Cheap, Easy, Fast Degree - Help Please

[Zee28]

Okay awesome I'll check them out. Now for what I like is nothing really. I just want a degree that will help me land a good paying job. Also I've Been on forums for days reading and searchin and i cant find answers to my questions that why I was hoping I can get some helpful advice.

[rachel83az]

I agree with dfrecore that WGU probably isn't for you. You have to put down a significant chunk of money up front and a lot of well-prepared students aren't able to finish in 6 months - even with maximum transfer. That's a lot of money to "lose" if you're not able to finish up in time.

UMPI would theoretically be the cheapest but a.) they require a paper or a project for each class. b.) they don't have any technical degrees at this time. They do have Business degrees, however.

TESU's capstone is a lot of writing, but it's a single paper. A lot of people find it easier to ideate for one long paper rather than 10-15 shorter ones.

I would definitely start out with the FREE American Dream Academy ACE-recommended certificates on Coursera: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Coursera Not only will you get credit that may go towards your degree, you will find out if this is even an area that you want to work in. Also, you'lll get a certificate that you can use on your resume if you do want to work in one of those fields.

I would also suggest signing up for Arizona State University's English Composition courses for $25 each. https://ea.asu.edu/courses/ They're kind of a lot of work, but they will help make your writing better. It's a good idea to have better writing because, no matter which school you choose, there WILL be writing. Even WGU has writing. If you want/need to transcript the ASU courses for transfer to TESU, they'll be another $400 each. You don't HAVE to pay this, however, and you won't even be given the option to do so if you somehow don't pass the class.

I would also STRONGLY suggest ASU's CSE-110 Principles of Programming. Again, $25 to take the class and an optional $400 if you want the class on an ASU transcript. It's a very useful transfer to TESU if you want their Computer Science degree or BSBA Computer Information Systems. This class seems to be offered only about once a year and the next start date is August 15. I highly recommend signing up ASAP for this one. Pair it with https://www.py4e.com/ and you'll have a good intro to Python and programming concepts.

For the ASU classes, you'll have 12 months to decide if you want to pay the $400 or just leave them be. So take them now, decide later if you want/need them.

[bjcheung77]

Basically, since you don't know what you're looking at... For a nominal fee of the cost of transcripts and to get you started, I suggest you do the Pierpont BOG AAS in an emphasis of your choice, be it Business, Info Systems, or something else.  Then ladder than to UMPI BAS with a different minor or two. Link: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC

Work on three things, the trifecta of certs, degree, experience... In regards to the Coursera/TADA that was mentioned earlier, in addition to the previous threads I linked you, you may want to review this thread as well, there are links for reference on many of my posts, it's good for you to decide and get more details by reading: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid396543

[Zee28]

I agree with dfrecore that WGU probably isn't for you. You have to put down a significant chunk of money up front and a lot of well-prepared students aren't able to finish in 6 months - even with maximum transfer. That's a lot of money to "lose" if you're not able to finish up in time.

UMPI would theoretically be the cheapest but a.) they require a paper or a project for each class. b.) they don't have any technical degrees at this time. They do have Business degrees, however.

TESU's capstone is a lot of writing, but it's a single paper. A lot of people find it easier to ideate for one long paper rather than 10-15 shorter ones.

I would definitely start out with the FREE American Dream Academy ACE-recommended certificates on Coursera: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Coursera Not only will you get credit that may go towards your degree, you will find out if this is even an area that you want to work in. Also, you'lll get a certificate that you can use on your resume if you do want to work in one of those fields.

I would also suggest signing up for Arizona State University's English Composition courses for $25 each. https://ea.asu.edu/courses/ They're kind of a lot of work, but they will help make your writing better. It's a good idea to have better writing because, no matter which school you choose, there WILL be writing. Even WGU has writing. If you want/need to transcript the ASU courses for transfer to TESU, they'll be another $400 each. You don't HAVE to pay this, however, and you won't even be given the option to do so if you somehow don't pass the class.

