Advice on Transferring Sophia Courses

[SophiaPrincess]

Lot's of great advice. You all have been such a blessing. I haven't heard anyone mention Purdue Global, Liberty or University of Maryland Global. All Sophia partners. Are any of those colleges worth exploring? Liberty publishes they offer a 25% tuition discount to CAP members which is largely offset by sizable hidden fees.

Beyond the Pell grant do any of the colleges mentioned in this thread ( TESU, Excelsior, SNHU, UMPI ) offer institutional aid to online out of state students?

dfrecore I'm confused. Wouldn't I receive graded credits at any university I transfer to for the last 30 hours of upper level business courses I need?

Since TESU and Excelsior advisors are lacking, how do I get my ACE credits transferred properly?

bjcheung77 I have had zero success getting a firm commitment from any college regarding a military rate or financial aid. I hate to waste the admissions officers time but it appears I must actually apply to be admitted to get firm answers.

LevelUP credit by exam would be awesome but I believe I need approximately 30 upper level hours of business credits to get my degree.

allvia I'm not quite clear what you mean by "plan out" at TESU and SNHU. Other than choosing courses which fit the requirements for the degree plan and, perhaps, splitting the courses over two years to get Pell grant twice what can I control to affect the outcome?

Thanks for the advice about a "check the box degree". One of my fears about attending a non selective undergraduate program has been concern that it will increase the difficulty gaining admission to a respected law school or MBA program.

[studyingfortests]

  Don't bother speaking with TESU - their advisors are TERRIBLE. Avoid that at all costs.  Instead, ask your questions here.

I echo this, but with one caveat: TESU advisor Don Stoltz is amazing.  You can choose which advisor you want to speak to.  I spoke with Don on multiple occasions while working on my degree, and he was extremely accurate. He predicted which credits I could successfully appeal to apply where I wanted them, gave 100% accurate information about which courses would come in which way, and was totally helpful.  Two friends who have also completed TESU degrees also worked with him and were similarly impressed.

Has anyone had a positive experience with Excelsior admissions?  Excelsior, like TESU, is terrible.  Instead, ask your questions here.

I echo this as well, and also with one caveat:  The Excelsior admissions rep, which was incredibly pesky and persistent, was absolutely useless answering even the most basic questions about credit transfer. However, I bitched sufficiently persistently, and he hooked me up with an actual advisor.  This person was amazing... she was accurate, very detailed, sought out answers to questions she wasn't sure of, and even went to bat over a credit for the CSM Learn course.  She even said "I hope you'll enroll at Excelsior, but only if it is the best fit for you," which I'm sure the admissions rep would have been mortified to hear.

So good advice is available, but the advice here is just as good and sometimes better. Only difference is, you might be able to get an email from Don or someone in advising at Excelsior confirming what you're told, which will go a long way if they later try to tell you otherwise.  That's the one advantage I can see for talking with someone from the school. [/quote]

[SophiaPrincess]

Thanks studyingfortests for sharing your experience. If you feel it's appropriate, I would be pleased to have Mr. Stolz's and the proficient Excelsior admissions officer's email addresses.

Thanks,

[bjcheung77]

Thanks studyingfortests for sharing your experience. If you feel it's appropriate, I would be pleased to have Mr. Stolz's and the proficient Excelsior admissions officer's email addresses.

Thanks,

Hey, I have removed your personal details from your post... You don't need to and shouldn't post your personal email.  You can mention to people to either email you or private message you when they click your profile.

Staff Updated Link: https://www.tesu.edu/current-students/advising/people
My previous post in regards to my top 3 advisors: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid369544

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bjcheung77 I have had zero success getting a firm commitment from any college regarding a military rate or financial aid. I hate to waste the admissions officers time but it appears I must actually apply to be admitted to get firm answers.

For the colleges that offered you the $250/credit military rate, did you speak with admissions or advising?  
Here's the webpage for the people you should contact: https://www.tesu.edu/military/support
There is an email address & telephone number for follow up under Prospective, Newly Admitted or Returning Military and Veteran Students

[allvia]

allvia I'm not quite clear what you mean by "plan out" at TESU and SNHU. Other than choosing courses which fit the requirements for the degree plan and, perhaps, splitting the courses over two years to get Pell grant twice what can I control to affect the outcome?

Thanks for the advice about a "check the box degree". One of my fears about attending a non selective undergraduate program has been concern that it will increase the difficulty gaining admission to a respected law school or MBA program.

The reason you want to 'plan out' in advance for the TESU or SNHU option is that your money (in this case the Pell Grant) goes farther at UMPI because it's overall cost is significantly less.  There have been a few people post here that went to UMPI on a full Pell Grant and actually walked away with money in their pocket when it was done (maybe they even used their refund to move forward into a master program, I'd like to think so).

Since law school is one of your goals you may be interested in this thread by a TESU graduate. - https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ool-Thread. I'll add that UMPI was not an option for the OP (mysonx3) back at that time, and the UMPI route does offer a minimum of 30 graded credits (as that is what is required by them, but you can get more - add a minor for example requires more UMPI graded courses).

[dfrecore]

dfrecore I'm confused. Wouldn't I receive graded credits at any university I transfer to for the last 30 hours of upper level business courses I need?

