely legit? Can anyone confirm if this deal has been running for 30 days? Am I right to be cautious?

I'm looking to follow the degree plan for Data Analytics at SNHU. Can anyone share their experience studying this program? How long does it usually take to finish this program? Can you find Data Analytics jobs or intership while studying this program? 

TESU appears to have recently reworded their policies to now state they accept credit "from entities accredited by institutional accreditors recognized by the U.S. Department of Education."

"Regional accreditation" is no longer stipulated directly, nor does it appear to be implied – for example, they don't stipulate a list of institutional accreditors they accept that just happens to be the traditional list of regional accreditors – in the main body text on the undergraduate catalog page Transfer Credit, the graduate catalog page Transfer Credit, or the Transfering Credit landing page in the Admissions section of the site.

There are several places on TESU's website that specify a regional accreditation requirement specifically, but generally they seem less official and may not have been updated, including in part Academic Credit FAQs and a 2016 blog post on NA vs. RA.

For admission to TESU master's programs, "The University requirement for admission to any master’s degree program is the demonstration of the completion of a bachelor’s degree from an institution recognized under our Transfer Credit Policy."

A regionally accredited master's is still at this time a stated requirement for admission to TESU's DBA and EdD.

"Institutionally accredited" absent any indication otherwise implies a superset that includes nationally accredited (NA).

This might open up some new degree planning options.

Hello all, thanks for all the information here!

I'm looking for a list of transfer-friendly schools that will waive general education for students with a previous Bachelor's degree.

My background and why I'm looking for this:
In my particular case, I got a regionally accredited degree in Music Performance at the Manhattan School of Music straight out of high school. This degree did *not* require traditional gen eds like English, STEM, psychology, or anything like that. All my general education were in humanities and some history classes but even those were more culturally/arts focused so were arguably still just humanities courses. The rest were major classes in music performance, composition, ensemble, etc.

I've since dropped ambitions of being a full time performing musician. I've done well for myself in the audio visual industry. Started recording engineering for my alma mater and work in live event production. I'm now a full time A1 live audio engineer and general AV technician and these days that entails junior network engineering responsibilities as audio is traveling over networks via Dante protocol. Video over NDI/ST2110 or similar. Programming is also useful for creating AV control systems.

Anyway, long story short my work is getting more and more technical and I feel limited in my career by my lack of a true STEM/technical undergrad degree.

When I've gotten evaluations from schools that don't have this policy and evaluate on a course-by-course basis, I'm always told I have to take more English, Communication, Psych/sociology, Physics and other general ed requirements that I'd prefer not to have to do if possible.

Other schools have stated that because I have a previous RA bachelor's, all gen ed requirements are automatically considered "met" and I get a bunch of credits off the bat. All of these have the same caveat that certain gen eds like Calculus for CS or Physics for Engineering if they are a major requirement, will still need to be taken of course.

Through my own research I've found the following schools with such policies:
WGU
UMPI

SNHU - waived all gen eds except their Diversity/Sustainability requirement (1 class)
TESU - I never got an eval nor is it stated on their website but members here state that this is their policy
ODU - Old Dominion University - waives all "lower division" gen eds but still requires more "upper division" gen eds

I'm sure there are more schools like this, and I know I can't be the only one with this question. Please let me know what other schools have this policy. Bonus points if the school has a good selection of STEM BS degrees available with reasonable tuition.

Personally I'm currently leaning towards the TESU BACS degree but still exploring options.

Thanks in advance

Long time no see degree forum.

Has anyone managed to get into a state university master's program with a TESU degree? Asking because a big chunk of my credits came from Sophia and SDC. 

Should be graduating soon with my BA in Computer Science from them.

To be more specific, I am trying to get into Boise State Universities Cyber Security and Resilience Master's Program they offer. I am hoping someone has experience with BSU...

Thank you

Good afternoon -

I am about at the end of what I can do on Sophia. Excluding Spanish, I have about a week left.

If I do nothing else, I will (should) have 43 hours to go when I start @ UMPI in October.

Question:

For a PM degree, could someone "in the know" please advise which is better:

1) getting one or more certifications via google / Coursera 
- or -
2) taking a few classes at Study.com

Certs certainly pull some weight when looking for PM work, but I want to make sure I have time to finish them before the 'official' curriculum starts. The goal, as with all of us, is to be as close to 30 hours required as possible on my UMPI start date. Also, I have plenty of electives, so when the google PM cert says it comes in as:

"GOOG 0003: Google Project Management Professional Certificate ** transfers in as: 3 credits BUS 400, 3 credits BUS 3XX, and 3 Credits BUS 1XX (business electives)"

the only thing of value for graduation is BUS 400.

I'd like to be one of those people who finishes UMPI in 8 weeks so that I can move on to MAOL.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom.

Mod edit: For Undergrad options, I've split the thread here:  $1350 Patten Bachelor

The DEAC has approved the already nationally accredited Patten University to launch a new division named the Elmwood Institute. The Elmwood Institute currently offers one program, a Master of Leadership and Management.

Tuition is currently listed as $25 per credit x 36 credits = $900 for the entire degree ($75 per 3-credit course).

Each course is completed within a 16-week term but is described as "self-paced." The start of each calendar month is the start of a new 16-week term, so terms overlap.

In addition to the 12 courses there is a comprehensive exam or an approved project.

A bachelor's degree or international equivalent is required for admission.

The non-Elmwood Institute main body of Patten University continues to offer several programs at more normal tuition, $330 per credit graduate level.

This Patten University is not regionally accredited. The name has a complicated history. A school named Patten University was once a brick-and-mortar institution in Oakland, California and once held regional accreditation from WASC, but in several asset sales it converted to for-profit online and then lost its accreditation. Later its name was acquired by American Graduate University. AGU then changed its name to Patten University while retaining AGU's own pre-existing national accreditation from the DEAC.