A degree without residency requirements?

I'm helping my friend find a way to complete his degree. He has 109 hours from 20 years ago and he would like to go back to school to complete his degree. A lot of schools require too many residency hours. I found Thomas Edison State College that will take 100% transfer credits. Are there other *accredited* schools that don't require residency hours? It needs to be online and cheap.

Or, he needs 15 more hours of 300 - 400 level classes to complete a degree with TESC. Are there free or cheap classes somewhere to do this that he could transfer to TESC? He is looking at a humanities, liberal arts, or psychology at the moment, but if the hours worked out would consider business, logistics, transportation, supply chain, or something along those lines.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

If they want to simply get a degree I would direct you to Athabasca University in Canada. They have a Bachelor of General Studies that requires only 90 hours. This of course wouldn't be the same as an American Bachelor's degree which is the standard 120-128 credit hours, but nonetheless it would allow them to earn a degree.

I can't promise that they would get a degree as it depends upon what courses he has taken. But a degree from Athabasca University would be perfectly fine and acceptable. They require no residency requirements for the degree. There are fees involved such as an application to process the information but it might be your best bet.

As far as Thomas Edison State College I would consider them as well. In terms of Excelsior College and Charter Oak State College one requires an Information Literacy component and the latter requires a Capstone course. As far as I recall the Information Literacy can be transferred into Excelsior whereas with Charter Oak you must complete the one course with them.

 

Your friend will be happy if I'm wrong but frankly, I'd be surprised if any school accepted all of those 20 year old credits. They may have stated that they will accept 109 credits but did they actually say that they'd accept those 109 credits. Have transcripts been submitted? I just don't want to you assume it's a sure thing and then find out that some, or even most, are considered to be too old. As for the remaining credits, our board is full of suggestions.

 

Re: Athabasca University (transfer credits — e.g., stale dating)

“Some AU programs have a stale dating policy whereby a course or program will not be accepted for credit if older than the stale date noted for the program (regardless of the precedent setting articulation). For example, if an articulation for a program completed in 1999 is established, a student could not use that credential to an AU program in 2006 that had a five year stale date rule.”
Undergraduate Transfer Credit Policy : Athabasca University - Focused on the Future of Learning

 

Dsst

In addition to TESC there is Excelsior College Excelsior College | Excelsior College and Charter Oak State College Finish your Degree Online - Charter Oak State College

Acceptance of old credits depends on the subject.

There are DSST exams that provide upper division (300/400) credit
Test Preparation | DSST | Get College Credit

 

TESC will accept old credits, your friend can apply and they'll do an evaluation. There are some fields where the credits can't be older, I believe business is one, but if you're talking about the liberal arts, he's got nothing to worry about.

Ian answered- the big 3 are zero residency accredited schools, but know that he'll likely have to take 1 class online with them (depending on the school and major).

The problem with a 90 hour bachelor (Athabasca) is that it's 90 hours. He's already super close, he can probably complete at degree at the big 3 by summer if he gets an eval, and starts testing out or taking classes. The likelihood of his classes fitting perfectly into a 90 credit program are slim to none.... meaning he's probably going to have to take a class or two, meaning you graduate from both at the same time anyway. He's waited 20 years, don't let a few months cloud the big picture.

 

I find this interesting, because when I registered at University of Illinois Springfield, in 2011, they accepted lower-division credits dating back to 1975. When I graduate in May I will have 40-year-old courses on my transcript.

 

Excelsior College will require a capstone for all degree programs and information literacy. I've heard conflicting information about whether or not they still accept Penn Foster's info lit course, but they might still accept Louisiana State University's. Charter Oak State College requires a cornerstone and capstone for all bachelor's programs, and they have to be taken in two different semesters. Thomas Edison State College requires a capstone for all BA, BSAST, and some BS programs. For their Bachelor of Science in Business Administration programs, you can either test out of the capstone or transfer in strategic management from another college. Many people take Penn Foster's course because it's ACE-evaluated.

At the Big 3, I've only heard of credit age limits for business and IT courses. There might be age limits for science courses for certain programs such as nursing. This can be different depending on what kind of credits one is trying to transfer, but the cheapest degrees will be the BA in Liberal Studies and BSBA in General Management at TESC. Business administration liberal studies/arts programs are test friendly at all of the Big 3 schools. COSC and TESC also let you design your own degree with their individualized studies and learner-designed area of study programs, respectively. FEMA courses are free, and COSC is the only one of the Big 3 to accept them directly without additional cost. Many people have transferred TEEX, NFA, and Kaplan PLA courses to TESC. Those are free, but you have to pay for the ACE transcript.

 

Well, I supposed this is one of those times that I'm just plain wrong. I thought the practice of rejecting credits due to age was widespread but maybe it's not as common as I thought.

 

Reality Check

First, let me give you the hard-ass part of my response. Don’t take it personally; I have a reputation as a hard-ass to maintain.

If your friend is truly motivated to complete his degree, tell him to get his pathetic butt on this board himself. As a general rule, when somebody says, “I’m checking this out for a friend,” it means that the friend lacks the motivation to do it himself or herself. Which means, generally, that they will also lack the motivation to actually earn a degree. If someone wants the type of information you are seeking, it’s their responsibility to do the homework. We will be delighted to welcome your friend to DegreeInfo, as we are delighted to welcome you.

Free for transferable credit? As a general rule, no. Cheap? That’s subjective, but the answer is yes. Remember that any courses from regionally accredited schools will transfer to TESC, and that for them, “RA” is the only game in town.

