I agree with natshar, TESU is no longer the cheapest option.
For a possibly cheaper option, I would also probably have her consider COSC. Either a BSBA or a BA/BS in General Studies with Concentration could probably be completed from scratch for less than TESU. At COSC she may also be able to work in a few free
FEMA IS courses into her degree plan for additional savings, which is not an option at TESU. The COSC
policy on non-proctored FEMA credits allows for 3 credits if there is no relevance to the degree and up to 9 free elective credits if the courses are relevant to the degree plan.
Free CLEPs using vouchers from Modern States are great way to save money and earn a lot of general education credit. TESU has published a
CLEP transfer guide as well as a
DSST transfer guide to see where these exams could fit into her degree plan. She can refer to the
COSC Master Exams List of Tests and Credit Values to see where exams from CLEPS, DSSTs, ect will fit into her degree plan.
In addition to the French Cleps she could also consider attempting the
ACTFL French Language Learning Assessments dfrecore recently
posted about on here. Looks like they are available for credit again until 11/30/19.
CSMLearn offers an excellent self paced and inexpensive math course. They have
articulation agreements with TESU, COSC, and other schools already in place. At TESU the course should transfer to meet the quantitative literacy requirement for a BALS and into COSC to meet a liberal art free elective. It's $40 and there are no proctored exams. Instead you work through the problems until you have mastered the content 100%. They are evaluated by ACE for credit through 2/28/21. It should be the only math course she would need if she does the BALS at TESU.
I am not sure if the the CSM course above will meet the math requirement at COSC. If it does not and she chooses to complete her degree there Aleks College Algebra should work for one of the cheapest options. They are not proctored but she will need to complete the final exam for credit using a lockdown browser after she has completed at least 70% of the Aleks pie.
Sophia may be a great option for someone with test anxiety as they use biometric keyboard proctoring. They have articulation agreements in place for TESU and COSC as well. Typically they are a bit more expensive but
there is a current coupon code available where you can purchase 3 or more courses for ~$100 each. Sophia also offers 2 courses for 1 credit each for free to try them out. When you take a course they give a $50 coupon towards your next course. So she could start by taking the 2 free courses (Developing Effective Teams and The Essentials for Managing Conflict) and use her $50 coupon to take the Student Success Course for free as well. This will give her a chance to test the platform and see if it works well for her and earn a few free college credits in the process.
To meet the "ethics" requirement for either school she could take the free and unproctored 312N-H Ethics and the CPCU Code of Professional Conduct (3 credits) from
The American Institute For Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters. This course is ACE evaluated for credit through 4/30/22 and accepted by TESU and COSC for 3 LL credits.
The TEXAS A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) offers three ACE evaluated courses in cybersecurity broken down into individual modules each worth credit that are free, unproctored, and recommended for up to 10 credits. She could complete a few or all to pick up some extra credits. They also now offer a few more low cost ($40-75) courses in forensic/law enforcement that tend to fit well into liberal studies degree plans for inexpensive options.
This degreeforum thread provides some useful feedback on the courses and how they have transferred as well.
Another great source of affordable alternative credit that she may want to try is
onlinedegree. They offer 15 courses that are
recommended for college credit by NCCRS. The courses are free and the final exam is only $9 for each course. They use RPNow as the proctor which is a much more comfortable proctoring environment for some. RPNow requires that you download a secure browser software and you use this and your webcam to record yourself and your environment while you are taking the exam instead of using a live proctor that you need to interact with. After you complete the exam, the software will upload the file and they have someone personally review the recording to ensure academic integrity guidelines were met. You can take the exam anytime of the day or night from the comfort of your home instead of having to schedule it. And some find that it reduces anxiety since you don't have to actually deal with anyone staring you down while you sit for your exam. onlinedegree has an
articulation agreement with TESU, so you will know ahead of time where your courses will fit into your plan. They do not have one with COSC but their courses are accepted there as well. At TESU they will come in as P/F, but at COSC they transfer in with grades.
COSC requires a science course w/lab for all of their degree plans. The most affordable option to meet this requirement may be through Study.com. They offer an online biology 101 course with a virtual lab. The virtual lab is only an additional $40. Like onlinedegree above, SDC also uses RPNow to proctor exams. They have transfer agreements in place with
COSC and
TESU which makes degree planning much easier. Study.com also probably offers the most UL course options, so I would recommend them to meet UL requirements in her degree plan. At TESU she will need 18UL credits (including the capstone) and at COSC she would need 30UL credits (including the capstone) as part of the concentration she chooses and throughout the degree. The College Accelerator plan is $200 per month and includes 2 exams for credit each month. You can also purchase up to 3 additional exams during each month, for $70 each which saves a little bit more money if you can work through any courses at a faster pace. SDC also has study guides for CLEPS, DSSTS, TECEPS, ect that she could use as additional study materials for those types of exams. If she uses SDC for at least 2 courses, it will qualify her for
instate tuition rates at TESU which is a significant savings. She will want to complete at least 2 courses prior to applying to TESU, and select SDC partner affiliation on her TESU application. I'm not sure if COSC has any SDC partner discounts, but they may. She can also take advantage of an
SDC student referral discount for a small savings on her first month of enrollment.
COSC does have a discount if she takes courses via StraighterLine. I believe the discount is 10% off all fees, not just the tuition. It looks like you need to take at least 4 courses with SL for the
degree savings. That transfer guide will also let her know exactly how her courses will come into COSC to make degree planning easier for her. TESU also has a
transfer guide with SL, but I don't see any partner discounts. She could use SL to take some of the courses that she is very comfortable with such as microbiology, a&p, pharmocology ect since these exams are live proctored using ProctorU. It's possible her preexisting knowledge may ease her anxiety some. Also many of the SL course exams are
open book exams. In some cases you can even pass the course before taking the proctored exam which may also reduce the stress of taking the proctored exam. She can find
current SL discounts and coupon codes fairly regularly for savings posted on here as well.
Since the requirements for the BALS degrees at both schools are very similar and she is starting from scratch, she can probably go ahead and start working on any free courses to start earning credits right away. There should be some degree plan templates floating around here for either school if you run a quick search to help her get started.
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