Need a degree to get the CFP

[dfrecore]

mikemart82, you probably are already aware of this, but the educational requirement for the CFP is 2-part.  You have to have a bachelor's degree AND you have to complete a CFP board registered program.  You also need the bachelor's degree to receive the CFP designation, but do not need it to sit for the examinations.  

I looked into CFP years ago and remember that there are credit-bearing and non-credit-bearing CFP board registered programs.  If you end up at TESU, you will need 30 RA hours.  Just from a quick Google search, it looks like the credit-bearing CFP programs are in the 21 credit hour range.  Since you have 9 CC hours, a credit-bearing CFP program might make sense for you.  This would get you to the 30 RA hours you need and would get you that much closer to your BA.

This might be a clever way to get the end result your need for both the degree and the education requirements for the CFP.  The only for credit program that is coming up as self paced is the one at Southern Wesleyan University - https://www.swu.edu/online/financial-planning (appears that you can take the program as stand alone or as a minor - this link just gave the best overall information on the courses).  The course numbering indicate they would count as UL Finance courses; not sure how many fit the Finance requirements for the TESU BSBA-Finance (sure others here will have a better idea on that). They could be used as electives at the very least, and they would count as RA credits along with meeting the requirement you need for the CFP. Here is the link for all those that show college credit offering - https://www.cfp.net/get-certified/certif...,selfstudy

While this sounds like a great idea, I'm going to guess that none of these courses will work for the FIN AoS at TESU; none of the courses listed match any of the courses on here.  TESU's FIN AoS is more about Corporate Finance, and a CFP is more about Personal Finance.

Here's TESU's list of electives that you can bring in:

• Financial Institutions and Markets OR Money and Banking
  
• International Finance
  
• Advanced Financial Management/Corporation Finance
  
• Advanced Security Analysis and Portfolio Management OR Investments II
  
• Business Forecasting
  
• Commercial Banking
  
• Capital Budgeting Management
  
• Capital Structure Management
  
• Derivatives
  
• Mathematical Analysis of Financial Decisions
  
• Risk Management
  
• Working Capital Management
  

[mikehart82]

Awesome! Make sure to list all the credits and their grades as soon as you know what you have.

Ok so it turns out that I don't have any credits from BCCC.  How would you suggest proceeding?

[rachel83az]

Well, that kind of sucks! But it does make things easier in a way. There will be no confusion over whether a certain prior course will meet degree requirements.

First off, are you going to register for a credit-bearing CFP program, as linked to earlier in the thread? If so, I would do that ASAP. There is some confusion over whether those credits can be used in the BSBA's AOS, but they can at least be used as electives. That would get you at least 15-ish RA credits (out of a total of 30 RA credits). If TESU accepts them toward the Finance requirements, then they'd be more than 15 credits, but we'll say 15 to be safe. 6 more credits will come from the capstone/cornerstone, leaving you with 9 RA gen ed credits to complete. We generally recommend the TECEPs for English Comp, so that leaves you with a single RA course that will be needed.

Check out https://www2.tesu.edu/listalltecep.php for a list of all TECEP exams. UExcels are listed here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UE...es_at_TESU Most UExcels will fill either a gen ed requirement or a business core requirement.

You could also choose a course at https://ea.asu.edu/courses/ but some of these do have writing. We can help you to avoid those.

If you are NOT going to register for a credit-bearing CFP program, then you would need 5 more TECEPs, UExcels, or ASU courses. These can be gen eds or they can be electives; it doesn't matter. Pick the 5 that seem like they would be easy for you to pass.

Let us know what you've chosen and we can go from there.

[mikehart82]

Well, that kind of sucks! But it does make things easier in a way. There will be no confusion over whether a certain prior course will meet degree requirements.

First off, are you going to register for a credit-bearing CFP program, as linked to earlier in the thread? If so, I would do that ASAP. There is some confusion over whether those credits can be used in the BSBA's AOS, but they can at least be used as electives. That would get you at least 15-ish RA credits (out of a total of 30 RA credits). If TESU accepts them toward the Finance requirements, then they'd be more than 15 credits, but we'll say 15 to be safe. 6 more credits will come from the capstone/cornerstone, leaving you with 9 RA gen ed credits to complete. We generally recommend the TECEPs for English Comp, so that leaves you with a single RA course that will be needed.

