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+--- Thread: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate (/Thread-Best-Low-Cost-Path-to-a-U-S-Bachelor-s-or-Associate)
Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - akr680 - 07-09-2026
Hello everyone,
I'm looking for advice on the most affordable way to earn a regionally accredited U.S. degree.
My background:
- Foreign BBA degree
- Foreign MBA degree
- Large number of ACE-recommended credits on my Credly/ACE transcript, including courses from Sophia, Study.com, StraighterLine, TEEX, and others. My transcript contains coursework in:
- Business
- Accounting
- Economics
- Finance
- Marketing
- Management
- Project Management
- Information Technology
- Computer Science
- Databases
- Software Engineering
- Python
- General Education subjects (History, Government, Communication, Religion, Anthropology, Ethics, etc.)
My goal is to obtain a U.S. degree at the lowest possible cost while maximizing transfer credit from both:
- My foreign BBA/MBA (after evaluation if needed), and
- My ACE transcript credits.
I'm interested in recommendations for:
- Cheapest accredited U.S. Bachelor's programs
- Degree-completion programs
- Competency-based programs
- Schools that accept the most ACE credits
- Schools that accept evaluated foreign degrees
- Fastest path to graduation
RE: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - Jonathan Whatley - 07-09-2026
Because you already have a bachelor’s (and a master’s), some standard DegreeForum advice for people seeking their first bachelor’s degree from a US school will not work for you.
Two of the best schools on several of your criteria for a first-time bachelor’s student are TESU and Excelsior. But if you go to either school with an evaluation stating you have the equivalent of a US bachelor’s or master’s degree, you trigger at TESU the Award of Degrees Policy and at Excelsior the Additional Degree Pursuit at the Same or Lower Academic Level Policy.
These significantly change your options compared to if you hadn’t had the prior degree.
Imagine all your credits on one transcript listed chronologically when you earned them.
At TESU, the policy effectively draws a line on the day you earned your most recent degree regardless of level, and says that at least 24 credits in your area of study (major) must be below that line. They must be earned after the date of your most recent degree. A bit of good news is that if you present the equivalent of an US bachelor’s, you do not have to complete TESU’s gen ed requirements including the cornerstone course. (If you present the equivalent of a US master’s but not a bachelor’s, and you’re going for a TESU bachelor’s, you still need to complete TESU’s gen eds.)
At Excelsior, the policy draws a line on a different date: Your Academic Policy Date. That date is based on and fairly close to the day you were admitted at Excelsior. One quarter of the credits in your new Excelsior bachelor’s — typically, 30 credits — must be completed after that date.
Additionally, once you’ve been admitted and obtained an Academic Policy Date, Excelsior requires “continuous enrollment” in Excelsior courses, and Excelsior is much more strict than TESU about what counts as continuous enrollment. Not all of the time, but much of the time, you’ll need to be taking at least one traditional online courses with a rigid semester schedule and full RA tuition from Excelsior.
If you stop taking these Excelsior courses, you’ll break continuous enrollment and you’ll either have to reactivate (by giving up your resistance and taking another Excelsior course promptly enough) or to reapply. When you reapply, you get a new Academic Policy Date, and now you’ll need 30 new credits after that date.
Additionally, now if you bring any outside transfer credit including ACE/NCCRS credit to Excelsior more than 30 days after your admission date, you now have to pay $300 to have them reviewed. This is just fine for a first-time bachelor’s student who can save up as many outside credits as possible and send them all to Excelsior when they enroll, but unlike them, you’ll need those 30 credits dated after your Academic Policy Date.
At least one poster here attempted an Excelsior bachelor’s after having at least a foreign bachelor’s. It was a headache and they gave up.
I don’t know whether TESU or Excelsior would permit you to enroll without evaluating your foreign degrees at all.
Ironically, if you got an evaluation acceptable to TESU or Excelsior that said your foreign degrees are not equivalent to US degrees, but are equivalent to a stack of US course credits, that might give you the most flexibility.
Most schools have similarly complicated policies for someone attempting a bachelor’s after a prior bachelor’s or higher degree.
RE: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - bjcheung77 - 07-09-2026
Further to that, you can get an Associates degree on route to that Bachelors, FREE. You just have to pay for the Bachelors degree at Excelsior, TESU or UMPI, etc. Another option is to go for the degrees offered by MOOC options, skip the Associates and Bachelors, I would do the Udacity MS options that are done through at partnership with Woolf in a field you're interested in (MSAI, MBA AI), you get the stackable, certs, nano degrees, and experience trifecta I keep recommending, for the second trifecta of cheap, easy, fast...
RE: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - akr680 - 07-09-2026
Thank you for the detailed explanation. It definitely gives me a lot to think about.
My situation is a little unusual. I originally started earning ACE credits with the goal of completing a BS in Computer Information Systems at TESU. During that time, I enrolled in and completed an online MBA program from India. As a result, I now have a large number of ACE credits in addition to my foreign BBA and MBA.
