Flexible schools other than the Big Three?

[cookderosa]

For a friend with an RA associates, who is open to a few different fields for a bachelor's. He needs a flexible/quicker school where financial aid can cover the classes and where classes are graded. 

I'm suggesting APU because it's flexible with the 8 week terms and many starts, but are there a couple schools other that are similar that should be considered? SNHU maybe?

(Big Three classes cost too much.)

Doesn't have to take ACE, but it would be good to know which do.

This may not matter, but the entire APUS system now caps alternative credit at 30 for a bachelor's degree- so that includes ACE / CLEP/ AP / PLA /etc. If his associate's degree contained any of those, they'll "unbundle" his degree and count them toward that total. They are on the less expensive side for people who want grades and are using aid. They used to have multiple options for course length (8, 16, and even 5 week I think) but I'm not seeing that on their website now, so I don't know if that's still an option. But, if he's using aid, there will be parameters for the terms as well as number of classes to take.

Aside from the alternative credit cap, I love AMU/APU. I think they have some of the coolest majors around.

[dfrecore]

This may not matter, but the entire APUS system now caps alternative credit at 30 for a bachelor's degree- so that includes ACE / CLEP/ AP / PLA /etc.  If his associate's degree contained any of those, they'll "unbundle" his degree and count them toward that total.   They are on the less expensive side for people who want grades and are using aid.  They used to have multiple options for course length (8, 16, and even 5 week I think) but I'm not seeing that on their website now, so I don't know if that's still an option.  But, if he's using aid, there will be parameters for the terms as well as number of classes to take.

Aside from the alternative credit cap, I love AMU/APU.  I think they have some of the coolest majors around.

I think their Explosive Ordnance Disposal Certificate sounds AWESOME, and it's what made my kid start thinking that college could be good as a first step to getting into the military (as opposed to just joining at 18).  I still think about taking that degree for fun!

I didn't know about the 30cr cap, that totally sucks.  Their prices are decent ($270/cr for bachelor's degrees, and $350/cr for master's degrees), and the 8-week courses, and rolling starts make them a much better prospect for working adults.

It also looks like they do a block-transfer of an AA meeting the 30cr requirement for their 30cr of Gen Eds which is a good deal.

They have so many choices for majors for both BA and MA, as well as tons of certificates available (both BA and MA).

But that 30cr cap really throws a wrench in the works.

[davewill]

I'll toss Fort Hayes State into the mix. Their main advantage is that tuition is reasonable, they accept financial aid, and they've got a good number of majors available online. They do use a traditional schedule, though.

https://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege/index

Tuition for Fall 2018 - Summer 2019
Undergraduate: $218.67 per credit hour

Bachelor's Degrees

Create an Opportunity.

Earning your bachelor's degree opens doors to better jobs and higher salaries. In fact, studies show that people with bachelor's degrees earn as much as a million dollars more over the course of their working lives than those who only have an associate's degree or high school diploma.

Fort Hays State Virtual College offers the following affordable, fully-accredited degrees in:

• Accounting
  
• Agricultural Business 
  
• Business Education - Business Teacher Licensure
  
• Business Education - Corporate Communication
  
• Business Education - Training and Development
  
• Computer Science
  
• Criminal Justice
  
• Education - Early Childhood Unified
  
• Education - Elementary
  
• Education - Elementary with Special Education Minor
  
• Finance 
  
• Finance - concentration in Banking 
  
• General Studies (multiple concentrations available)
  
• Geography/ GIS
  
• Health Studies
  
• Human Health and Performance
  
• Information Networking & Telecommunications - Computer Networking and Telecommunications
  
• Information Networking & Telecommunications- Health Informatics
  
• Information Networking & Telecommunications - Web and Mobile Application Development
  
• International Business and Economics
  
• Management
  
• Management - Concentration in Entrepreneurship
  
• Management - Concentration in Human Resource Management
  
• Management - Concentration in Operations Management
  
• Management Information Systems
  
• Marketing
  
• Medical Diagnostic Imaging
  
• Nursing - RN to BSN
  
• Organizational Leadership
  
• Philosophy
  
• Political Science
  
• Psychology
  
• Sociology
  
• Sociology - Addictions Counseling
  
• Technology Leadership
  
• Tourism and Hospitality Management
  
  

[Ideas]

If he needs an online education, the best so far would be his own state community college, if he is in CA or NM, those are the cheapest in-state tuition, if out of state, I would suggest sticking with NMJC.  Has he looked at the other competency-based programs such as Brandman and NAU, U Wisconsin, etc?

Do you know if any of those competency self-paced ones have real grades for each class, and calculated official GPA? I guess I assumed they all did not, like WGU. If you don't know, he can email or search.

