For a young student just starting out, which of the top three is the best choice?

[mrs.b]

I wouldn't go that far. TESC offers 10 (30 credits) accounting courses and about 31 (93 credits) additional business courses.

Edit: I reviewed Kansas' requirements. TESC meets all of them through their online courses offerings except for accounting systems and maybe managerial accounting.
Kansas Board of Accountancy -- KSBOA.org -- 785-296-2162
Thomas Edison State College: Undergrad Course Offerings

TECEPs will not count for most state CPA requirements. I have not ever looked a Kansas's requirements (I'd heard they were strict, but it was on a forum like this and it was just someone complaining). At a glance, that person was just whining; Alabama's is more stringent, so I'll use them as an example since it's what I'm most familiar with. http://www.asbpa.alabama.gov/PDF/rules/30-X-4.pdf (see page 4).

The online courses they offer are:

• Principles of Financial Accounting (not applicable and only useful as a pre-req to useful courses since it is introductory)
  
• Principles of Managerial Accounting (not applicable; introductory)
  
• Intermediate Accounting I (3 s.h. as Accounting Elective)
  
• Intermediate Accounting II (3 s.h. as Accounting Elective)
  
• Cost Accounting (3 s.h. as Management Accounting)
  
• Advanced Accounting I (only useful as an Accounting Elective and that is satisfied with the Intermediate versions)
  
• Advanced Accounting II (only useful as an Accounting Elective, not useful)
  
• Auditing (3 s.h. as Auditing)
  
• Advanced Audit (3 s.h. as Auditing)
  
• Federal Income Taxation (3 s.h. as Taxation)
  

Left unsatisfied is:

• Financial Accounting - 9 s.h.
  
• Taxation - 3 s.h.
  
• Gov't and Non-Profit Accounting - 3 s.h.
  
• Business Law for Accounting (having taken TESC's Business Law course, it does not go over Uniform Commercial Code, or it did not when I took it) - 3 s.h.
  

As I was a student at TESC and briefly had some freebie credits available through my Comprehensive Enrollment before I went another direction, I ran TESC's courses by a very nice lady at the ASBPA office and that is where she said the courses would fall. If I'd taken all of those (and I did take a few), I'd still have 18 credits of specific courses to find elsewhere. It's proven more cost-effective to search them out myself from a few select credit sources. That is because I'd already taken quite a few towards a specific degree that was not accounting and it was too late in the game to change directions. For a younger student starting fresh, it will likely be easier to just find a program that offers them all, and that is likely only going to be possible at a more traditional school that maybe offers flexible course delivery options (online, independent study, etc.)

Other states' requirements will differ from that list above - all states have their own mix until they someday standardize the requirements - so it would apply differently elsewhere. Once certified in one state, there is usually a way to qualify in others so long as you meet MOST of their requirements. That's the thing to shoot for, though. In my opinion, at least.