Maybe I'm confused.  I was thinking you were talking about taking courses at a school and then transferring them to TESU.  I didn't realize you were talking about going somewhere else for the last 30 credits - which would mean TESU is out of the picture.

[Libertychick330]

Can anyone recommend a transfer friendly university for Sophia credits? I am having real difficulty transferring Sophia courses. I understand they are not regionally accredited, just ACE and DEAC. For this reason, I have applied exclusively to Sophia partner universities. 
I chose specific courses listed at Sophia's website as accepted for transfer on each of their four respective partners' Sophia pages. I have 90 credit hours with Sophia including 27 hours to transfer into a business major. University of Arizona Global Campus, Indiana Wesleyan, Upper Iowa and Grand Canyon have all rejected some of my credits despite claiming to accept them on Sophia's website 

Hi SophiaPrincess, 

Have you tried Liberty University Online ?
They transferred in 75% on my credits including Clep and Sophia courses. I do believe it's based on what your area of focus is but in my case I was going for the BS in Interdisciplinary Studies. I could have up to 3 areas of focus which were Behavior Sciences, Social Sciences and Communications. You can design this degree to have a more diverse career. Once you apply and have been accepted (very easy),there's a tool helps with  "What if" scenarios to see what credits will apply depending on what degree you're pursuing. It's very helpful and some degrees accept more credits than others. In my case, designing the degree I wanted, it ended up save me money and I only need 30 credit hours through Liberty. That is the minimum requirement. Plus my husband in a veteran. I qualified for a military discount which is $250 a credit. That's cheaper than my community college a mile away. I hope this info is helpful and you can at least check it out. Yes it's a Christian University but I found them very helpful whenever I needed anything. They are regionally accredited and a non-profit. I highly recommend Liberty University Online 
Good luck !

[ss20ts]

I echo this as well, and also with one caveat:  The Excelsior admissions rep, which was incredibly pesky and persistent, was absolutely useless answering even the most basic questions about credit transfer. However, I bitched sufficiently persistently, and he hooked me up with an actual advisor.  This person was amazing... she was accurate, very detailed, sought out answers to questions she wasn't sure of, and even went to bat over a credit for the CSM Learn course.  She even said "I hope you'll enroll at Excelsior, but only if it is the best fit for you," which I'm sure the admissions rep would have been mortified to hear.

My experience with advisors at EU was the opposite. My advisor couldn't answer any questions about transferring courses. Not even ones EU had already accepted in my transcripts. She always had to ask someone else. It would take a week to 2 to get a response. It was awful.

[LevelUP]

Can anyone recommend a transfer friendly university for Sophia credits? I am having real difficulty transferring Sophia courses. I understand they are not regionally accredited, just ACE and DEAC. For this reason, I have applied exclusively to Sophia partner universities. 
I chose specific courses listed at Sophia's website as accepted for transfer on each of their four respective partners' Sophia pages. I have 90 credit hours with Sophia including 27 hours to transfer into a business major. University of Arizona Global Campus, Indiana Wesleyan, Upper Iowa and Grand Canyon have all rejected some of my credits despite claiming to accept them on Sophia's website 

Hi SophiaPrincess, 

Have you tried Liberty University Online ?
They transferred in 75% on my credits including Clep and Sophia courses. I do believe it's based on what your area of focus is but in my case I was going for the BS in Interdisciplinary Studies. I could have up to 3 areas of focus which were Behavior Sciences, Social Sciences and Communications. You can design this degree to have a more diverse career. Once you apply and have been accepted (very easy),there's a tool helps with  "What if" scenarios to see what credits will apply depending on what degree you're pursuing. It's very helpful and some degrees accept more credits than others. In my case, designing the degree I wanted, it ended up save me money and I only need 30 credit hours through Liberty. That is the minimum requirement. Plus my husband in a veteran. I qualified for a military discount which is $250 a credit. That's cheaper than my community college a mile away. I hope this info is helpful and you can at least check it out. Yes it's a Christian University but I found them very helpful whenever I needed anything. They are regionally accredited and a non-profit. I highly recommend Liberty University Online 
Good luck !

I was curious if you got UNIV 104 Instructional Tech. for Online Learning course waived due to your volume of transfer credits?

I posted a Liberty University Online business degree plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/LU...egree_Plan

The Interdisciplinary Studies degree looks a bit confusing, so if you wanted to share how you transferred 75%, that would be awesome!

[Libertychick330]

I transferred 64 credits in from college with an Associate's degree, 3 credit from English composition on a Clep exam and it had to come from the Clep examination board  not the college where I took it  equals 67 credits. Then 21 credits from Sophia. That gave me 88 credits. There are two classes at Liberty University that are required BIBL 104 & THEO104. Both of these are 4 credits each. So that means I took 32 credits at Liberty. The UNIV 104  and I believe another religion class was waived because of my previous college. Interdisciplinary studies is not really confusing and you can take 2 or 3 areas of study to tailor it the way you want it. I would recommend you look up a YouTube channel called "College Hacked". There is some great information on all of the schools including Liberty University along with other degree choices. I think you would find this very useful. Best of wishes on your journey!