The Duggars and CollegePlus

[sanantone]

It depends on what your goal is. If you want the "college experience," to get into graduate school, or to go to an Ivy League school, you're free to pursue the B&M/traditional route. However, if you want your degree faster and for less, you can utilize CBEs, testing out and the Big 3 (and its not like you can't be flexible and use CC credits, transfer credits and the like at the Big 3. You can even get into graduate school with a Big 3 degree). Simple as that And there are adults and youth who fall into both categories.


Well those first 3 things you mentioned are either illegal, or cause a lot of hurt.

These things are free to do and a matter of opinion. They don't break the law. Though, I would not put paying for CP in either of these categories. Sometimes there is a genuine need for it.

Good for you

Those things weren't meant to exactly match up with CP; they're just examples of a lot of people doing something that's not the best idea. I would put CP in the category of paying a tax preparer at H&R Block when you can get the same results using their software for much less. After my expensive experience with a tax preparer, I've been doing my own taxes ever since with better results. If my finances ever get terribly complicated, I'll hire an accountant; but I doubt that'll ever happen.

[Westerner]

Those things weren't meant to exactly match up with CP; they're just examples of a lot of people doing something that's not the best idea. I would put CP in the category of paying a tax preparer at H&R Block when you can get the same results using their software for much less. After my expensive experience with a tax preparer, I've been doing my own taxes ever since with better results. If my finances ever get terribly complicated, I'll hire an accountant; but I doubt that'll ever happen.

You know what? That's the first statement you've made that I can really agree with Like with me, we paid for CP for a year and a half, because we needed it then. Now, I've learned enough that I can finish my degree without them, as well as help my siblings earn their degrees the same way. In fact, two of them have started testing So you're right, sometimes you need a service for a while; then later you can do it yourself.

[Cyrus]

This is false. If you type in "www.degreeforum.net" in the address bar, you can view the forum without even having an account. That is the direct web address for this forum. I don't know where you're seeing that you have to pay. If you want to make an account and post, it's still free. The only locked part that requires a subscription to the IC flashcards is the Specific Feedback sub-forum and it's not even the most helpful part of this forum. All it has is feedback on what was on an exam and study materials used. Most of that information can be found on the 3 free sub-forums using the search function. All of the question answering and help with degree planning happens on the free parts of the forum.

there... not free.

I'm not saying that CP customers are dumb, but lots of people do a lot of idiotic things. The question should be would most people pay $3,000 for CP's services. The only way we could find that out is by conducting a scientific survey.

You only seem to care about the cost or moral aspect... nothing more...

I call false. A has not happened because of B. From ProPublica:

F.A.Q. on U.S. Aid to Egypt: Where Does the Money Go—And Who Decides How It’s Spent? (Marian Wang and Theodoric Meyer, ProPublica, October 9, 2012)

Is there some other other funding envelope that's been increased, despite a revolution in Egypt and sequester in the U.S.? This seems unlikely. It seems U.S. military support to Egypt has maintained a dollar level set by the Reagan Administration. Economic aid to Egypt appears to have been reduced substantially.

Also, you cast doubt on military cooperation with "Muslims?" While constitutionally secular, over 97% of the population of Turkey is Muslim. Turkey has been a U.S. ally in NATO, where an attack on one is an attack on all, since 1952. Apparently there are 90 U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in Turkey today. That's pretty close!

Also, the Army is no longer training programmers?

I am not saying they are increasing the funding to the Muslims... they are not decreasing it though... instead they cut funding for the education of our troops...
Strange isn't it how people don't care if we cut the funding for our troops education so that we can supply the Muslims with aircraft, that if one of them malfunctions, we would be under attack... but people make a big deal about those who choose to pay 3k for a faster, and better method of getting a college degree...

The article you posted was from '12? Seriously? Couldn't you find something from this year? You guys wouldn't take serious my source...

[Jonathan Whatley]

Strange isn't it how people don't care if we cut the funding for our troops education so that we can supply the Muslims with aircraft, that if one of them malfunctions, we would be under attack... but people make a big deal about those who choose to pay 3k for a faster, and better method of getting a college degree...

Are you seriously advancing this as an argument against the criticism by sanantone and others that CollegePlus is overpriced? The fact that some people in Washington made these extraordinarily unrelated federal budget decisions? I'm pretty sure sanantone is not behind multi-billion-dollar national security decisions, yet.

I guess you're referring to the Pentagon's sequester suspension of military Tuition Assistance. Congress very quickly ordered them to reverse it, and Tuition Assistance is now restored in all branches of the military. I'm not sure about the Coast Guard, which is funded through DHS.

The article you posted was from '12? Seriously? Couldn't you find something from this year?

I thought seven months ago wasn't very long for a citation about annual funding envelopes, but okay. Here's Reuters yesterday: "The United States, which gives Egypt $1.3 billion in military aid each year, has grown more critical of Mursi of late, listing a lack of political inclusivity as a concern." It sounds like the number is steady, while the U.S. government is also asserting itself. (Egypt's Mursi brings more Islamists into cabinet, Tom Perry and Yasmine Saleh, Reuters, May 7, 2013).

