Purdue University Global's Open University Program

[bjcheung77]

This is the breakdown price as I see it, not really all that cheap, it's similar to Big 3 pricing or a competency based degree program.
The pricing will range from the low $4K up to $8K at the Big 3/Competency ones. Here goes...

PLA course $1500
Assessments: $99 each, let's say you need 10 courses, that's $990
Monthly fee: $199/month, let's also say you need 10, it's $1990.
Total (without any other fees included):  $4480

For this price, it's very comparable to the others mentioned, if you can finish a degree at Brandman/WGU/UMPI, etc, that would be similar in price.

[ss20ts]

This is the breakdown price as I see it, not really all that cheap, it's similar to Big 3 pricing or a competency based degree program.
The pricing will range from the low $4K up to $8K at the Big 3/Competency ones. Here goes...

PLA course $1500
Assessments: $99 each, let's say you need 10 courses, that's $990
Monthly fee: $199/month, let's also say you need 10, it's $1990.
Total (without any other fees included):  $4480

For this price, it's very comparable to the others mentioned, if you can finish a degree at Brandman/WGU/UMPI, etc, that would be similar in price.

Not to mention the time to complete all of those PLA's. The PLA's are MASSIVE projects. Lots and lots of writing and documentation. So much that my husband's Purdue Global advisor told him not to complete PLA's as he would complete the ExcelTrack courses much faster and they're far less work. Right now, he's competing the 1 credit courses in under a week and he's taking 3 courses at a time so he's finishing 3 credits a week. No way he'd finish a PLA that fast.

[xicovu]

Not to mention the time to complete all of those PLA's. The PLA's are MASSIVE projects. Lots and lots of writing and documentation. So much that my husband's Purdue Global advisor told him not to complete PLA's as he would complete the ExcelTrack courses much faster and they're far less work. Right now, he's competing the 1 credit courses in under a week and he's taking 3 courses at a time so he's finishing 3 credits a week. No way he'd finish a PLA that fast.

You don't have to do PLA's if you don't want to. Open University takes credit from Sophia, Study.com, SL, etc just the same as everything else and as the exact same modules as ExcelTrack or Traditional course does if you chose to take them as part of it. At worst the Open College program at PGU is the same course load as the ExcelTrack option and at best is from what I can tell one of the easiest and most receptive programs for taking credit. There isn't any other Big 3 or other school that'll take 1 tech cert and a high school-level programming course level PHP certificate for half of a Bachelor's degree

My goal is to get into a Master's without having to waste brain cycles on stuff not related to my work. It screws with my Chi if I have to work on technical topics outside of my current obsessions so PLA is just documenting what I'm already doing for the most part. This is why I can't stand the idea of WGU and having to focus on stupid pointless certs that distract what I'm really trying to work on.

I work for Dell Technologies now and they have an insane tuition reimbursement policy -- they'll pay for a degree outright from Ashford, Colorado Technical University, Phoenix or Capella. CTU looks like the winner because they've got Computer Science Master's degrees. It doesn't seem like a good time trade off to spend more time on a Bachelor's when BPSr is clearly the quickest path possible to a Master's degree.

[ss20ts]

Not to mention the time to complete all of those PLA's. The PLA's are MASSIVE projects. Lots and lots of writing and documentation. So much that my husband's Purdue Global advisor told him not to complete PLA's as he would complete the ExcelTrack courses much faster and they're far less work. Right now, he's competing the 1 credit courses in under a week and he's taking 3 courses at a time so he's finishing 3 credits a week. No way he'd finish a PLA that fast.

You don't have to do PLA's if you don't want to. Open University takes credit from Sophia, Study.com, SL, etc just the same as everything else and as the exact same modules as ExcelTrack or Traditional course does if you chose to take them as part of it. At worst the Open College program at PGU is the same course load as the ExcelTrack option and at best is from what I can tell one of the easiest and most receptive programs for taking credit. There isn't any other Big 3 or other school that'll take 1 tech cert and a high school-level programming course level PHP certificate for half of a Bachelor's degree

My goal is to get into a Master's without having to waste brain cycles on stuff not related to my work. It screws with my Chi if I have to work on technical topics outside of my current obsessions so PLA is just documenting what I'm already doing for the most part. This is why I can't stand the idea of WGU and having to focus on stupid pointless certs that distract what I'm really trying to work on.

