Southern New Hampshire University
Southern New Hampshire University
Southern New Hampshire University is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution with more than 3,000 on campus students, over 135,000 online students, making it one of the fastest growing universities in the nation.
SNHU Highlights
- 135k+ student enrollment
- 100+ Bachelor's Degrees + large variety of other degrees to choose from
- Cost per credit $320 (less cost compared to most schools)
- Transfer up to 90 credits to the university towards a degree
- For IT degrees, many industry certificates are accepted for credit. One certificate can count for many courses.
- Student feedback is good. (write papers for each class, no proctoring & grading isn't hard)
- 18yr students and international students accepted
- Named most innovative university by U.S. News & World Report 3 years in a row
How Classes And Terms Work for SNHU
Terms for SNHU are 2 months. Full-time is 2 courses, and part-time is 1 course. So for the first 2 terms, the most courses you can take are 2 courses. Then, you can take a maximum of 3 courses per term. So considering you transferred in max credits, completing your degree would take 8-10 months.
You can transfer credits after you are enrolled. Courses typically are not that long and require 3-8hrs of work per week per course. Papers and discussion posts are generally due every Sunday, except the first discussion post.
You can work ahead on assignments though it is not recommended to turn them in before the due date because many professors place a grading emphasis on your ability to incorporate their feedback into your assignments. You would want to work 1-2 weeks ahead in case of an emergency or an upcoming vacation.
Grading Is Heavily Weighted in the Student’s Favor
Graduation Stats From 2017
- no honors: 100/201 = 49.8%
- cum laude: 37/201 = 18.4% (3.500- 3.699 GPA)
- magna cum laude: 12/201 = 6.0% (3.700- 3.849 GPA)
- summa cum laude: 52/201 = 25.9% (3.850- 4.000 GPA)
- all honors: 101/201 = 50.2%
The rubrics are ridiculously weighted in the students favor in many instances. For example the options may be 30, 28, 25, or 0. It would be rare to receive a 0 score.
If you get a low grade on an assignment, many professors will give you 2nd, 3rd chances to turn in the assignments for a higher grade.
DO NOT TURN IN A LATE ASSIGNMENT OR YOU WILL MOST LIKELY LOSE 10%
Does It Take Longer to Get a Degree at SNHU Than Other Online College Options?
Yes, and sort of.
Let's compare 3 other schools, TESU, PUG, and WGU, for their computer science and IT programs.
PUG courses are similar to SNHU, with lots of writing assignments. However, you can finish in 6 months with PUG if you work fast enough. The conclusion is time spent doing courses in both schools is similar though it would take longer at SNHU since you are only taking 2-3 classes at a time.
WGU courses such as Discrete Mathematics II, Data Structures and Algorithms II, and Capstone might take at least 40 hours. While some classes, such as Ethics in Technology, might take only 5 hours. Some exams are tough, and if you fail, you have to retake an exam. However, with WGU finishing in 6 months should be possible for most people that put in 20hr a week studying.
TESU courses have a capstone that can take 80 hours +/- 20hrs and an Info Literacy course that takes around 40 hours. Other than that, you need either Software Engineering, around a 20hr course, or pass a TECEP Networking exam. If starting from scratch, you also have to consider the time it takes to gather the credits to hit the 30 RA requirement, which can add around 1-2 months. With TESU, you would finish in 3 months once you start your term.
Conclusion
You could spend around 6 months gathering up all your alternative transfer credits with all schools. Then, with TESU, it would take an additional 1-2 months to gather RA credits.
Total time estimates would be that you would graduate in around 12 months with PUG, 9-12 months with WGU, 10-11 months with TESU, and 14-16 months with SNHU. You can transfer credits after you are enrolled with SNHU, so it is possible to reduce the number of months it takes to earn a degree with SNHU.
All these time assumptions are based on students studying 20-30 hours per week and not getting stuck on difficult courses such as Calculus. Unfortunately, it's very common to require extra time for several difficult courses.
An on-campus degree takes 4-5 years, with classes typically requiring at least 100hrs of time. So whatever online college you choose, you are coming out way ahead of the typical on-campus student.