PennFoster vs. Straighterline for TESC BSBA

[IrishJohn]

Hello again everyone. For those who remember me, I was here on the forums a little over a year ago in 2010 working on a BA in History from TESC which I finished. I'm now seriously thinking about getting a BSBA from TESC, which fits my career field better than History and is more for resume enhancement so this time I'm not in a rush to complete it as fast as possible. If it takes a couple of years or so that's a-okay with me. Anyway, I've been looking at some of the requirements for BSBA and I wanted to know ya'll's opinion concerning PennFoster courses vs. Straighterline. I know that Straighterline is cheaper but PennFoster seems to give more time to complete them without costing more money, which is conducive to my schedule, and to be frank some seem to be easier. I know that some of these courses are available through CLEP/DSST exams, but I'm thinking that a few of them I might prefer a more structured course.

What do you think of these courses at PF or SL?

Accounting I & II at PF vs. SL
Business Law I & II at PF vs. SL
Business & Technical Writing at PF vs. SL
Consumer Behavior at PF
Earth Science at PF vs. Biology 101 at SL
Financial Management at PF vs. DSST exam
Intro to Business at PF vs. SL or CLEP exam
Macroeconomics at PF vs. SL or CLEP exam
Microeconomics at PF vs. SL or CLEP exam

Thanks for you input and I hope that everyone had a very merry and blessed Christmas!

[bricabrac]

What do you think of these courses at PF or SL?

Accounting I & II at PF vs. SL...either or. I did SL back when it transferred into FHSU. I think it would be cheaper via SL...if you google the BOGO coupon. You can get both knocked out within a month. Even if it took two months it would be cheaper than one PF. I don't know anything about the PF Acct I/II courses other than to say if they are anything like Intermediate Accounting (which I took via PF) it was fast and not too much work.
Business Law I & II at PF vs. SL...on this one its PF vs CLEP/DSST...Of the two I only took the LAW201 CLEP -- not too difficult at all.
Business & Technical Writing at PF vs. SL....the easier/faster method is PF but if you did both one would fill Managerial Communications (PF) and the other could flll an UL business elective (SL).
Consumer Behavior at PF ... awesome course. quizzes and blackboard responses easily doable within 1 week. Then have to wait for the final exam to be mailed to proctor. exam short answer essays...open book.
Earth Science at PF vs. Biology 101 at SL
Financial Management at PF vs. DSST exam .... PF - easily doable within 1 week
Intro to Business at PF vs. SL or CLEP exam ...it's actually a DSST, I took it cold and had no problem passing ...If I had waited until after completing economics and accounting I would have received a much higher score.
Macroeconomics at PF vs. SL or CLEP exam....I did SL; I'm sure PF will be less work than SL but your choice
Microeconomics at PF vs. SL or CLEP exam....I did SL; I'm sure PF will be less work than SL but your choice


Thanks for you input and I hope that everyone had a very merry and blessed Christmas!

Hi IJ !!!

Happy Holidays! It's wonderful to have you back on the forum! I just completed my BSBA, grad date 10-2011 so I'll take a stab at your list. To be honest i think PF is probably the easier method, less tests/take less time.

[IrishJohn]

Thanks! I'm not sure when I'll start these courses, mostly just checking out my options for now. At the moment I'm back in ALEKS hell doing PreCalculus. I figure if I can't get past the math, my eternal bane, I'd be wasting my time doing the rest. I'd forgotten how much torture ALEKS could be. Definitely a love/hate thing going on right now...

[ryoder]

My thinking is that if you can pass the CLEP/DSST then go that route because the credits are recognized by all schools.
The next step is Straighterline due to low cost and super fast service.
Finally do PF only if these other options don't work out for you.

For me, I did the following at SL
Accounting I&II
Biz Comm

And then for my Nat Sci
Anatomy and Physiology I&II

At Penn Foster:
Financial Mgmt (BSBA Core)
Systems Analysis and Design (CIS)

[IrishJohn]

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind. I'm stuck in ALEKS hell at the moment but once I'm free and can start working on these I'll see where I'm at and which works best.

[mrs.b]

I can only give input on two of the courses listed. I took term-based courses for the others at varying points over the past (undisclosed number of) years.

For FIN301 requirement, Penn Foster's Financial Management was excellent. The provided study guide accompanied the book perfectly to make the material easy to understand, and the exams were not bad at all. I definitely recommend that route over DSST. Once the book arrives, if you dedicate a weekend to it, you could complete the whole thing, start to finish.

For ENG216 Business & Tech Writing, do SL. I've had the Penn Foster version on my desk for longer than I care to admit, and it's all I can do to make myself look at it. The assignment choice is cheesy and reminds me more of a creative writing course than anything business focused. Don't get me wrong, I like creative writing, but that isn't what I signed up for on this one. From what I've heard, the SL version gets more into the point of the course, and requires less useless scribbling.

[dcan]

FYI TESC accepts ALEKS Trig as filling the Pre-calculus requirement. Since you've already started you may not want to start over and lose progress, but it may be an option for you to consider.

[IrishJohn]

FYI TESC accepts ALEKS Trig as filling the Pre-calculus requirement. Since you've already started you may not want to start over and lose progress, but it may be an option for you to consider.

Well... dang. I wish I had known this sooner but since I'm already at about 48% in PreCalculus I think I'll struggle on to eek out that 70%. This one is REALLY tough!!!

[IrishJohn]

Thanks, mrsb. I'll definitely keep that in mind!

[dcan]

Well... dang. I wish I had known this sooner but since I'm already at about 48% in PreCalculus I think I'll struggle on to eek out that 70%. This one is REALLY tough!!!

Yeah I went through the same with trig. I do not enjoy that at all, but I rather enjoy analytical math oddly enough, go figure.

In the end I kind of wish I'd gone through pre-calculus instead of trig so I consider you as doing one better than I did. By the time I finished trig I felt like a zombie just bashing my head against a door to try and get through it. I know pre-cal would have been harder, but at least I could justify it as being more difficult than the high school course (trig) that I got A's and B's in all the way. Sheesh.