Is it possible to get a bachelor's degree in anything with mostly Sophia, etc?

[bjcheung77]

@whiverem, exactly what everyone is mentioning here, there is going to be some writing involved sometime during your educational journey. For most of the alternative credit institutions we recommend... You can do 90 credits max with alternative credits, that's already 3/4th of your degree. As per my post #5, you have the option to extend those to 113/114 credits and finish the remaining ones at Excelsior/TESU respectively, all of those can come from alternative credit options for Excelsior, TESU requires RA credits where you can take TECEP exams for the 'easier' courses.

[ss20ts]

I agree with the writing being a necessity requiremen, and UMPI not having a traditional capstone is a plus for those with a fear of writing. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I know that drafts can be submitted for UMPI courses (so you can get feedback and make changes) prior to final grade submission, but doesn't UMPI also offer a student writing resource service (writing center) that can help a student improve their writing skills? It was my understanding that this is available to remote/YourPace students as well as those on campus?

Currently, yes there is a Rough Draft allowed in the bachelor's degrees at UMPI (not in the master's degree). We don't know if that will continue with the move to Brightspace which seems to be happening this fall. There is a writing center to help all students including YourPace students. The librarian (Eric) is also really helpful with research.

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How many times is the OP going to ask this? The answer isn't going to change. If anything, it is going to get more difficult to earn a college degree. Not easier. The testing only era ended like a decade ago. TESU now requires 30 RA credits plus 3 courses completed at TESU. EU requires some courses to be completed there and are more difficult to transfer ACE credit to now than in the past. COSC isn't even an option anymore. Just in the 3 years I've been on this forum, I've seem a TON of changes and none in favor of the student. So buckle up buttercup and get working on a degree before the methods on here are no longer an option or become more difficult, more expensive, and more time consuming.

[dfrecore]

TESU now requires 30 RA credits plus 3 courses completed at TESU. EU requires some courses to be completed there and are more difficult to transfer ACE credit to now than in the past. COSC isn't even an option anymore. Just in the 3 years I've been on this forum, I've seem a TON of changes and none in favor of the student. So buckle up buttercup and get working on a degree before the methods on here are no longer an option or become more difficult, more expensive, and more time consuming.

TESU only requires 2 courses/6cr, Excelsior requires 3 courses/7cr.

Excelsior is not harder to transfer ACE credit to now, they just changed a couple of requirements for a couple degrees (like Business Writing instead of English Comp II for the Business degree, which to me is actually preferable).  They also accept NCCRS credit, including lots of UL from Coopersmith.  They have not changed their ACE/NCCRS credit policies at all as far as I know, and I've been on here for 13+ years - their degrees are actually as easy to get now than they used to be.  And their tuition actually went down a couple of years ago for those who are on the 113cr transfer plan.  And they are the only one of the Big 3 that has no RA requirement which is a huge bonus for anyone starting with zero credits, and who doesn't want to do a CBE program.  And their GE is still the easiest to meet out of any school I know of.

COSC is still an option if you already have 27cr of UL in the major, and they're still a lot cheaper than TESU or Excelsior (about $2,848 for 2 courses/6cr last I checked - you'd have to finish the cornerstone in the first half of a term and the capstone in the 2nd half).  You can't beat that with a stick, again, for anyone who has a lot of RA credits already, especially UL, and doesn't want to do a CBE program.

[bjcheung77]

@whiverem, UMPI is going to have writing assignments, I will go with them as the first option as they do not have a capstone.  Even with assignments/written work, they are the least amount combined, compared to a capstone/cornerstone at Excelsior or TESU.  It really depends on how you want to work things, do the 90 credits that will transfer to all three and then decide which Excelsior BSLA, TESU BALS, UMPI BLS would fit your needs.  Excelsior/UMPI options give you 60 free credits to select from anything... TESU is the most expensive of the three.  You may want to swing things differently as per this thread and my last post #11:  https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...lan-for-me

[ss20ts]

TESU only requires 2 courses/6cr, Excelsior requires 3 courses/7cr.

