Thomas Edison State CollegeWe are excited to formally announce that students can earn up to 34 tuition-free credits that can be transferred and applied to an undergraduate degree at Thomas Edison State College, a state-owned accredited college who has been a long time partner of the Saylor Academy.

Students can earn the credits through our self-paced “Earn College Credit” program, which includes free, open online courses that are aligned with many associate and bachelor degree programs at Thomas Edison. The program has the potential of saving New Jersey students approximately $5,900 in tuition costs and out-of-state students approximately $8,000 in tuition costs for those who are able to apply all 34 credits towards an undergraduate degree at the college.

“Much has been said over the past few years about disruption in higher education and how open courses will actually help students,” said Marc Singer, vice provost of the college’s Center for the Assessment of Learning. “Our partnership with Saylor demonstrates a way for students to take high-quality open courses at no cost and then apply what they learned in those open courses through prior learning assessment.  We believe this demonstrates how open courses can benefit students interested in earning a college degree from a regionally accredited institution.”

In February, the college launched an Open Course option for the Associate Science in Business Administration degree program, which allows students to complete the degree by taking free, open, online courses from the Saylor Academy and passing assessments offered through the College’s prior learning assessment program.

The Earn College Credit partnership builds on that idea and enables students to apply up to 34 tuition-free credits towards a non-nursing associate or bachelor’s degree program at Thomas Edison. Depending on a student’s academic background and degree program, up to 22 credits earned through the program may be applied to general education requirements and up to 12 credits can be applied to area of study requirements in business administration programs or to free elective requirements in other non-nursing undergraduate programs at the college.

A select number of our courses are included in this effort and include foundational and STEM courses such as Calculus, Corporate Communication, Business Law, Introduction to Marketing, Principles of Management, Biology, Chemistry and Computer Science. The courses eligible for transfer have been reviewed and recommended for college credit by either the American Council on Education or the National College Credit Recommendation Service.  We are honored by the recommendations for those courses by these organizations, both of whom have been reviewing alternative learning opportunities for over 40 years.

Similarly, we are equally honored to continue to work with Thomas Edison. One of New Jersey’s 11 senior public institutions of higher education, the college offers associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in more than 100 areas of study. Identified by Forbes magazine as one of the top 20 colleges and universities in the nation in the use of technology to create learning opportunities for adults, Thomas Edison is a national leader in the assessment of adult learning and a pioneer in the use of educational technologies.

We are proud to continue to work with cutting edge institutions to create affordable pathways for students to earn meaningful credentials and look forward to announcing more opportunities soon!

6 thoughts on “Earn Tuition-Free College Credit Transferable to Thomas Edison State College

  1. This is nothing new! TESC has long accepted ACE-approved and NCCRS-approved courses. I don’t even know why this is newsworthy. You’ve been a member of NCCRS since 2012! Your two ACE-approved courses have been around for several months. You forgot to mention that it costs $25 to take the proctored exams. It’s inexpensive, but it’s not free. I wish TESC had a comments section on their article so that I could let them know how pointless their big announcement is.

    1. Hi Tammy, thanks for your take; you are correct that much of this opportunity has been around for some time. Our announcement reflects a formalization and agreement to publicize the availability of a full year of tuition-free (not wholly free of cost) credit.

      Thank you for pointing out additional options that may be available to students as well with the ASBA program. As I understand the per-credit tuition program, out-of-state students seeking a two-year degree must pay $491 per credit for at least 12 credits, which would make an up-front enrollment fee potentially a better option for those who can complete their coursework and exams/evaluations in a relatively short period of time. Certainly, students should ask lots of questions before diving in!

      1. I see that you’ve already figured this out without giving me any credit for my other comments, but students who choose the Per Credit Tuition Plan can fulfill the residency requirement with TECEPs. Those are always $111 each for non-residents and a little less for residents. That means you pay $444 to take four TECEPs for 12 credits instead of over $3,000 for an enrollment fee. Several students at degreeforum.net are already doing this. I recommend that everyone interested in mostly testing out of a degree at TESC check that forum because it is much more up to date than the Saylor staff and even gives more accurate information than TESC’s poorly-trained advisors. No offense to Saylor.

  2. I forgot to mention that Saylor has had TESC’s equivalencies for their NCCRS-approved courses on their website since 2013 or earlier. So, obviously, TESC has known about and been accepting these courses for awhile.

    By the way, that Open Course Option Plan for the ASBA is terrible and will cost students much more money than necessary. TESC doesn’t want to let you know how you can avoid their high enrollment fee by taking four TECEPs under their Per Credit Tuition Plan. One can complete their ASBA for less than $2,000. TESC is trying to tell non-residents of New Jersey that they have to spend $5,279! There are plenty of community colleges that offer online degree programs for that price. Also, it is definitely not necessary to complete any tedious prior learning assessments for their ASBA.

Comments are closed.