Associates in Computer ... something?

[icampy]

I (quite obviously, now!) used the wrong wording....should have said "someone personally experienced to the topic and exposed to multiple aspects of it in real life". As in, I'm not an "expert" welder, or AWS certified (possibly soon, though) but have done enough of it, using multiple processes, and hours upon hours of personal experience, burns, cuts and all, building and repairing a plethora of "things", that I can give an informed opinion about welding. Compared to, say, my knowledge and interest in the "Great Khan", of whom I have no personal experience, but I have read multiple books about him, his life, and the Mongols, and despite being able to give you good info....I haven't been to a dig site to find his burial place, or studied artifacts :roflol:



And I don't have a dog in the fight, just enjoy knowledgeable folks teaching others. You may continue....

[SolarKat]

I wasn't attacking you, by the way. I honestly love hearing from experts in their field, whether they are an engineer, a prison warden, a historian, or a fry cook. I made myself an "internet expert" on a few topics, but I love hearing from people who have BTDT. I like people taking pride in what they do, and sharing their experience with others. You are a invaluable member here, and I appreciate your input on education and life choices, as does everyone else...along with answers to my stupid questions (to what I could google). I am a nice guy, despite my "smartmouth" problem and rough exterior (between being a ranch hand, machinist, fabricator, CO and rec yard officer *this one really made me into a sour hard-ass* through the years, my exterior was honed into quite the spikey, vulgar, hard shell that can only be broken by children, animals, stories of valor and tragedy, and family).

FWIW, I always had an interest in CJ, and while I was a rec yard officer/correction officer at a prison, I was trying to find a way to do a CJ degree to help me as I tried to get into the Special Investigative Services department of the prison....and then to the TX DPS academy after a few years. That was what made me start looking at online college in the first place. Before I got back into my original career field, and finally got another interview and job offer with my current company.

Anyways, I am notorious for being a dick in electronic communications (according to my spouse and friends..... and you), but if I ran across you broke down on the side of the road, dollars to doughnuts I will be there with my toolbox opened to help.

I will try to soften up.

Oh no worries. I've been immersed in "men's work" for decades. I'm one of those INTJ types who doesn't give a f, LOL. I'm super jealous of your mad machinist skillz, BTW. And my cousin worked a couple of decades in corrections, mostly at the med-security in Ray Brook, NY...the stories he tells. You've earned your swagger, totally not exaggerating. No need to mitigate.

[sanantone]

Oh no worries. I've been immersed in "men's work" for decades. I'm one of those INTJ types who doesn't give a f, LOL. I'm super jealous of your mad machinist skillz, BTW. And my cousin worked a couple of decades in corrections, mostly at the med-security in Ray Brook, NY...the stories he tells. You've earned your swagger, totally not exaggerating. No need to mitigate.

It wasn't directed at you.

Yes, mitigate. LOL. Corrections officers who usually get their butts kicked all the time have poor communication skills and tend to be jerks. I'm also an INTJ and worked in a jail and a prison.

[theonlyski]

I'm not a CS expert. Far from it, hardcore coding makes me want to stick a fork through my skull - I defer to Theonlyski and Davewill

That's why I don't do it for a living! :roflol:

I'll do it for a hobby on projects that I find interesting. I'm taking the Straighterline Intro to C++ right now and I end up staying up half the night trying to make my code work better, look better or find a bug. At least with the IDEs and compilers out there, finding a typo is pretty easy these days and the code formatting couldn't be much easier.

WAY easier than when I initially learned C++ on Borland C++ with the Turbo C++ DOS IDE

But I still have to learn some new things and relearn some old things to do what they want, how they want.

[sanantone]

No, the point that was being discussed was programming, I believe, and computing in general. As I mentioned, I am not familiar with WGU's system, but that they are competency based so at least there's some demonstration of...well...competency. The TESU degree as written (without deliberately selecting rigorous gen-eds/free electives vs the cheap/quick "it'll do" options) doesn't do this, particularly if the student is going to compete for jobs with other actual CS grads. *shrug*

TESU is not a good fit because it has a shockingly sparse CS requirement, in breadth and in depth. Not because it's nontraditional.

You're comparing testing out to competencies when you really should be comparing WGU's courses to TESU's courses. WGU lets you test out of gen eds just like TESU does. Testing out of a lot of courses is a choice that can be made at either school. You cannot test out of most of the CS courses. Many of WGU's competencies are multiple choice tests. They also include a good number of CIW certs, which everyone knows are easy. I passed two of them with minimal study.

