Speed/Ease of completion - SL vs SDC vs Penn Foster

[TopHatWombat]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster.

I completed my BSAST (Nuc Eng Tech) at TESC (I mean, "TESU") waaaaaay back in 2004. I mostly followed the old bain4weeks.com plan that was accurate at the time. I took over a dozen CLEP/DANTES exams, and transferred in copious credits from my military training. A few graduate courses at a brick and mortar state university closed some gaps, and voila, I had a degree. 

Fast forward 15 years, and I'm looking to tack on a bunch of credits to my existing TESU transcript via credit banking so that I can qualify to sit for the CPA exam. I met the experience requirement to become a CPA about a decade ago. I work only in tax, via an IRS-issued credential (Enrolled Agent). I don't do income tax preparation, but rather work on higher level, complex business tax matters. I have zero desire to ever work in audit or any other accounting arena.

The desire for a CPA license is purely for personal satisfaction, not professional. In fact, I don't even care about the CPA license itself, I just want to prove to myself that I can pass all four parts of the exam. But in order to sit for the exam, I need to meet the education requirement.

Most of the required business courses I can complete via additional CLEP/DSST exams. I'm fairly confident that I can pass the federal income taxation TECEP and the CSU Global SSA/CBE exam for federal business taxation with almost no study. But this leaves me with 15 semester hours of Upper Level accounting courses that my state will still require.

Based on other threads I've read through here on DegreeForum, some combination of Straighterline, Study.com, and Penn Foster courses will get me across the goal line.

Of the three, which provides the courses that can be completed the fastest?

I am looking at this regardless of cost, and regardless of whether I actually learn anything. I realize this latter statement may be grossly offensive to a lot of people, but given that my objective is merely to qualify to take the CPA exam rather than practice, I believe it to be a reasonable position to take.

Thank you!

[dfrecore]

I would do Study.com first - SL doesn't have the UL courses you need in Accounting (or rather, they do, but they could be had at Study.com, and I'd prefer a single provider if possible, rather than splitting it up).

The CSU Global course is probably a duplicate of the TECEP, so that one's a toss-up. But I'd probably go with CSU-Global and get any other UL courses you need.

Although honestly, I might just go to WGU and get the MS in Accounting instead.

[mysonx3]

Based on what was in the intro post, OP wouldn't be eligible for WGU's MS in Accounting, which requires either a Bachelor's in Accounting or to be a CPA. Not sure how flexible they are with that.

[allvia]

I would do Study.com first - SL doesn't have the UL courses you need in Accounting (or rather, they do, but they could be had at Study.com, and I'd prefer a single provider if possible, rather than splitting it up).

The CSU Global course is probably a duplicate of the TECEP, so that one's a toss-up.  But I'd probably go with CSU-Global and get any other UL courses you need.

Although honestly, I might just go to WGU and get the MS in Accounting instead.

Also with Study.com being the same subject matter you're likely to have some overlap and be able to complete quicker.  However, as dfrecore said going with the MS in Accounting through WGU might be quicker and cheaper - and you'll end up with an RA master in the process.

[bjcheung77]

Ding ding ding! I would recommend the WGU MS Accounting as well, since that program allows you to earn the Masters in Accounting and prepare you for the CPA and/or other professional exams if you wanted to get them. Link: https://www.wgu.edu/online-business-degr...ogram.html

[basicunitoflife]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster.

I completed my BSAST (Nuc Eng Tech) at TESC (I mean, "TESU") waaaaaay back in 2004. I mostly followed the old bain4weeks.com plan that was accurate at the time. I took over a dozen CLEP/DANTES exams, and transferred in copious credits from my military training. A few graduate courses at a brick and mortar state university closed some gaps, and voila, I had a degree. 

Fast forward 15 years, and I'm looking to tack on a bunch of credits to my existing TESU transcript via credit banking so that I can qualify to sit for the CPA exam. I met the experience requirement to become a CPA about a decade ago. I work only in tax, via an IRS-issued credential (Enrolled Agent). I don't do income tax preparation, but rather work on higher level, complex business tax matters. I have zero desire to ever work in audit or any other accounting arena.

The desire for a CPA license is purely for personal satisfaction, not professional. In fact, I don't even care about the CPA license itself, I just want to prove to myself that I can pass all four parts of the exam. But in order to sit for the exam, I need to meet the education requirement.

Most of the required business courses I can complete via additional CLEP/DSST exams. I'm fairly confident that I can pass the federal income taxation TECEP and the CSU Global SSA/CBE exam for federal business taxation with almost no study. But this leaves me with 15 semester hours of Upper Level accounting courses that my state will still require.

Based on other threads I've read through here on DegreeForum, some combination of Straighterline, Study.com, and Penn Foster courses will get me across the goal line.

