Penn Foster College Individual NA Courses, $499 Each

[Jonathan Whatley]

Penn Foster College now offers individual online college courses for $499 per course. This comes after several years of PFC not offering individual courses, only entire degree programs where students pay a block rate per semester and take courses in a prescribed order.

Most courses are 3 semester hours. 166.33 per semester hour is one of the better rates you’ll find in the US outside some alt-credit and community colleges.

Tuition includes digital textbooks and study materials. Courses are self-paced. In PFC degree programs, you have 12 months to complete each term with a possibility of six-month extensions for a fee.

There are a few important distinctions to note.

Penn Foster College is nationally accredited by the DEAC, not regionally accredited. Some destination schools accept nationally accredited credit categorically, some case-by-case, some not. Increasingly, but not universally, the destination schools we discuss most at DegreeForum are friendly to NA transfer credit.

Years ago it was a moderately popular DegreeForum tactic to take Penn Foster College courses only when they had ACE credit recommendations, to transfer to schools that were ACE friendly but not NA friendly. That tactic is now obsolete, because Penn Foster College has let every ACE credit recommendation expire without renewal. There are no active PFC ACE courses anymore. But if your destination school will now accept PFC credit on the basis that the credit is NA, the ACE basis doesn’t matter to you.

An important distinction remains that the Penn Foster brand and pennfoster.edu website are shared by a set of legally distinct schools and programs, most of which do not have transferable degree-level credit attached. A good way to tell them apart is by referring to the official catalogs. Courses with transferable degree-level credit are in the Penn Foster College Undergraduate Student Catalog. Courses without such credit are in the Penn Foster Career School, Penn Foster High School, Penn Foster Training Institute, and Penn Foster College Diploma and Certificate catalogs.

The Penn Foster College Undergraduate Student Catalog currently lists courses in the following subjects. Most are lower level, designed for PFC Associate of Science degrees. PFC also offers three bachelor’s degrees, in Business Management, Criminal Justice, and Veterinary Technology, so upper-level courses are offered in these three subjects. PFC offers no graduate courses or programs.

• Accounting
  
• Allied Health
  
• Business
  
• Civil Engineering
  
• Computer Information Systems
  
• Computer Science
  
• Construction Technology
  
• Criminal Justice
  
• Early Childhood Education
  
• Electricity and Electronics
  
• Engineering Science Technology
  
• English
  
• Fashion
  
• Finance
  
• Graphic Design
  
• Health Information Technology
  
• Human Resources Management
  
• Humanities
  
• Industrial Engineering Technology
  
• Interior Design
  
• Internet Technology
  
• Marketing
  
• Mathematics
  
• Mechanical Engineering Technology
  
• Medical Assistant
  
• Nutrition
  
• Paralegal Studies
  
• PC Maintenance Technology
  
• Science
  
• Social Science
  
• Veterinary Technology
  

PFC “Computer Science” courses are mostly pretty basic IT courses like Introduction to Microsoft Windows, unlikely to help toward a Computer Science degree.

In the UMPI transfer database, every PFC Graphic Design course listed comes in to UMPI as GEL 1XX or GEL 2XX general elective credit, so these might not work to assemble a Graphic Design transfer minor there.

Not every PFC course is necessarily available for individual course enrollment.

[bjcheung77]

Actually, from the first link, if you go down to the FAQ, right above it will be the 'Can’t find the college course you’re looking for?', you'll see they've updated the list way back in 2021.  They've had the option for individual courses well before that date as I took 3 classes from them.  Back then it was $237/course and worth 3 credits that had ACE recommendation for credit, there weren't any options to transfer into TESU, so I had to get the classes through Penn Foster.

