Getting started with BALS (Template Q&A)

[Merlin]

I need help with the following:

1. Which school of the Big 3 would fit my needs best?
   
2. What kind of time commitment do the online approaches like SL and Study.com require for a course?  Is it significantly more than CLEP testing?  FAST is my priority here.
   
3. I need help building a spreadsheet to plan the next year based on the credits I already have.  I’ve looked at a few on this site but some links are either down or not up-to-date for 2019.  I’m also not sure how my credits would transfer onto the spreadsheet.
   
4. If I transferred my credits from the first school I attended to another school, do I need to have transcripts from both schools sent to TESU or just the most recent?
   

1. This is pretty open. Part of it will depend on what degree you're interested in and part will depend on what courses you've already taken. Most people around here tend to aim for the TESU BA in Liberal Studies since its the easiest/fastest option for many.
   
2. I found I could get through Study.com courses faster than I could prepare for a CLEP/DSST exam. But your experience may vary. In either case, subjects you already know will take the least amount of time. You might want to focus on credit by exam for those areas. For subjects you're coming into cold you might want to consider taking courses via Study.com or Straighterline, or one of the other alternatives.
   
3. dfrecore can usually help with that once you know what degree you're aiming for.
   
4. You always need to send original transcripts from all schools attended, not just the most recent.