Cheapest online accounting courses for credit?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by FTFaculty, Mar 30, 2016.

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  1. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    The babies are now old enough and getting out of diapers, marrying off the oldest, and suddenly the spouse is looking at a little bit more free time. So being intense as she is, is thinking about maybe possibly pursuing coursework towards qualifying to sit for CPA.

    Does anyone know what are the absolute cheapest online accounting courses available? A couple of the programs I know about are the LSU and UC Berkeley certificate programs. It doesn't have to be a certificate or a degree, she already has her degrees, just accredited coursework.

    Thanks!
     
  2. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    Does your state have specific requirements for accreditation like they must come from an AACSB accredited program or is RA without programmatic accreditation OK?
     
  3. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the lightning quick response, Neuhaus. Either NA or RA's fine, but in the state we're considering, they require that community college credits be transferred for credit into a bachelor's program. Since she already has a bachelors and masters in another discipline and meets the 150 hour requirement, she has no desire to pursue a second bachelors, just needs the coursework necessary to sit, so CC credit would be too much trouble (and likely not going to cover intermediate accounting sufficiently to get her where she needs to go anyway). So long as it's bachelor's or higher level, that works.
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  5. AV8R

    AV8R Active Member

    Peru State College has an online accounting degree program. It's where I completed my second BS in accounting. The quality of instruction was excellent. Peru State does not charge out of state tuition with their "one rate any state" policy. Online courses are currently $246 per credit hour:

    Peru State College
     
  6. Tim D

    Tim D Member

  7. rebel100

    rebel100 New Member

    I don't really know anything about accounting requirements for CPA, but since you mentioned that NA was ok and lowest price is the driver I think you should see if Penn Foster will work. Accounting Certificate Program | Penn Foster Career School I believe most, if not all of these NA courses are ACE approved...so they should theoretically be transferable to some RA schools (the big 3 should have no problem with them at any rate). Only $237/three credit course, books included.

    With this post I have penned my first positive suggestion of an NA program...like crossing to the dark side.
     
  8. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    The program you looked to looks good but it is an "Accounting Essentials" program that appears fairly low level (though cheap!). It's four courses and only two of them are actually accounting courses (Managerial and Financial).

    Penn Foster also has an undergrad certificate in Accounting which is a bit more robust. It is 11 courses and a proctored exam and includes cost accounting as well as two levels of intermediate accounting. Courses, as with the cert rebel found, are ACE recommended and just so happen to meet the core requirements at TESU for the B.S.B.A. in Accounting, just in case your wife decided to just get the paper (might also help if the state took issue with NA).
     
  9. rebel100

    rebel100 New Member

    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 30, 2016
  10. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    I definitely agree--my MBA's from there! :sly:
     
  11. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Most are that way, got more nuts & bolts accounting knowledge in intro to financial accounting in UG than I ever got in Financial Accounting for an MBA.
     
  12. Tim D

    Tim D Member

    One thing you need to be sure of is that whatever classes you take will be accepted. Some states(like Florida) will not specifically exclude certain courses in the licensing nomenclature but make it very difficult to get your license. There are other states like Texas that come straight out and disqualify online degrees.
     
  13. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    Can you cite that bit about Texas? According to the state website the requirements are:

    Elsewhere in the requirements, the only reference I can find that seems to even partially address DL is:

    Which is hardly an outright rejection of online learning. And, I would imagine, any for-credit coursework offered through an RA school could be said to have been reviewed and approved through a formal, institutional faculty review process. If it wasn't, and if the outcomes were not equivalent to the traditional course, then it wouldn't be allowed by the accreditors.

    Perhaps you are referring to this?

    Though, again, there is a difference between a "correspondence school" or an "extension school" and for-credit coursework offered through a university.

    I'm not saying you're wrong, mind you. Perhaps my reading of these things is wrong and there is an administrative rule that has been issued on the subject or a lawsuit that someone with an online degree lost. I would just like to know which source you might have on the matter because my own research has not led me to that conclusion and I want to compare notes.
     
