StraighterLine

Overview
Straighterline is an innovative player in the alternative adult education field. The company offers numerous online courses that effectively line up with a freshman year of college's general education requirements.

Free CLEP Prep has a fantastic overview of Straighterline, so we will not duplicate effort here.

Buyer Beware
Straighterline is praised by many of its students. However, the prospective student MUST be aware of the limitations of Straighterline's offerings. Straighterline currently has arrangements with only a small set of schools, including the Big 3. Straighterline courses will be accepted for credit only if they have been recommended for credit by ACE. Always check if a course has been ACE-reviewed before enrolling, and always ensure your school will actually take the course for credit. Do not waste money on courses that will not transfer into your degree plan!

UPDATE 10/10/12: Straighterline has announced a new "[for all final exams to be proctored takes effect for courses purchased on or after November 1, 2012]". This will add $30 to the cost for courses at present, with plans to lower that to $10 after November 1st. Proctored finals taken for each course will have new "[requirements]" your computer will have to meet in order to take them and the outside company ProctorU that is used by Straighterline for these finals will have access to your personal computer. Many people are disturbed by granting such access to an outside source, despite their [of privacy], and therefore should consider another approach to finishing these courses. One idea is to take a FREE course at Saylor.org (or other similar site), use InstantCert and other online resources and then just take the CLEP or DSST which are accepted at hundreds of more colleges/universities than Straighterline courses are. This approach is even cheaper than Straighterline without the nonsense. After all, you have to take a proctored exam whether you use Straighterline or take the CLEP/DSST exams so it seems to make more sense to do the latter now. That would be $100 max (including proctor fee) in most cases for each CLEP/DSST exam vs. at least $139 for SL's less transferrable ACE-approved course. Another idea is to take courses online via your local community college or KCTCS, which again are far more easily transferred than Straighterline courses. Others may prefer Straighterline's format despite these changes, that's something each individual student will have to decide for themselves.