Hello!Starting at ZERO credits and beginning my journey to a TESU Bachelors Degree.

[DavidHume]

If he did go for his liberal arts,what would be the cheapest and/or easiest way to get the 15 upper level credit

For me, the easiest way to get upper level credits was the UExcel exams. There are 6 upper level social sciences/history exams available that are part of their package deal that gets you access to 2 free practice exams (each are about 1/2 the length of the real exam) and a free re-take. I'm not sure if the re-take is only available if you fail the initial exam or if they allow you to re-take to improve your score/grade. The 4 I took all transferred as upper level to TESU. I believe that even though Juvenile Delinquency is listed as upper level for the exams it transfers to TESU as lower level SOC-242 so I would be wary about taking that one.

I know some folk think that the $110 for the exam or $145 for the package is a bit pricey, but it's still a big savings from traditional 3 credit courses. You also get the benefit that a letter grade is assigned by Excelsior and that grade does show on my TESU transcript. While it is not used to calculate your TESU GPA it would give you some additional graded components for calculating an overall GPA as you do when applying to most graduate programs, should that be in the future.

Another advantage that may apply is that you will get a 1098-T from Excelsior that you can use towards the Lifetime Learning Credit or American Opportunity Credit, depending on your particulars.

Personally, I really liked these exams. I took the first 2 without the benefit of the practice exams, just using the sample questions in the content guide and reading the listed texts. The second 2 exams I had the practice exams because they started offering the package deal. Overall I got two As and two Bs. I likely could have done better if I had invested more time in preparation, but I took all 4 over the course of 2 months while enrolled in 3 traditional classes (plus working full time and commuting between two residences......) Also, I took 2 exams on the same day both times which the testing center folk seemed to think was an odd choice.

[Notgodot]

If he did go for his liberal arts,what would be the cheapest and/or easiest way to get the 15 upper level credit

The cheapest would be Shmoop.com's upper level literature courses, assuming the person could finish the five in one month, for $89ish. Easiest would be quite subjective

[Mamasaphire]

SL, Study.com, and ed4credit all have some relatively inexpensive UL credit options, which can be taken in the comfort of your own home/environment.

[Synicaal]

4) Rlw74 - I looked up the scholarship and if I read it correctly, I think you have to be enrolled somewhere for that. I don't plan to enroll into TESU until later down the road. Am I wrong about this? Also, why do you say that Straightliner would have been faster then Study.com in achieving those credits. 42 credits in 12 weeks is pretty good though...haha.

The guardian scholarship doesn't require you to be enrolled anywhere. At least when I applied for it you didn't.

Why are you waiting to enroll in TESU? Not sure if you have read over some threads about the whole when should I enroll question but in my opinion the sooner the better. I think locking yourself into a catalog year is always the best route. Also if you finish the whole process within a year you don't have to worry about losing you catalog year. If it takes you longer then a year you can take a TECEP somewhere down the road and restart the clock for yourself.

About the Straighterline / Study.com part I have taken classed from both these providers and they both have advantages and disadvantages. Straighterline course (at least the ones I have taken) are much quicker to complete. The Intro to Religion course I probably could have finished it in a day if I had time. The whole course is open book so I didn't waste any time in actually reading the book. However, if you don't want to spend money to take the final quick you have to wait three days to take it. Now Study.com has a bit longer courses but once you hit 100% of the quizzes done you can take the final. So it really depends on if you can do something in the three day wait or if your basically idle in between. Right now I just sit idle on credits until I can take the final. I already signed up for my Managerial Accounting (Cost Accounting) Final for Friday. I have 1 graded exam left between now and then so I may take the first exam again and try and score a bit higher. Got a 110/125 on the first go around, not bad but it could be a little better.

Lastly, about the Math course(s) you may want to just suck it up and get that out of the way ASAP. ALEKS is set to expire again on 3/31/17 and we still have no idea what is going on with them. It keeps getting month renewals that have been going on for months now. I wouldn't risk the cheap credits you can complete. ALEKS is $20 a month and you can complete 4 courses through them if you wanted to. I didn't take stats from ALEKS so not sure about that one but you could most likely complete one course each day if you follow this plan.