I hadn't realized that completing the MBA could complicate pursuing a U.S. bachelor's degree because of second-degree policies. Your explanation helped me understand why schools like TESU and Excelsior may treat my situation differently from students pursuing their first bachelor's degree.
I appreciate you taking the time to explain the policies and potential pitfalls. This information will help me evaluate my options more carefully before spending money on credential evaluations and applications.
Thanks again for your guidance and for sharing your experience!
RE: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - bjcheung77 - 07-09-2026
Basically, at this juncture in time, you're the only one who can decide and determine which route to take. You've not provided the full picture as I recall correctly, the only class you were missing at TESU was the Business Capstone. Your best bet is to email academic advising informing them you've completed the MBA and you would like to remain on the same academic catalog year *if you're still eligible for it*.
If you're not eligible, you would be put into the new catalog year that may require you to take the CSM Learn class if you haven't transferred that in yet. Otherwise, there is no change to your remaining requirements, just the capstone and the Edison Accelerate, graduation fees. You can compare the cost, ease, speed to finish at UMPI and see which would suit you more - 30 credits, but easier than a capstone.
RE: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - animuscerebri - 07-10-2026
(07-09-2026, 05:24 PM)akr680 Wrote: Thank you for the detailed explanation. It definitely gives me a lot to think about.
My situation is a little unusual. I originally started earning ACE credits with the goal of completing a BS in Computer Information Systems at TESU. During that time, I enrolled in and completed an online MBA program from India. As a result, I now have a large number of ACE credits in addition to my foreign BBA and MBA.
I hadn't realized that completing the MBA could complicate pursuing a U.S. bachelor's degree because of second-degree policies. Your explanation helped me understand why schools like TESU and Excelsior may treat my situation differently from students pursuing their first bachelor's degree.
I appreciate you taking the time to explain the policies and potential pitfalls. This information will help me evaluate my options more carefully before spending money on credential evaluations and applications.
Thanks again for your guidance and for sharing your experience!
It's a pity you are in a relatively weird situation that I also didn't know would be possible. You had already completed a big chunk of ACE credits (especially the upper-level courses for your major) by 2021. Why didn't you just apply straight to TESU? I think you could have finished the degree in about 6-12 months back then.
Nonetheless, in your current situation, I'd go the TESU route as they provide more flexibility and the possibility to waive their gen eds (thus, those gen eds from ACE platforms would be obsolete) with your foreign bachelor's and master's equivalent. However, you'd also have to assess (and talk to a TESU advisor) whether you'd have to re-do classes at another ACE platform or not. If it turns out you have to re-do them, I'd consider taking some classes at Finnish Universities and transfer them over, such as Metropolia University or University of Helsinki.
According to your Credly transcript, you earned most of your ACE credits from StraighterLine, Study.com and some from Sophia, you could re-do some non-ged eds at Sophia, Saylor Academy, and some at StraighterLine or UPIStudy in your case. However, I see a problem with upper-level classes done at Study.com that you need for your BS in Computer Information Systems at TESU. There aren't many ACE alternatives. I don't know whether you could substitute some of them with some Coursera certs (but not all of them).
Your worst case would be to switch majors and do a Bachelors in Computer Science instead; you could get more upper-level alternatives via Coursera certs to solve the "re-do ACE credits because I didn't do ACE credits after my foreign degree" problem.
RE: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - wow - 07-10-2026
(07-09-2026, 05:23 PM)bjcheung77 Wrote: ...I would do the Udacity MS options that are done through at partnership with Woolf in a field you're interested in (MSAI, MBA AI)...
This one won't be ideal for OP since they want a US degree and Woolf is accredited in Malta.
I second @animuscerebri's suggestion of looking into taking additional ACE credits after having transcripts evaluated by TESU.
RE: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - bjcheung77 - 07-15-2026
Basically, if you want, you can go for the MOOC options that have a partner institution in the US. Coursera, EdX, Udacity, etc, all have partnerships. You should also review the two main sticky threads already in the graduate section.
Again, review the advice in this thread, options in the two threads below, and your own previous threads. You've been going in a few different directions, but ultimately, still deciding on where to finish. TESU (for bachelors), UMPI, WGU, etc may be your best bet.
My example of the Udacity partnership with Woolf gives you a US degree that is internationally recognized by Woolf standards. Make sure it meets what you're looking for before treading. Again, review the options provided, decide for yourself.
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-List-of-Cheap-Online-MBA-Programs-That-Can-Be-Completed-in-Under-1-Year
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-Graduate-Schools-that-accept-the-most-transfer-credits
RE: Best Low-Cost Path to a U.S. Bachelor's or Associate - akr680 - 07-20-2026
Thanks a lot for the guidance and support. I will get my MBA also evaluated through agency then will submit with TESU. If they again ask me to take 30 more credits. I will go for BS Data science and analytics. it will not need capstone