Big 3 grads, how much did you pay to complete your Bachelors...start to finish?

[CollegeStudent7]

[COLOR="DarkGreen"]I searched for this on the forum and I am sure it's been discussed somewhere, but I am still going to ask anyway :coolgleam: . For those that graduated from one of the Big 3, please answer the following:

1) How many credits were you able to transfer in?
2) How much did you pay out of pocket once you signed up with one of the colleges (ballpark estimate, inc. what you paid for study guides, testing out, student fees, etc.)?
3) How many months/years did it take you?
4) Were you completing your Bachelors on more of a full-time basis or a part-time one?
5) Which route did you take? (online courses, B&M courses, testing out, a little bit of everything, etc?)
6) If you had to do it all over again would you still have chosen the same school/route? Why or why not?

Responses should be interesting. If anyone can think of any more questions let me know and I will edit my original post .[/COLOR]

[skyfall123]

1) How many credits were you able to transfer in?

With the Big Three you can transfer in 120 credits. COSC and Exelsior require a Capstone, TESC doesn't.

2) How much did you pay (ballpark estimate, inc. what you paid for study guides, testing out, student fees, etc.)?

Starting with 60 previous credits - around $6000 (2008).

3) How many months/years did it take you?

70 credits - 6 months

4) Were you completing your Bachelors on more of a full-time basis or a part-time one?

Full

5) Which route did you take? (online courses, B&M courses, testing out, a little bit of everything, etc?)

3 self-paced online courses from Penn Foster (Algebra, Fin Mgmt, Info Lit), all of the rest tested out of CLEP, DSST, ECE (Excelsior) and TECEP (TESC) exams (17 total, 4 worth 6 credits each).

6) If you had to do it all over again would you still have chosen the same school/route? Why or why not?

In 2008, Excelsior didn't require the capstone. If done again today, I'd strongly consider a BSBA from TESC with a concentration.

[CollegeStudent7]

Wow thanks Geezer! Awesome job. It seems like MANY of you guys were able to complete your Bachelors in 6-9 months, considering you had 24-60 credits. I'm really excited about starting with one of these places. I'm still stuck between COSC and TESC. Cost, time and concentration/major are the only factors I am considering. Guess I shouldn't say "only" as those are big factors. GO YOU!:hurray:

[bawhitsett]

1) How many credits were you able to transfer in?
2) How much did you pay (ballpark estimate, inc. what you paid for study guides, testing out, student fees, etc.)?
3) How many months/years did it take you?
4) Were you completing your Bachelors on more of a full-time basis or a part-time one?
5) Which route did you take? (online courses, B&M courses, testing out, a little bit of everything, etc?)
6) If you had to do it all over again would you still have chosen the same school/route? Why or why not?


1) 117
2) For courses, text books, etc., probably 20k.
3) 6 years, due to starting the traditional route, and then ultimately going on-line without initially having a path defined.
4) part-time
5) a little bit of everything
6) I wish I would've researched more B&M options offering on-line degrees and pursued one of them. One that comes to mind is U of Wyoming's online BBA. TESC got me where I wanted to go with grad school, and for that I'm thankful, but I'm still desiring a credential from a tier-1 national university for my resume, and thus will likely look at an MBA to accomplish this.

[CollegeStudent7]

Wow White, that 20k was for all previous courses I am assuming?

[burbuja0512]

1) How many credits were you able to transfer in?
COSC took 24 credits. I am pretty sure that they took everything that I had, with perhaps one exception. I'm almost positive I remember some sort of fitness/gym class that I took back in 1993 and I didn't see it on the transcript. COSC even took a D that I had in chemistry, which didn't help my GPA, but saved me lots of trouble!

