Sophia & Study questions

[bjcheung77]

@OP, Depends on your situation, Study.com might not be better in regards to people just looking for quick lower level credit. If that is the case, I recommend Sophia.org over Study.com, for upper level credit it's a different story. Study.com pricing is pretty affordable for upper level credit, it's pretty good for lower level courses that might not be found elsewhere as well...

Sophia.org changed their pricing from $329 per course to unlimited courses during the Pandemic in March 2020 to "cash" in on the sheer number of subscribers, I think I read anywhere from 150 thousand total subscribers over that period. Then they added the $149/year special, which also added a few thousand subscribers... Before Sophia.org making that radical pricing change, my recommendation for lower level was StraighterLine.

Previously, StraighterLine for lower level, Study.com for upper level as both of these are subscription based, you need to work on multiple courses at a time to take advantage of the monthly fee. Now, Sophia.org/Study.com combo as Sophia.org leapfrogged StraighterLine as my go to for lower level recommendations. One reason StraighterLine is #3 is because there are some courses not offered at Sophia.org, the majority can be found on Study.com

My ranking is Sophia.org, Study.com, StraighterLine, Saylor.org - Straighterline beats out Saylor as some of their courses are open book exams and most can be passed before you get into the proctored final exam, whereas, Saylor.org is a on that one final exam... somewhat time consuming/stressful for people like me! Obviously, there are some courses that are free/cheaper, it all depends on what your situation is and what your needs are...

TLDR: Sophia.org is probably the cheapest/easiest/fastest ACE set of courses you can get for $99/month subscription all you can take - two courses at a time. They've leapfrogged StraighterLine to become my #1 for Lower Level credits, Study.com remains my #2 choice as they provide the most Upper Level courses. StraighterLine is #3 as they have some selective courses not available at Sophia.org/Study.com (Calculus II, science labs, etc)

Last but not least, some providers have 'discounts' available for the institution you want to go to, for example, if you take a few courses at any of the previously mentioned providers above, and take 12 credits at Excelsior, you'll get 20% off the tuition. If you take StraighterLine, you may also be eligible for a scholarship that pays for the StraighterLine courses at WGU, there was one for COSC too, and so on...