Your teen can take a real ASU course for just $25!
You know the kid. They are the one who can name every bird at the feeder, who comes back from Papago Park or Sabino Canyon with a rock in every pocket, who sleeps outside whenever you let them. Arizona State University offers four college courses for exactly that kid, and it costs $25 to start.
ASU opens its online courses to anyone:no application, no GPA requirement and no admissions essay about your greatest weakness. You pay $25 and your student gets the actual course, taught by ASU faculty and graded on the same standards as the students sitting in Tempe.
Here is the part parents tend to reread: when your student finishes, they decide what happens next.
If they like their grade and want three college credits on an official ASU transcript, that costs $400. If they don’t, they walk away. Nothing lands on any academic record, no GPA gets touched, and they have a full year to think it over. The $25 covers everything, and there are no textbooks to buy.
More than 70,000 people have learned this way, from all 50 states and 150 countries. Over 27,000 of them were high school students.
The catalog goes well beyond conservation too, from ENG 101 First-Year Composition to PSY 101 Introduction to Psychology to BIO 130 Environmental Science. For the kids who would rather be outside, ASU built four conservation courses through its Conservation Futures Academy.
SEA 201: Ocean Conservation covers marine ecosystems, fisheries and ocean policy, and it is taught by ASU marine scientist Katie Cramer. Landlocked Arizona kids are more than welcome. [UTM link]
CGF 194: Being the Change builds systems thinking, self-awareness and the surprisingly hard skill of talking with people who see the world differently. Students walk out with a written blueprint of their own values and direction. [UTM link]
CNV 194: Introduction to Conservation maps the whole field, from wildlife recovery to nature finance to Indigenous-led conservation, and it shows the real jobs inside each one. Sharon Hall, President’s Professor in the School of Life Sciences, teaches it. [UTM link]
CGF 194: Earth Intelligence covers how satellite imagery, drone footage and field sensors turn into actual conservation decisions. Your student does not need advanced math to take it. [UTM link]
ASU is building conservation bachelor’s degrees through the Rob Walton School of Conservation Futures, and these credits are designed to count toward them. So the curiosity that fills kids’ pockets with rocks or just makes them prefer the outdoors over most places can start earning college credit this fall.
