Just FYI Study.com's price is going up to $216 next month!

[Dorothy44]

I am getting signed up late because of the hurricane in our area.  I just signed up, and I noticed that the price is going on in November!!

[GizmoJack]

That's not good news but they are basically the only place that has cheap UL credit courses. Between Sophia and SDC I guess it still balances out to "affordable" college credits

[Lacedonia4]

A price increase without any improvement?

You'd think they decreased the price during the pandemic.

There should be more sites that offer competitive prices for UL courses, doesn't make sense only one does and can increase price like that.

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You'd think they got rid of subscription price and only charge $70 per course and allow students to repeat entire course only once if failed.

[cerich67]

A price increase without any improvement?

You'd think they decreased the price during the pandemic.

There should be more sites that offer competitive prices for UL courses, doesn't make sense only one does and can increase price like that.

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You'd think they got rid of subscription price and only charge $70 per course and allow students to repeat entire course only once if failed.

not a business major eh?

[posabsolute]

I think study.com pricing is fair, it's not a huge increase and they stayed at the same price for multiple years, these are all for-profit companies.

[rachel83az]

I do think that it's a fair price increase. Inflation makes the cost of everything go up.

That said, it's also galling that they're doing this right now when everyone else is offering discounts and/or things for free. Some colleges/universities have instituted tuition freezes so students don't have to worry about prices going up.

[Lacedonia4]

Cerich, I took all business courses on sophia and some others but do not choose to major in it because I do not care to pursue that degree.

Plus you do not need a degree in business to recognize poor quality.

I am enrolled in sdc for just a couple of courses.

As I read on other posts, study. com has a contract with colleges, and the main purpose is to actually drive students to take UL courses at the college and not as alternative credits and that is also why all courses cannot be repeated if failed.

Still there are other low cost options for UL like Coopersmith and BYU independent studies.

[posabsolute]

monopolistic scam? Really? For one, you get what you pay for, it's still only 108$ per course (even lower if you do more than 2 exams per month), you also have many option in community college around the 200-300$ per course which keep the market down. Yes, they have UL's that nobody else have in ACE world, and because of that, they can drive the price up but that's no where a "monopolistic scam".

Most of those providers that offer low cost ACE courses have big quirks in their courses, they aren't universities.

[Lacedonia4]

lf other services are lowering prices because of pandemic, they are doing the opposite. They could make more money lowering prices gaining more customers.

I am only taking a couple of classes with sdc and then will do the rest with BYU that charges only 150 per credit so not so bad.

[cerich67]

Cerich, I took all business courses on sophia and some others but do not choose to major in it because I do not care to pursue that degree.

Plus you do not need a degree in business to recognize a monopolistic scam.

I'd rather take all courses at my college than waste a penny on study. com

Just because one chooses not to be scammed, doesn't mean one doesn't understand their idea of "profit".

Study. com claims their contributors are PhDs but then each course, instead of being written by only one professor, it is a jumble of redundant, poorly written articles, each article written by a different teacher.

They could improve so much, reduce the repetition, make it a real course.
But then the balance shifts. As it puts more weight on final for the students.

But as I read on other posts, study. com has a contract with colleges, and the main purpose is to actually drive students to take UL courses at the college and not as alternative credits and that is also why all courses cannot be repeated if failed.

Still there are other low cost options for UL like Coopersmith and BYU independent studies.

It's FAR from a monopoly nor is it a scam.

You are very welcome to enroll in any of thousands of Colleges/Universities that offer upper level courses online.

They invested in offering UL ACE certified courses and offer them for thousands less than colleges and universities do. They took a risk and made the investment because they viewed it as a blue water strategy most likely, but a very risky one. Most Colleges and Universities are not very if at all interested in accepting UL ACE credits on transfer. As a result, SDC has invested in a product with a limited application (big 3 mostly) which likely accounts for a very large % of UL courses being done on SDC. If one or more of the big 3 stop being so generous, they will have an end of cycle product, that would not generate revenue nor profits. Even being ACE approved, that does not guarantee anything (look at Schoomp (sp) )

The price increase is less than 10%, inflation is real.

Last point, you are very clear you dislike SDC and would rather take courses from colleges than SDC, given that, why even comment?

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Sorry was just responding to cerich about his question about myself not being a business major.

Study. com content is very poorly written and biased and yes price is so so for UL ACE but it is sad it is one of the few options out there, some even complain history courses are biased against Israel.

So I might not take their history course on Holocaust.

They may not be a ~scam~ but surely they have a "monopoly" in the matter of UL alternative ACE courses.

And with all other services lowering prices because of pandemic, they are doing the opposite. They could make more money lowering prices gaining more customers but their job is really to push people to take real courses at the colleges they sponsor.

I am only taking a couple of classes with sdc and then will do the rest with BYU I.S.
(Costs more but at least they are honest)

So, you are trying to discredit SDC and the quality of the courses, maybe hopeful that they will no longer be accepted? 

If you want bias for Israel, go to Liberty. Knowing that SDC uses a wide variety of folks to write the courses, that most universities are liberal or progressive generally, why would you anticipate that SDC would not reflect that? 

As far as lowering their prices, they simply don't need to, not because they are a monopoly, but because they are the value leader.