Certificates

[masrat858]

Has anyone tried acquiring any grad or undergrad certificates from anywhere before, straight by taking courses from SL, Study.com, etc? Would you please mind sharing what they were if so, and what courses you had to complete in order to be eligible for the certificate?

[cookderosa]

Has anyone tried acquiring any grad or undergrad certificates from anywhere before, straight by taking courses from SL, Study.com, etc? Would you please mind sharing what they were if so, and what courses you had to complete in order to be eligible for the certificate?

I haven't pursued it much lately, but in the past when I have, I've always hit a brick wall - either they have a residency requirement or the courses weren't available from outside sources. Again, I'm not totally up on this, but if you find something, I'd like to know too!

[SolarKat]

The only certificate I've seen that relies on solely ACE-accredited, ACE-transcripted courses is the TESU Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics. Four classes, all through Statistics.com.

- They will not confer the grad cert unless/until you provide proof of an existing BS/BA.
- Each course is only 4 weeks long. (But it's a busy 4 weeks, lemme tell you.)
- Statistics.com offers a few different discounts that may be helpful (educational affiliation, multiple registrations at once, registering for certain combinations of courses).
- The course schedule makes it tricky to get all four done quickly. (One of them runs only once a year, so if you miss it, it's a loooong wait 'til the next opportunity.)
- Three of the four required classes also complete Statistics.com's in-house Optimization certificate, FWIW. (Conferral/recording fee $65.)
- It may be helpful to take the Optimization class (not included in the grad cert) prior to Integer/Nonlin & Risk/Sim/Queue as it's the foundation work for the 2 grad classes (and taught by the same prof, from the same text). The Optimization class also fits the Statistics.com Optimization specialization certificate, for people wanting a credential relevant to operations in particular.
- When registering for the Regression class, be careful to select Regression Analysis, *not* Logistics Regression. Both are ACE-accredited, but only one fits the TESU certificate requirements.


Caveat #1: If you're thinking of going on for the TESU MBA/Data Analytics, be aware that *none* of these certificate classes will roll into the TESU MBA...all of the MBA classes are in-house TESU offerings with zero overlap with the certificate coursework.

Caveat #2: I don't know how TESU implements this for folks coming in just for the cert. They don't offer *any* of the classes in-house, so I don't see how they could charge a Residency Waiver fee.