As for only needing 15 more upper-level credits, how does he know this? Did he have his prior work evaluated by TESC? You can have 500 credits under your belt, but unless they meet the distribution requirements of a particular degree program, you may need a lot more than you think.

Nix psychology – if his goal is to be a licensed psychologist he would have to earn a doctorate to pull that off. If he wanted to be a licensed professional counselor, he would have to earn a master’s degree.

Want maximum flexibility? Go for humanities. TESC doesn’t offer a degree in liberal arts per se, but they offer broad degrees in each of the three major liberal arts areas (humanities, math and natural sciences, and social sciences).

Next, he should explore the portfolio option. Go to the home page of DegreeInfo and check out the article I wrote several centuries ago on earning credit at TESC by portfolio. It’s a bit dated, but the principles are the same today. (Disclosure: I did my own B.A. in Humanities at TESC, and chose that field because it offered maximum flexibility. I walked into TESC with a whopping six semester hour credits and graduated 1 year and 10 months later with 120 credits – 98 by portfolio, 16 by exam, and the six I transferred in. I did the broad area degree in humanities, splitting the major between communications, music, and theology. And popped a bunch of business credits into the free electives area.) If your friend earned his credits 20 years ago, I’ll assume that he’s around his 40’s. He may already have a lot of head knowledge that can be translated into credit by portfolio.

Finally, you mentioned logistics, transportation, and supply chain management, so I’ll assume your friend is in the transportation field. (After eight years of teaching grad school, I became an over-the-road trucker and have never regretted it. Instead of books, today I write transportation, logistics, and regulatory manuals.)

You won’t find many logistics degrees at the undergrad level – these are generally at the master’s level, and are usually a specialization in a business curriculum. However, if he wanted to pull off a few logistics courses in the context of a humanities degree (which you can do by applying them to the free electives requirement, as I did with business courses), you’ll find some online undergrad courses in logistics at Ohio Christian University (they also offer an undergrad-level certificate in the field). OCU is regionally accredited so the courses should transfer elsewhere.

Now, tell your friend to get his butt over here. We don’t bite. Well, some of us do…

 

Excelsior took all of my 40-year-old credits.

 

There is some misinformation here. TESC does not accept NA credits, but they do accept non-RA credits that have ACE and NCCRS approval. Saylor has ACE and NCCRS courses that are technically free, but you do have to pay $25 for the proctored exam. As I said above, NFA, the Kaplan PLA, and TEEX courses are free. These won't be enough to complete a degree, but they do provide some free electives and credits in computer information systems. The Saylor courses are mostly general education and business. Humanities is not the most flexible degree at TESC. They don't have a liberal arts degree, but they do have a liberal studies degree. It's the same thing and the most flexible degree. Even their learner-designed area of study is more flexible than the humanities major. The humanities major is also not as cheap, alternative credit-friendly as the social science, psychology, and business administration degrees. TESC does offer a BSBA in Operations Management where someone could utilize logistics courses.

Maximum flexibility depends on the credits one already has. If someone has a lot of social science, business, science, etc. credits, then humanities will be far from offering the most flexibility. I have over 250 undergraduate and graduate credits, and even I would be far away from completing a humanities degree. However, I am close to completing a BSBA and natural science degree. When I attended TESC, because of the psychology and criminal justice courses I had, social science offered me maximum flexibility.

 

If you were to attempt to earn 98 credits by PLA at TESC these days, you would have to write the equivalent of two dissertations.

 

Making Assumptions

Steve,

It is a real shame you would jump to the conclusion that my friend is pathetic/lazy. This is far from the truth. My friend is a transportation manager working 12 hour shifts five days a week. He is also helping a friend deal with her mother's terminal cancer which takes hours at a time several days a week and many late nights. He is currently taking courses to complete his degree through a local University (and making A's). He does ministry. And, he spends the little bit of spare time he has looking for new jobs to move up in his career as the senior management where he is have been in their position for 10+ years and have no plans on going anywhere, and he wants to be the best provider he can be. I could go on and on about the work he does for other people. He is far from lazy. He gets very little sleep. So, no, he does not need to get his "pathetic butt" on this board.

My friend has been a blessing to countless people including myself. If I can find a catalyst to help him along the path he is already on, then I would be honored to help him. I'm a stay-at-home mom and have the time to help, and he does not know I'm researching this.

 

Thank you to everyone for the info!!!

 

That is just Steve's way of communicating. Maybe it helps him feel superior. Ignore him...that's what I do.

 

Based solely on degreeinfo postings, the wrong Steve seems to get the credit here. The good Steve is kind, generous, and helpful. The other Steve, the infamous one, does not help unless being paid and his few posts on degreeinfo are are of no substance, rude and insulting. His posts are merely to solicit a reaction. He is selfish and self promoting.

 

I commend you for attempting to help your friend to complete their degree!

I began college at a highly competitive college in the late 70s. I attended for three years, leaving due to an illness in the family. I married and had children. and completed my degree at another highly competitive university, Stony Brook, where I received my BA.

While all of my credits were accepted, Stony Brook requited two years in residence in order to graduate. No credits were considered to be "too old", although they were over 20 years old.

The only time that I have found this to be true is in the natural sciences, particularly when a student is in pursuit of a degree in the allied health fields.
Usually, there is a ten year limit on those courses.

Best of luck to your friend!