Penn Foster Degree Program - Will it transfer to TESU?

[pennfostertotesu]

I need to get a bachelor's degree in anything for my job. I want to do an Associate Degree from Penn Foster because of the low monthly payments. I'm thinking either Computer Information Systems, Human Resources Management or Business Management.

Will Thomas Edison take all of these classes or will I be wasting a lot of time on classes that won't transfer? I want to be able to come in as a 3rd year student at TESU. I noticed that all of the classes in the Business Management degree are Ace Accredited. Not sure about the other two.

[KayV]

If you need a much cheaper degree than that, you should really consider doing an AAS from West Virginia Northern Community College if an associate degree will help you at your job. You could also apply for the Guardian scholarship though Study.com to do some of your general ed and upper level credits at TESU. Many of the others could be completed from Shmoop (general ed), Saylor ($25/ 3 credits), Straighterline, and other sources for much less than a Penn Foster degree.

I am not near my usual trove of degree resources, but really, search the forum and do some research about these sources before you spend any money on a PF degree.

By the way, do you have any college credits already? If so, list them ("ENC-101 English Composition I 3" for 3 semester hours). Also tell us if they came from a community college or university, and if they are quarter hours instead of semester hours.

And welcome to the forum!

[rebel100]

If the PF courses are on ACE at the time you take them then they should transfer ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training

[pennfostertotesu]

So what I am really wondering is if the Penn Foster program will complete the whole first two years for me at TESU or will they not accept everything even if they are ace approved.

[defscarlett]

They will accept Penn Frost ACE accredited courses, but not as a total program, it will be course by course. You will have to compare the Penn Foster degree with the degree plan at TESU to see what courses that are taken at Penn Foster, that are ACE accredited will fit in to the degree program at TESU.

[cookderosa]

So what I am really wondering is if the Penn Foster program will complete the whole first two years for me at TESU or will they not accept everything even if they are ace approved.

No.
TESU does not do what you're asking. What you're asking is if PF's program transfers as an entire block of "2 years" worth of credit toward a bachelor's degree. TESU does not accept a 2 year block of credit from any college, but even if they did, the issue you'll run into is that PF is not regionally accredited. At PF, you can only choose classes that have ACE evaluation.

The best "payment plan" is to test and pay as you go. I paid for my ENTIRE associates degree using coins in a jar. Save the coins, take a test. Literally. My budget to earn a degree with 4 small kids at the time was ZERO dollars. So, I'd use free discarded books from the college's "free" pile, online resources, and instantcert. I'd sell something on Craigslist, ebay, yard sales, etc., and put left over grocery coins in a jar. CLEP at the time was the only option really, but now there is Saylor, which is a better price at only $25 per 3 credits. I can help you with ideas for cost, but at the end of the day the WORK you put in and the TIME it takes to earn a non-transferable and non-regionally accredited degree will be EXACTLY the same as if you earned it from a fully transferable regionally accredited school. Start at TESU and finish there.

[dfrecore]

I'm going to second what cookderosa said, there is no point in getting a PF AA to try to transfer to TESU, when you can just do all the required courses through various ways for about the same as the monthly payments at PF.

Now, if the courses at PF are really inexpensive, and you wish to take the full 2 years to do them there and then transfer what you can over to TESU, you could try that. But honestly, if you just paid about $100/mo (maybe more in some months, maybe less in others), you could do this yourself in less time.

For instance, you could sign up for Study.com for a month for $199. That will get you 2 exams. BUT, you can also use it to study for Saylor exams. So for instance, you could study for Financial Accounting & Managerial Accounting, Applied Managerial Accounting & Advanced Accounting in one month. Then, go to Saylor and take the Financial Accounting & Managerial Accounting exams for $25 each, and finish the Applied Managerial and Advanced Accounting courses through Study.com. You've spent $250, and gotten 12cr, 6 of which are UL.

There are a lot of other options for this as well - using InstantCert for $20/mo to study for many of these Saylor exams (Marketing, Management, Intro to Business, Business Law, etc.). You could use ALEKS to get math credits for $20/mo. You could take some of the free courses (NFA, Insurance Ethics). You could sign up for Shmoop for $88/mo and take unlimited courses there. So many inexpensive ways to get credits, it's almost unbelievable.

You don't need PF for anything, really. There are some courses you COULD take there, but I don't see the need.

[cookderosa]

I found this on PF site "Penn Foster College can start you on the path to your new career for just $79 per credit!"

Here's the bottom line, $79 per credit is too expensive. You can do a single CLEP exam for $80 and that is worth 3 credits. Add in a reasonable proctor fee and you're at $33/credit.
Saylor is $25 for 3 credits. No proctor! That's $8/credit
DSST same costs as CLEP

Straighterline, as Dfrecore mentioned, is a monthly payment plan. I have 2 sons enrolled now. It's $99/month plus whatever class(s) want - no limit. Classes are about $50. My teens average 2 classes per month, so for each son, I'm spending $200 per month for 6 credits. That's $33/credit, and I can accelerate or stop if we get into a money crunch. When we speed up, they can do as many as 4 in a month. In those months, we are spending $300 in a month for 12 credits, which brings the cost down to $25/cr.

I will send 100% of these credits directly to TESU or COSC when they are ready, and IN ADDITION there are 2 key points. #1, they will be meeting the gen eds that align to their target bachelor's degree perfectly (PF that's not the case) and they'll never have a nationally accredited degree on their resumes. Both my husband and I had a HECK of a time since we both earned nationally accredited degrees first. Getting a bachelor's was a pain and as you can see from my siggy, I had to start from scratch with a second associate degree. Penn Foster's degree is nationally accredited. You're inviting trouble if you want a regionally accredited bachelor's degree.
*note* there are legitimate reasons for earning a NA degree, but for someone headed into a RA program, earning a NA degree first is going to create 99 problems.

[dfrecore]

I found this on PF site "Penn Foster College can start you on the path to your new career for just $79 per credit!"

Here's the bottom line, $79 per credit is too expensive. You can do a single CLEP exam for $80 and that is worth 3 credits. Add in a reasonable proctor fee and you're at $33/credit.
Saylor is $25 for 3 credits. No proctor! That's $8/credit
DSST same costs as CLEP

Straighterline, as Dfrecore mentioned, is a monthly payment plan. I have 2 sons enrolled now. It's $99/month plus whatever class(s) want - no limit. Classes are about $50. My teens average 2 classes per month, so for each son, I'm spending $200 per month for 6 credits. That's $33/credit, and I can accelerate or stop if we get into a money crunch. When we speed up, they can do as many as 4 in a month. In those months, we are spending $300 in a month for 12 credits, which brings the cost down to $25/cr.

Saylor credit is proctored, but that's what the cost is - the courses themselves are free! So it's a fantastic deal. The courses aren't the best, but like I said, there are other ways to study for the exams.

I hadn't mentioned SL, but Study.com. Both are great ways to rack up credits if you want to do courses quickly.

And don't forget, if you take a 6cr CLEP (a "general" one like Biology or English Lit), or know a foreign language well enough to pass a 6cr or 9cr CLEP, your costs are even lower!

[cookderosa]

Saylor credit is proctored, but that's what the cost is - the courses themselves are free! So it's a fantastic deal.

Yes, my apologies, that's exactly right. I mean to say no additional proctor fees in contrast to the CLEP that has a testing center fee. $25 through Saylor is total price! CLEP/DSST are $80 but you'll have an additional cost depending on your testing center's fee. My fingers and my brain frequently operate at different speeds lol.