--- title: Arizona State University Offers Online Pay-As-You-Pass Freshman Year description: Radical new higher education model makes freshman year less of a burden for students. canonical: https://time.com/3832461/freshman-year-online-pay-classes-pass-arizona-state-edx/ author: Sabrina Toppa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-23T09:31:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:57.481Z og:title: The College Education Game Just Got Changed og:description: Arizona State now offers online pay-as-you-pass freshman years og:url: https://time.com/3832461/freshman-year-online-pay-classes-pass-arizona-state-edx/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdfaef812547343f/6987ec765f570f5d85b19433/gettyimages-465748910.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4499 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: Computer og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The College Education Game Just Got Changed twitter:description: Arizona State now offers online pay-as-you-pass freshman years twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcdfaef812547343f/6987ec765f570f5d85b19433/gettyimages-465748910.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The College Education Game Just Got Changed > Sponsored content. 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In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Apr 23, 2015 9:31 AM UTC  Matt Cardy—Getty Images by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Apr 23, 2015 9:31 AM UTC Arizona State University (ASU) is [partnering](http://fortune.com/2015/04/22/arizona-state-edx-moocs-online-education/) with the education nonprofit edX to offer students around the world the opportunity to take freshman year courses online — without a required SAT score or high school transcripts. The earned credits enable students to finish their degrees at Arizona’s campus or that of any university campus accepting the courses. Inportantly, students will only pay for classes which they pass and plan to use as college credits. “For under $6,000, you would have completed a freshman year’s worth of courses. The important thing is you have to pay for credit only if you want to and only if you pass the course,” edX CEO Anant Agarwal told business education web site Poets & Quants. “The model makes freshman year relatively risk free and significantly less expensive than the typical first year of study on a college campus,” the site said. Courses featured in the initial offering include math, humanities, arts and design, social-behavioral sciences, and natural sciences. 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