How long have I been stuck in Semester One at Penn
Foster College? If the changes they have made to their
associate degree programs are any indication, I’ve been dragging out this
semester way too long.
First of all, when I enrolled in Education Direct (that’s
what Penn Foster used to be called), the program was called the Associate in
Specialized Business Degree with an Option in Marketing. Whew, that’s a mouthful! Now, it’s simply called the Associate of
Science in Marketing. Penn Foster has
also added a new AS program: Computer
Information Systems.
The courses in my program are a bit different now, too. Right now I’m working on my English
Composition course, but Penn Foster has now moved that course to Semester
Two. I’m not really sure what would
happen if I stuck around for a second semester.
Also, students now have a choice of one of three electives during the
first semester: Essentials of
Psychology, Readings in World
Civilizations or Foundations of Political Science. I would have much rather taken one of those
courses than English Composition.
Semesters Two and Three each have six courses, but Semester
Four only has five courses. All courses
in Semesters Two Through Four are worth three credit hours each.
I still like what I see in the Penn Foster AS in Marketing
course. If time were not an object, I
would work my way through the rest of these courses, but since I’m trying to
rack up these credits as quickly as possible, CLEP and DANTES exams are in my
future.
The tuition is also a bit different now. For one thing, it is higher, but still a good
bargain. There are three payment options
at Penn Foster
College: Payment in Full, for $875 for Semester One; the
automatic payment plan for $900, in which monthly payments are automatically
deducted from a debit or credit card or bank account, or the standard payment
plan for $960. In the standard plan,
Penn Foster sends a payment book and the payments are mailed to the college by
the student. I always made my payments
online, but I guess I did something similar to the standard payment plan.
It’s time to wrap this thing up, before Penn
Foster College
changes the name of my program again…or eliminates it altogether.