Average Human Costs for Degrees

[ashkir]

I am on a Facebook group that is constantly reviewing which school to go. These people are not min-maxing like we are. Attached is an excel list for the average person after finishing ACE credit fees, and the amount of time it takes an average person to do this if they're able to do maximum credits and assuming full-time student.

All fees are taken directly from their websites as is. Do not correct me or my excel file, and make your own thread if you want your own pricing schemes. This is meant to be a quick glance. This is not meant for the min-maxers users of this forum, this is just a quick glance to see what's cheapest and what's not. These fees are accurate as of May 30, 2021. Any updates after I collected it is due to institutions updating. I assumed maximum credit cost for each institution. These assume only ACE credits and no previous RA experience. I am not interested in making a thread for them, as most people only will stick with ACE. 

Most Expensive Major Schools, over $10 grand!:

1. Capella
   
2. Strayer
   
3. Liberty
   
4. SHNU
   
5. Charter Oak
   

Cheapest Schools, under $7 grand:

1. University of Maine at Presque ISle
   
2. Western Governors
   
3. Brandman MyPath
   

[bjcheung77]

That's pretty cool, interesting how the numbers came to play - I was thinking that the Big 3 would be in the middle and the CBE's would be on top, last and most expensive would be the For-Profits - and that pretty much panned out to what it was illustrated. Excelsior / TESU and COSC are in the middle of the pack...

[ashkir]

That's pretty cool, interesting how the numbers came to play - I was thinking that the Big 3 would be in the middle and the CBE's would be on top, last and most expensive would be the For-Profits - and that pretty much panned out to what it was illustrated.  Excelsior / TESU and COSC are in the middle of the pack...

I agree too. And the Big 3 enforcing 90 ACE and RA and residency waivers took away their affordable price tags in my opinion. What sucks is there’s so much old information that people will argue and die on a hill for a price from a 4 year old catalog. It changes so fast. 

I started telling people lock in a catalog at a school ASAP if you know you want to go there. 

I might make another one focusing on min-max transferring the most and finishing ASAP. The for profits would probably be cheaper.

[Vle045]

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.

[rachel83az]

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 becaccelerate 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.

From what I've heard, AP can actually INCREASE costs significantly over other ACE sources. Students are encouraged to take each AP exam multiple times in order to get a good score. This can be hundreds of dollars for each AP course that is taken and passed. Plus all of the misc. study guides and whatnot that aren't "required" but that you really should get/use if you want to pass. A basic CC course can actually be much more affordable than an AP exam.

[P226mem]

minor thing on the curve ball side topic: I have heard the opposite about re-takes with AP. Since they are given only once a year, there are relatively few situations to bother with re-take. The SAT and/or ACT are encouraged multiple times to improve score for admissions. I don't live in Ohio so I don't know much about the CCP program there. In the state where I live, we have dual enrollment grants for high schoolers to take some college courses for near free.
how does CCP or AP factoring in the cost? CCP (college while still in high school and involving state grants) could be a relatively low cost (or free in some states) for RA credit that should transfer. So that was not taken into account in the original spreadsheets which did not take into account any previous RA credit.
AP is not RA credit but ACE option that is more available for transfer than things like sophia and sdc, and not usually part of adult learners in non traditional degree options.

[bjcheung77]

I would hold off on AP as those exams are harder than their CLEP equivalents (there are many overlapping courses). I suggest more CLEP/ACE options for now and when they've got some credits from CLEP/ACES, then start working on similar AP courses during junior/senior year. I think the "low hanging fruit" CLEP/ACES credits can add up to 90 credits alone for transfer credit, that's like 3 years of inexpensive studies! The final 30 residency credits are the "major" and requirements from the institution they decide to attend.

[JannikT]

I am on a Facebook group that is constantly reviewing which school to go. These people are not min-maxing like we are. Attached is an excel list for the average person after finishing ACE credit fees, and the amount of time it takes an average person to do this if they're able to do maximum credits and assuming full-time student.

All fees are taken directly from their websites as is. Do not correct me or my excel file, and make your own thread if you want your own pricing schemes. This is meant to be a quick glance. This is not meant for the min-maxers users of this forum, this is just a quick glance to see what's cheapest and what's not. These fees are accurate as of May 30, 2021. Any updates after I collected it is due to institutions updating. I assumed maximum credit cost for each institution. These assume only ACE credits and no previous RA experience. I am not interested in making a thread for them, as most people only will stick with ACE. 

Most Expensive Major Schools, over $10 grand!:

1. Capella
   
2. Strayer
   
3. Liberty
   
4. SHNU
   
5. Charter Oak
   

Cheapest Schools, under $7 grand:

1. University of Maine at Presque ISle
   
2. Western Governors
   
3. Brandman MyPath
   

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?

[Vle045]

I am on a Facebook group that is constantly reviewing which school to go. These people are not min-maxing like we are. Attached is an excel list for the average person after finishing ACE credit fees, and the amount of time it takes an average person to do this if they're able to do maximum credits and assuming full-time student.

All fees are taken directly from their websites as is. Do not correct me or my excel file, and make your own thread if you want your own pricing schemes. This is meant to be a quick glance. This is not meant for the min-maxers users of this forum, this is just a quick glance to see what's cheapest and what's not. These fees are accurate as of May 30, 2021. Any updates after I collected it is due to institutions updating. I assumed maximum credit cost for each institution. These assume only ACE credits and no previous RA experience. I am not interested in making a thread for them, as most people only will stick with ACE. 

Most Expensive Major Schools, over $10 grand!:

1. Capella
   
2. Strayer
   
3. Liberty
   
4. SHNU
   
5. Charter Oak
   

Cheapest Schools, under $7 grand:

1. University of Maine at Presque ISle
   
2. Western Governors
   
3. Brandman MyPath
   

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?

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).

[JannikT]

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?