Seeking Degree Advice - CS or Cybersecurity?

[bjcheung77]

Basically, take your time to decide, while deciding/waiting, you can take the cheapies/freebies mentioned on the link from post #8. Essentially, do the cheapies/freebies for Coursera/TEEX/Sophia.org towards 90+ credits worth of credits to be used for the Pierpont BOG AAS Info Systems emphasis and 40+ technical credits for entry into the UMPI BAS. BAS is an applied science degree that allows you to minor in MIS or anything else, you can use 60 credits for electives to classes you enjoy or interest you...

[ItsNeverTheLionsYear]

The problem with the BAS comes when trying to get a job, especially because the BAS conentration is in Management information systems. It's a degree for people who work with servers, not people who make websites. Employers don't respect it as much as a BS CS.

Assuming that the Pell grant covers all your TSTC costs (which it seems like it could, if you keep non tuition costs low, since the max pell grant is currently around $7300) I think the plan of getting the TSTC associates, doing well enough to get PTK, and going to WGU is wise in terms of lowering upfront costs and potential debt. It doesn't really matter what your associates is in, it'll transfer to WGU and knock out most of the gen eds. 

You'll then want to transfer as many credits as you can into WGU before you start. I would do Sophia.com courses first, then Saylor, then Study.com.

Take these Sophia courses ($79/month, as many courses as you can complete, not necessarily in this order):

Intro to IT
Intro to Relational Databases
Intro to Java
Intro to Web Dev
Calc 1
Principles of Management

You can probably complete all the Sophia courses within one or two months, depending on how demanding your kid is being at the time. Make sure they transfer to Credly, then cancel your subscription.

Take these Saylor exams ($5/exam):

Computer Communications and Networks
Software Engineering

Saylor, by all accounts, sucks, but that price is hard to beat, especially when compared to study.com prices. Again, transfer to credly

Take these Study.com courses ($235/month subscription, subscription includes 2 exams with each class having 1 exam, additional exams are $70/month with a monthly cap of 5 exams):

Math 108
CS 204
CS 303
CS 201
CS 110
CS 306
CS 311

The caveat to study.com is that if you're tearing through these courses at this point, going to WGU will be cheaper, because study.com is stupid expensive. The rule of thumb is that if you hit the 5 course/month cap, you'll save money going right to WGU.

This will leave you with somewhere between 12 to 15 classes to complete at WGU. Get the PTK scholarship ($625/term, 4 terms), and apply to as many other scholarships as you can. There's a list of WGU scholarships here: https://www.wgu.edu/financial-aid-tuitio...ships.html

Highlights from the list:

Rise Above Grant ($1000/term, 4 terms, for adults with financial difficulties)
Learn Where You Live Scholarship ($750/term, 4 terms, if you happen to live in a rural part of Texas as defined by the US census)
National Society for Leadership and Success Scholarship ($500/term, 1 term, which minus the $95 membership fee comes out to a net savings of $405)

If you get the PTK, Rise Above and Learn Where You Live scholarships, the net cost for a single term in the BS CS is $1610. That is just about as good as you can get, especially since the pell grant can also apply to WGU. If it works right and I'm not making some crazy error with the pell grant math, you may be able to get a BS in computer science for around $500 total.