GET STARTED, PART 4Hello, StraighterLine!
So what is StraighterLine? It's an online company that offers college-level courses that can be transferred to your school of choice for credits. StraighterLine is not a college itself, but has entered into partnerships with several different schools. Additionally, StraighterLine provides a list of colleges and universities that students have reported accepted their SL credits. (Scroll down on the page linked above and click on "Other non-partner schools" to see the list.) Now, I could write you another book like I just did on the ALEKS page, but honestly, it isn't necessary. To learn more about StraighterLine, your best option is to simply visit their website and spend some time reading all the information. Then you can sign up for a free trial and take the program for a spin. |
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StraighterLine is generally less expensive than taking online or in-seat courses at a typical college or university. A lot of how much it actually costs you depends on how long you take to finish a course. For instance, my daughter took and finished Western Civilization 1 and Biology with Lab in three weeks. We paid the subscription price of $99 for the first month, plus the enrollment fees of what was then $39 and is now $49 per course. We spent less than $15, including shipping, on her course textbooks, by purchasing used, previous editions of the books through Amazon. We also bought the lab kit supplies for about $120, including shipping. In all, Western Civilization 1 and Biology cost us approximately $310. That's about $44 per-credit-hour. (Biology with Lab is worth 4 credits. To be frank, unless you really need the extra 1 credit for the lab work, I don't recommend it. You can take the biology course without it for 3 credits and save the $120 on the lab kit. We found the labs to be rather simplistic and not really worth the time.) We did the same thing with our son, and he shared the textbooks.
Just as a side bar - we really learned our lesson on this one. Although we saved money by having my daughter and son finish two courses in the same month, we decided we would never do that again. The kids did school all day long. They started in the morning directly after breakfast, took some time off for lunch, and then again for dinner, and then spent the evening reading from the textbooks for the following day. It was insane. One course a month is enough!
StraighterLine offers a lot of different courses in a variety of general education subjects, with a handful that can even apply to your area of study/major in certain cases. By giving you the option to start at any time and work at your own pace, SL is a good way to save both time and money while working toward your degree. (They also have professor-led courses that you can sign up for, though those require certain start dates.) SL is also ideal for certain students, such as my daughter, who aren't the best test takers in the world. With college exams like the CLEP, you either pass or fail based on the one exam. With StraighterLine, you have several exams to take per course and so, if you don't necessarily do very well on one, you have the opportunity to bring up your grade with your other tests.
Speaking of CLEP tests...
Just as a side bar - we really learned our lesson on this one. Although we saved money by having my daughter and son finish two courses in the same month, we decided we would never do that again. The kids did school all day long. They started in the morning directly after breakfast, took some time off for lunch, and then again for dinner, and then spent the evening reading from the textbooks for the following day. It was insane. One course a month is enough!
StraighterLine offers a lot of different courses in a variety of general education subjects, with a handful that can even apply to your area of study/major in certain cases. By giving you the option to start at any time and work at your own pace, SL is a good way to save both time and money while working toward your degree. (They also have professor-led courses that you can sign up for, though those require certain start dates.) SL is also ideal for certain students, such as my daughter, who aren't the best test takers in the world. With college exams like the CLEP, you either pass or fail based on the one exam. With StraighterLine, you have several exams to take per course and so, if you don't necessarily do very well on one, you have the opportunity to bring up your grade with your other tests.
Speaking of CLEP tests...
