ANY Degree

[trlcook2]

I am the mother of 2 homeschoolers ages 14 and 16. They have each begun taking SDC courses and now need to decide exactly how to proceed. (I know we should have done this first, but I was trying to ease them into the College level courses to see how they would do.) The AOS or actual degree doesn't matter and neither does the cost as long as we don't go too crazy. They really like the SDC format and lessons, so I would like to get as many from there as possible. (Sorry, I am a new Mac user and can't seem to attach the spreadsheets but here is what they have)
Daughter 1:
CSM: Math (3)
SDC: Intro to Religion, Nutrition, Intro to Psych, Social Psych, Psych of Motivation UL, Comm 126 (18)
       Currently taking: Tourism, Library Science (6)

Daughter 2: 
SDC: Bus 109: Computer, Lib Sci, Comm 126, Intro Ed, Ed 103, Ed 104, Psych 102:Ed, (21)
       Currently taking: His 101 (3)

Thank you in advance. We have looked into TEL for RA credits once their SDC subscription expires. At the rate they are going, they will be quite young when they finish.

[rachel83az]

If I am reading https://www.charteroak.edu/catalog/curre...ission.php correctly, Charter Oak allows students who are 16 or older to attend, provided they have at least 9 RA credits. I think Excelsior allows younger students, but you'll need to get some sort of permission slip from your local school district superintendent (IIRC) certifying that the courses they're taking will apply to their HS graduation. 

But I think YC Academy via TEL Learning (https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/TE...S_Students ) is going to be a better fit to get an Associate's degree first (especially for the younger daughter). This does cost $4k per degree but it ALSO opens the door to a cheaper degree from COSC later on. Steps I would take:

1. Immediately cancel SDC membership. It sounds like this is in progress. 
   
2. Unfortunately, the daughter who took Intro Psych and the daughter who is taking HIS 101 may have to duplicate that content with YC Academy. It's not too late to switch from HIS 101 to something that won't duplicate - check the degree plan at https://www.tel-education.org/wp-content...g-Plan.pdf to see what they require and take something else. (I don't believe York College accepts ACE credits.)
   
3. It appears to be too late to sign up for YC Academy for the 2020-2021 school year. Take your daughters over to Sophia.org and sign them up there. As far as I can tell (because York doesn't seem to accept ACE), these credits won't be accepted towards their AA. However, these courses can be applied to a Bachelor's degree later. Have them complete everything at Sophia that does not duplicate what they've already done at SDC or will do at YC Academy. These will come in handy later for electives, at the very least.
   

Your now-16-year-old will be able to continue to a Bachelor's from COSC without having to go through extra hoops. If she doesn't like the offerings at COSC, TESU is also an option - though she might have to wait until her birthday to apply. They permit students who are 18 years or older to apply if they have 24+ RA credits (https://www.tesu.edu/admissions/undergrad-admissions). If she does have to wait, she can still work on degree requirements at SDC in the meantime.

Your now-14-year-old will be in the same boat but she will have to wait longer if she winds up wanting to go to TESU and not COSC. 

The daughter who has taken all the ed courses might especially like COSC's Child Studies Bachelor's degree but I don't know how easy/hard that is to obtain via alternate credit.

[dfrecore]

For TEL Learning, you're better off doing the Micro-Collegiate Academy (only for Dual Enrolled high school students). It's only $100 per course. I certainly wouldn't pay York College 4 grand if you don't have to (getting all 60cr through TEL-MCA would only be $2k, and getting fewer and supplementing with ACE is going to be even cheaper).

[rachel83az]

I forgot about MCA. That's definitely a good option for HS students! It's just too bad that doesn't grant you an actual AA or AS. An Associate's degree can be a nice little certificate of achievement and boost of encouragement for students.

[dfrecore]

I forgot about MCA. That's definitely a good option for HS students! It's just too bad that doesn't grant you an actual AA or AS. An Associate's degree can be a nice little certificate of achievement and boost of encouragement for students.

You can take your credits elsewhere to get an AA if you really want one.

The thing with the York Academy program is that you are stuck on their system - you really have to want to do 60cr in 4 semesters, and as a homeschooler, I would not have wanted to do my courses the way they want them.  I preferred a lot more flexibility in how I set my kids' schedules up.  You also can't bring in ACE credit as far as I can tell, so those would be wasted.

Better to do MCA and then transfer to COSC, or even MCA and then do a final semester at Snow College.  COSC will be $1717 for 3cr; Snow will be $1743 for 1 term of 20cr.  Both take ACE; Snow does not require RA credits to be transferred in.

[rachel83az]

Better to do MCA and then transfer to COSC, or even MCA and then do a final semester at Snow College.  COSC will be $1717 for 3cr; Snow will be $1743 for 1 term of 20cr.  Both take ACE; Snow does not require RA credits to be transferred in.

Snow's prices have gone up. If you're not in Utah, it's ~$6k for one term. I think if you're in the western block (CA, OR, AZ, WA, etc.) then prices are 1.5x Utah prices but that is not entirely clear.

[dfrecore]

Also, just wanted to add: Psych of Motivation is LL, not UL; Comm 126 is not a course that I can find anywhere

[TwinMom]

My 14 yo twins will be getting their BS in Liberal Studies from Excelsior College. They have already earned 66 ACE credits and will have their degree when they are 16 or 17 depending on how fast we proceed. Excelsior allows young students to apply and everything can be transferred in except the 7 credits required to be taken at the college. Our credits are mostly Study and Sophia so far and we will be starting Coopersmith soon. You can also have a concentration that will be listed on the transcript. From others I have spoken to, EC is very cooperative in their communication. Something to consider.

[bjcheung77]

My nephew and niece should get into this as well, they're about the same age as yours. I was thinking of getting them to do some RA with the MCA option and finish them off with ACE credits by doing InstantCertCredit and Sophia.org courses. This should be a viable option for the COSC Associates, they can ladder into a BA/BS at COSC or Excelsior before they reach 18.

[trlcook2]

Thank you for all the advice!
The Comm Class was the one on presentations, and the uL Psych was Advanced Social Psych-- It was the middle of the night and I kept editing my post, sorry.
The one with the Ed credits doesn't want to teach necessarily. After she took the Intro Class, she was able to do the others very easily.

I wish they were clearer in the catalogs what courses can be used in which categories and for which degrees.
Thank you, again,
Lisa