Excelsior is not harder to transfer ACE credit to now, they just changed a couple of requirements for a couple degrees (like Business Writing instead of English Comp II for the Business degree, which to me is actually preferable).  They also accept NCCRS credit, including lots of UL from Coopersmith.  They have not changed their ACE/NCCRS credit policies at all as far as I know, and I've been on here for 13+ years - their degrees are actually as easy to get now than they used to be.  And their tuition actually went down a couple of years ago for those who are on the 113cr transfer plan.  And they are the only one of the Big 3 that has no RA requirement which is a huge bonus for anyone starting with zero credits, and who doesn't want to do a CBE program.  And their GE is still the easiest to meet out of any school I know of.

COSC is still an option if you already have 27cr of UL in the major, and they're still a lot cheaper than TESU or Excelsior (about $2,848 for 2 courses/6cr last I checked - you'd have to finish the cornerstone in the first half of a term and the capstone in the 2nd half).  You can't beat that with a stick, again, for anyone who has a lot of RA credits already, especially UL, and doesn't want to do a CBE program.

I thought TESU had a Cornerstone, Capstone, and the literacy course. EU was not super easy to transfer to in my experience. The advisors didn't know much about anything except their own courses. I had a ton of RA credit and much of it was useless there. They have time limits with their business degrees for transfer credit of any source. EU also now charges a few hundred bucks for every transcript evaluation after your first one. That can add up quickly. 

If one already has 27 UL RA credits, they should be really close to finishing their degree at their school so why transfer to COSC? I can't tell you the last time I saw anyone on here recommend COSC. TESU and UMPI seem to be the most popular right now.

[davewill]

I thought TESU had a Cornerstone, Capstone, and the literacy course. EU was not super easy to transfer to in my experience. The advisors didn't know much about anything except their own courses. I had a ton of RA credit and much of it was useless there. They have time limits with their business degrees for transfer credit of any source. EU also now charges a few hundred bucks for every transcript evaluation after your first one. That can add up quickly. 

If one already has 27 UL RA credits, they should be really close to finishing their degree at their school so why transfer to COSC? I can't tell you the last time I saw anyone on here recommend COSC. TESU and UMPI seem to be the most popular right now.

The literacy course and the Cornerstone are the same thing.

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Th...University
SOS-110 Information Literacy: This is the Cornerstone course that is required for all Associates and Bachelor's degrees. The only exception is for students who are obtaining a second degree bachelor's degree at TESU.

[bjcheung77]

Yeah, it's easy to get Excelsior and TESU mixed up as we're talking about both institutions at the same time.... Excelsior is the one with the Info Lit and Cornerstone in addition to the Capstone, TESU is just the cornerstone and capstone as they do not have a secondary info lit course...

[dfrecore]

TESU only requires 2 courses/6cr, Excelsior requires 3 courses/7cr.

Excelsior is not harder to transfer ACE credit to now, they just changed a couple of requirements for a couple degrees (like Business Writing instead of English Comp II for the Business degree, which to me is actually preferable).  They also accept NCCRS credit, including lots of UL from Coopersmith.  They have not changed their ACE/NCCRS credit policies at all as far as I know, and I've been on here for 13+ years - their degrees are actually as easy to get now than they used to be.  And their tuition actually went down a couple of years ago for those who are on the 113cr transfer plan.  And they are the only one of the Big 3 that has no RA requirement which is a huge bonus for anyone starting with zero credits, and who doesn't want to do a CBE program.  And their GE is still the easiest to meet out of any school I know of.

COSC is still an option if you already have 27cr of UL in the major, and they're still a lot cheaper than TESU or Excelsior (about $2,848 for 2 courses/6cr last I checked - you'd have to finish the cornerstone in the first half of a term and the capstone in the 2nd half).  You can't beat that with a stick, again, for anyone who has a lot of RA credits already, especially UL, and doesn't want to do a CBE program.

I thought TESU had a Cornerstone, Capstone, and the literacy course. EU was not super easy to transfer to in my experience. The advisors didn't know much about anything except their own courses. I had a ton of RA credit and much of it was useless there. They have time limits with their business degrees for transfer credit of any source. EU also now charges a few hundred bucks for every transcript evaluation after your first one. That can add up quickly. 

If one already has 27 UL RA credits, they should be really close to finishing their degree at their school so why transfer to COSC? I can't tell you the last time I saw anyone on here recommend COSC. TESU and UMPI seem to be the most popular right now.

TESU has the cornerstone and capstone only, for 6cr.  Excelsior has the cornerstone, capstone and info lit course for 7cr.

