Best path to take in my situation?

[MNomadic]

Okay 2 last questions are of the 120 needed to get the BA in Computer science how many of those can you test out of? Also for Tesu do they give you as long as you need for each class you take there? Or is there a 12-15 week semester time limit?

You can't test out of: capstone, cornerstone, and couple other AOS courses. It "appears" that study.com is currently working on making credit versions of those AOS courses but no guarantee that they'll be ready when you need them.

Tesu has 12 week terms for most of their courses and they work like traditional schools with weekly assignment due dates and such.

[Mab81]

You will need to resolve the issues with your university. Those courses will appear in your credit registry record and TESU will require a transcript. Generally, there is no way to get around paying off a school debt if you want a legitimate degree.

What is a credit registry record?

[Merlin]

You will need to resolve the issues with your university. Those courses will appear in your credit registry record and TESU will require a transcript. Generally, there is no way to get around paying off a school debt if you want a legitimate degree.

What is a credit registry record? 

I had enrolled, and then withdrawn, from a university many years ago. I didn't owe them any money (i paid the partial fees) but the courses I dropped did say W on my transcript at the time. TESU has not said anything to me about needing those transcripts. Neither did the local university I applied to.

Schools use resources like the National Student Clearinghouse for academic verification purposes. Those sites help colleges and employers verify academic credentials and accreditation and flag academic issues such as unreported credits due to unpaid college fees.

Some schools don't investigate these things but most legitimate schools will.

TESU doesn't care about W courses or those below a D so they probably don't care about that transcript, though they will usually ask for ALL transcripts. As long as you don't owe any college money, or otherwise have done something that would obligate TESU to place you on graduation hold until it is resolved, then you shouldn't need to worry about it.

[davewill]

They may not say anything until it's time to graduate. The "registry" is the National Student Clearinghouse (https://studentclearinghouse.org). Schools report attendance info there, and other schools can check it. It's just like a credit reporting agency. That's how they enforce rules about submitting transcripts.

[Merlin]

They may not say anything until it's time to graduate.

I agree. I suspect that these are the kinds of checks that are performed during your graduation audit. So if TESU finds unreported school records they may require those transcripts to be on file before they allow you to graduate.

[Mab81]

They may not say anything until it's time to graduate. The "registry" is the National Student Clearinghouse (https://studentclearinghouse.org). Schools report attendance info there, and other schools can check it. It's just like a credit reporting agency. That's how they enforce rules about submitting transcripts.

Oh ok. Well I can get them if they want them. I was only enrolled for one month, so maybe they won’t even care.

[ImAllLikeYouWannaDoWat]

Like Merlin said, you will have to pay off the money to your previous school before any legitimate school will allow you to enroll.  But, you can take alternative credits towards the degree while you save up the money to pay off your debt.

I have a TESU BA-CS degree plan, although I'm not at all certain how to do the Area of Study (AOS - major) for the degree.  There are some courses that can't be tested out of, and it doesn't look like you have the credits to get that going.  I also have a degree plan for WGU.

WGU won't take most of your courses, so you might be the one in a million who would do better at TESU.  But maybe not.  It really just depends on whether or not you can find a couple of inexpensive courses that you need for the degree (Data Structures, Intro to Programming), and whether the courses I have listed in the AOS as electives will work for the degree.  Others on here might be able to help with that.

One thing you could consider doing is kind of combining your credits for both degree plans, and get through as much as you can that will apply towards both before making a decision. Like, you could take Study.com's Bio + Lab and then a physical science (chem, astronomy, physics) to cover the bases for both TESU's science and GE Electives, and WGU's science (you'd actually have an extra since they won't want Bio - but they need that lab).  You could take Speech, Ethics in Technology, MIS, Database Mgmt, etc. and plus those into both degree plans.  Eventually, you'd have a single path, and could figure out what to do from there.

Also, if you can find Data Structures at your local CC (I'm assuming you live in CA and it's cheap), that would be a great way to save a lot of money.  I plugged it in for $1098 at TESU, so to cut that price to $150 would lower the cost of the degree a lot.

Assuming wgu and tesu were willing to take all my credits, is wgu better than tesu?

I would like to eventually get a masters degree in data science. Would it be better to get the ba in computer science from tesu, then I could transfer to wgu for the masters in data science?

[davewill]

Assuming wgu and tesu were willing to take all my credits, is wgu better than tesu?

I would like to eventually get a masters degree in data science. Would it be better to get the ba in computer science from tesu, then I could transfer to wgu for the masters in data science?

If I were in your shoes, I would apply to both and see where my credits went. Then map out the courses you'd need to see which path you were closer to completing and what they would cost you. Beyond that, I don't see any significant difference in terms of preparing for a Master's in Data Science.

[Merlin]

Assuming wgu and tesu were willing to take all my credits, is wgu better than tesu?

I would like to eventually get a masters degree in data science. Would it be better to get the ba in computer science from tesu, then I could transfer to wgu for the masters in data science?

If I were in your shoes, I would apply to both and see where my credits went. Then map out the courses you'd need to see which path you were closer to completing and what they would cost you. Beyond that, I don't see any significant difference in terms of preparing for a Master's in Data Science.

Like davewill mentioned, you should apply to both and get your courses evaluated from both before you make any decisions.

As for better, that is a personal decision. In my case, I feel that WGU is a bit better for technical subjects, particularly if you already have a lot of subject matter expertise. With experience, you can probably get through the WGU material at least as fast if not faster than using other online resources like Straighterline and Study.com and graduating via TESU or the others. Plus you come out with certifications that can be more or less useful depending on your career area.

The big difference is that WGU will only accept up to 75% (90 credits) in transfer credit and you have to do the balance at WGU. If TESU gives you more than that, they may be the faster choice, depending on how many courses you need to take in balance. Either way, WGU will probably be cheaper than TESU.

For the TESU BACS, assuming you don't have to take any other courses to meet degree requirements, at minimum you'll need to pay for: the TESU capstone ($1098 or $1497), cornerstone ($300), residency waiver ($2200 or $2500), and graduation fee ($300) = $3,898 or $4,597 plus the capstone textbook. You'll pay the higher fees unless you take 2 courses from Study.com, transfer them to TESU and apply to TESU as a Study.com affiliate member. Note: If you don't take the cornerstone before the end of June, it will go up to $1098/$1497 + textbook since you'll have to take a regular course for the cornerstone.

For the WGU CS degree, the cost for a single 6-month term is $3,225 + resource fee ($145) + IT program fee ($150) = $3,520 all inclusive. Finishing in a single term should not be tough depending on how many courses they accept in your evaluation.