Best option for a fast Associate's in I.T. or something related? Total noob!

[Alec311]

Your Location: San Diego, California

Your Age: 25

What kind of degree do you want?: Associate's, preferably IT or CS but very open to any suggestions

Any certifications or military experience? 
CompTIA A+ Certification
Google Technical Support Fundamentals (from coursera, I think this just just a 'certificate' and not 'certification'? If there's a difference I'm not sure)

Hey, I just turned 25 and I am trying to leave a dead end retail job that I've been in for several years.  I just completed my A+ cert after a month of studying in an attempt to find an entry level PC Repair or IT Support position, due to a long time hobby as a computer hardware/pc building enthusiast. 

After graduating high school I went to San Diego Mesa Community College for a couple semesters before quitting, earning 24 total credits in mostly general education classes and one computer science class. This is from my transcript:

COMS 135 - Interpersonal Communication
ANTH 103 - Intro to Cultural Anthropology
HIST 109 - History of the United States I
POLI 102 - The American Political System
ENGL 101 - Reading and Composition
PERG 120 - College Success
PHIL 102A - Intro to Philosophy
CISC 150 - Intro to Computer/Information Science

I've just found out about CLEP and have never heard of this concept prior to today, but it got me thinking that getting a quick Associate's degree in something related to IT could help me out on my job search, and possibly set me up to go back to school in the future, but I really don't know where to start. I've been browsing this forum for a few hours and trying to research online, but there are just so many acronyms/schools I've never heard of, programs I don't understand, that I'm a little overwhelmed.

I would really appreciate some advice on where to go from here, and what I could do with my credits from 7ish years ago. Preferably the fastest/easiest way to a degree. I have a good amount of savings and I'm not too worried about budget.

Thank you so much!

[rachel83az]

Associate degrees aren't usually that much cheaper or faster than the Bachelor's degrees we recommend here. They're also often not very much use for employment. However, because you're in the US, your age, and your prior college credits, you could get the FREE Pierpont BOG AAS with an Area of Emphasis in Information Systems. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC Instead of CLEP, I would strongly recommend utilizing Sophia.org. It costs $99/mo. and you're allowed to complete as many credits as you're able to in that time. Depending on how much time you have to devote to this, you could get sufficient Sophia credits to get the Pierpont degree in 1-2 months.

From there, you've got a few options for a Bachelor's degree:

Purdue University Global has a BS in Information Technology that costs $2500 every 10 weeks. If you plan correctly, you can transfer in about 75% of the degree and finish the remaining credits (about 45 quarter credits) there. Most of these can come from Sophia/prior credits. Many students are able to finish in just 2 or 3 terms. However, this would be a LOT of writing. At PUG, each credit is at least one paper or project. It's not for everyone. But it's a possibility if you really want an IT degree.

UMPI doesn't have any IT/Comp Sci degrees, exactly, but they do have a Business degree in Project Management/Management Information Systems. They also have a BLS in with a concentration in Management Information Systems, but the BABA is probably going to be better for someone with limited experience. The Business degree (and the BLS) is more geared towards managers rather than actual IT personnel. UMPI costs $1500 for every 8 week session. Like PUG, you can transfer in up to 75% of the degree. These can come entirely from Sophia and your prior credits. You must complete at least 30 credits (10 classes) at UMPI. Each class is generally graded based on a single paper or project. So it's probably 1/4th the writing of PUG. Most students have been able to finish a degree at UMPI in 2 or 3 sessions.

Finally, there is TESU. They have a BA in Computer Science. This one is a bit more complicated both to plan and to determine actual costs. However, you have prior college credit and that helps to eliminate a lot of the uncertainty. Depending on exactly what courses you choose, and from where, you're looking at spending around $7000-9000 on a TESU BACS.

[bjcheung77]

@Alec311, Welcome to the board, you've done the template but missed the last post addendum. The more details on your budget, commitments, study habits and so on would give us a clearer picture of your situation. It really depends on what you're looking at, if you're looking to finish your Associates at the current school, see if they take CLEP or ACE alternative credits and what their residency requirements are, most schools just need 15 out of 60 credits for their Associates and you have 24 already, you can finish it by CLEPing the rest if they allow and your courses/exams hit all the spots, then ladder up to a Bachelors. Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

[Insert Name]

To echo some of what Rachel83az said, but add a little “what I think I’d do,” since I don’t know much about Purdue, I’ll stick to TESU, Pierpont, and California CCs. I think I would:
-apply to Thomas Edison. https://www.tesu.edu/ Send them the transcripts you have.
-apply to Pierpont https://catalog.pierpont.edu/preview_pro...eturnto=59 send transcripts
-enroll at a CC near you (maybe. Will wrap back to this)

At this point TESU will evaluate what you still need

-do a round of Sophia, using the Wiki to fill in as much as you can
(CS AOS: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ience_Plan )
(Gen Ed’s: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap )
-if you have enrolled in your CC. You may be able to line up a semester (or two, if you want) that fills in some of the other TESU requirements that you can’t get from Sophia, and (depending on income) that semester may be cheap and/or even make money from financial aide that you can use later. The trick is going to be to look at available classes and send the info to TESU and ask if they fit. Again, this is just an option I would consider, depending on time/budget/added effort you want to use. Example being: my GF found a Spanish poetry class that fit, so she took that and a few more units to pull financial aide (which she was able to pocket some $ from since aide paid more than cost/cr) while working through Sophia classes.
-use the wiki to find the other credits (looks like a lot of study.com ) you still need
-as soon as you have 60+ credits, 15 in CS, and not currently in a class that will show on a transcript as “in progress,” send everything to Pierpont and ask to graduate. Here’s the wiki for PP: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC
-finish up whatever you have left at TESU (using financial aide, if you can)

End result: BA in CS, and AAS BOG with CS focus, and you may find some certs or maybe an AA/AS along the way that you didn’t have to do extra for. All doable in under a year, especially if you overlap some of those steps.

