Thoughts for a new high school graduate?

[dfrecore]

A degree at TESU or Excelsior will be MUCH faster and cheaper than one at your local 4yr school (even though CA has some of the cheapest colleges in the country, if you go to a CSU). 2 years at a CSU will run maybe $15k and take 2 years if you're lucky (2 ½ is probably more doable for most just because they are so crowded, it's hard to get all of the classes you need to graduate on time).

You could probably get your bachelor's at either of these schools before you even started at Moorpark, which would be a good option - it would leave your time free to get that AA and work in the industry.
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At TESU, you'd need the following:
A Diversity course (Sociology, World Religions, Cultural Anthropology)
An Ethics course
A Civic Engagement course (Am Gov)
A SocSci course (Psych is the easiest to find)
A Science course (any science or Intro to Computers)
5 UL courses in Humanities or SocSciences
7 LL courses in these areas or Science, but must be what TESU considers 200-level
6 courses of free electives

Excelsior will have similar requirements (actually a bit easier to meet), but does require that you take 30cr of UL rather than TESU's 18cr of UL.

It looks like you'd be better off applying for this program as a bachelor's degree holder, and like you've said, having a backup plan is a great idea here.