This may not matter, but the entire APUS system now caps alternative credit at 30 for a bachelor's degree- so that includes ACE / CLEP/ AP / PLA /etc.  If his associate's degree contained any of those, they'll "unbundle" his degree and count them toward that total.   They are on the less expensive side for people who want grades and are using aid.  They used to have multiple options for course length (8, 16, and even 5 week I think) but I'm not seeing that on their website now, so I don't know if that's still an option.  But, if he's using aid, there will be parameters for the terms as well as number of classes to take.

Aside from the alternative credit cap, I love AMU/APU.  I think they have some of the coolest majors around.

Oh no about the cap. So that might be low on the list of options. Thanks for the heads up on that.

[videogamesrock]

Look at the RBA program at Marshall University. $669 a course and no math requirements. Need to take 8 courses through them. $300 for a PLA.

ACE friendly

[cardiacclep]

I recently wrote a post of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee flex program. There are a variety of degrees with all letter grades and is RA accredited. It is very flexible in terms of time and money. Worth a check.

Here is a student success story. IT professional came in with an associates and completed finished a BS in IST in just six months: https://flex.wisconsin.edu/stories-news/...to-finish/

He seems to have taken 13 courses in three months and had to add another 3 months only because the Capstone needs a whole 3 month subscription to finish as it is time based unlike all the other course. Hope this helps your friend.

[Life Long Learning]

For a friend with an RA associates, who is open to a few different fields for a bachelor's. He needs a flexible/quicker school where financial aid can cover the classes and where classes are graded. 

I'm suggesting APU because it's flexible with the 8 week terms and many starts, but are there a couple schools other that are similar that should be considered? SNHU maybe?

(Big Three classes cost too much.)

Doesn't have to take ACE, but it would be good to know which do.

This may not matter, but the entire APUS system now caps alternative credit at 30 for a bachelor's degree- so that includes ACE / CLEP/ AP / PLA /etc.  If his associate's degree contained any of those, they'll "unbundle" his degree and count them toward that total.   They are on the less expensive side for people who want grades and are using aid.  They used to have multiple options for course length (8, 16, and even 5 week I think) but I'm not seeing that on their website now, so I don't know if that's still an option.  But, if he's using aid, there will be parameters for the terms as well as number of classes to take.

Aside from the alternative credit cap, I love AMU/APU.  I think they have some of the coolest majors around.

I agree that AMU/APU has some cool degree names.  They are becoming less friendly and just like any B&M university by only allowing 30 SH.  I see them becoming less useful.

[dfrecore]

For a friend with an RA associates, who is open to a few different fields for a bachelor's. He needs a flexible/quicker school where financial aid can cover the classes and where classes are graded. 

I'm suggesting APU because it's flexible with the 8 week terms and many starts, but are there a couple schools other that are similar that should be considered? SNHU maybe?

(Big Three classes cost too much.)

Doesn't have to take ACE, but it would be good to know which do.

This may not matter, but the entire APUS system now caps alternative credit at 30 for a bachelor's degree- so that includes ACE / CLEP/ AP / PLA /etc.  If his associate's degree contained any of those, they'll "unbundle" his degree and count them toward that total.   They are on the less expensive side for people who want grades and are using aid.  They used to have multiple options for course length (8, 16, and even 5 week I think) but I'm not seeing that on their website now, so I don't know if that's still an option.  But, if he's using aid, there will be parameters for the terms as well as number of classes to take.

Aside from the alternative credit cap, I love AMU/APU.  I think they have some of the coolest majors around.

I agree that AMU/APU has some cool degree names.  They are becoming less friendly and just like any B&M university by only allowing 30 SH.  I see them becoming less useful.

I see them as useful in terms of having decently priced courses ($810 each) with a good format (8-week terms that stare on the first Monday of each month).  I don't remember anyone on here treating them like the Big 3, where you can bring in a large amount of ACE/NCCRS credits anyway, so it's not a huge loss as far as I can tell.

[dan.g]

Check out the accelerated Bachelor of Business Administration at Baker College if you are still looking. They are a RA non-profit based in Michigan. Baker accepts most ACE credits, to my surprise as I did not realize this until I decided to send my ACE transcript in to them.

The accelerated BBA program allows 48 elective credits, in which you can essentially transfer in any courses that are ACE recommended. I most of mine through Straighterline. Most of the General Education can be done through Straighterline as well, with the exception of Oral Communication which I could not find an equivalent for. I still need to transfer in a class that qualifies as Algebra II and Oral Communication, and still working with them on that.

The tuition is $400/credit, but only $270 if you have military affiliation. The curriculum is good, challenging but not to the point that it is a killer. Also, most of the professors are very cool people. Many work in the actual field where they are teaching and have a Master's or PhD.

I do believe the Major classes need to be taken at Baker, that is 6 courses with 4 credits each. These classes are more demanding than the 3 credit hour courses.

I think I will put a degree plan together for interested people, because Baker is actually a good school and they are very flexible with transfer credits.