Need a degree to get the CFP

[dfrecore]

mikemart82, you probably are already aware of this, but the educational requirement for the CFP is 2-part.  You have to have a bachelor's degree AND you have to complete a CFP board registered program.  You also need the bachelor's degree to receive the CFP designation, but do not need it to sit for the examinations.  

I looked into CFP years ago and remember that there are credit-bearing and non-credit-bearing CFP board registered programs.  If you end up at TESU, you will need 30 RA hours.  Just from a quick Google search, it looks like the credit-bearing CFP programs are in the 21 credit hour range.  Since you have 9 CC hours, a credit-bearing CFP program might make sense for you.  This would get you to the 30 RA hours you need and would get you that much closer to your BA.

This might be a clever way to get the end result your need for both the degree and the education requirements for the CFP.  The only for credit program that is coming up as self paced is the one at Southern Wesleyan University - https://www.swu.edu/online/financial-planning (appears that you can take the program as stand alone or as a minor - this link just gave the best overall information on the courses).  The course numbering indicate they would count as UL Finance courses; not sure how many fit the Finance requirements for the TESU BSBA-Finance (sure others here will have a better idea on that). They could be used as electives at the very least, and they would count as RA credits along with meeting the requirement you need for the CFP. Here is the link for all those that show college credit offering - https://www.cfp.net/get-certified/certif...,selfstudy

While this sounds like a great idea, I'm going to guess that none of these courses will work for the FIN AoS at TESU; none of the courses listed match any of the courses on here.  TESU's FIN AoS is more about Corporate Finance, and a CFP is more about Personal Finance.

Here's TESU's list of electives that you can bring in:

• Financial Institutions and Markets OR Money and Banking
  
• International Finance
  
• Advanced Financial Management/Corporation Finance
  
• Advanced Security Analysis and Portfolio Management OR Investments II
  
• Business Forecasting
  
• Commercial Banking
  
• Capital Budgeting Management
  
• Capital Structure Management
  
• Derivatives
  
• Mathematical Analysis of Financial Decisions
  
• Risk Management
  
• Working Capital Management