Do not pre-pay tuition for the entire program in spite of the discount incentive they may offer. Distance learning is not for everyone - and if you find that you can't do it that way, at least you won't be out thousands of non-refundable dollars if you don't pre-pay. Besides, I don't think Whitefield Seminary's pay-it-all-up-front discount incentive is even Biblical, considering James' counsel:
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we live and also do this or that." But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil (James 4:13-16).
Also,
consider the value of real accreditation and the meaning of spurious attempts at claiming accreditation. Whitefield, for example, is "accredited" by an agency of the school's own making. Check and verify the credentials of the staff and professors there. That's really important too.
Check with the examining committee of your own presbytery. A degree from Whitefield Seminary, for example, is actually more of a liability than an asset with some presbyteries, especially because of the school's association with theonomy/reconstructionism.
Do a lot of double and triple checking before you jump in!
-Robin