I work for Dell Technologies now and they have an insane tuition reimbursement policy -- they'll pay for a degree outright from Ashford, Colorado Technical University, Phoenix or Capella. CTU looks like the winner because they've got Computer Science Master's degrees. It doesn't seem like a good time trade off to spend more time on a Bachelor's when BPSr is clearly the quickest path possible to a Master's degree.

ExcelTrack programs aren't a BPS though. They are specific degrees with a major. Not sure why any college would accept a high school level programming course. I certainly can't fault any college that doesn't.

You're going to have gen eds no matter what degree you pursue so your chi will have to adapt. Even this program has several gen eds which is no different than WGU. Hate to burst your bubble but even many grad programs have some coursework that isn't strictly the major. You'll be doing a great deal of writing in grad school and writing is one of those gen eds that will be very useful later.

[xicovu]

I don't get why you have such an anthemia towards the BPSr program because you making points pro or con against the program. There would be nothing to stop someone from taking an ExcelTrack program and putting the credits into the BPSr program at a later time. There would be no point as t PANels are pretty much the same thing anyways.

At most using this same scheme someone could pull 60 credits tops from these ExcelTrack technology programs. 120 > 60.


W3School's PHP certificate is high school level difficulty as far as programming ability goes. 

I wasn't aware that you have to do general education as part of a college degree program or that you have to do credits at the University you are actually enrolled in to graduate. I am so glad you told me because I had no other possible way of knowing that.

Hate do burst your bubble, but there is no way arguing that nearly 3/4's of a degree program for what amounts to less than a week of study (PHP cert), 2 months for the AWS cert, and 3/4 months for a CySA or the Azure Data Engineer cert are not a hell of a deal. There isn't another problem I've found that gives you that number of credits for so little work. Those count for one course EACH at WGU.

[ss20ts]

Good luck to your snotty self. You're the one who created multiple threads about this topic. Let us know when you finish this degree.

[xicovu]

This is the breakdown price as I see it, not really all that cheap, it's similar to Big 3 pricing or a competency based degree program.
The pricing will range from the low $4K up to $8K at the Big 3/Competency ones. Here goes...

PLA course $1500
Assessments: $99 each, let's say you need 10 courses, that's $990
Monthly fee: $199/month, let's also say you need 10, it's $1990.
Total (without any other fees included):  $4480

For this price, it's very comparable to the others mentioned, if you can finish a degree at Brandman/WGU/UMPI, etc, that would be similar in price.

As always bjcheung, much appreciated. Hopefully with this topic being in the sticky someone else my see it who could use it. The only costs I would add on would be IT certs + MOOCs you may need. AWS and CySA+ would cost roughly $500 for the certs and that assuming you aren't spending $50 a month for MOOCs.

That puts this particular method at $5000-$6000. Other options are: https://www.purdueglobal.edu/transfer-st...ion-exams/.

[innen_oda]

nearly 3/4's of a degree program for what amounts to less than a week of study (PHP cert), 2 months for the AWS cert, and 3/4 months for a CySA or the Azure Data Engineer cert are not a hell of a deal. There isn't another problem I've found that gives you that number of credits for so little work. Those count for one course EACH at WGU.

Indeed. This degree option is definitely one to keep an eye on.

And - fair or not - the Purdue brand name may be something that gets someone who otherwise would dismiss the other available options, to reconsider. Frankly, I'm all in favour of people getting their Bachelor degree, whatever path they prefer to take.
That fact that one option may not be good for any one of our personal circumstances doesn't therefore mean it's a bad option. Presenting multiple options, with full disclosure of what's involved in each (and cutting out the marketing BS) is what this forum is all about.

[xicovu]

It's going to be interesting to see this Purdue purchase of Kaplan play out. You can't truly consider them non-profit because Kaplan still makes a profit, but Purdue backs it. Is it a public school then? Private non-profit? With Kaplan still getting paid a percentage it doesn't take away potentially perverse incentives.

As far as being taken serious by employers, I worry the opposite, actually, especially if I got a Master's degree from them -- employer's skipping over you because you are perceived a Purdue graduate that is over qualified.

There is no way a Purdue grad with a Master's would work in the roles or market I work in. Or worse, having to sheepishly explain that you didn't go to "that" Purdue after it hyping your resume up. They'll figure it it sooner or later where it really came from.