I would also STRONGLY suggest ASU's CSE-110 Principles of Programming. Again, $25 to take the class and an optional $400 if you want the class on an ASU transcript. It's a very useful transfer to TESU if you want their Computer Science degree or BSBA Computer Information Systems. This class seems to be offered only about once a year and the next start date is August 15. I highly recommend signing up ASAP for this one. Pair it with https://www.py4e.com/ and you'll have a good intro to Python and programming concepts.

For the ASU classes, you'll have 12 months to decide if you want to pay the $400 or just leave them be. So take them now, decide later if you want/need them.

Thank you that's a great idea! How would I know exactly which classes or certifications would transfer to TESU or UMPI? Is there a catalog that show what classes  or certificates on Sophia or concera would transfer??  Also which school would u think is overrall easier for someone that hasn't been in school in so long or doesn't have much knowledge??? 
Thank you sooo much for your time I really appreciate everyone that's taking the time too respond to me!

[bjcheung77]

Thank you that's a great idea! How would I know exactly which classes or certifications would transfer to TESU or UMPI? Is there a catalog that show what classes  or certificates on Sophia or concera would transfer??  Also which school would u think is overrall easier for someone that hasn't been in school in so long or doesn't have much knowledge??? 
Thank you sooo much for your time I really appreciate everyone that's taking the time too respond to me!

@Zee28, Yes, the information that Rachel83AZ pointed out is pretty much the same route I mentioned as well, so if you look at the Pierpont BOG AAS link above, it uses the Coursera/TADA offerings as part of the degree requirements for the emphasis.  Further to that, if you look at the UMPI BAS on the WIKI, it also uses the Coursera/TADA offerings to get you the required 40+ technical credits for UMPI.  By following the WIKI plans, It'll show you what Coursera/TADA and Sophia.org courses you need for the Pierpont BOG AAS and the UMPI BAS degrees.  You'll have industry certs, Pierpont AAS and UMPI BAS under your belt once you're done with these...

Just for your reference again, here are the links: Coursera/TADA: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Coursera
Pierpont BOG AAS: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC
UMPI BAS Degree: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan
Degree Plans Link: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ca...gree_Plans

[Zee28]

Thank you that's a great idea! How would I know exactly which classes or certifications would transfer to TESU or UMPI? Is there a catalog that show what classes  or certificates on Sophia or concera would transfer??  Also which school would u think is overrall easier for someone that hasn't been in school in so long or doesn't have much knowledge??? 
Thank you sooo much for your time I really appreciate everyone that's taking the time too respond to me!

@Zee28, Yes, the information that Rachel83AZ pointed out is pretty much the same route I mentioned as well, so if you look at the Pierpont BOG AAS link above, it uses the Coursera/TADA offerings as part of the degree requirements for the emphasis.  Further to that, if you look at the UMPI BAS on the WIKI, it also uses the Coursera/TADA offerings to get you the required 40+ technical credits for UMPI.  By following the WIKI plans, It'll show you what Coursera/TADA and Sophia.org courses you need for the Pierpont BOG AAS and the UMPI BAS degrees.  You'll have industry certs, Pierpont AAS and UMPI BAS under your belt once you're done with these...

Just for your reference again, here are the links: Coursera/TADA: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Coursera
Pierpont BOG AAS: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC
UMPI BAS Degree: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan
Degree Plans Link: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ca...gree_Plans

@bjcheung77 thank you sooo much for the advice and all the links I greatly appreciate you. I'm embarrassed to say I'm kinda of confused I have so much questions that might seen obvious to some. But I'm going to take a look at all those links in a bit once I get a chance to myself!

[Zee28]

So I went through the links but now I'm even more confused... why do some people take courses from different schools?for example someone was doing their degree with charter oaks but took a couple courses with Penn foster.
Also why chose to go through study.com for example if the course has a 100 quizzes and several exams?
Also I read in one of the links that TESU allows up to 90 credits but has too be from a single source. Does that mean we can only use Sophia.com for example?
Another question is I read charter oaks let's you test out on like 90 percent of the business administration degree is that true? Also what do u guys know about charter oaks in compared to TESU?
Also how can I find out for example which school has the least writing? And which one has only multiple choice exams or mostly? So basically like which one is the easiest?

Thank you in advance!

