The biggest savings at Aspen happen before you register. There is no general application fee, so starting costs nothing. The real lever is transfer credit, up to 90 into a bachelor's, 18 into a master's, and 9 into a doctorate, and every accepted credit is a course you never buy at $275 to $740 each. Nurses entering the RN-to-BSN receive 90 lower-division credits outright, leaving thirty to earn. Portfolio Credit and five named prior-learning agreements cover documented experience, capped with other alternative credit at 25 percent of the degree. On top sit military and employer benefits, an alumni discount, self-assembled scholarships, and federal aid through FAFSA. Sequenced well, the price moves a lot.
Start for free
Aspen's admission runs through an Enrollment Advisor on a rolling basis, and there is no general application fee standing between you and a start date. Undergraduate completion programs are broadly open-enrollment on a diploma and transcripts; graduate and doctoral programs read a GPA floor, and the DNP additionally wants an MSN at 3.0 or above and an unrestricted RN license. Because starting is free and the calendar opens new sections every couple of weeks, there is no penalty for beginning the paperwork early and lining up the money moves below before your first Tuesday.
Transfer is the big lever
Nothing else on this page saves what transfer credit saves. The ceilings are generous, 30 into an associate, 90 into a bachelor's, 18 into a master's, 9 into a doctorate, with program-specific limits worth knowing, the MSN caps at 12, Psychology and Addiction Counseling at 24, and the DNP at 6. Send every official transcript for evaluation before you register, because evaluation needs transcripts and course descriptions, and a credit awarded is tuition never spent. Run the arithmetic against the per-credit table: at $475 a master's credit, a single transferred three-credit course is more than fourteen hundred dollars kept.
Prior learning and portfolio credit
Beyond college transcripts, Aspen awards Portfolio Credit for prior experiential learning that never earned college credit, and it honors five named prior-learning agreements, the Project Management Institute credential into business programs, the Child Development Associate credential into early childhood studies, medical-assistant credentials into healthcare administration, and a district agreement into the M.Ed. Alternative credit and Portfolio Credit together are capped at 25 percent of the degree, so use them deliberately rather than trying to build a whole degree from them. If you already hold one of the named credentials, that is pre-agreed credit, the surest non-traditional savings there is.
Discounts you may already have
- Military and veteran benefits, including VA and GI Bill support and reduced rates for active duty and spouses
- Employer tuition assistance, direct-billing contracts, and partner discounts, so check your HR department first
- An alumni discount on a second Aspen program once you have finished a first
- The RN-to-BSN's 90 banked credits, the single largest built-in saving Aspen offers
Aid and scholarships, sequenced
Aspen now participates in federal Title IV aid, so file the FAFSA using school code 040803 to see grants and loans you qualify for, and read the mechanics on the payment plans page, including the 0 percent monthly plan that spreads a program without interest. For scholarships, Aspen's own guidance points at five hunting grounds, employer programs, professional associations in your field, community and civic foundations, reputable scholarship search sites, and government grants through FAFSA. The winning habit is timing: build a calendar of deadlines, start months early, and apply broadly, because small awards stack. Chase the mechanism, not a single headline number that may have changed by the time you read it.
Where tutoring saves money later
The cruelest cost at Aspen is the repurchased course, and the graduate ladder makes it sharp: anything at or below 69.99 percent posts as a failing U with zero grade points, so a stumble means paying the full course price again and rerunning eight weeks. Clearing a shaky course on the first attempt with steady support costs a fraction of repeating it, which is the entire business case in one sentence. Send your program and the courses ahead and we will price the risk honestly, first sample free.
Price the whole degree, then protect it
Send your transcripts, program, and season. The savings sequence and first-course plan come back free.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- aspen.edu/tuition: per-credit tuition and the fee schedule
- aspen.edu/transfer-credits: transfer ceilings and the 25 percent alternative-credit cap
- aspen.edu/federal-financial-aid: Title IV participation and FAFSA school code 040803
- aspen.edu scholarship guidance: how to find and apply for scholarships
- www.deac.org: the Distance Education Accrediting Commission, Aspen's institutional accreditor