Straighterline BSBA with TESU question

[NicoleSolomita]

Hello! 

I am so grateful that this forum exists! Thank you all for all of the wonderful information you share! I am looking forward to becoming a PRO at this and returning the favor for others some day! 

Ok, so here goes my questions:

My company offers us up to $6500/yr in tuition reimbursement, which is EXTREMELY generous, but with 0 credits previously accrued, and a lack of additional funds from my personal account to put towards my degree, I am trying my best to get things done for the lowest overal cost. Yes, I could get my degree very slowly for FREE through my employer, but at 41 years old, I need to achieve this goal quickly and efficiently. 

My backstory is that I have been in sales since 2000 and am burnt out. I am in the process of transferring to another department and starting pretty close to the bottom. There is a ton of opportunity to grow with the company, but I really will need at least a Bachelor's degree in order to compete for positions in the future.

So -I repeat, speed and low cost are my goals here. 

My company will pay for Straighterline courses but not other companies like schmoop or study.com. 

I am willing to take CLEP, TECEP, and courses at other companies like Saylor and the ones listed above (I keep finding more and more of them that TECU accepts credit hours from!) BUT I will not get reimbursed for this or for the $2200 residency fee I need to pay TESU. In order to get my degree in 2 vs 4 years, I am willing to pay for that out of pocket. 

My longwinded question is - Can I get my Bachelors degree (even if not a BSBA) solely from working with Straighterline, since my company pays this? Or is it really only good for the Associates portion of the degree? 

If Straighterline is not best past the Associates level for inexpensive and fast credits, what would be my best alternative for these types of credits from a cost perspective ---- Now, to be clear - my company will not pay for CLEP, TECEP, or any other online company that competes with Straighterline. 

I am trying to map out a plan for myself and I already know that I will have to pay the $75 application fee at some point for TESU and the $2200 residency fee (I am an in-state person), I am looking to keep ALL other costs as close to $0 as possible. 

Anyone have some advice for me here? 

TIA for any help you can provide!

[bjcheung77]

Nicole, you are perfect! Perfect in the sense that I have a template already geared for individuals in your shoes. Haha, the most courses you can take will be 30 or 90 credits from Straighterline. The rest, you can get it cheap.

Please read the Beginners Guide, it’s in my signature and download a copy of my spreadsheet for BSBA GM, it has all the courses you want in there from Straighterline and you can get all the FREE credits from the Wiki.

Use this thread as your accountability/progress thread and for Q&A. I have several people following my examples, and one who finished his degree in 4 months, 90 credits from Straighterline and the rest from Study.com plus the FREE credits. Only hard course was the TESU Capstone.

[dfrecore]

Yes, you can absolutely get a BSBA from TESU using mainly SL.  I would also check with your company to see if they will pay for Ed4Credit, they are very similar to SL and that would save you some money, and they are not membership-based (meaning you pay $195 per course, no monthly fees, no books).  Also TECEP's, which are the school's own tests.

You can also apply for the Study.com scholarship, which will get you an additional 6 courses free from Study.com.  The first is Personal Finance (a Free Elective) but the other 5 are best used for your UL coursework that you need in the AOS (Area of Study).

Here's one of my spreadsheets, I modified it a bit to utilize SL and Ed4Credit first, Study.com's scholarship second, and free courses as well.

You can totally do this!  Good luck!

[allvia]

Also if they are willing to pay for courses through Straighterline (SL) don't rule of Sophia (https://www.sophia.org).  They offer at least one UL course, Project Management. That is how I got my company to cover the cost and they're a tough sell on getting any course to be covered; the UL credit won them over.

[NicoleSolomita]

Wow! Thank you all so much!!! I am going to check out all of your recommendations and I will definitely check in and let you know my progress. That 4 month degree is WOW! I figured it would take me at least a couple of years to get there from 0. I am a very hard worker and avid reader every night, so I think if I really apply myself, maybe I can achieve this goal much sooner than I thought! (And hopefully under $5k like I keep seeing!)

So Excited to start my journey! Thank you for being her for me!

[quigongene]

Study.com's Project Management course is also UL.

[NicoleSolomita]

Thank you again for all the info!

I just took the Free Ethics Course! However, I forgot to ask if I need to do this through ProctorU, like the courses from Saylor!

Will this test count, or do I need to re-do it? I just want to make sure I am doing things correctly and not wasting time. I did look over the information, but I don't see anything about needing a Proctor for these free sources of credit. Please help when you have a quick minute. Thanks!!

[jsd]

No proctor is needed for the free ethics course, you're good to go.

[NicoleSolomita]

Thank You!

[dfrecore]

I don't see anything about needing a Proctor for these free sources of credit.

Just an FYI: whether a source of credit is free or not has nothing to do with whether a course has a proctor.  Shmoop is not free, and they don't do proctored exams.  When they had ACE-recommended credit, ALEKS courses were also unproctored.