[bjcheung77]

Reference: You can transfer unlimited credits from all sources regardless of where they're from, but what will come into the degree is as follows, a mix/match to get you to the max of 114 credits.

For TESU, 114 from 4 year colleges/universities
90 credits from ACE/NCCRS sources.
90 credits from foreign sources
90 credits from CCs

For Excelsior, 113 from all sources above, including NA institutions. For COSC, they're similar to TESU, but the numbers are slightly different... It depends on the institution you're looking at, you should once again, review links, such as this one comparing institutions: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ch...University

Question: So I went through the links but now I'm even more confused... why do some people take courses from different schools? for example someone was doing their degree with charter oaks but took a couple courses with Penn foster.
Answer: The course they were looking for is cheaper at Penn Foster, Penn Foster is NA but they have ACE recommendation for credit. Taking a course at COSC may costs hundreds more and take longer to complete. We recommend taking the cheaper, easier, faster option for ROI/Value.

Question: Also why chose to go through study.com for example if the course has a 100 quizzes and several exams?
Answer: Same as above, some courses also are not available from other providers, example, I/We usually recommend Sophia.org for lower level, Study.com for upper level. Courses at the institutions can cost a few hundreds to a grand per course, using ACE/NCCRS options, it can be from a few dollars to a couple hundred.

Question: Also I read in one of the links that TESU allows up to 90 credits but has too be from a single source. Does that mean we can only use Sophia.com for example?
Answer: It's Sophia.org not .com, the single source it's referring to is from ACE/NCCRS, not a single provider. You need 30 RA credits at TESU (foreign credits count towards this number), 90 can be ACE/NCCRS max.

Question: Another question is I read charter oaks let's you test out on like 90 percent of the business administration degree is that true? Also what do u guys know about charter oaks in compared to TESU?
Answer: COSC is no longer as 'easy', they have made more changes. Both COSC/TESU allow 114 credits transferred in, Excelsior lets 113. The courses they accept ranges. You should remove COSC from your list in favor of Excelsior and TESU.

Question: Also how can I find out for example which school has the least writing? And which one has only multiple choice exams or mostly? So basically like which one is the easiest?
Answer: You're only taking the Info Lit at Excelsior plus the Cornerstone/Capstone, At COSC/TESU, you only take the Cornerstone/Capstone. At UMPI, you take 30 credits residency. All of them you can take approved courses from any provider they accept into their degree, you can take non proctored courses or exams.

[rachel83az]

So I went through the links but now I'm even more confused... why do some people take courses from different schools?for example someone was doing their degree with charter oaks but took a couple courses with Penn foster.

Not every easy/inexpensive source has enough credit in the required areas, especially prior to 2020/2021. Sophia, for instance, used to be more expensive than ASU Universal Learner is now and the ASU classes didn't exist. People had to get what they could from where they could.

Also why chose to go through study.com for example if the course has a 100 quizzes and several exams?

See above. Study.com may be the only source of credit for some degrees. However, SDC only has ONE exam per class. Upper level classes have at least one paper or project that need to be done. If you decide to go through with the TESU Computer Science degree, it's mostly projects for the UL classes. Not a lot of writing. I think there are two? papers that you need to do for Comp Sci on Study.com, though I may be getting it confused with the BSBA CIS. Definitely one paper, possibly two. The rest are projects. For instance, creating/manipulating a database and then pasting screenshots & writing a sentence or two about what's been done in a Word document. These projects are not really writing.

Also I read in one of the links that TESU allows up to 90 credits but has too be from a single source. Does that mean we can only use Sophia.com for example?

This is a misreading. What TESU actually allows is up to 90 credits from ACE/NCCRS sources. Study.com is ACE. Sophia is ACE. Saylor is ACE. Coopersmith is NCCRS. OnlineDegree is NCCRS. Davar is NCCRS.

The remaining 30 credits can come from TECEPs (TESU's own exams), prior college/university credits, and foreign university sources.

Another question is I read charter oaks let's you test out on like 90 percent of the business administration degree is that true? Also what do u guys know about charter oaks in compared to TESU?