I don't think people know that the Big 3 were the first competency-based schools. WGU gives a lot of credits for certs and so does Excelsior. Taking a multiple choice test to pass a competency is the same as taking a CLEP or other CBE. Demonstrating a competency by writing a paper is easier than doing a PLA.

WGU has almost no CS content...

[icampy]

Oh no worries. I've been immersed in "men's work" for decades. I'm one of those INTJ types who doesn't give a f, LOL. I'm super jealous of your mad machinist skillz, BTW. And my cousin worked a couple of decades in corrections, mostly at the med-security in Ray Brook, NY...the stories he tells. You've earned your swagger, totally not exaggerating. No need to mitigate.

I wish more people knew what goes on in prisons/jails and how screwed up the entire system is. It is eye opening. I am much wiser to the world than before I worked there.

[KenJ]

I'm getting in and out of this quickly. I agree with SolarKat. Even though TESU HAS some decent computer science courses, they are not required. You can take CIS courses to fulfill your upper level AOS. So, if you go this route, you end up with the LCD of a CS and a CIS degree. Instead of doing the minimum amount necessary, if you are serious and want to get a BACS at TESU, take Computer Architecture, Operating Systems and ALL of the CIS courses. This would give you a very strong CIS-type degree. Or even an Applied Computer Science degree. If you can, find a course on Algorithms. That would put you over on the required number of credits for a BA, but it would be alot more competitive,

[icampy]

Oh and I wish I had mad machinist skillz.....see a guy that has been doing it for 50+ years, those guys come up with setups and ways to operations that I never would have thought of myself. After taking it at a community college, I had the pleasure of learning from 2 older gentlemen that both grew up in machine shops that their dad owned (at 2 different places I worked), and I learned an immense amount of info from them. I will never be an expert machinist, especially since I only do a few hours a week now.


Before I made myself buckle down and start earning real credits instead of just learning, I started some online coding programs, because I thought I wanted to learn to code. It was so mind-numbing that I completely quit, I just couldn't enjoy it.

Then I bought an arduino and started following walk-throughs and making real things happen, even as simple as monitoring different sensors, making noises, running a little "car" around....and the "c lite" arduino programming became much more interesting. I'm at my work desk looking at a breadboard and gazillion components sitting on my desk, wishing I had more time to play with it. I could never sit and code for a living. But in combination with building things like I already do, it is certainly tolerable.

I am out of my lane in this thread, anyways, so I'm bowing out. Skip over my posts, apologies to the OP.

[SolarKat]

You're comparing testing out to competencies when you really should be comparing WGU's courses to TESU's courses.
WGU has almost no CS content...

I was considering both, actually. TESU doesn't generate much of anything for show & tell, whereas the WGU IT does get certs. Absolutely right, WGU, doesn't do CS, it hits IT...which is one angle to approach app development.

I mean, if the OP's son has any input, it would be super helpful in narrowing this down. You can do "game development" with literally *just* C++. My son's C++ project this last term (and this was intro C++, plus a lot of personal independent study), was a Wolfenstein clone complete with a 3D raycaster. (There were some interesting 2AM phonecalls and plenty of salty language for *that* project, I can confirm.) So the OP's son can start working in game code on his own, for free, with no degree/classes. Minecraft = Java, as another example. Python (while a bit slower, as an interpreted language) is the basis for Blender, the 3D game/modeling engine, so that's a reasonable start, too. The bigger point is, he can do one of the free online tutorials to figure out if he even *likes* it (and if he leans toward hardware, he may actually hate code once he's wallowing in it)...before he signs up for any for-credit classes.

I think the plan someone (OP? dfrecore? sanantone?) mentioned waaaaaay back, of starting with ALEKS math and at least getting gen-ed crap done is a decent step while he researches AOS/degree/program options. If he goes brick & mortar as davewill suggested, he could hopefully transfer some in to save $. Otherwise, the gen-ed scutwork is common across most of the bachelors...knock it out while considering career paths. Ask him, what does he want to be when he grows up?

[sanantone]

I'm getting in and out of this quickly. I agree with SolarKat. Even though TESU HAS some decent computer science courses, they are not required. You can take CIS courses to fulfill your upper level AOS. So, if you go this route, you end up with the LCD of a CS and a CIS degree. Instead of doing the minimum amount necessary, if you are serious and want to get a BACS at TESU, take Computer Architecture, Operating Systems and ALL of the CIS courses. This would give you a very strong CIS-type degree. Or even an Applied Computer Science degree. If you can, find a course on Algorithms. That would put you over on the required number of credits for a BA, but it would be alot more competitive,

And, how is the WGU degree being offered as an alternative any better? I have yet to receive an accurate answer to this.