Associates Degree - Cheaper / Easier of the Big 3?

[emichele20]

let me go forth and check this out... i shall return.

[emichele20]

wow that is actually not a bad deal. however like you said that mandatory class sucks and they dont accept fema. with the reduced rate they may start to also see some traffic from students that would be interested in taking single courses that are not offered through alternative sites. Good Job COSC. I would have also liked to see them offer atleast one masters program too.

[NAP]

For an AS or AA in Liberal Arts at Excelsior, you are not required to take any classes through them. All of the credits can be transferred from other sources. All of the credits can be earned through tests. (The capstone for a bachelor's degree is the only course that is required.)

Assuming that you will transfer Info Lit and other courses/exams, it is $895 for the enrollment fee and $495 for the graduation fee for civilians (a little less for members of the military) at EC.

The Multi-source enrollment fee means that no courses are required.

Check out this table for more details: Excelsior College fees and tuition - excelsior.edu

There is also a non-credit, no cost orientation course that is required when you enroll.

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If you are planning to go on for a bachelor's degree, it is probably best to choose the same school (out of the Big 3 options) for that degree. The associate degree will fit better by meeting all of the General Education requirements for the bachelor's degree, too.

[NAP]

Hi Burbuja0512!

I just realized that the link I provided earlier in this thread does not have the Cornerstone course listed for COSC. Is that required for an associate degree or just a bachelor's degree at COSC?

Thanks for your help! (I hope you enjoy your birthday!)

[burbuja0512]

Hi Burbuja0512!

I just realized that the link I provided earlier in this thread does not have the Cornerstone course listed for COSC. Is that required for an associate degree or just a bachelor's degree at COSC?

Thanks for your help! (I hope you enjoy your birthday!)

Thanks NAP!

Yes, the Cornerstone is pretty new. I don't know when it went into effect, I just noticed it one day. It is required for both the associates and the bachelors degree. So, if you do the bachelors, you have to take two classes.

I would not let this be a deterrent for COSC though. Rebel100 did a pretty good job of showing us that the Cornerstone is simple and I can say that the Capstone was worth my time. LOL.. not nearly as difficult as studying for some of my harder tests, but it was fun and I learned a lot.

Regarding the associates at EC. I think I am really just slow but I'm still struggling putting together an AA or AS degree plan for their stuff. Even after reading their site, I'm not 100% sure how all of the credits fit. DH has some old credits and I don't know where the heck to put them. Since he's STILL not sure where he wants to go (and paid the 75 bucks for the eval to TESC, but now that he's decided to start off with an associates I just don't want to spend the $$ on TESC) I would like to be able to create an EC degree plan for him using his available credits. The category of "Arts and Science" is a total mystery to me. banghead

...off to go renew my driver's license.

[NAP]

.....
Regarding the associates at EC. I think I am really just slow but I'm still struggling putting together an AA or AS degree plan for their stuff. Even after reading their site, I'm not 100% sure how all of the credits fit. DH has some old credits and I don't know where the heck to put them. Since he's STILL not sure where he wants to go (and paid the 75 bucks for the eval to TESC, but now that he's decided to start off with an associates I just don't want to spend the $$ on TESC) I would like to be able to create an EC degree plan for him using his available credits. The category of "Arts and Science" is a total mystery to me. banghead

.....

Thanks for the COSC info!

Regarding EC, it is difficult to understand "Arts & Sciences" and "Applied Professional" because they are using their own terminology. When you know what it means and get some practice, it gets easier.

"Arts & Sciences" are the same categories as the General Education categories, which are Humanities, Social Science, History, Natural Science, and Math.

"Applied Professional" is anything that is not "Arts & Sciences", so you could call those sections free electives.

The Student Guide to Credit by Exam will help you see which exams fall into which categories.

Also, Cookderosa explains the categories with lots of examples in this post:

http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...mmies.html

If you would like to post what you have for him on the forum or send me a PM, I would be happy to look at it for you.

[burbuja0512]

NAP you are the best.. thank you. I am going to work on it a little bit more and maybe send you a PM just to review.

My plan is to create a good associates program from each one of the Big 3 and then figure out costs/time involved. Then, I will push DH to make a decision. (Yes he can be a little slow and doesn't like studying but wants to do this)

Thanks!

[Rhashad]

TESC is the most expensive ONLY if your looking to complete all classwork via TESC courses. Like a previous poster mentioned, its far cheaper/faster to use a combination of aleks, straighterline and cleps. Use TESC for the final two or three courses.

[burbuja0512]

TESC is the most expensive ONLY if your looking to complete all classwork via TESC courses. Like a previous poster mentioned, its far cheaper/faster to use a combination of aleks, straighterline and cleps. Use TESC for the final two or three courses.

DH doesn't want to take any courses for the Associates, so that would rule out COSC, even if it's a little cheaper. It's just a matter of how his current credits fit with a plan and which combination of tests/ALEKS/SL/FEMA works out to be most interesting to him.

If I ever get something really good figured out (which I hope to over the next few days) I will post it and include costs.

[dcan]

I think that it is absolutely absurd to have to pay the 2k for the credits but hey its their game and we have to play it if we want that piece of paper. I am still sorta trying to understand how that fee is even legal and the fact that it can be paid with financial aid is even more puzzling to me.

My wife and I just watched Cartel last night. Excellent documentary. It focused on K-12 but there are similar motives in 2- and 4-year schools as well; they just have to compete for the "vouchers" so they actually have to provide a real product.

While the film merely fleshed out a lot of what we have already seen and experienced ourselves, I am now convinced that much of what passes for "education" today is a racket geared to draw in as many tax dollars as possible to support the ever-growing political/union patronage mutual backscratch society. Colleges increase tuition because they are chasing the subsidies (in the form of grants and guaranteed loans), just like Adam Smith railed against.

And then they dumb down education to ensure people don't understand basic economics and can't ask "where did all the money go?" banghead

/rantover