by restrangled 26 Replies latest jw friends
thanks for the information!
I am hoping to go back to school for surgical technology in January. Paying child support for 3 and paying for school and making a living will be tough, but the class is just 5 quarters and will nearly double my income!
I will look into the online courses to see if I can better myself in any other ways!
Actually, that has been going on for the last several years. MIT for instance offers great portion of its material both undergraduate and graduate for free, you can see it here http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
Then there are universities who will grant degree all the way to PhDs based on the number of years you've had in certain profession, one is even advertised on his page at least I see it. http://www.universite-de-wallis.fr/campus.html
Just make sure that the school is fully accredited by one of the regional accrediting agencies. I work in a government job where I have to verify degrees and we cannot accept non-accredited degrees.
Crafty
I am going to start after they are done. I hope to major in English Lit.
That's wonderful.
Don't forget about DANTES tests. Although they are technically military, most community colleges I
know offer them along with the CLEP exams for credit.
metatron
Here goes..... I hope this helps someone!
The distance education options currently available online are awesome! You can get an online RA (regionally accredited) Bachelors, Masters and even PhD's.
I've done a ton of research and am currently converting a 25 year old A.A in Liberal Arts into a BGB Bachelor in General Business in less than 3 months.
Though my original priority was not neccesarily to save time and money, it has become a welcome side benefit.
Most people have heard of CLEP tests. http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html For $65 per test you can earn college credit in over 30 subjects, more than enough to handle the first two years of college general study.
Most people have not heard of DSST or DANTES tests http://www.getcollegecredit.com/ $70 each, which give you the opportunity to earn a broader spectum of credit and more importantly upper level credit to boot.
Few people have heard of off ECE tests from Excelcior $200 each which also give you college credit, primarily in the health care and nursing arena.
In the last month, I have passed CLEP's and received 18 college credits in Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Marketing and Management. In the next month and a half I will earn another 27 business credits through DANTES and ECE tests.
So what RA college will let you use a combination of previous credit, proficiency tests, IT certs and even life experience portfolios to earn a degree?
They are what is known as the Big Three. Excelsior https://www.excelsior.edu/ , Thomas Edison State College http://www.tesc.edu/ and Charter Oak College http://www.charteroak.edu/ .
I chose Excelsior https://www.excelsior.edu/ for the following reasons.
1) They have Business and Technology specific degrees (Because of being in the NY college system, they have an awesome Health Care and Nursing degree and Liberal Arts)
2) You can transfer all 120 credits into their program, pay them approx. $1700 (enrollment, processing of credits and graduation fee) and you have your degree.
In my case it will mean 75 credits earned through traditional schools and 45 earned through CLEP, DANTES and EXE tests.
Now in theory, if you were starting from scratch, you could CLEP out of your first two years (60 credits) for around $1200 plus study materials.
For the last two years if you added DANTES and EXE tests figure another $3000 plus study materials. Enroll and graduate from Excelsior for another $1700.
So for under $6500 and in less than 12 months (depending on motivation) you could get a legitimate RA (regionally accredited Bachelor's degree).
How do you test out? I use Instacert which has practice tests and costs $20 per month. What I have found invaluable is their forum which consists of eveyone helping each other make it through the tests. Sound familiar? Plenty of tips on online tutorials, lecture notes etc...
My original thought was to enroll at Western or Eastern Illinois....until I found a superb program at Indiana University http://scs.indiana.edu/ (transfer in 90 credits including CLEP, DANTES, EXE tests, take 30 from them)....but after doing more research, I realized that I can set my sights even higher..(meaning bang out the Bachelors and go for a Masters or PhD)
Did you know that you can get a Masters degree from Harvard? The selection is limited and you have to spend a summer residency there, but....it's HARVARD. http://www.extension.harvard.edu/DistanceEd/
Now in the process of finding all this out, I also found some inexpensive online classes from respected schools. LSU has a three credit tuition of only $240 and has a boatload of classes available. I enrolled my son there because he needs Calculus I,II, and III in order to transfer to UCF. The proctored tests will cost another $25 each, but it seems really good so far. http://www.is.lsu.edu/
For Business and IT guys who haven't converted IT certs over to college credit, there is a great secret out west called Western Governors University with dirt cheap tuition. It is a competency based program and you can earn a Bachelors and Masters for under $20K. WGU also has great Master programs for teachers. http://www.wgu.edu/index.asp
There is a small college in Nebraska with an online MBA for under $6500 that I am looking really hard at too. http://www.csc.edu/distancelearning/
So how hard are the CLEP, DANTES and EXE tests? My father and son are really smart...I'm your average Joe. If you follow the advice from the Instacert forum http://www.instantcertonline.com/forums/ and devote time to learn the material, you can do it! It is difficult at first, but then you develop a system. I personally like it, because you learn a lot in a short period of time. In my case with business, the tests start relating to one another, so Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management pick up where Management lets off and vice versa. Some familiarity with subject material helps, but is not mandatory....just good study habits and a will to learn. It is really rewarding to get the brain working overtime and absorb a wide variety worth of material. To view a really detailed description of one persons path....http://www.123collegedegree.com/distancelearning.html
I hope this helps someone!
R's hubby
Thanks for posting this info...I'm passing it along to some friends and family members!
Swalker
bookmark
I am Btting this thread for the info.....5 months of work went into it and these are just the basic highlights.
Good luck to anyone pursing a further education.
r.
Btt for the info above.
r.