2) How much did you pay out of pocket once you signed up with one of the colleges (ballpark estimate, inc. what you paid for study guides, testing out, student fees, etc.)?
This is a great question. I'm not sure which of the Big 3 is the most expensive, but COSC definitely breaks up the cost of school. I paid $1400 to enroll, in installments of three or four months. I paid roughly 25$ per test for proctor fees and another $80 bucks per test. That makes $2310 for my CLEP/DSST tests. $260 for my ECE that I'll be taking on Tuesday. About $315 for my Straighterline stuff, but I could have made that cheaper if I had remembered to unsubscribe before I got charged extra lol. $854 for my capstone class, $180 so far in IC costs and probably another 300 or so for other study materials, books etc. The grand total (Drum roll please..) $5619 for my undergrad. It feels like a lot of money, but not even a drop in the bucket compared to what all my friends paid for theirs!

3) How many months/years did it take you?
My signature says it all hilarious I probably could have done it quicker, but there is a learning curve. It gets easier to do the tests over time. I honestly think that part of it is that I had been out of school for a while so my memorization skills were rusty. I can memorize a LOT quicker now than I could even a few months ago

4) Were you completing your Bachelors on more of a full-time basis or a part-time one?
I work full time and have 5 kids.. lol I dedicated as much time as I possibly could, which meant that every night from about 7:30-10:00pm was study time. I also take a little more time on the weekends if my kids will let me.

5) Which route did you take? (online courses, B&M courses, testing out, a little bit of everything, etc?)
Mostly just testing, though I'm currently enrolled in a capstone class. I did a few Straighterline classes. Testing is more challenging than a class IMHO, but testing take less time than a class and involve less busy work. I just want to learn the topic and get it over with.

6) If you had to do it all over again would you still have chosen the same school/route? Why or why not?
The one major item that I would change is timing. I learned about CLEP/DSST years ago when my younger brother graduated from COSC. I just didn't believe that it was really possible. I also didn't think I could do it! I was terrified to begin and if he hadn't been bugging me to do it, I probably would have postponed even more. Now I wish that I could have had more faith in myself and my abilities years ago!

Hope this helps

EDIT TO ADD: I didn't include costs from my early 90's community college classes. I just can't remember costs from that long ago. I did have 3 credits from Regis from 2007, which cost 1200 bucks, but it was fully paid for by my employer at the time.

[ryoder]

I transferred in 72 credits from my college days at USF. Then I got 9 more from my existing certifications.
Some of my credits were unusable in the BSBA degree so I needed a good 50 more credits or so.

I started clep testing Oct 1 and finished my last exam at the beginning of March. I could have finished faster if it weren't for some miscommunications with TESC.

I don't know how much it cost, ALEKs was really cheap at 20 dollars, Straighterline was cheap at 200 for 3 classes, CLEP and DSST were cheap at 100 each for about 10 tests. Penn Foster was about 385 per class and I took 3 classes so those were not cheap. I took two TECEP tests at about 300 per test and also paid the 2800 dollar enrollment fee and 275 or so graduation fee.

I haven't added it all up because I think its a great bargain.

My current masters program costs 1850 per class!

[marianne202]

I transferred in about 65 credits.

18 credits of CLEP/DSST to complete ASLS degree = $935

I then completed my BSLS and BSHS both within about 18 months using CLEP/DSST, ECE's and required BSHS core/concentration courses for a total cost for both bachelor's degrees totaling right around $6250.

I only wish I could do my MHA as inexpensively! Honestly, had I not saved so much on the other degrees I probably wouldn't have been able to afford to do the MHA program. I have co-workers who spent as much for their traditional bachelor's as I will spend on my master's. I think my ROI is much better than theirs!

I now have my son pursuing his degree through this method. We will use some local scholarship money for some B&M CC courses he can't do through CLEP/DSST and he will do the rest this route.

[MA2]

So far I've paid a total of $53 dollars and have 66 credits. The $53 dollars was for a Microeconomics textbook I needed for my class on base with a local junior college.

[bawhitsett]

Wow White, that 20k was for all previous courses I am assuming?

Yeah, a few years at Tidewater CC, then a year at ODU, then a year at Excelsior, then a year at TESC. Figure tuition, books, enrollment fees, yada yada.