Challenge: Cheapest degree 4/25/11

[cookderosa]

Ok, so who would like to play? I realize not everyone appreciates my nerdiness that LOVES this kind of game, but it'll be fun for people to read too...so it's win-win! The challenge is to create the absolute cheapest degree possible under today's tuition/accreditation/college policy/etc.

Rules:

1. Must be a bachelor's degree
2. Must be from a regionally accredited college or university
3. Must be in the United States


Assume that there are no limits to the student's resources or abilities. Assume that the student is paying cash for everything (no grants, no GI-Bill, no ROTC, no reimbursement, no dual enrollment programs, etc).


Ready.....set.....go!

[MA2]

Mines free under the GI Bill and even though that's against your rules I think I win anyway.

Where's my trophy?

[Shemrat]

Mines free under the GI Bill and even though that's against your rules I think I win anyway.

Where's my trophy?

Lol Your trophy is your degree!

[Maniac Craniac]

Well, I'll let someone else do the math hilarious but at this point, I'm pretty sure that the least expensive has to be Charter Oak by taking several subject GREs, the foreign language CLEPs and the gen ed CLEPs.

[burbuja0512]

I paid a total of $5619 for my degree, not including the 24 B&M credits I had when I started. Of course, I was under COSC's old enrollment fees and also did not want to take any GRE's. This works out to around $58/credit and includes an estimate of what I paid for testing fees +IC + SL + used books and my Capstone class.

I bet others here have done better, but I am very pleased!

[Lyanne]

I actually have an expense report running on my own degree. it's funny that the 24 credits I earned before I heard of/seriously thought I could do CLEP and DSST cost me $4827. (and took 3 years)
The 30 credits I have earned in the past 10 months have cost me $1074.80 and that includes 10 months of InstantCert membership.
I'm happy I found it at 24 instead of 96!
Edited to add: The other 10 B&M credits are so ancient I have no idea how much they cost.

[cookderosa]

So is the GRE + no enrollment fee at Charter Oak hedging out the 27 FEMA with enrollment fee at TESC? I'm looking at COSC now, but I'm also looking if there is a cheaper non-big 3 option.

[cookderosa]

Tuition and Fees | Online & Distance Education | Outreach Credit Programs | University of Wyoming

University of Wyoming
generic overview- no CLEP cap, 30 UL residency requirement (which can be met with online courses). At $94 per credit plus $40 delivery fee, their UL tuition comes in at $134 UL credit * 30 = 4020

Assuming 60 CLEP credits (no less than 1 high scoring foreign language test) comes from roughly 17 exams @ $80 = $1360

Compose the remaining 30 lower level (in major) transfer in from any random community college (let's use $250 per course) you're coming in at about $2500

The total for this non-big 3 school looks to be about $7880 starting from scratch.

[cookderosa]

I paid a total of $5619 for my degree, not including the 24 B&M credits I had when I started. Of course, I was under COSC's old enrollment fees and also did not want to take any GRE's. This works out to around $58/credit and includes an estimate of what I paid for testing fees +IC + SL + used books and my Capstone class.

I bet others here have done better, but I am very pleased!

What would that cost you under today's catalog? I know my degree from TESC would be a lot more based on the 200/300 level changes they put into play last year.

[burbuja0512]

So is the GRE + no enrollment fee at Charter Oak hedging out the 27 FEMA with enrollment fee at TESC? I'm looking at COSC now, but I'm also looking if there is a cheaper non-big 3 option.

This depends. The benefit of the GRE at COSC is that you get up to 24 credits in your area of concentration and it's a mix of UL and LL. FEMA are very nice, but will only count as elective credit. If you've already got enough elective credits, FEMA's are all but worthless.

Thanks for posting the U of Wyoming info. Sounds pretty good.