Assistance Requested - IT Degrees/Plans/etc...

[cknapp78]

Greetings everyone...

I have been lurking here for a few years. Haven't even logged in for the past 3 years until today. Have been thinking things over for years and finally came to the realization that I finally need to get my degree and a bunch of certifications. Problem is two fold...money is tight and I have no idea where to start cobbling together a degree from one of the big 3 or other colleges.

Intro:

I am 38. Have been an IT consultant for almost 19 years. Currently living in Maryland. Been here about 8 months and planning on staying here since the IT market is booming right now. I have a few college credits from back in 1995 and that is it. Most of them likely aren't even transferable anymore since they are outdated. Starting to realize that I need to get my degree to further my career. Being a consultant pays great but the work is never as steady as I would like. Would like to apply my skills and get a salaried role eventually. My background for those in the IT know is in IT Infrastructure, specifically Server stacks, Messaging (VOIP/Email), and some Networking.

Questions...

1. Are there any Bachelor's degree programs out there that I could look into that are relevant to my career?
2. Does it really matter if my degree is relevant? I do love history and other subjects that might actually be more fun to pursue.
3. I see that a lot of the Big 3 tracks changed last year and I don't see many new posts on how to obtain them with the reqs.

Requests...

1. Can someone point me in the right direction with some updated info? I don't want you to do the work for me. Just point me in the right direction. If I get to the point of creating a degree plan, I'll post it and ask questions then.
2. If someone has a similar background can they share their story?

It's been a long time since I was on this site. I truly forgot how much valuable information is on here.

THank you all in advance.

Corey

[davewill]

For starters, your credits are probably transferable. If you look in my sig, you'll see I just finished my BACS at TESU. I transferred in 69 credits, the newest of which was from 1988. The only time you might have an issue with old credits expiring is actual CIS courses.

In your shoes, I'd look into the BSBA in CIS from TESU. The degree can be pretty much completely tested out of.

Go ahead and apply to TESU and send your old transcripts in. There's no upside to waiting, and that way you'll get an evaluation of your existing credits. In addition, go ahead and post your existing credits so that we can better help you find out what you can start in on right away.

[cknapp78]

For starters, your credits are probably transferable. If you look in my sig, you'll see I just finished my BACS at TESU. I transferred in 69 credits, the newest of which was from 1988. The only time you might have an issue is with old credits exporting is actual CIS courses.

In your shoes, I'd look into the BSBA in CIS from TESU. The degree can be pretty much completely tested out of.

Go ahead and apply to TESU and send your old transcripts in. There's no upside to waiting, and that way you'll get an evaluation of your existing credits. In addition, go ahead and post your existing credits so that we can better help you find out what you can start in on right away.

I'll have to actually contact my old colleges to get the credits I have. It's been so long I have no idea what I have.

Is there an existing path already created by someone for testing out of the BSBA in CIS? Just curious. Would like to plug it in to Excel or something and start making a checklist. I am basically looking to start from scratch as most of the credits I have were CIS or IT courses from DeVry back in 1998 and 1999.

I think the most I will be able to transfer from my old B&M college in 1995 is English Composition, Anthropology and maybe a Psychology from my local CC at the time.

[bjcheung77]

Hello, +1 on Applying to TESU and sending in the Transcripts.
Another option to get credits is doing a PLA for $379/12 credits and another PLA for $250/6 credits for evaluating your "work experience".
As long as it's going towards what you've learned and is relevant to what degree you want to obtain, you can get some credits for it.

See here for the BSBA General Management Template created by dfrecore
http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...egree.html
You can check this thread out too: http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...llege.html

Update: Your previous thread a while ago has the older links to the Degree Templates created by sanantone, and some advice
http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...post167685

[Mamasaphire]

I'll have to actually contact my old colleges to get the credits I have.

I'd suggest applying at TESU and having your old transcript(s) from CC etc sent there as an "official" copy(s), and while you are doing that, order a copy for your own records as well. I had to pay for mine, but some schools may be willing to email you an "unofficial" copy of your old transcript.

[mednat]

I would think a bachelors in business would be the most relevant/most easily obtained based on what you've described. TESU has a BSBA with an MIS concentration that is friendly to testing.

WGU also has a good set of degrees focusing on IT if you want something more directly technical. Their tuition includes certifications that are needed for the degree (some of which are useful..some aren't).

I would recommend checking both. I went the TESU route for undergrad and I'm very happy with that choice. If someone wanted a path with less planning and/or more technical related classes, I'd recommend WGU.

[TrailRunr]

Would like to apply my skills and get a salaried role eventually. My background for those in the IT know is in IT Infrastructure, specifically Server stacks, Messaging (VOIP/Email), and some Networking.

