Any Gotchas Going from a BS with the Big Three to WGU for a Masters?

[retro]

I'm eyeing a return to school. It looks like I could complete an accounting or finance degree at TESU fairly quickly. From there I want to jump over to WGU's Masters in Cybersecurity program. My reasons for wanting to go that exact route are primarily speed. I have a strong background in IT but I think I could move through accounting or finance coursework much faster than a lot of IT related course work.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that College Algebra and/or possibly Statistics needs to be an RA credit if I intend to enroll in a WGU STEM Masters degree program. Is that accurate? Or, can I CLEP out of these just fine? If core undergraduate degree requirements are all ACE credits, will that cause difficulty when I attempt to enroll into WGU's Master's program?

Also, I seem to recall a minimum undergraduate GPA but don't recall what it is.

Is there anything else I should know about so I don't get burned?

[dfrecore]

You don't have to have RA credit in ANYTHING for WGU. They accept their own degrees, which allow for non-RA credit in every course. They accept CLEP, DSST, and ACE credit for College Algebra and Stats themselves, so I can't see why they wouldn't allow TESU to put them on their transcript and then accept it.

TESU has a BSBA degree, much of which is not accounting or finance. You might just want to get a BALS instead, where there is space for IT and/or Business courses.

[rachel83az]

I wouldn't get Lib Studies if you can get Accounting or Finance quickly. If something should happen where you aren't able to continue on to the WGU degree right away, it sounds like the BSBA would be more valuable to you than Lib Studies.

[Courcelles]

You don't have to have RA credit in ANYTHING for WGU.  They accept their own degrees, which allow for non-RA credit in every course.  They accept CLEP, DSST, and ACE credit for College Algebra and Stats themselves, so I can't see why they wouldn't allow TESU to put them on their transcript and then accept it.

TESU has a BSBA degree, much of which is not accounting or finance.  You might just want to get a BALS instead, where there is space for IT and/or Business courses.

Many WGU degrees have a decent sized list of courses that are required to be taken at WGU, not even other RA credit is acceptable.  SO, be definition, they require RA credit in some (always upper level) courses, their own. WGU is alt-credit friendly to be sure, but you can’t generalize and say what your second sentence does.

To the OP’s point, excepting teaching and nursing where licensing is going to be the end goal of the program, and specifically excepting the MS Accounting, WGU is pretty easy to work with in terms of qualifying for graduate admissions and not nitpicking your credits.

[origamishuttle]

...From there I want to jump over to WGU's Masters in Cybersecurity program...

Also, I seem to recall a minimum undergraduate GPA but don't recall what it is.

Is there anything else I should know about so I don't get burned?

WGU considers all of their passing scores equivalent to 3.0 GPA, so their minimum wouldn't be any higher than that.
These are the certifications that can be transferred to that degree:
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/MSCSIA.aspx
You may want to consider getting CHFI before you start, as C702 can be a significant hurdle.

[davewill]

You should verify this kind of detail with WGU. I haven't seen very many WGU grad degrees come through here. I wouldn't expect it to be a problem, but having that sort of requirement for core subjects for the degree, like CS or MATH, would not be terribly surprising, either.

[origamishuttle]

Another possibility is to just get the BSCSIA from WGU. Then you wouldn't have to worry about any extra requirements, and it includes certifications that transfer in for C701 and C725 in the MSCSIA.

[dfrecore]

You don't have to have RA credit in ANYTHING for WGU.  They accept their own degrees, which allow for non-RA credit in every course.  They accept CLEP, DSST, and ACE credit for College Algebra and Stats themselves, so I can't see why they wouldn't allow TESU to put them on their transcript and then accept it.

TESU has a BSBA degree, much of which is not accounting or finance.  You might just want to get a BALS instead, where there is space for IT and/or Business courses.

Many WGU degrees have a decent sized list of courses that are required to be taken at WGU, not even other RA credit is acceptable.  SO, be definition, they require RA credit in some (always upper level) courses, their own. WGU is alt-credit friendly to be sure, but you can’t generalize and say what your second sentence does.

That is a ridiculous thing to say.  The OP was not asking about WGU bachelor's degrees; and since WGU requires 30cr to be taken through them, obviously you'll end up with RA credit.  But you don't have to bring in RA credit.

But they were specifically asking if they could take things like Stats and College Algebra via alt-credit, and so yes, they can.  WGU accepts alt-credit for those courses in all of their bachelor's degrees, so thinking they're suddenly going to require RA credit for those is silly.

[Courcelles]

You don't have to have RA credit in ANYTHING for WGU.  They accept their own degrees, which allow for non-RA credit in every course.  They accept CLEP, DSST, and ACE credit for College Algebra and Stats themselves, so I can't see why they wouldn't allow TESU to put them on their transcript and then accept it.

TESU has a BSBA degree, much of which is not accounting or finance.  You might just want to get a BALS instead, where there is space for IT and/or Business courses.

Many WGU degrees have a decent sized list of courses that are required to be taken at WGU, not even other RA credit is acceptable.  SO, be definition, they require RA credit in some (always upper level) courses, their own. WGU is alt-credit friendly to be sure, but you can’t generalize and say what your second sentence does.

That is a ridiculous thing to say.  The OP was not asking about WGU bachelor's degrees; and since WGU requires 30cr to be taken through them, obviously you'll end up with RA credit.  But you don't have to bring in RA credit.

But they were specifically asking if they could take things like Stats and College Algebra via alt-credit, and so yes, they can.  WGU accepts alt-credit for those courses in all of their bachelor's degrees, so thinking they're suddenly going to require RA credit for those is silly.

I was specifically responding to your statement that WGU degrees “which allow for non-RA credit in every course.” which is blatantly false.

[dfrecore]

You don't have to have RA credit in ANYTHING for WGU.  They accept their own degrees, which allow for non-RA credit in every course.  They accept CLEP, DSST, and ACE credit for College Algebra and Stats themselves, so I can't see why they wouldn't allow TESU to put them on their transcript and then accept it.

TESU has a BSBA degree, much of which is not accounting or finance.  You might just want to get a BALS instead, where there is space for IT and/or Business courses.

Many WGU degrees have a decent sized list of courses that are required to be taken at WGU, not even other RA credit is acceptable.  SO, be definition, they require RA credit in some (always upper level) courses, their own. WGU is alt-credit friendly to be sure, but you can’t generalize and say what your second sentence does.

That is a ridiculous thing to say.  The OP was not asking about WGU bachelor's degrees; and since WGU requires 30cr to be taken through them, obviously you'll end up with RA credit.  But you don't have to bring in RA credit.

But they were specifically asking if they could take things like Stats and College Algebra via alt-credit, and so yes, they can.  WGU accepts alt-credit for those courses in all of their bachelor's degrees, so thinking they're suddenly going to require RA credit for those is silly.

I was specifically responding to your statement that WGU degrees “which allow for non-RA credit in every course.” which is blatantly false.

Again, you are being disingenuous.  The OP was asking about bringing Non-RA credit to WGU for a master's degree.  We were not discussing a WGU bachelor's degree, so what you are talking about is completely irrelevant.