Degree for free

[22gunsonfire]

Regardless of how you get your credits, TA will not cover graduation fees.  You can use your GI bill for graduation fees or pay out of pocket.

I used EC for my stuff and I never touched TA because after all the alt credit stuff out there I found it faster to pay out of pocket (and ridiculously easier) for companies like ALEKs, Straighterline, ACE transcript services, Schmoop, InstantCert etc. (My chain of command still laughs at my sweet sweet Schoomp certs. I mean they're pretty awesome [lets be real] AND counted in my degree.) 

Either way you look at it its an investment in you. If fast is your thing then you're going to have to stretch and pay for some things out of pocket.  If you want it mostly free, (TA normally doesn't cover books but you can use grants or scholarships for books), you can plod along in real classes that eat up most of your free time for a LONG time and pay for them using TA. The choice is yours.

CLEP/DSST are still first time free for military. Certain certs will count for credits you can obtain using NavyCool funds. (They removed the restriction for rate-specific certs FYI.)