Ashworth College - $1299-$1399 Associate Degrees + Sophia

[Ares]

Looking around for something to fill in the gap for the Pierpont BOG degree, the cheapest I could come up with was Ashworth College.

Ashworth College allows you to transfer 75% of the courses for their Associate Degrees (45 out of 60 credits). This means only 5 courses (15 credits) or one semester would need to be taken at Ashworth which costs only $1299 (A.A. General Studies) of $1399 (A.S. General Business) and you have 12 months to complete them.

Using Sophia, some of their Associate Degrees should be easy and cheap to complete:

A.A. General Studies
A.S. General Business

Granted this is a NA schools so transfer options are more limited for the 15 Ashworth credits but Excelsior should take them and regardless the 45 Sophia credits are widely accepted. UMPI also accepts some courses from Ashworth.

From the Ashworth Degree Catalog 2024.

To enroll as an associate degree candidate, students must have successfully completed a high school diploma program, earned a GED or equivalent, or completed at least 12 semester credit hours of college coursework. [...]

In the associate degree program, students may receive credit for 15 courses out of 20 (45 credit hours out of 60) as a combination of transfer credits, prior learning assessment, and credit by exam. Credit by exam is limited to a maximum of 3 courses (9 credit hours). [...]

Ashworth degree programs are self-paced, and students are encouraged to set their own schedules for completing coursework. [...]

An associate degree program can be completed in approximately two years (no more than 12 months for one semester); however, students are allowed a maximum of six (6) years from the date of enrollment to complete their program. [...]

To earn an Ashworth College associate degree, a student must complete 60 credit hours with a minimum GPA of 1.00. [...]

At the end of each semester, students are required to take a proctored, online semester exam. [...] Students may use their textbooks, online and printed course materials, and notes during the exam, but may not use the Internet or previously saved electronic files. If applicable, students may access eBooks within their courses. [...] 

Semester exams are graded on a pass/fail basis and the semester exam scores are not factored into the individual course percentages or letter grades. The student must pass each section of the semester exam, earning no less than the applicable passing score of 70 percent for undergraduate semester exams to continue in the program. Students who fail the first attempt will be given one retake opportunity for each section in order to obtain the passing score. Students who fail a semester exam on their second attempt will be placed on academic review. Certain factors will be considered in determining whether the student will be permitted to remain in the program or be permanently dismissed. These factors include, but are not limited to, the student’s grade point average for the semester, the number of semesters completed, and the scores earned on the first and second attempts. [...]

The semester exam consists of five sections that cover the five courses taken in a particular semester; each section consists of ten (10) multiple-choice questions. Students are given three (3) hours to complete the semester exam.

Thoughts?