And yes, Excelsior advisors can be as bad as TESU ones; that does not make them a bad school, just the usual; it's not at all shocking.  I also did not claim that they were "super easy" to transfer into; they're about average.  I agree that you may have tons of RA credits that are useless there, depending on your prior credit and the degree you want to get.  Again, this is not shocking, this is par for the course.  You may have the same issues at ANY school you want to transfer to.  Also, most schools have a time limit on transferring courses in the major - TESU does as well.  Not a surprise.

As for people having 27cr of UL - I have seen MANY, many transcripts over the years where this is the case, and the person was still not anywhere close to a degree at their previous school for a variety of reasons.  Here are some I can come up with off the top of my head: 1) it's been long enough that the degree no longer exists at the school; 2) the person changed majors several times and still doesn't have enough UL credits in any one major to finish a degree in a decent amount of time; 3) it's still way too expensive to finish the degree in 2-4 semesters (or even 1 semester); 4) the school does not have online courses in the major and the student has either moved away or has other responsibilities and can't do an on-campus program; 5) the major requires an in-person component to the program like a field experience, clinical hours, an externship, and the student can no longer do this; 6) the student's GPA is low enough that the school won't re-admit them; 7) the student still needs 20+ UL credits to complete the major (many require closer to 45-60cr of UL in the major).  I have seen ALL of these more than once.

I have been doing degree planning for 13+ years, and have seen THOUSANDS of transcripts, and about a thousand evals from TESU, EU, COSC, UMPI, WGU, etc.  I know most of these schools well enough by now to look at a student's previous transcripts and tell them which school might be the best fit.  I also know that right now, TESU and UMPI are the most popular, but that ebbs and flows over the years.  When I first started on here, COSC was definitely the most popular, followed by Excelsior and then TESU. TESU overtook EU for a long time.  Then, EU was more popular when COSC and TESU added the RA requirement.  Now COSC is very unpopular.  But for a very long time, they were a significant portion of the degree seekers' option here (I'd say for at least 5 years).

This degree forum has been around for a long time, and unless you've been on for 10+ years, you don't know that you can't base everything on what you see on here now. I guarantee you, schools' policies change, and UMPI may go away just as quickly as it came on here; they may have a dean that comes in and decides that they will no longer accept ACE credit, or limit it to 30 or 60cr.  They may change the number of courses they take from any single provider (or Sophia may jack up their prices to what they used to be, and it's no longer as easy to get 90cr cheaply).  They may raise their YourPace tuition to something less affordable.  The people that work in the program may leave, and the person who takes their place may be awful to work with, and people just get frustrated and decide to stop using them because it's impossible to enroll.  They may take away degree programs.  They may add a capstone that takes an entire term. Or two.  They may make every course harder to complete, by adding extra papers or projects.  They may implement a policy that says you can't finish a course in less than 2 weeks.  I've seen all of these things happen over the years.

So, just because you haven't seen something doesn't make it untrue.  Maybe you just haven't been around long enough to see it.  But there are people on here who can attest to what it was like 5 or 10 or 15 years ago.  Anyone remember when there were no capstones or cornerstones at any of the Big 3 and you enrolled, sent in your credits, and graduated without taking a single course there?  Then remember when you could test out of TESU's Business degree by taking the Capstone TECEP exam.  And then when you could take the Capstone through Penn Foster and transfer it in?  Remember when you could take the GRE and get enough credits, both LL and UL for and entire major in Psychology or Biology?  Remember when the DSST had a ton of UL credit, and some CLEP exams were worth UL credit, and you could get all of your degree via test-out only through CLEP and DSST?  Remember when Excelsior and COSC awarded letter grades for CLEP and DSST exams?

Ah, the good ol' days...

[davewill]

So true, dfrecore. It's worth noting that positive changes have happened as well. The alt credit providers have stepped up with more of the courses needed for popular degrees. For example, it used to be that you couldn't get the AOS courses for the BACS at TESU from alt credit because they didn't exist. You had to use PLA or courses from RA schools as that was the only game in town.

Of the CBE choices we now have, only WGU was available way back when, and they had fewer degree programs available. We've also grown a number of online master's programs which weren't an option before.