This is old, old information. COSC is no longer recommended here because of policy changes in the past couple of years. It is no longer possible to get a test-out degree from COSC. You need to take several COSC classes OR have a lot of prior upper level classes.

Also how can I find out for example which school has the least writing? And which one has only multiple choice exams or mostly? So basically like which one is the easiest?

UMPI: There will be a lot of writing. Each class has multiple milestones plus a final paper or project. The papers are often (but not always) around 1500-2000 words. The milestones can be as long, or for some classes they're longer than, the papers/projects. Plus, the easiest/cheapest source for credits is going to be Sophia and several of those classes have multiple papers as well.

COSC: Not viable because you have no upper level RA credit.

Excelsior: You can transfer everything except for 3 classes. Cornerstone, capstone, information literacy. All 3 classes have papers to be written, but the capstone includes a group paper. I don't know about you, but being forced to do a group paper when not already fond of writing sounds terrible! People who like/don't mind writing so much complain about the group aspect of the capstone. The transferred classes can be mostly/entirely exams, however.

WGU: Mostly exams, though there is writing in the capstone. WGU is notoriously not easy, however, for students who don't already have a job in the industry. Some of the certifications they require are quite difficult to pass and a lot of students don't pass them on the first attempt. Without prior knowledge, you're probably looking at at least 2-3 terms at WGU PLUS classes from Sophia and Study.com to have the best chance of getting a degree. That's outside of your budget.

TESU: This is one of the most difficult to plan for, but you already have 30+ RA credits. That's the biggest hurdle out of the way! If you're willing to settle for a Liberal Studies degree, it is possible to test out of almost everything that remains. The cornerstone and capstone classes will still require writing. I think you might need a couple of Sophia classes that have a paper, but I'd have to double check. If you really, really want a Comp Sci degree, there will still be papers/projects in some of the Comp Sci classes from SDC. It's possible to cut those down to a minimum, however.

If you'd like, I can knock up a Comp Sci degree plan for TESU that requires minimal papers.

[Zee28]

Reference: You can transfer unlimited credits from all sources regardless of where they're from, but what will come into the degree is as follows, a mix/match to get you to the max of 114 credits.

For TESU, 114 from 4 year colleges/universities
90 credits from ACE/NCCRS sources.
90 credits from foreign sources
90 credits from CCs

For Excelsior, 113 from all sources above, including NA institutions.  For COSC, they're similar to TESU, but the numbers are slightly different... It depends on the institution you're looking at, you should once again, review links, such as this one comparing institutions: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ch...University

Question:  So I went through the links but now I'm even more confused... why do some people take courses from different schools? for example someone was doing their degree with charter oaks but took a couple courses with Penn foster.
Answer:  The course they were looking for is cheaper at Penn Foster, Penn Foster is NA but they have ACE recommendation for credit.  Taking a course at COSC may costs hundreds more and take longer to complete.  We recommend taking the cheaper, easier, faster option for ROI/Value.

Question: Also why chose to go through study.com for example if the course has a 100 quizzes and several exams?
Answer:  Same as above, some courses also are not available from other providers, example, I/We usually recommend Sophia.org for lower level, Study.com for upper level.  Courses at the institutions can cost a few hundreds to a grand per course, using ACE/NCCRS options, it can be from a few dollars to a couple hundred.

Question: Also I read in one of the links that TESU allows up to 90 credits but has too be from a single source. Does that mean we can only use Sophia.com for example?
Answer: It's Sophia.org not .com, the single source it's referring to is from ACE/NCCRS, not a single provider.  You need 30 RA credits at TESU (foreign credits count  towards this number), 90 can be ACE/NCCRS max.

Question: Another question is I read charter oaks let's you test out on like 90 percent of the business administration degree is that true? Also what do u guys know about charter oaks in compared to TESU?
Answer:  COSC is no longer as 'easy', they have made more changes.  Both COSC/TESU allow 114 credits transferred in, Excelsior lets 113.  The courses they accept ranges.  You should remove COSC from your list in favor of Excelsior and TESU.