Questions...

1. Are there any Bachelor's degree programs out there that I could look into that are relevant to my career?
2. Does it really matter if my degree is relevant? I do love history and other subjects that might actually be more fun to pursue.
3. I see that a lot of the Big 3 tracks changed last year and I don't see many new posts on how to obtain them with the reqs.

Hi Corey,

I'm going to tell you stuff you probably already know. IT as a whole has changed a lot since we started in the mid 1990s. IT infrastructure is sort of a bad place to be as far as having enough work even if you're salaried unless you are diligent at not becoming obsolete. Many companies are now looking to move large pieces of their enterprise to the cloud after having already virtualized everything. Automation is big in infrastructure with devops. Networking is going to go down the same road with SDN. Layer 1-4 is going to get abstracted away just like we don't ever see physical servers anymore. In the end, IT will need fewer admins and those that are left need to know how to script and code. If you can script and code, I think the chances are high you won't end up unemployed even if you stay in infrastructure.

Now that you're thinking about school, this is a good time to look at your career and see where you really want to go. The BSBA in CIS is a business degree with a few IT courses in there and a bunch of business courses, not a pure technology degree. But BSBA in CIS far faster, cheaper, and easier than the BA in CS. Infrastructure jobs usually don't care if your degree is MIS vs CS. Infrastructure-like courses like networking tend to not count in the BA CS while they count in the BSBA-CIS.

I bring up the whole issue about where your IT career should go, because this is a good time to make the change if you want to do it. With CS, you can choose to stay in infrastructure or be competitive when switching to another area like software engineering or data science. With BSBA CIS, you are going for IT management, infrastructure, or some other area of applied computing.

[dfrecore]

I agree with Mednat, that the 2 cheapest, fastest ways to go with this are the TESU BSBA in CIS or the WGU BSIT. The BSBA is totally test-out-able, and you can get your degree start-to-finish for about $5000, while the BSIT could be even cheaper at $2890/6-mo term. So if you could finish in 1 term, you're at under $3000.

To me, the best bet is a combination of both to start with - take the courses you have completed now, add in all of the courses you could test out of or take inexpensive courses through to complete an AA where the courses will fit into both the TESU or WGU degree, and then decide from there which way you'd like to go. Because I think for most people, it would be difficult to complete an entire degree at WGU in 6 months, but it would certainly be doable to complete the BS (with the Gen Eds already completed) in 6 months.

I can send you a list of both the courses you need for the BSBA (and probably what will overlap with the BSIT) if you tell me how you'd like to do the necessary courses. For instance, if you really want to test out, and you're close to a testing center and their fees aren't too high, and you want to test as much as possible, you can do CLEP/DSST's as your first priority. BUT, if you want to do as much as possible as cheaply as possible, then we should start with ALEKS (for math), and Saylor (exams even if you don't go through the entire course), and then consider doing the SL series of courses to finish things off. Since only you know how you want to get those courses done, it's hard to plan without knowing this.

But, I will attach the BSBA CIS degree plan for you, with the cheapest possible options (utilizing Saylor, which is not a favorite just because it's very time-consuming to take the entire course). If you do all of the GE there (and you can swap some things out if you want), it's about $815 for the courses/exams. If you decide to take Org Behavior (SL or DSST) and Critical Thinking (Propero), that would make it $1165, but would go towards satisfying WGU's requirements.

You could also take Management (Saylor), Intro to IT (SL), and , which would add another $125, and you're ready to decide which way you want to go. Those will count towards both programs.

Anyway, if I were you, I would start with the free stuff (Kaplan PLA, Insurance Ethics, TEEX), then move onto your math through ALEKS for $20/mo. Take Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Precalculus if you can do that, and then Statistics. You will get the most bang for your bucks starting with this path, and then be able to move on to the Saylor corses, then SL (if that's the way you choose to go).

Also, if you can do a bunch of courses through SL quickly, that's probably a decent indication of how well you might expect to do at WGU. If you can't swing a fast pace, then you might be better off going the TESU route.

[cknapp78]

Thanks for all the help. Just to keep everyone in the loop, I finally decided to order my transcripts from my previously attended colleges. I post what I have when I get them.

[alzee]

I agree with Mednat, that the 2 cheapest, fastest ways to go with this are the TESU BSBA in CIS or the WGU BSIT. The BSBA is totally test-out-able, and you can get your degree start-to-finish for about $5000

The BSBA/CIS capstone can be tested out of? I thought that was coming or had come to an end, and the course was the only option going forward. Just asking, probably remembering something wrong.