What's a good price for actual, graded college courses?

[Silly_Me]

I'm curious to know what you guys are willing to pay for actual, graded college courses (online, in classroom, etc). At TESU, I can pay $250 per credit hour (as a military dependent) & have my residency requirement waived after 24 credit hours. So, for a total of $6,000 + books (at $250 per credit hour), I can waive that $2,500 residency fee. (I know I can take TECEPs, but I'm just trying to plan for the worst case scenario.)

Is $250 per credit hour a good price for graded college courses? What's your "top limit?"



(P.S. I know that every ACE recommended course is an "actual" college course. But, I'm specifically looking for college courses that offer grades & count towards my GPA. Thanks for any input!)

[rebel100]

$250 isn't crazy. CSU-PUEBLO, Independent Studies at U of Idaho and U of Arkansas are about $165/credit. One can do CC online through New Mexico Junior College at $100/credit.

Harvard Extension is only a bit more than $250/credit, considered them for your degree?

[bjcheung77]

I think the lowest in price you can go for is the community college courses, it'll all be lower level though.
You can get them cheap if you're in state, otherwise, some out of state is at $100+/credit.
Depends on your state, I think California has it at $31-35, that is like $100/course...

[Silly_Me]

$250 isn't crazy. CSU-PUEBLO, Independent Studies at U of Idaho and U of Arkansas are about $165/credit. One can do CC online through New Mexico Junior College at $100/credit.

Harvard Extension is only a bit more than $250/credit, considered them for your degree?

Thanks for the great recommendations! Yeah, I've looked at Harvard Extension. I'll check out the others, too. I'm just thinking $250 per credit hour is *less* crazy if it waives that residency fee. Know what I mean?

[Silly_Me]

I think the lowest in price you can go for is the community college courses, it'll all be lower level though.
You can get them cheap if you're in state, otherwise, some out of state is at $100+/credit.
Depends on your state, I think California has it at $31-35, that is like $100/course...

Oh, I'm definitely taking advantage of community college courses (for my lower level science courses especially). There are some classes that are harder to find other places that TESU offers online (like Chem II w/ lab, Physics I & II w/ labs, and a couple of upper level biology courses).


Any idea how much credits usually cost at four-year universities?

[SolarKat]

SNHU offers a discount for military/vets and AD spouses whether using cash, GI/VocRehab/TA, or federal aid. They specifically ask for a copy of your DEERS enrollment (vs a copy of your milID), so it seems clear that they're limiting this to spouses. (It's also not clear if using a transferred GI Bill will give any other dependent the discount rate, you'd have to ask.) Anyway, with the discount, it's $225/cr hr. (Standard rate $320/cr hr.)

They allow 90cr transfer in for the bachelors (45 for associates), but have a firm requirements: only count grades of C- or higher for graded classes, 30 credits must be done at SNHU, and the FINAL 24 must be done at SNHU, including 12 credits in your major. So you'd have to do a minimum of 30cr @ 225 = $6750. On the plus side, they have some interesting degrees/courses.

ETA: BYU offers courses @ $183/cr. LSU is $184 but there are fees on top of this making a 3cr class about $730. UND is $278/cr but no other fees.

Also, Adams State University offers old-school print-based, self-paced correspondence for $555 for a 3cr class. (Their online, semester-based stuff is more than double this.)

[dfrecore]

Oh, I'm definitely taking advantage of community college courses (for my lower level science courses especially). There are some classes that are harder to find other places that TESU offers online (like Chem II w/ lab, Physics I & II w/ labs, and a couple of upper level biology courses).


Any idea how much credits usually cost at four-year universities?

Chem II and Physics II can usually be found at NMJC and Rio Salado (a 4-yr college, $215/cr out of state, but discounted for WUE students to $129/cr). Rio Salado is nice because they have rolling start dates (first Monday of each month) and you can usually get courses for 8-week terms, although some are still 16 weeks.

APU also has $250/cr, with rolling starts and 8-wk terms. I think TESU is 12-week terms, which isn't terrible, but not as good as an 8-wk term IMHO.

I certainly wouldn't pay for the TESU pricing for a course unless you REALLY needed the course and couldn't find it elsewhere for less, and for less time. With the ability to get residency with TECEP's, it doesn't seem worth it.

Regarding regular state schools, most of the ones around here don't have the cost per credit readily available on their websites, they want you take classes full-time for the semester. But our colleges are impacted, so they can be picky.

[rebel100]

What degree are you planning?

[Silly_Me]

What degree are you planning?

BA in Biology. I have it all planned out on paper & right now I'm looking at about $15,000 when it's all said and done (assuming I can pass enough TECEPs & take enough TESU classes to waive my residency fee).

[cookderosa]

I'm curious to know what you guys are willing to pay for actual, graded college courses (online, in classroom, etc). At TESU, I can pay $250 per credit hour (as a military dependent) & have my residency requirement waived after 24 credit hours. So, for a total of $6,000 + books (at $250 per credit hour), I can waive that $2,500 residency fee. (I know I can take TECEPs, but I'm just trying to plan for the worst case scenario.)

Is $250 per credit hour a good price for graded college courses? What's your "top limit?"



(P.S. I know that every ACE recommended course is an "actual" college course. But, I'm specifically looking for college courses that offer grades & count towards my GPA. Thanks for any input!)

I think $250 through a 4-year university is very reasonable because I'm paying for access to the 300 and 400 level courses. If I'm accumulating 100 and 200 level courses, I'd pay half.