Question: Also how can I find out for example which school has the least writing? And which one has only multiple choice exams or mostly? So basically like which one is the easiest?
Answer:  You're only taking the Info Lit at Excelsior plus the Cornerstone/Capstone, At COSC/TESU, you only take the Cornerstone/Capstone.  At UMPI, you take 30 credits residency.  All of them you can take approved courses from any provider they accept into their degree, you can take non proctored courses or exams.

Okay thank you so much for the clarification. I started getting confused with everything I was reading.

---

So I went through the links but now I'm even more confused... why do some people take courses from different schools?for example someone was doing their degree with charter oaks but took a couple courses with Penn foster.

Not every easy/inexpensive source has enough credit in the required areas, especially prior to 2020/2021. Sophia, for instance, used to be more expensive than ASU Universal Learner is now and the ASU classes didn't exist. People had to get what they could from where they could.

Also why chose to go through study.com for example if the course has a 100 quizzes and several exams?

See above. Study.com may be the only source of credit for some degrees. However, SDC only has ONE exam per class. Upper level classes have at least one paper or project that need to be done. If you decide to go through with the TESU Computer Science degree, it's mostly projects for the UL classes. Not a lot of writing. I think there are two? papers that you need to do for Comp Sci on Study.com, though I may be getting it confused with the BSBA CIS. Definitely one paper, possibly two. The rest are projects. For instance, creating/manipulating a database and then pasting screenshots & writing a sentence or two about what's been done in a Word document. These projects are not really writing.

Also I read in one of the links that TESU allows up to 90 credits but has too be from a single source. Does that mean we can only use Sophia.com for example?

This is a misreading. What TESU actually allows is up to 90 credits from ACE/NCCRS sources. Study.com is ACE. Sophia is ACE. Saylor is ACE. Coopersmith is NCCRS. OnlineDegree is NCCRS. Davar is NCCRS.

The remaining 30 credits can come from TECEPs (TESU's own exams), prior college/university credits, and foreign university sources.

Another question is I read charter oaks let's you test out on like 90 percent of the business administration degree is that true? Also what do u guys know about charter oaks in compared to TESU?

This is old, old information. COSC is no longer recommended here because of policy changes in the past couple of years. It is no longer possible to get a test-out degree from COSC. You need to take several COSC classes OR have a lot of prior upper level classes.

Also how can I find out for example which school has the least writing? And which one has only multiple choice exams or mostly? So basically like which one is the easiest?

UMPI: There will be a lot of writing. Each class has multiple milestones plus a final paper or project. The papers are often (but not always) around 1500-2000 words. The milestones can be as long, or for some classes they're longer than, the papers/projects. Plus, the easiest/cheapest source for credits is going to be Sophia and several of those classes have multiple papers as well.

COSC: Not viable because you have no upper level RA credit.

Excelsior: You can transfer everything except for 3 classes. Cornerstone, capstone, information literacy. All 3 classes have papers to be written, but the capstone includes a group paper. I don't know about you, but being forced to do a group paper when not already fond of writing sounds terrible! People who like/don't mind writing so much complain about the group aspect of the capstone. The transferred classes can be mostly/entirely exams, however.

WGU: Mostly exams, though there is writing in the capstone. WGU is notoriously not easy, however, for students who don't already have a job in the industry. Some of the certifications they require are quite difficult to pass and a lot of students don't pass them on the first attempt. Without prior knowledge, you're probably looking at at least 2-3 terms at WGU PLUS classes from Sophia and Study.com to have the best chance of getting a degree. That's outside of your budget.

TESU: This is one of the most difficult to plan for, but you already have 30+ RA credits. That's the biggest hurdle out of the way! If you're willing to settle for a Liberal Studies degree, it is possible to test out of almost everything that remains. The cornerstone and capstone classes will still require writing. I think you might need a couple of Sophia classes that have a paper, but I'd have to double check. If you really, really want a Comp Sci degree, there will still be papers/projects in some of the Comp Sci classes from SDC. It's possible to cut those down to a minimum, however.

If you'd like, I can knock up a Comp Sci degree plan for TESU that requires minimal papers.

Omggg please that would be a great! That way I can get an idea of how to complete courses and what I'm looking at because there is so much information that I'm getting it all confused.