  14. AV8R

    AV8R Active Member

    In the day and age we live in, it's rare (or nearly unheard of) for a college or university to make any sort of notation on a transcript regarding how a particular course was delivered. Unless you are attending a school that only offers online courses (like some of the for-profits), how would anyone know that your courses were completed online? Better yet, if you fear some kind of problem, just take courses through a school in your state. If you live in Texas and you complete online courses in accounting from a Texas college or university, no one is going to so much as blink when they receive your transcript. That and you get to take advantage of in-state tuition.
     
  15. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    You grabbed the certificate from the career school. By itself, it's not worth college credits. It can only be translated into credits in one of Penn Foster College's programs. The undergraduate certificate from the college side is worth college credit, but it's not associate or bachelor. It's just an undergraduate certificate. Also, it's transferable to the AS in Accounting because they don't have a BS in Accounting.

    Texas doesn't reject online degrees. Texas just has a requirement that a certain number of accounting courses be taken butt-in-seat.
     
  16. Tim D

    Tim D Member

    TSBPA - Examination - Education - Accounting Courses
    The Board will accept at least 30 passing semester credit hours of accounting courses without repeat from the courses listed below. The courses must meet the board's standards by containing sufficient business knowledge and application to be useful to candidates taking the CPA Examination. A Board-recognized educational institution must have accepted the courses for purposes of awarding a baccalaureate degree or its equivalent, and they must be shown on an official transcript. At least 15 of these hours must result from physical attendance at classes meeting regularly on the campus of the transcript-issuing institution.

    So if I were to obtain 15 credits of" face-to-face "(The Texas CPA term)courses and they must be from the transcript issuing institution. I can not attend Bentley because it is close to my house and transfer the credits to another school, as that would not qualify. I could however take 15 credits in person and take classes online, it does not completely eliminate online education. It does however eliminate online degrees.

    As for Florida, there have been reports and I can link them if need be, of people who have completed master degrees in accounting that actually have been excluded from licensure. APUS Lists this
    Where you to check the Florida Requirements nothing precludes an online degree.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 31, 2016
  17. Tim D

    Tim D Member

    As I point out it gets a little more specific than that. It must be butt-in seat by the degree granting institution. That is a little different, than you just must attend live classes(which essentially eliminates a degree from any distance education university). I do wonder how hard they check the requirement(this is something I do not know) it is possible that an online degree from UMASS Amherst would not raise a red flag but Walden would. I do know NASBA does not cover Texas.
     
  18. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    I would imagine this has to do with specific course requirement. Florida has the most detailed educational requirement I have seen; off the cuff, APUS program does not have Accounting Information Systems class, and maybe some more. My wife's degree is from Excelsior with all accounting coursework by distance (LSU, UCLA Extension, Athabasca) and was accepted; we had to choose the classes very carefully to make sure it covers everything.
     
  19. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Technically, it doesn't require that the credits come from the degree-granting institution. It requires that the credits be acceptable toward a bachelor's degree. What they're really saying is that the butt-in-seat accounting credits have to be on the transcript of the school where you took them. One can submit multiple transcripts and would have to if one meets the requirements using the second option quoted below.

    TSBPA - Examination - Education - Accounting Courses

    As for APUS, we don't know why they don't meet the requirements. It could be the curriculum.

    Edit: Stanislav explained it.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 1, 2016
  20. Tim D

    Tim D Member

    Here I was thinking more of a big 3 situation. It is true, that as long as you provide transcripts from the schools(and your butt was in the seat) you would be OK. It might mean more leg work but does not preclude you from meeting the requirements.
    I used APUS as an example, only because they are forthcoming about the issue. Some other schools are not so forthcoming, but there are other schools who do not meet the requirements as well(for example WGU).
     

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