Average Human Costs for Degrees

[ss20ts]

I am going to throw a curve ball out here.  Does anyone know how CCP (college credit plus) or AP factors in here?   I’m hoping my son will have at least a few of these before he graduates High School.  I’m hoping to get him set to accelerate through college, if he chooses to do so.  If we pay for a private High School, I want to reduce how much we pay for college.

What's College Credit Plus? Never heard of it. Might be state specific?

AP isn't cheap. In many schools, you pay a fee to take the class and then the exam fees. My husband didn't have the money in high school to take all of the AP exams for the AP courses he took. He looks back now and knows he would have wasted money on many of them because you need a 4 or 5 to get college credit at the college he went to. It wasn't worth all the time he put into them.

If you want to reduce college payments, then look at a degree on the ACE path. Remember though all majors aren't available at school that accept ACE credit. And all schools don't accept ACE credit. He needs to figure out some of this on his own, too. He's the one who has to do the work. Many kids fresh out of high school just aren't ready for college.

My sister graduated from a 4 year school a semester early. She had a few AP courses that they accepted. She changed majors her junior year. She took an extra class every semester to save money. She also worked 3 part time jobs and had her own apartment. If you're willing to work yourself to the breaking point, you can do just about anything. She looks back now and knows why her mental health and physical health suffered immensely for years afterward.

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Great job gathering this information for comparison. Looking at the spreadsheet, I was wondering why you estimate Brandmans MyPath expenditure at 6400$? On their site it states a price of 3200$ for 6 months of access. Are you assuming it takes 12 months to finish approximately 30 credits? This sounds like a fairly slow pace. Or is there some rule that states you need to enroll for at least two terms?

You don't have to be there for 2 terms, but the reality is for many people it takes that long or longer. 30 credits in 12 months is basically what you do as a full time college student. It's not a slow pace. Remember, people have lives, families, work, etc. Brandman is also a lot of papers. It's not like Sophia where you can complete a class in less than a day.

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I don’t think the *average* person can do it in one term.  A lot of people aren’t able to focus as much time due to job and family commitments. (Like myself).

You might be correct, but I am referring to consistency in regard to the estimates. For instance, UMPI(slow pace) is estimated to take just 3 terms of 8 weeks. That is the equivalent time frame. So why does it take twice the amount of time to finish 30 credits at Brandman?

There's more writing at Brandman. The Final Assessments are longer.