A very big thank you to this group. I have completed my Masters in IT from PUG

[walruspanda]

Hi -- I'm a PUG student with a pending graduation with a Bachelors in IT (term ends on Halloween). I'm signed up for the January term to continue on with my Masters in IT -- would have preferred the term starting November 1st, but PUG said that was just a little too close timewise to get all the ducks in a row.

Short synopsis of my PUG undergrad: Brought in basically the max credits possible through previous UG work, Sophia, and IT certs. Finished the remaining 50 credits in two ExcelTrack terms pretty easily.

Here's my tentative Masters plan:



Max credits that can be brought in is 30 -- or really 28 for this degree, since all the classes are 4 credits. Network+ and Security+ are iffy in my case, because I'm past the three-year limit for accepting certs with those two. However, PUG did end up accepting them for undergrad, I believe because I did go through the renewal process for both of the certs. (I didn't really ask why, though -- I just took the credit and ran.) If I don't get credit for those, I may try to get the AWS Certified Solutions Architect—Associate cert, which should give credit for two free IT electives: IN505 and IN516.

For the free electives, I found the previews (which include all assignments) for about 70 percent of the elective IT and IN classes on ExcelTrack. From that, I just tried to pick whatever looked easiest. IT521 and IT592 don't look bad at all, so those are my definite keepers regardless. Anyone with experience with any PUG 500-level IT electives, though, I'd love to hear your experience.

Based on @NewatTESU getting through in four terms with 52 credits, with probably 36 to go I'm hoping for three terms. Two six-week terms is probably pushing it.

[LevelUP]

Hi -- I'm a PUG student with a pending graduation with a Bachelors in IT (term ends on Halloween). I'm signed up for the January term to continue on with my Masters in IT -- would have preferred the term starting November 1st, but PUG said that was just a little too close timewise to get all the ducks in a row.

Short synopsis of my PUG undergrad: Brought in basically the max credits possible through previous UG work, Sophia, and IT certs. Finished the remaining 50 credits in two ExcelTrack terms pretty easily.

Here's my tentative Masters plan:



Max credits that can be brought in is 30 -- or really 28 for this degree, since all the classes are 4 credits. Network+ and Security+ are iffy in my case, because I'm past the three-year limit for accepting certs with those two. However, PUG did end up accepting them for undergrad, I believe because I did go through the renewal process for both of the certs. (I didn't really ask why, though -- I just took the credit and ran.) If I don't get credit for those, I may try to get the AWS Certified Solutions Architect—Associate cert, which should give credit for two free IT electives: IN505 and IN516.

For the free electives, I found the previews (which include all assignments) for about 70 percent of the elective IT and IN classes on ExcelTrack. From that, I just tried to pick whatever looked easiest. IT521 and IT592 don't look bad at all, so those are my definite keepers regardless. Anyone with experience with any PUG 500-level IT electives, though, I'd love to hear your experience.

Based on @NewatTESU getting through in four terms with 52 credits, with probably 36 to go I'm hoping for three terms. Two six-week terms is probably pushing it.

Pretty amazing you can transfer in 1/2 the master's.

You should be able to pull off doing it in 3 terms unless the capstone, for some reason delays you.  

At $2000 a term, that would be $6000. Not a bad deal.

[walruspanda]

Pretty amazing you can transfer in 1/2 the master's.

Yeah, PUG is a great school if you have a lot of IT certs like me. Masters is more limited than undergrad in that regard -- there aren't really any "cheap" and "easy" certifications that they accept at the 500-level beyond what I mentioned above -- but the fact that they offer anything at all in that regard is one of the main impetuses for me being here.

[bjcheung77]

Wow, congrats, that's excellent, finishing the BSIT in two terms is doable then... Overall, a pretty good deal. If the Masters can be done in two/three terms for the price mentioned by LevelUP, then that's not too bad either. It really depends what you can do within the allotted time frame, if you can cram the 3 terms into 2, obviously it would save some cash, but you should do things according to your pace...

[walruspanda]

Wow, congrats, that's excellent, finishing the BSIT in two terms is doable then... Overall, a pretty good deal.  If the Masters can be done in two/three terms for the price mentioned by LevelUP, then that's not too bad either.  It really depends what you can do within the allotted time frame, if you can cram the 3 terms into 2, obviously it would save some cash, but you should do things according to your pace...

For the BSIT, I completed roughly 35 modules in the first six weeks of the program, so finishing in two terms is probably technically possible for me with the MSIT -- in the first six-week term, I'd probably need to finish 24-28 of the 36 credits to be on the right path. That said, from what I'm seeing from the Masters modules previews, they seem on average more involved than the BSIT ones. (As you would expect!) And based on my specific schedule, I won't have quite as much time to work on assignments as I did on my first BSIT term. So I'd say it's unlikely, with the caveat that if I'm making great progress three or four weeks in, I may try to make two terms my goal. We'll see!

[walruspanda]

Note/update to this thread: I suggested above taking the AWS Certified Solutions Architect—Associate cert to get credit for two free IT electives: IN505 and IN516. That cert, along with many of the other AWS certs, have recently had the number of PUG credits they yield reduced. As of December 2023 the AWS Certified Solutions Architect—Associate now only gets credit for IN505. Fortunately, I ended up going after the CySA+ instead (passed last week), so this didn't end up affecting me, but future PUGians beware.

Quick update on my status: As with the undergrad, getting all the cert credit to transfer over correctly requires persistence and multiple asks. I have 20 of the 28 credits I should have now, but I'm still missing the IT510 credits I should get for taking IT460 as a PUG undergrad, as well as the IN515 credits I should have for AWS Cloud Practitioner—Foundational. I imagine it will be resolved before my term begins in early January, but again: persistence.

[walruspanda]

Everything's now copacetic with the cert and UG credit -- took nearly two months to get it all straightened out, but it did eventually land how I expected it to. (Same with my UG PUG degree.) So here's my final degree plan:



One interesting thing through this process: My UG credit for IT510 transferred in as a waiver for the class, rather than as credit like I received for my certs. Because of that, I wonder if I could have gotten an additional class of cert credit. I thought my max was 30 credits for this degree (50% of 60 credits), which would be 4 credits x 7 classes. But with a class coming in as a waiver, I think you could fit in an additional class -- 7 classes of cert credit (50% of 56 credits), plus the waiver class. I don't have time try for another graduate-level cert in the two weeks before classes start (January 3rd), but it's something to ask about if you're doing both UG and Masters at PUG.

[fmsoa]

Finally!!! I have completed my Masters in IT.l from PUG in 4 terms (6 weeks term) which like 6 months.

And my bachelors in 6 months - 2 terms (12 weeks term).

I can’t THANKS enough to this group for guiding me through each step.

In a year, I have bachelor and masters.

All the people in this group are very supportive.

Thanks once again to all of you!!!

Wow a Bachelor's + Master's from a great university like Purdue in one year. That's awesome!

[bjcheung77]

That's right, a Bachelors plus Masters within the year... This is Purdue University Global, not the same as Purdue University though.

[NewatTESU]

It’s under the same umbrella system and gets all benefits as Purdue including Purdue alumni benefits. In fact , the convocation was attended in the Purdue campus.