Has anyone ever tried this for Engineering?

[methibosheth]

My younger brother is trying to get a B.S. in mechanical engineering online (yeah, pretty hard!) . I've done some thorough research, and the University of North Dakota is the only school with ABET accredited online engineering programs (everything but labs is online). The problem with UND though, is their cost per credit hour is through the roof! ($852.22 for out-of-state). However, UND does allow students to transfer all but 30 credit hours necessary for their degrees from regionally accredited schools. The only other school that offers online engineering degrees is California National University, and the price is much more reasonable ($270). As you might have guessed, CNU only holds National accreditation. My idea is to transfer from CNU to an RA school that accepts NA credits (such as AMU), and then transfer to UND. Has anyone ever tried this method of "credit laundering"? If this won't work, do any of you have other ideas, maybe fight UND for transfer of NA credits? Everyone's advice on this forum has been extremely helpful to me, Thanks a million!

[alleycat]

NA credits are NA credits. No matter what you do to them you can not turn them into non NA. You probably should just considering doing the program that you want to do right the first time. It will be less time and money later. Why can this program not be done in seat some where instead of online?

[methibosheth]

We are trying to find a way to complete this faster and for less money than B&M. My brother doesn't want to spend 4 to 6 years before entering the field, and coming from a family of 13, our financial resources are a little bit more limited.

[alleycat]

I get it. Is there an in state school where you live that he can use? Has he also applied for scholarships and grants. With a family of that size I would imagine that there alot of grant money available to him.

[methibosheth]

Yes, there are a lot of good in-state programs (Nashville area), and they're definitely an option for us. As far as scholarships go, we are looking at about 3/4 of the costs being covered for us! However, I don't think you can blame my brother for wanting to do it faster & cheaper when I'm getting my BSBA from TESC for under 6K and in less than 2 years! We are trying to come up with creative solutions for him, but B&M may be in his future.

[alleycat]

I get the fast and quicker idea. I have a daughter in a state university right now biochem major doing her pre med stuff and she shaved off one year of school before the end of her freshman yr. She had AP credits and Clepped out on many exams that the school would allow. That shaved off one yr on the front end. She also is going to a university that has an articulation agreement with the PharmD program she wants to enter. So that saves her one more year on the backend. Now with engineering I am sure that he can get into a program that is well respected he will have a better chance of getting employment afterwards. Check the schools (Nashville) testing and AP policy out. He can save himself alot of time and money. My daughters university had a policy that only certain Cleps could be done before you have 16 credits at the school. After that they only had a handful of cleps that were accepted. The only way I found that out was by taking to the tranfer dept. It was not in the handbook or on the website. Your brother can save time and money by using the school policies to his advantage. I wish him luck.

[methibosheth]

Thanks for the advice, very much appreciated!