StraighterLine - My costs so far

[alzee]

I figured that now that I'm done with StraighterLine for a little while, I'd figure out just how much I've spent so that others can use it as a sort of yardstick. To date, I've spent $1,243 on the service. This paid for 15 courses, including the textbooks for most of them, for 45cr. That works out to $28/cr, or $83/3cr. Even a PLA built on free MOOCs is more expensive, @ $32/cr for the first 12cr through TESU. Saylor is really the only cheaper way to gain credit, since you need only pay for the final exam proctoring.

That said, I *am* a little burnt out after keeping this pace up for the last 5 months. I don't need any more SL courses for my ASBA, and am only planning on 2-3 more for my BSBA, and those can wait. For now I am going to focus on the PF Strategic Management course, studying/memorizing for the college comp CLEP, and building the portfolio that will knock out all the UL AoS credits I need for a BSBA/CIS.

I wanted to share the costs as I know some were a bit skeptical about that vs. the other options out there. If you can keep up an 8-10cr/month pace through SL, it's a very economical way to go.

[superzim]

That's quite a deal considering getting even that much credit at a discounted ace/na accredited school is 237/3 credits and that you paid for the equivalent of like 3-4 classes that way and that almost gave you enough credits for an aa degree or a good chunk of credits for the bachelor reqs.

A quick question relating to straighterline. Do you happen to have any buy one get one free classes coupons that work for current members or even the 49 off coupons that don't require you to end membership then renew.

Congrats on the achievement!

[TrailRunr]

Just in the interest of full disclosure, SL credits are way less portable than CLEP and traditional RA credits. Don't want any lurker to think they can transfer these classes to the local community college or state university (they won't transfer at all to most schools). That being said, SL beats sitting in a classroom for four months, paying full freight for a textbook and ultimately paying triple or more for the all-in cost.

Some of the coupons are not usable unless you are purchasing a subscription and a class at the same time. You would need to let your membership lapse. There is also a finite amount of coupons. Each coupon can only be used once per lifetime.

[superzim]

Just in the interest of full disclosure, SL credits are way less portable than CLEP and traditional RA credits. Don't want any lurker to think they can transfer these classes to the local community college or state university (they won't transfer at all to most schools). That being said, SL beats sitting in a classroom for four months, paying full freight for a textbook and ultimately paying triple or more for the all-in cost.

Some of the coupons are not usable unless you are purchasing a subscription and a class at the same time. You would need to let your membership lapse. There is also a finite amount of coupons. Each coupon can only be used once per lifetime.

That's a good point although its no worse then going through Penn Foster for the same type of course for the business courses that they do offer as most RA schools may choose to not accept NA courses and be fussy with the ace credits that Penn Foster offers as well.

I agree with the point it beats spending four months in a classroom when I can complete most of these courses in a month or so.

[alzee]

A quick question relating to straighterline. Do you happen to have any buy one get one free classes coupons that work for current members or even the 49 off coupons that don't require you to end membership then renew.

I don't have any coupons at all, sorry. I might have used one I found here when I first started, but I can't remember.

Just in the interest of full disclosure, SL credits are way less portable than CLEP and traditional RA credits.

Very true, they aren't good for much outside the "big three", though the same can be said of Saylor, TEEX, and many other sources as well. Only the CLEPs and DSSTs are somewhat "portable."

[nurselu]

[quote=TrailRunr]Just in the interest of full disclosure, SL credits are way less portable than CLEP and traditional RA credits. Don't want any lurker to think they can transfer these classes to the local community college or state university (they won't transfer at all to most schools). That being said, SL beats sitting in a classroom for four months, paying full freight for a textbook and ultimately paying triple or more for the all-in cost.

So all the SL credits will not transfer to most schools? What a waste for me! Even after successfully graduating from TESU with a BSBA, it will be impossible to take Accelerated BSN as a second degree

[davewill]

So all the SL credits will not transfer to most schools? What a waste for me! Even after successfully graduating from TESU with a BSBA, it will be impossible to take Accelerated BSN as a second degree

Where are you planning to take the accelerated BSN? I looked at one from CSU Fullerton and they required a bachelors and certain prequisites with a minimum GPA; the science lab courses, English comp, Psychology, and Sociology for example. So you might want to make sure you get those from your local community college.

School of Nursing - Prerequisite Courses - Accelerated BSN

If you plan your work around the requirements for the school you want to go to, it looks like you could still use SL and other alternative credit in the course of getting your first degree.

[bjcheung77]

So all the SL credits will not transfer to most schools? What a waste for me! Even after successfully graduating from TESU with a BSBA, it will be impossible to take Accelerated BSN as a second degree

You should be fine, here's another example of a program you should be able to get into without issues.
WGU Online Nursing School | Online Nursing Degree Programs | WGU College of Health Nursing School Online

[TrailRunr]

[quote=TrailRunr]Just in the interest of full disclosure, SL credits are way less portable than CLEP and traditional RA credits. Don't want any lurker to think they can transfer these classes to the local community college or state university (they won't transfer at all to most schools). That being said, SL beats sitting in a classroom for four months, paying full freight for a textbook and ultimately paying triple or more for the all-in cost.

So all the SL credits will not transfer to most schools? What a waste for me! Even after successfully graduating from TESU with a BSBA, it will be impossible to take Accelerated BSN as a second degree

If you complete your degree at one of the big 3, then you will be get an RA degree. That will be fine for all grad programs and 2nd bachelor's for basic checkbox requirements. If you fail to complete your degree at the big 3, then those SL credits will likely not count unless your new school happens to be a SL partner school. Always choose CLEP over SL if both require equal amount of effort. I know SL is easier because of open book exams.

Moving on to the nursing prerequisites. I don't know who told you SL would be OK for nursing prerequisites. But I think it's going to be a problem. The main issue is that you don't have a letter grade for the SL courses that count as nursing prereq. Most programs want to see letter grades. And how many nursing admissions committees are going to understand your SL credits? It'll be easier to tell you that your ACE credits don't count because they don't look like typical RA credits. I would take the prereq classes at a RA school. A&P 1+2 (or A&P 1-3 at a quarter school) I would take at the same school. It can be online lab science if none of the programs you're looking has a no-online lab course restriction. You'll have to retake microbio and any other required courses as well. Sometimes non-science classes are prereqs like English comp. If you need a letter grade, you need to take it at a RA school.

Don't forget all of the other myriad of requirements like never, ever using illegal drugs (including medicinal purpose) again due to the multiple drug screens with their zero tolerance policies and passing the criminal background check with a 100% clean record.

[dfrecore]

So all the SL credits will not transfer to most schools? What a waste for me! Even after successfully graduating from TESU with a BSBA, it will be impossible to take Accelerated BSN as a second degree

To get a second degree, you don't normally transfer individual credits into the new program - they normally accept your first degree as a whole, and then make sure that you have all of your pre-reqs done. So, you just need to go to the school where you want to go and see their requirements to get accepted into the program you want.

And like was said previously, they probably won't accept anything other than butt-in-seat sciences with labs.

The good news about taking them through SL first though (besides counting toward your BSBA): you will go into the courses with a lot of knowledge, and probably have a lot easier time of it and get great grades.

Not sure if that helps much, but if you have lemons, best to make lemonade from them.

Sorry you didn't know about this ahead of time - if you would have said that you were planning on getting your BSN after a BSBA at TESU, and planning on taking all your sciences from SL, people on here would have told you that and saved you some money. But certainly not time...