You guys wouldn't take serious my source...

So you're attacking us for being closed-minded based on nothing we've said or done, but what you tell us we'd say. What's wrong with this picture?

[Cyrus]

Are you seriously advancing this as an argument against the criticism by sanantone and others that CollegePlus is overpriced? The fact that some people in Washington made these extraordinarily unrelated federal budget decisions? I'm pretty sure sanantone is not behind multi-billion-dollar national security decisions, yet.

I am saying that if someone should be making a big deal about money, it should be about cutting government spending not how people get educated... haven't you guys studied US History I?

I guess you're referring to the Pentagon's sequester suspension of military Tuition Assistance. Congress very quickly ordered them to reverse it, and Tuition Assistance is now restored in all branches of the military. I'm not sure about the Coast Guard, which is funded through DHS.


I thought seven months ago wasn't very long for a citation about annual funding envelopes, but okay. Here's Reuters yesterday: "The United States, which gives Egypt $1.3 billion in military aid each year, has grown more critical of Mursi of late, listing a lack of political inclusivity as a concern." It sounds like the number is steady, while the U.S. government is also asserting itself. (Egypt's Mursi brings more Islamists into cabinet, Tom Perry and Yasmine Saleh, Reuters, May 7, 2013).

That is better.... thank you.

So you're attacking us for being closed-minded based on nothing we've said or done, but what you tell us we'd say. What's wrong with this picture?

Well... kinda, but that was not my original meaning... that is the one you put to it... I am used to the reaction of those who hear that I got it from the "Liberal" media talk shows... from people like Nick Reed, on KSGF Springfield... and that is what I was meaning... I do have other sources, but I will not name them here. It is dangerous to do so. I don't mean it could be explosive. It is dangerous.

[Jonathan Whatley]

I am saying that if someone should be making a big deal about money, it should be about cutting government spending not how people get educated... haven't you guys studied US History I?

So let's derail a discussion of whether a distance learning coaching and support program at $3000+ per student is overpriced, because you're more concerned about the separate issue of government spending.

Cyrus, this is a distance learning consumer board!

Please, if you're moved to talk about government spending start a thread in Off-Topic, but this line of criticism seems pretty misplaced here. The main subject of degreeforum is consumer-level, usually very cost-conscious nuts-and-bolts of earning distance learning degrees.

Well... kinda, but that was not my original meaning... that is the one you put to it... I am used to the reaction of those who hear that I got it from the "Liberal" media talk shows... from people like Nick Reed, on KSGF Springfield... and that is what I was meaning... I do have other sources, but I will not name them here. It is dangerous to do so. I don't mean it could be explosive. It is dangerous.

Meh, we're on the Internet. Internet's heard it all.

[gmx0]

That still doesn't make their "services" worth $3k, especially when some of their members have to come here for free advice.

We (CPers) can't find everything here. We actually use our own forums much, much more.

Basically, for me, CP!'s competitive advantage is not its educational services, but its community. I love the community. Basically, I'm paying more for the social connections it has brought me as a homeschooled student who doesn't have a homeschool co-op or whatnot(since I started very late in the homeschooling game), and I see the coaching as a side thing. And the money I paid is worth it. The advice here may be free, but the friends I made that advise me there, priceless, and I would sooner follow their advice before consulting here.

[sanantone]

We (CPers) can't find everything here. We actually use our own forums much, much more.

Basically, for me, CP!'s competitive advantage is not its educational services, but its community. I love the community. Basically, I'm paying more for the social connections it has brought me as a homeschooled student who doesn't have a homeschool co-op or whatnot(since I started very late in the homeschooling game), and I see the coaching as a side thing. And the money I paid is worth it. The advice here may be free, but the friends I made that advise me there, priceless, and I would sooner follow their advice before consulting here.

Good for you, but you only have one post on this forum. As for me and many others, this free forum has guided us through successfully completing our degrees. I didn't have to pay $3,000 to find people willing to help. Now that a CP member admitted that CP directs customers to IC, I'm really starting to wonder how much information the company and the "community" pull from here. Unfortunately, your money is not going to the community; it's going to the "side thing."

[sanantone]

duplicate post

[Jonathan Whatley]

Basically, for me, CP!'s competitive advantage is not its educational services, but its community. I love the community. Basically, I'm paying more for the social connections it has brought me as a homeschooled student who doesn't have a homeschool co-op or whatnot(since I started very late in the homeschooling game), and I see the coaching as a side thing. And the money I paid is worth it. The advice here may be free, but the friends I made that advise me there, priceless, and I would sooner follow their advice before consulting here.

Well I think we have priceless people on the free distance learning boards, but anyway. :p

This is an interesting case for CP. I guess it places CP not so much in the category of a website or book on earning a nontraditional degree as in the category of summer camp or participation in youth sports at a high level. Both of these can also cost in the four figures, easily.

Now, there must be other places where homeschooling students making the transition to college can network and support each other, without a $3000 entry fee. Still, I can also believe that that something special has developed among CP members, and that CPers are justly proud of and loyal to each other.