Check out https://www2.tesu.edu/listalltecep.php for a list of all TECEP exams. UExcels are listed here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UE...es_at_TESU Most UExcels will fill either a gen ed requirement or a business core requirement.

You could also choose a course at https://ea.asu.edu/courses/ but some of these do have writing. We can help you to avoid those.

If you are NOT going to register for a credit-bearing CFP program, then you would need 5 more TECEPs, UExcels, or ASU courses. These can be gen eds or they can be electives; it doesn't matter. Pick the 5 that seem like they would be easy for you to pass.

Let us know what you've chosen and we can go from there.

Ok, so step one would be to apply here and do the 21 hours, correct?

https://www.swu.edu/online/financial-planning/

[rachel83az]

If that's the one you're going to take, yes. I'm not sure what other ones might exist and if they might be better or worse than the one at SWU.

[bjcheung77]

Ok, so step one would be to apply here and do the 21 hours, correct?

https://www.swu.edu/online/financial-planning/

That certificate alone is over $9 grand, it'll cost more than your Bachelors.  You may want to email TESU if they will allow transfers from them, if they do, also ask about this and a few others that are less than HALF the price.  The only credits that will come into your degree plan are the AOS, that's the only reason of doing the Certs, it prepares you for CFP and gets you the TESU AOS credits if it transfers. Link:  https://www.bostonifi.com/self-paced/course-outline

[rachel83az]

The Bryant University/BostonIFI course doesn't appear to be a credit-bearing course. That's probably why it's so cheap.

[mikehart82]

The Bryant University/BostonIFI course doesn't appear to be a credit-bearing course. That's probably why it's so cheap.

I'm not super concerned with getting credit for the CFP stuff other than checking the box to take exam.  I'm happy to pay the $6,000.00 for a separate CFP study program.  My main focus is really just getting the degree as fast as possible so I can get it off my back.

[rachel83az]

In that case, check out the spreadsheet that I've attached. Use the following to find appropriate ways to fill it out:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...re_Roadmap
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UE...es_at_TESU

You're going to want at least 8 (24 credits) TECEPs or UExcels; you can also add some courses from ASU. Take English Comp I & II as TECEPs. If you're stymied and need recommendations for an extra course, self-paced Algebra at ASU is highly recommended. It costs more than Sophia, obviously, but it's RA and someone who works with numbers may be able to finish it in just a couple of days.

Once you've chosen your 8 RA courses, move on to filling out what you can with Sophia. You're going to want to prioritize the Sophia courses that have 0 Touchstones (see https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List ), but the Touchstones for Business Law and Communications at Work can be completed in a very, very short amount of time. You also need to take Greek Philosophers in order to properly understand Intro to Ethics, but you don't have to finish Greek Philosophers, unless you want to.

For Oral Communications, you're going to want "Presentation Skills in the Workplace" from Study.com. No assignments, just an exam. 

With Business Core, most LL Study.com courses have no assignments. Just quizzes and an exam. The UL courses generally have at least 1 assignment. 

Davar is pretty much all multiple-choice exams, though I think a couple of them have short-answer format questions on the exam. Basically, write 3-5 sentences that hit the right keywords and you're good. 

You also get 15 credits of electives that you can fill with anything you want. If you want to take a TECEP or a UExcel and it doesn't fit into the rest of your degree plan, it will go here.

[bjcheung77]

There are so many ways to slice this piece of pie and get you what you want, it seems like you're starting pretty much from scratch if you have no community college credits.  If you're going for one of these "certs" for the knowledge before the exam, then you can PLA up to 18 credits from the 7 courses provided by each and everyone of those authorized certification programs that do not have undergrad/grad credit...  https://www.cfp.net/get-certified/certif...n-program/

So, that means, to take 16 credits for residency at TESU to waive the residency fee, and then take the PLA for your AOS as these count for RA credits, you'll get past the 30 RA requirement.  I would take the bulk of the courses from Sophia.org, Study.com to transfer in as per the links provided above and spreadsheet, you should update it with the following information:

I suggest doing the 3 easy e-Packs plus cornerstone/capstone, and the PLA 100 course for 16 credits.  e-Packs basically, these are expensive TECEP exams compared to online or guided study courses...  List to select from: https://www2.tesu.edu/listallc.php?type=EP