Of the three, which provides the courses that can be completed the fastest?

I am looking at this regardless of cost, and regardless of whether I actually learn anything. I realize this latter statement may be grossly offensive to a lot of people, but given that my objective is merely to qualify to take the CPA exam rather than practice, I believe it to be a reasonable position to take.

Thank you!

WGU has everything you need IN ONE PLACE.

[dfrecore]

Based on what was in the intro post, OP wouldn't be eligible for WGU's MS in Accounting, which requires either a Bachelor's in Accounting or to be a CPA. Not sure how flexible they are with that.

I wonder if they would allow it if the person already worked in accounting and had the LL accounting requirements?  Worth checking into.

[TopHatWombat]

Many thanks to everybody that has replied. 

Several of you have suggested the WGU MS in Accounting. I did consider that, but I do not meet the prerequisites. As one person indicated, it does require that one already have a BS in Accounting, or already be a licensed CPA. I have heard of a few folks within the profession that are in a similar position to myself, that completed a few undergrad accounting classes elsewhere, and based on that plus their IRS license, WGU provided a waiver of the normal requirements.

But, I would still need to knock out a few accounting classes, so I'd basically be back to where I am, and it would be easier, faster, and cheaper to just add on the few additional undergrad accounting classes I need and call it a day.

I found this on an older thread, posted by dfrecore, and this appears to be a really good start to a plan:

ACC-201 Intermediate Accounting I (SL's Financial Accounting) 3 SL/Study.com
ACC-202 Intermediate Accounting II 3 Study.com
ACC-303 Cost Accounting (SL's Managerial Accounting) UL 3 SL/Study.com
ACC-301 Applied Managerial Accounting UL 3 Study.com
ACC-401 Advanced Accounting UL 3 Study.com
ACC-421 Federal Income Taxation UL 3 TECEP

I've already passed the CLEP Financial Accounting. Then, based on what I actually do for a living, I am fairly certain I could pass the CSU Global ACT415S Business Taxation just by showing up. I may also just do CSU Global ACT405S, Federal Individual Taxation, although I would need to spend some time brushing up on that. Doing these two exams, instead of ACC-421 TECEP, gives me 6 credits instead of 3 (the TECEP exam covers both individual and business taxation).

The state for which I'll (hopefully) be sitting the CPA exam allows accounting IT credits, also, and there is a CSU Global exam for that. ACT425S, Information Systems for Accounting.

Based on wanting to do the least amount of work possible, there's a plan starting to form, and I think it looks like this:

(3 LL) SDC ACC-101 Financial Accounting (refresher + future course quiz acceleration)
(3 LL) SDC ACC-102 Intro to Managerial Accounting
(3 UL) SDC Intermediate Accounting I
(3 UL) SDC Intermediate Accounting II
(3 UL) SDC Applied Managerial Accounting
(3 UL) CSU Global ACT405S – Federal Individual Taxation
(3 UL) CSU Global ACT415S – Business Taxation
(3 UL) CSU Global ACT425S – Information Systems for Accounting

Total = 24 semester hours, 18 upper level
Needed: 24 total, 15 upper level


Based on other threads I've devoured here, it feels like I could knock out all of the Study.com classes in just one or two months, and across those four classes there are only 2 homework assignments/projects (which I'm trying to avoid, in the interest of time).

The two CSU Global tax exams I am assuming that I could complete either same day, or within a few days of each other. The IT class might be a different story.

For the general business credits, TESU already sent me a list of additional CLEP/DANTES exams I could take to round that out. I only need to take two, for 6 credits, to hit the 24 general business credits for the CPA exam. So, that's a single morning.

My apologies for the lengthy post.

Thank you for any additional feedback on this plan.


Edit: I'm using my state's definition of how they count "upper level" to sit for the CPA exam, not the ACE credit recommendations, which are different.

[dfrecore]

I would want to talk to TESU to find out the course equivalencies for the CSU-Global courses. There is no guarantee that they won't bring the tax courses both in as duplicates of the TECEP; and that's a lot to spend to find out after the fact.

There are 2 additional UL courses at Study.com, it wouldn't hurt to give them a shot and see what you think before going to CSU-Global.

[TopHatWombat]

I would want to talk to TESU to find out the course equivalencies for the CSU-Global courses.  There is no guarantee that they won't bring the tax courses both in as duplicates of the TECEP; and that's a lot to spend to find out after the fact.

There are 2 additional UL courses at Study.com, it wouldn't hurt to give them a shot and see what you think before going to CSU-Global.

Thank you for the reply. What I would actually do is just send the CSU transcript directly to the Board of Accountancy. I won't bother trying to transfer them in to TESU. I have an existing CSU transcript due to prior attendance at the brick and mortar campus, so I'm assuming these CSU Global credits will simply be appended to that.