[ss20ts]

TESU has the cornerstone and capstone only, for 6cr.  Excelsior has the cornerstone, capstone and info lit course for 7cr.

And yes, Excelsior advisors can be as bad as TESU ones; that does not make them a bad school, just the usual; it's not at all shocking.  I also did not claim that they were "super easy" to transfer into; they're about average.  I agree that you may have tons of RA credits that are useless there, depending on your prior credit and the degree you want to get.  Again, this is not shocking, this is par for the course.  You may have the same issues at ANY school you want to transfer to.  Also, most schools have a time limit on transferring courses in the major - TESU does as well.  Not a surprise.

As for people having 27cr of UL - I have seen MANY, many transcripts over the years where this is the case, and the person was still not anywhere close to a degree at their previous school for a variety of reasons.  Here are some I can come up with off the top of my head: 1) it's been long enough that the degree no longer exists at the school; 2) the person changed majors several times and still doesn't have enough UL credits in any one major to finish a degree in a decent amount of time; 3) it's still way too expensive to finish the degree in 2-4 semesters (or even 1 semester); 4) the school does not have online courses in the major and the student has either moved away or has other responsibilities and can't do an on-campus program; 5) the major requires an in-person component to the program like a field experience, clinical hours, an externship, and the student can no longer do this; 6) the student's GPA is low enough that the school won't re-admit them; 7) the student still needs 20+ UL credits to complete the major (many require closer to 45-60cr of UL in the major).  I have seen ALL of these more than once.

I have been doing degree planning for 13+ years, and have seen THOUSANDS of transcripts, and about a thousand evals from TESU, EU, COSC, UMPI, WGU, etc.  I know most of these schools well enough by now to look at a student's previous transcripts and tell them which school might be the best fit.  I also know that right now, TESU and UMPI are the most popular, but that ebbs and flows over the years.  When I first started on here, COSC was definitely the most popular, followed by Excelsior and then TESU. TESU overtook EU for a long time.  Then, EU was more popular when COSC and TESU added the RA requirement.  Now COSC is very unpopular.  But for a very long time, they were a significant portion of the degree seekers' option here (I'd say for at least 5 years).

This degree forum has been around for a long time, and unless you've been on for 10+ years, you don't know that you can't base everything on what you see on here now. I guarantee you, schools' policies change, and UMPI may go away just as quickly as it came on here; they may have a dean that comes in and decides that they will no longer accept ACE credit, or limit it to 30 or 60cr.  They may change the number of courses they take from any single provider (or Sophia may jack up their prices to what they used to be, and it's no longer as easy to get 90cr cheaply).  They may raise their YourPace tuition to something less affordable.  The people that work in the program may leave, and the person who takes their place may be awful to work with, and people just get frustrated and decide to stop using them because it's impossible to enroll.  They may take away degree programs.  They may add a capstone that takes an entire term. Or two.  They may make every course harder to complete, by adding extra papers or projects.  They may implement a policy that says you can't finish a course in less than 2 weeks.  I've seen all of these things happen over the years.

So, just because you haven't seen something doesn't make it untrue.  Maybe you just haven't been around long enough to see it.  But there are people on here who can attest to what it was like 5 or 10 or 15 years ago.  Anyone remember when there were no capstones or cornerstones at any of the Big 3 and you enrolled, sent in your credits, and graduated without taking a single course there?  Then remember when you could test out of TESU's Business degree by taking the Capstone TECEP exam.  And then when you could take the Capstone through Penn Foster and transfer it in?  Remember when you could take the GRE and get enough credits, both LL and UL for and entire major in Psychology or Biology?  Remember when the DSST had a ton of UL credit, and some CLEP exams were worth UL credit, and you could get all of your degree via test-out only through CLEP and DSST?  Remember when Excelsior and COSC awarded letter grades for CLEP and DSST exams?

Ah, the good ol' days...

Not sure why you're being so condescending. I hope your day gets better. I have stated over and over that schools change policies. UMPI has made a ton of changes since I first enrolled back in August 2020. Some good. Some bad. Change is part of life. I didn't say anything was untrue. I spoke about my experience at EU and how awful it was. I've attempted EU numerous times and each time it was complete crap. I'm going back 15 years with EU. I also don't say UMPI is the best choice for everyone. It's one option. I did say that TESU and UMPI seem to be the most popular currently.