TESU, EC, COSC: Quickest & Cheapest?

[ISKBizz15]

With the changes that are going on with ACE/Acclaim I'm moving up my enrollment date to one of the Big 3 ASAP to not potentially lose out on my hard earned credit on my ACE transcript. I was going to wait until after I obtained all of my credits through Sophia and UL through Study.com, but here we are. I have about 35 credits completed through Sophia, TEEX, and a few other sources and would really like to graduate no later than Summer 2021.

I'm going for a simple Liberal Studies BA degree, so my question is, between TESU, COSC and EC which one would be the cheapest, but most importantly the quickest to complete?

[rachel83az]

EC doesn't let you transfer in quite as many courses as you might expect and it's a bit difficult to plan for. It's marginally cheaper than TESU but you might pay for that cost with more frustrations and having to take courses through them, raising the expected price tag by a bit. IIRC, they require 30 UL credits for a degree, which again can be difficult to get when they don't accept as many things in transfer as you might like.

COSC is the cheapest, on paper. However, they do require the 24 RA credits. Even if you get credits through TEL Learning or some other inexpensive source, that raises the cost of credits by quite a bit. Also, they do not allow you to complete the capstone and cornerstone at the same time. This drags out the time it takes to complete a degree.

TESU is the most transparent and open about what they do and do not accept. They do allow you to complete the capstone and cornerstone at the same time. However, they are absolutely awful at communication (which, to be fair, most colleges are). They may not accept your TEEX credits, at least not initially. You're going to have to argue with them there. Otherwise, check this page on the wiki for a generic BALS plan: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ge...egree_Plan Once TESU has evaluated your credits, you can start filling in the empty slots.

[openair]

While Excelsior is difficult to plan for (as Rachel said), I believe that COSC is the most restrictive at this time. They have cut off all National College Credit Recommendation Service sources (you could say goodbye to Davar, Coopersmith, etc.). They have also cut off ACTFL language exams along with all non-partner ACE credit recommendation sources (forget about InstantCert, or anything that isn't on their incredibly small ACE partner list). On top of that, COSC has added a whole year's worth of regional college credit as a necessity. This requirement co-exists with a 30 upper level credit requirement.

[ashkir]

If you want to keep your competency based acceleration, I suggest looking into UMPI YourPace. You can transfer a max of 30 ACE credits in, but the courses are all pretty straight forward and to the point. ss20ts did it, and he did 6 classes in one session. The sessions 8 weeks long.

[bjcheung77]

You should just focus on your Sophia.org and so on, keep at it until you're at about 90 credits. If you want to take a look at Competency Based degree providers you can further investigate Brandman/WGU etc, for the Big 3, do a bit of research, we can advise you but it ultimately depends on you. The easiest would be TESU, I would pick them if you have Pell Grant as an option and take the required 16 credits to get rid of the residency waiver fee...

[ctcarl]

While Excelsior is difficult to plan for (as Rachel said), I believe that COSC is the most restrictive at this time. They have cut off all National College Credit Recommendation Service sources (you could say goodbye to Davar, Coopersmith, etc.). They have also cut off ACTFL language exams along with all non-partner ACE credit recommendation sources (forget about InstantCert, or anything that isn't on their incredibly small ACE partner list). On top of that, COSC has added a whole year's worth of regional college credit as a necessity. This requirement co-exists with a 30 upper level credit requirement.

That's absolutely brutal.  EC took all of my Sophia, Davar, and Coopersmith credits.  Without those options, I would have drowned in a sea of assignments trying to complete my UL requirements.

[dfrecore]

EC doesn't let you transfer in quite as many courses as you might expect and it's a bit difficult to plan for. It's marginally cheaper than TESU but you might pay for that cost with more frustrations and having to take courses through them, raising the expected price tag by a bit. IIRC, they require 30 UL credits for a degree, which again can be difficult to get when they don't accept as many things in transfer as you might like.

COSC is the cheapest, on paper. However, they do require the 24 RA credits. Even if you get credits through TEL Learning or some other inexpensive source, that raises the cost of credits by quite a bit. Also, they do not allow you to complete the capstone and cornerstone at the same time. This drags out the time it takes to complete a degree.

TESU is the most transparent and open about what they do and do not accept. They do allow you to complete the capstone and cornerstone at the same time. However, they are absolutely awful at communication (which, to be fair, most colleges are). They may not accept your TEEX credits, at least not initially. You're going to have to argue with them there.  Otherwise, check this page on the wiki for a generic BALS plan: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ge...egree_Plan Once TESU has evaluated your credits, you can start filling in the empty slots.

COSC is no longer the cheapest if you don't already have 24cr of RA.  They also require that you choose a concentration, using 2 or 3 areas.

EC is cheaper than TESU, but you don't have to take any courses through them except what is required (Cornerstone, Capstone & Info Lit, total of 7cr).  They also have an UL cornerstone which makes it great to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.  They have a deal where it's about $5300 to take the 7cr through them (this includes tuition and all fees), and then they have another one where if you take an additional 2 courses there (so 13cr total), then it's only $5850.  They are pretty transparent on what they bring in; they have partnership agreements with SL, Sophia & Study.com so it's easy to figure out.  They will also accept NA credits.  They've recently gotten rid of their depths requirement - meaning you can get your credits in anything that's a liberal studies course.  BUT, a big bonus here - you can choose 1 or 2 Area of Focus', meaning you can do 21cr in a single area (like Psych, History, Business, etc.) and do 6cr UL and 15cr LL, and it will be put on your transcript.  They also have the option of a BA or BS in Liberal Arts, so if you have a lot of Free Electives (like Business or Nursing or Pharmacology or Welding, etc.) then you can have up to 60cr of those.

TESU is still the easiest I think, with only the 18cr of UL required.  But the flexibility is going to cost you...

I would say that at this point, it really depends on what you already have as to which way you should go.