November 21st, 2008
Where can I find an online, self-paced undergraduate level
Introductory Statistics course of 3 credits that costs $400 (or less
:) )from an accredited school (I need to be able to start the course
immediately and finish it in a month)? Thanks!Hello alfajor-ga,
The parameters you’ve set for your Introduction to Statistics Course
make it tough to meet your requirements. I’ve found a course that you
can start any time and have 6 months to complete but it costs $495
plus some additional fees. I’ve also found another course that costs
$285 for residents and $585 for non-residents but specifies that the
minimum time to complete the course is 12 weeks. I’ve found several
courses that would meet your cost and other requirements but have to
be completed during the regular quarter/semester schedule.
Please let me know if you would be interested in any of these options.
Also, it would help to know where you live to be able to determine
resident vs. non-resident tuition fees.
I look forward to your clarification.
czhFor questions of residency, I live in Oregon. It's crucial that the
course be self-paced and that I could start it right away (I need to
have it completed by the end of September.) If I can't find one for
$400 or less, I'll be sad, and beyond broke, but I'll pay more than
$400 if that is the only way. The course can be (and would preferably
be) an Intro to Statistics course for non-engineers or non-math majors
(it's a requirement for me to start nursing grad school) but anything
that's 3 credits will do. The course can be called Biometry or
Biostatistics... just a broad-based survey of statistics for students
not intending to take more statistics courses in their lives. Does
this help?Since this question is difficult, I will add another $10 to the fee
for a course that meets the requirements and costs less than $400...Hello Alfajor-ga!
I believe I've got your solution. Your question grabbed my attention
as I've been in a very similar situation to yours and so I immediately
looked up the course that I took to see if it would work for you and
it looks as though it does! From what others on this thread have said,
it looks as though the price is definitely cheaper on this course than
others that are available elsewhere. The course is offered through Rio
Salado College, an accredited institution based in Arizona
(http://www.riosalado.edu/ci/accreditation.shtml). They offer
extensive online courses and are always expanding their
distance-learning program (see
http://www.rio.maricopa.edu/distance_learning/). The name of the
course is PSY230—Introduction to Statistics (there is also another
course called GBS221—Business Statistics, but it sounds like the other
suits your needs better). I also called Rio Salado College myself to
verify all of this and they verified that it IS self-paced and you can
complete it in as little time as you’d like and they believe that it
will satisfy a pre-requisite statistics course for a nursing program,
though they recommend verifying the specifics with the college you are
attending/program that you are completing. When you look up the course
on their site, it states that it is a 14-week course. That is the
maximum amount of time to complete the course. It is self-paced and
you can complete it in less time. The only stipulation is that you
can’t get behind (which isn’t really an issue in your circumstance).
As for tuition and fees, it’s pretty close to your specifications. For
out-of-state residents as yourself, it is $135/credit hour. The course
is a 3-credit course and therefore the cost is $405. And there is an
additional registration fee of $5. The total, then, is $410. Please
refer to http://www.rio.maricopa.edu/services/student/enrollment/registration/feeschedule.shtml
for more information.
I was in a very similar situation to yours (needing to find a stats
class fast). I found out about a brand new Master’s program just
before deadlines, quickly applied and got provisional
acceptance—provisional because I needed to take a couple of
pre-requisite courses, including statistics. Although they gave me a
year to complete those pre-requisites, I wanted to hurry and get them
done before jumping into a demanding Master’s program, so I signed up
for the two courses and completed them as quickly as I could the
summer before the Master’s program started. I believe I finished the
stats course in less than 2 months time while working on another
course at the same time. So, it can be done! Also, every class is a
little different depending on the professor, my particular class was
open book for exams and assignments and everything was easy to submit
online. I wasn’t particularly thrilled about having to take a stats
class (I’m not a huge math fan overall and stats intimidated me), but
I found the course easy to follow and very easy to quickly complete.
To get specifics on the course, go to
http://www.rio.maricopa.edu/cgi-other/CourseSchedule/Display.asp and
click on PSY230 when you look it up. That will give you a mini
syllabus and other information that you need. The next earliest start
date is 9/8, but there is much you can do to "get ahead" now and get
started immediately.
I have a few recommendations to you as well to help you speed along
the process (having been there myself):
1. Check with the program you are completing (you mentioned nursing
graduate school) to absolutely make sure that the course is suitable
to fulfill your pre-requisite requirements. That is the only way to
make absolutely sure it’s a good fit for you. Rio Salado College will
work to help you make sure you take the proper course.
2. Another helpful tip--Let the online professor know of your
situation. That way he or she can be available to your particular
needs (in this case, your need to expedite the process and get through
the course as quickly as possible).
3. Because you will need to take midterm and final exams (again, check
the syllabus for the particular course/section that you sign up for),
start getting proctor sites, proctors, etc. in place so that you have
everything ready to go when you take your exams.
4. Double check with the program you are completing to see how long
they will allow you to take to complete the course. When I applied to
my program, I erroneously assumed that I would have to complete the
courses before even beginning the Master’s program. They allowed a
year into the program to complete pre-requisites. This might give you
more “breathing room.”
5. Order your textbook online to get it as soon as possible and get
ahead on readings and things and get started on assignments quickly.
Clearly, finances are an issue for you, so bargain shopping will help
you out. There are a number of places online to buy textbooks,
including www.half.com, www.bn.com (Barnes and Noble), www.amazon.com,
etc. There are a lot of sales going on right now with school starting.
One of my favorite places to check (and this may help you out in your
nursing program as well) is www.bigwords.com, as they calculate price
as well as shipping and offers at every major store and help you find
the lowest total price (they also do this for music, DVDs, games,
etc.). I personally have the textbook required for the course, but I’m
sure mine is an outdated edition as they are requiring a 2002 edition
for the course and mine is (I believe) a 1999 edition!
I hope this information is VERY helpful to you. To use a trite phrase,
“I feel your pain!” I know what it’s like to need to find a course
FAST and complete it even faster!! Good luck to you. Should you need
further clarification or help with any of the above links, please let
me know how I can help you.
Thank you,
Boquinha-ga
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