Use Mathway to help you on your initial assessment. Fill in your "Pie" a bit on your lowest score stuff. Request new assessment. Start new assessment. Now some people don't realize the assessments are not timed for ALEKS. If you hit a question you are lost on just print it out or write it down, log out, go work on it until you are sure you have the correct answer. Log back in answer the question and continue along. However, it looks like liberal studies requires only one math courses but for 12credits at $20 is $1.67 a credit, you can't beat that. I think you need College Algebra to fulfill the Quantitative Literacy requirement.

Either way I wish you the best of luck. My largest advice for you is to just start knocking out General Educations courses. They are required for all degrees so you won't waste any credits that way.

[Notgodot]

All good advice. Aleks intermediate algebra is good enough for a BALS, though. Yeah, I would get on that first. Being math-phobic, I only did the one math course, but it was a huge relief to have it in my rear-view mirror.

[Primus]

Hello and good morning everyone! Thanks for the advise Synicaal and mentioning that key word "Guardian". I was able to find it with that and I just applied for the scholarship! I got the email back that they received it and I shall be waiting back for a hopeful response. Synicaal, I guess I am waiting to enroll with TESU so I can save on money. I am not sure how long this is going to take and I could probably get away with enrolling with them through my own research on what classes to take and the advise from this forum. If you have other advise, please let me know.
Rlw74, I did look up the wrong scholarship but its all taken care of now. Thanks for planting the seed on that one.

I understand what some of you are saying about the math class. Like a band-aid, just rip that bitch off!..haha. Since you said that there is a deadline on the 31st, I may had to strongly look into this.
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I have seen that The Institutes has the "312N-H Ethics And The CPCU Code Of Professional Conduct - (No CE Credit) (OL) FREE" class. I learned about this from this forum. I'm sure I could knock this out soon also.

In terms of study.com, I guess I shouldn't sign up until I see if I am accepted for their scholarship? Or can I sign up for the free 5 day trial and just take advantage of that while I wait for the response? I can knock out a test or 2 in that 5 day time yes?

I think I am beginning to understand the difference between Straightliner and Study.com. They both sound very good though and it appears that they will offer many many courses that I will need to take,

dfrecore - thanks for the degree plan that you gave me. I have begun to look it over and with all the information that I am receiving, things are beginning to take shape in my mind on what this all means.

I'll be sitting around here for the next 3-4 hours and looking into this, so I'll be around. Look forward in hearing from everyone. Take care!

[ekbenzo]

Does the teex and nfa credits show up as UL?How about saylor' $25 courses,some of them are UL?
Cheap to go that route to

[rlw74]

Hi, I just saw the questions you asked and I think everyone covered those. But I'll go ahead and clarify what I meant, I only said study.com was slower because you have to do all the quizzes before you can take the exam. I feel like I could have taken the exam cold on some of the courses and passed. But it's not a bad way to go. I still recommend it. I've heard of some people using SL who took the open book exams without studying very much or at all and passing in a day or two. You can't do that with study.com.

You should hear about the scholarship within a week or two. I wouldn't start an account unless you want to get a jump on it and have two accounts currently. They don't let you take exams during the trial and even if you merge the trial account with the existing account you still have to take the personal finance class first. I had two accounts so I could knock out 4-5 classes a month. The scholarship account doesn't let you purchase extra exams so I had the second account for one month where I took an additional 3 classes. It is just up to you if you have the time for that. Some people have one study account and one SL account at the same time.

Also, for the BALS there are quite a few UL courses from study that fit. Personally, that was my focus for the scholarship account - getting those UL credits because they can be the hardest to get elsewhere (or just more expensive).

[rowan555]

Welcome! I just wanted to offer a bit of encouragement to you, because this path can seem overwhelming. A year ago this week, my 16 year old son had zero college credits and was working his way through his first Saylor course - Intro to Business. Today, one year later, he has earned 78 credits, and tomorrow he'll have earned 81. This is with him working just a little bit each day and taking a full month off here and there. I'm amazed at what he's accomplished, particularly since he'd never attended traditional school or taken tests in his life, other than the ACT. If he can do it, you sure as heck can. Good luck, and enjoy!

[BingCherry]

I got the scholarship as well. What UL courses for a BALS at TESU are at Study.com? I know about an educational classroom one which I will take, but interested in others as well. I have no idea about an AoS though. Not been able to really get a lot of info on that yet so haven't decided on one, or even know what the options are (what lists are there for AoS to choose from).
I have already taken 1 UL course, I think (Shakespeare). Still have some to go and def want to use study for those!