If you go with Purdue or somewhere else, it’s going to be a similar game plan. The trick is to just start the process, and keep checking your plan to see what can overlap and what is time sensitive. Example being start doing the Sophia classes you know you need, while you’re waiting on transcript evaluations. And keep your head up, and steps forward. I’ve seen people start to get down because they hit a month or two that seem slow, and had to remind them that the two months prior to that they knocked out the equivalent of a year and a half worth of work at a traditional school.

[bjcheung77]

@Alec311, you're a little more than two decades younger than I. You should really take your time to 'learn' what you're looking at and focus on three things I recommend, certs, degree, experience. This is my suggestion, Coursera/TADA plus Sophia.org to get all the requirements for Pierpont BOG AAS and UMPI 90 credits max transfer.

If you're not able to get the CLEP/ACE credits towards your local CC associates degree, then shoot for the Pierpont BOG AAS with an Info Systems emphasis by taking Coursera/TADA certs (any one of them that is wroth credit and also gets you some entry level experience/knowledge), Sophia.org transfer to UMPI for the BABA PM&IS.

[Insert Name]

Talking to IT with our company, IT world seems kinda like an odd space to me. They seem all about “what do you know, and what certs do you have?” Like, none of them that I’ve talked to have degrees in anything. Some were like “I took an IT class in CC once, got this job, now they signed me up for a Cisco cert class but I keep missing it.” Like, it seems like if someone sped rushed a degree and took their time and learned the info from some good cert courses AND put the info to practice after the classes to retain the knowledge, they’d be IT king/queen!

---

That’s just my observation from the outside looking in.

[dfrecore]

If you really want to work in IT, then a degree from WGU will be your best bet - you'll get a bunch of certs along the way. There are lots of options from which to choose, so you can really focus on the area you like best (networking, cloud, cybersec, data analytics, etc.).

Since you don't have a ton of credits, and some will count in the GE area, you won't "lose" a ton of credits. The A+ cert will actually count as 6cr in two of the harder/more time consuming courses (IT-Foundations and IT-Applications), so you're kind of ahead there.

Also, for someone just starting out, WGU will get you towards where you want to go more quickly than most of the other degrees I think. All of those certs will be awesome (and "free").

You can use Sophia and then Study.com to get a bunch of credits prior to enrolling, so the cost will be minimal. And then you can enroll and finish in 1-2 terms (preferably 1 term) for about $4,000. My guess is you could spend a few months getting the credits you need, then 6 months at WGU, and finish in far less than a year with a bachelor's in IT for less than $5,000.

[LevelUP]

A quick and free Associates degree would be the Pierpont BOG AAS with an Area of Emphasis in Information Systems
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pi...egree_Plan

Your Google IT support cert brings in 12 credits, so you are 36 of 60 done. I would do the rest with Sophia finishing out the general education and taking IT-related courses such as Intro to IT, Web, DB, Python. 
https://www.sophia.org/

Fast/Easy the options are TESU, WGU, PUG (cost around 3.5k to 6k)

TESU CS (probably the quickest route)
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ience_Plan

WGU Has IT, Software Engineering, and CS (They have tough restrictions on transferring credits older than 5yrs)
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:WGU

PUG IT programs
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:PUG


Not so easy or quick

CUNY IT is an option since you have the RA transfer, but you have to jump through a few hoops to grab CLEPs and they don't take Sophia.
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/CU...egree_Plan

SNHU IT or CS would take 8 or 10 months to complete and cost 10k
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:SNHU

[bjcheung77]

@Alec311, Everyone will have different views on how to do things, you can decide what you want to do. Generally, I would go with the trifecta of Certs, Degree, Experience. Basically... If you're trying to break into IT, the Associates should be enough along with the Coursera/TADA certificate offerings as it will give you some experience in those subjects along the way.

You really don't need an IT degree to be in IT, so if you want to prepare for future aspirations of management, you can do the UMPI BABA PM&IS. Again, it depends on your needs or wants... all the advice you read is valid, it's up to you to see which way you want to land. UMPI Project Management & Info System is not a true Info System degree, it's more Project Management.

[allvia]

A quick and free Associates degree would be the Pierpont BOG AAS with an Area of Emphasis in Information Systems
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pi...egree_Plan

Your Google IT support cert brings in 12 credits, so you are 36 of 60 done. I would do the rest with Sophia finishing out the general education and taking IT-related courses such as Intro to IT, Web, DB, Python. 
https://www.sophia.org/

I second this recommendation as a start.  It gives you an associate degree (quick and cheaply), and you gain the Google IT certificate to add to your resume.