International student, complex study history, looking at TESU BA Psych

[rachel83az]

I'm a bit confused about why you think Study.com is cost-prohibitive? They're super cheap compared to traditional US university/college credits. I think they're even inexpensive compared to a lot of UK and Australian universities, too? They're also cheaper than Coopersmith. Coopersmith is $150 per course, but Study.com is $200/mo. for up to 2 exams per month. Additional exams are $70 each, up to 5 total in a billing month. If you are able to finish 3 classes every month (which is entirely reasonable), it works out to $90/class. That's less than half the price of TEL Learning's $200/class and slightly more than half the price of Coopersmith. Some students are able to regularly do 5 Study.com classes every month. I wouldn't count on being able to do that regularly, but it'd bring the cost down closer to $82/class.

Sophia.org classes are, of course, even cheaper than Study.com. Thankfully, you can fill out much of a TESU degree with Sophia credits. That helps keep the cost down.

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Without being familiar with the Australian school system, a Certificate III sounds similar to an American GED. You'll need to get all of your certificates/diplomas and university/college credits evaluated by an American evaluation company to see where you stand. TESU might not even care about proof of "HS graduation" with everything else you've got. But I'm not 100% sure.

If your Monash College credits don't count for transfer, for whatever reason, you can take Statistics again from Sophia. Sophia is relatively easy and everything is open-book, so that should make it easier for someone with dyscalculia to complete. Many students here in similar situations have reported being grateful for both Sophia Stats and Algebra because those classes were otherwise impossible for them to complete at a college or university.

Because you want to continue on to grad school at some point, I would suggest doing some research into the universities that interest you. Some of them may require more significant math, either at the undergrad or grad level, and might not admit you with just Stats and CSM Learn. Look for degrees with admission requirements that are more reasonable to your needs. Correspond with them and ask them questions (grad schools are usually much more open to discussions than undergrad schools are) then you'll be better equipped to tailor your undergrad to the admission requirements. Some potential questions to ask might include:

1. Are ACE and/or NCCRS credits in a Bachelor's degree acceptable for admission into XYZ degree?
2. If yes to the above question, does this institution require a certain pass percentage for the undergrad ACE/NCCRS credits?
3. Do you count ACE/NCCRS scores when calculating GPA or only classes from another college or university where a grade was issued?

There are plenty of grad schools that are alt-credit friendly, but there are also plenty that are not. You need to figure out where you plan to go, if you want to tailor your prerequisites to admission. For your 16-credit term, it might be better for you to take classes that the grad school expects, rather than what you actually want.