Specific advice please - cheapest RA degree

My wife's situation:

26 years old
non-resident alien ("F-2 student's spouse")
Ukrainian Bachelor's and Masters in Management. We have made the evaluation with www.jsilny.com, and they say it is equivalent to the "BBA in Organisation Management from regionally accredited institution" with total of 154 semester credits.

Goal: ABSOLUTELY CHEAPEST Bachelors in Accounting. Money are tight, since our only income is my graduate assistantship.


I see the general direction as taking courses with LSU IS and then enrolling to one of the Big Three (Excelsior?), with hope that she'll get full 90 hours out of her degree tovards second Bachelors. I'll really appreciate any ideas, warnings and money-saving tips esteemed members of this forum might provide. Thank you in advance!

 

Anyone?

 

Is she taking accounting to prepare for the CPA or CMA exams?

The least expensive route is probably to take the CLEP accounting test along with ancillary CLEP and Dantes course tests. But you'd have to first know that those tests will be accepted by a school program that prepares for the CPA or CMA if that is the goal.

 

Re: Re: Specific advice please - cheapest RA degree

Yes she would - the problem is the cost. We have no money to spare whatsoever. In fact, reason number one for taking LSU courses will be to satisfy prerequisites for FSU MAcc to try to get assistantship.

 

Yes, that is the (other) goal. She has 7.5 credits of "Accounting" in her evaluation, and I assumed the CLEP would duplicate that credit. Moreover, she would prefer to follow a course of study to learn specifics of american accounting. She is likely to pursue testing options to satisfy any non-accounting degree requirements, though.

Question to all: how would you estimate the total cost of such endeavor?

 

Community College or Education Direct

My personal recommendation would be to find a technical or community college in your area. These are usually state schools and if she needs to freshen up on accounting or needs these for prerequisites -- this should suffice. I would then make the leap to a Masters degree. However, she really needs to talk to someone at the undergraduate level to see where she is at in terms of understanding accounting. She should also check with the school that she would like to get into a Master's degree program to see what requirements they would have. You also might check to see if they require any Graduate Tests i.e. GRE, etc. Perhaps, there would also be a beginning accounting course that she could take before starting Accounting I or II. These being financial and managerial. I would also recommend that she check with Education Direct as a possibility. There courses are accredited by both the DETC and ACE. You could check with the school that she is thinking of transferring to -- to check and see if they would accept these credits from Education Direct. The reason why I mention this is that she would not be under pressure to finish within a specified period of time -- but could instead take sometime, and ask others for help if she needed it. The only part that she would have to make sure of is that she would be proficient to take the proctored examination -- as this is not able to be given assistance by others. However, when she goes to take the proctored exam, she is allowed to consult her book as well as any notes that she would have. The time limit is 1 hour for each test per subject. Just some thought. Good luck!

 

I used to have an F1 VISA while I was a student in the States, and I always paid out-of-state tuition, two or three times-in-state tuition, and got, of course, no financial aid and a very limited working permit. Even a Community College can be quite expensive for a foreigner like this person, and money seems to be an issue.

I think there are distance education programs that could be cheaper to a foreigner. I am not familiar with this major, accounting, but have you checked university like FHSU, LSU, BYU, etc, that make no distinction between in and out of state students. Have you look at BAin4weeks.com resources? It is a marvelous site with tons of information.

There are a number of schools that offer scholarships based on merit, and you might want to look in that direction as well. If you explain that you need only a few credits to an admission counselor, I think you may get a fair deal with them. That is my impression, and my experience from the States, that there are a lot of great people out there in the states willing to help those who need it most.


Good luck to you and your wife.

 

Re: Community College or Education Direct

Mmm... nah, this probably won't work. Community colleges just don't offer nessesary prerequisite courses. Besides, LSU independent study is actually cheaper per credit than CC out-of-state tuition. My wife has 3.9 GPA and decent English skills, so I really beleive she can handle courses and exams OK.
Thanks for advice though.

 

Thanks. I have looked at bain4weeks, and we intend to use Lawrie's advice.

 

Thank you for all suggestions.

My wife had ordered one course from LSU today - ACCT 2021 Intermediate Accounting, Part I. Wi plan to enroll in Excelsior as soon as she'll have the 4 required courses for accounting major, then complete the fifth (elective) accounting course, Business Law course, English Comp Exam and three more courses (exams) to graduate.

Couple questions:
1) Is it possible to obtain credit evaluation from ECE without enrolling in Excelsior? What kind of evaluation does EC require?

2)Is "Business policy" same thing as "Strategic management"?

3) Do courses satisfying specific requirements (like"macroeconomics") need to be 3 credits? Some of my wife's credits are less than 3 credits, come - more, according to Joseph Silny & Co.

 

I hope that you've looked into what are CPA requirements and realize that those requirements vary by State.

This from New York:

 

Thanks. She'll most probably continue taking LSU courses to satisfy requirements for CPA, or she may get that assistantship at FSU and earn MAcc.

 

Back to the "How much?" issue.

Since she needs a minimum of 6 courses at 3 semester credits each, and wants to takes courses in the US system, the bottom would be about $1300 (thinking LSU - plus books).

Additional credit by testing is of course cheaper; cheaper still would be to substitute lots of testing in accounting, but that may or may not work. Fortunately it doesn't cost much to try, fail, and then decide on a different learning method like correspondence courses.

Therefore, I reckon $2-3,000 as a sensible estimated budget.

Good luck Stanislav and wife - go for it!

--Orson

 

Note on LSU

Just a quick note on LSU: First about book costs...My wife and I are both taking LSU courses. Stay away from the 4 or 5 book stores that LSU suggests you use. They are all still quite expensive, even for used books. Try alibris.com or even half.com. You will have to do a little extra leg work sorting through the listings to make sure you have the correct edition of the text but it's worth it. The books for my current class were less than $10 in good condition. The cheapest I could find through the suggested routes was closer to about $75. The books for my wife's class were less than $20 for near mint condition. The cheapest through the suggested routes was $85.

Testing: LSU requires several proctored tests per course. Their literature suggests that you take these courses at a local college or highschool testing center. There are usually fees charged by the testing center. The one near me charges $30 per test. This raises the cost of the class. What LSU doesn't say in their literature is that you may also take the tests at a library if the librarian will serve as the proctor. (LSU will confirm this by telephone.) The exams will have to be mailed directly to him/her. A library will not typically charge a proctor fee. My advice to is visit your local library and talk to the librarian. You may be able to save an additional $60-$100 per class.

Pug


Pug

 

Thanks for your tips.

Orson,
Your price estimate is most optimistic; this thing can actually (barely) be within our budget! Thanks.

Pug,
We'll definitely check the library for proctoring.


Does anyone know about requirements & credential evaluation?