I have been visiting this message board off and on for a very long time, and it has provided me with wonderful advice; that helped me in achieving my very first degree. Now, I have a relative seeking to go the distance-learning route as well and they have come to me for help. My relative has zero college credit and wants to major in Criminal justice. So, how do I get him started slowly in the world of distance learning? Do I : A) Introduce him to CLEP and DANTES exams to build up his credited hours. Then once his basics is out of the way in enroll him in one of the big three online universities. B) Introduce him to a B & M that offers Criminal Justice and has a distance learning option. Thus, making it easy for him to take course through that university degree program. Note: if he finds a public college in his home state of Louisiana then he will not have to pay tuition. He is a military child that was award a fee exempt certificate for Louisiana public college tuition.
avia93, I would recommend that your relative check out LSU for his undergrad gen. ed. requirements. LSU offers correspondence and online courses for the low, low price of $229 (free for your relative!). As you know, LSU is regionally accredited. LSU Independent Study Page: http://www.is.lsu.edu/home.asp?level=CO&online=0&nid=101 After your relative finishe up his undergrad courses, he may wish to check out Peru State College. Peru offers a BS in CJ 100% online (they also offer the gen. ed. courses online too). Courses run $114/credit hour ($342/3 credit course). Peru is a regionally accredited college, located in Nebraska. Peru Home Page: http://www.peru.edu Peru Online Education page: http://www.hpcnet.org/peru/onlineeducation Just a couple of options for your friend to explore. I would definitely check out to see if there is a Louisiana school that offers a BA/BS CJ at a distance. Good luck! - Tom Good luck! - Tom
You might also find one of Bruce's posts and click on the clickable links on his signature line, which will show a listing of DL CJ degrees.
Give your relative a taste of criminal justice via DL with either this diploma course (which costs under $1,000... including books); or, perhaps better yet, with this associates degree (which costs around $3,000... including books)... both 100% distance learning, and both nationally" accredited by an agency approved by the US Department of Education (USDE) and/or its Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). If s/he's still hooked on CJ after the aforementioned associates degree, then consider this regionally-accredited bachelors program (at a US News and World Report "Best Colleges of 2004" and "...of 2005" school) which will, positively, accept the aforementioned nationally-accredited associates degree in transfer as the entire lower-division requirement, leaving approximately 60 upper-division hours at a cost for the entire bachelors degree of roughly $16,000; and for the associates and bachelors combined of less than $20,000. And though s/he will have started-out with a nationally-accredited associates, s/he will end-up with a regionally-accredited bachelors... ...which, if s/he's still nuts about criminal justice after all that, will easily get him/her into this amazing, regionally-accredited, 100%-online graduate program that, when combined with the aforementioned undergrad work, will make him/her just about as well-rounded and knowledgeable in areas of law, justice and public policy as s/he could ever hope to be... and all for either as cheaply as could be reasonably hoped for, or at least as competitively-priced as one could reasonably expect. Just a suggestion.
Hi Greg, Interesting post. I was unaware that Southwestern College accepted an Associates from Ashworth directly. In reference to the above information (and from a strictly financial standpoint), I would argue that a BS in CJ from Peru State College would be a better value than the Ashworth/Southwestern combo. An entire 120 credit Bachelor's degree from Peru will only run you $13,690 in tuition. Not as cheap as the "big three", but certainly well within the realms of reasonable! Now, in this particular case, it may be beneficial for avia93's relative to look into a University based out of Louisiana (due to the exemption certificate). If I were in that situation, I would scour the state for a school that met my needs. Anyway you look at it, there are some excellent values to be had out there in the land of distance learning. You just need to know what rocks to look under! With that said, please explain to me why I attend a school that charges $1044/course! Oh yeah, my employer is footing the bill! - Tom
You should make him an offer he can't refuse (and, no, I don't mean Vito Corleone style). Go find the same degree via distance learning for half the price, then ask him to pay you half the savings as a bonus. It's win-win for both of you! It will amount to a 25% reduction in tuition costs for him, and money in your pocket. Sorry. Just thinking outside the box again.
I have no experience with this school but it has been mentioned on this forum before. Since it is located in La, it might be worth a look. http://www.nsula.edu/ece/ensu.asp
OR...they could attend Ashworth for the associate degree and then transfer to Peru State College to finish their BS in CJ. Peru will also accept NA degrees in transfer. I figure that should save them about $3000-$4,000 off the cost of starting out at Peru from scratch. Heck, that's essentially what I"M gonna do!