Penn Foster does have a few programs that aren't available elsewhere, such as their Vet Tech Bachelors.  Even though it's NA, it's a pretty good program.  Their sister college, Ashworth (acquired competition), recently downsized and voluntarily terminated or withdrew their accreditation to the Vet Tech Associates, thus, promoting Penn Fosters program instead.  Here's the info on Ashworth's program: https://www.ashworthcollege.edu/associat...ee-online/

Penn Foster doesn't really need the ACE recommendations, as most RA institutions would at least look at them on a case-by-case basis.  There are several RA institutions they partner with already, and many more recommended institutions such as Excelsior, TESU, will take their NA credits.

[Mint Berry Crunch]

Actually, from the first link, if you go down to the FAQ, right above it will be the 'Can’t find the college course you’re looking for?', you'll see they've updated the list way back in 2021.  They've had the option for individual courses well before that date as I took 3 classes from them.  Back then it was $237/course and worth 3 credits that had ACE recommendation for credit, there weren't any options to transfer into TESU, so I had to get the classes through Penn Foster.

Penn Foster does have a few programs that aren't available elsewhere, such as their Vet Tech Bachelors.  Even though it's NA, it's a pretty good program.  Their sister college, Ashworth (acquired competition), recently downsized and voluntarily terminated or withdrew their accreditation to the Vet Tech Associates, thus, promoting Penn Fosters program instead.  Here's the info on Ashworth's program: https://www.ashworthcollege.edu/associat...ee-online/

Penn Foster doesn't really need the ACE recommendations, as most RA institutions would at least look at them on a case-by-case basis.  There are several RA institutions they partner with already, and many more recommended institutions such as Excelsior, TESU, will take their NA credits.

Aside from those very specific programs, wouldn't any community college or ASU be a better/cheaper option?

[Jonathan Whatley]

Aside from those very specific programs, wouldn't any community college or ASU be a better/cheaper option?

Self-paced over 12 months can be an advantage for students fitting it in to a busy schedule. Some ASU EA courses are similar, but some, and almost all CC courses, have more standard semester schedules.

PFC does have many specific programs that are fairly rare by distance, including engineering technology, construction technology, graphic design, and interior design.

Subjects like graphic design could be rewarding and motivating for creative students at risk of burning out on other academic subjects.

Many community colleges aren’t much cheaper or are more expensive than this for out of state, and you may have limited CCs in your home state, or you may have no US home state.

[bjcheung77]

Essentially, I would say it's pretty much a tie between ASU and Penn Foster as it really depends on what classes you're going after for transfer and where you're going to ultimately transfer them over. For Penn Foster, you can actually get it cheaper than ASU's $425/course, it's generally going to be $109/credit if you apply for a degree program with at least 75% credits transferred, then take classes in any order, it doesn't have to follow their degree path plan. $109/credit, for 3 credits, that's $327, an increase of $90 over when I had taken mine, almost 9 years ago...

[Sunny21]

If you can do more than 3 courses in a semester (12 weeks I think it is ) then you might as well pay the 1500 normal fee.

But the problem is where takes NA credits maybe Tesu, maybe UMPI? Ending up with a na degree without going to an Ra end point college can be career limiting and other countries don't see NA as a proper degree for international students or people who want to work outside the US.

[bjcheung77]

In the case of the Vet Tech Bachelors program I mentioned, you're not going to find many RA options, and it's already geared towards the US (and Canada, even, as they partner with Vet Clinics under several different brands). Penn Foster, Genesis University, and other DEAC options are valuable for those who need a specific degree path that is offered through those DEAC institutions, essentially (not offered through RA options cheaply), it's usually not for those outside North America either...

[Sunny21]

Let's say I came along did 50 credits at Sophia, did 15 credits at study. Thought I better start applying to an end point college. Looked around thought umpi looks okay, but concerned they are slow at letting people in, so let's try PF whilst I am waiting an age for UMPI. I just don't think I would go PF as they aren't ace or RA


PF courses might be as good as UMPI but I have never tried any pf

I honestly think I would stick with study or I would try some teceps as they are RA whilst I was waiting 3cor 4 months to be let into umpi

Sorry PF I think the NA puts me off