College choice

[KnowledgeQuest]

Hello!

Your Location: California, USA
Your Age: 33
What kind of degree do you want?: Information Technology
Budget: No budget but would still like to spend as little as possible or close to it.
Commitments: My spouse and dog, I work full time from home.
Dedicated time to study: My work at home job is very slow-paced. I have as much time as needed to study during the day and limited hours at night.
Timeline: Finishing the courses required for the degree as fast as possible would be ideal.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: No.

Current Regional Accredited Credits:
Folsom Lake Community College
ANTH 310 Cultural Anthropology, 3 Units, C Grade

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:
No.

Any certifications or military experience?
No.

I've been looking for a long time but haven't taken any action. Something finally told me that it was time. I'm looking to build myself a degree plan but I'm wondering what college makes the most sense for me. I was thinking WGU but want to get other input. I want a bachelor's or possibly a master's degree in Information Technology. I figured I'd start with a bachelor's first and work my way to a master's if that's where life takes me. Does this make sense or am I better off aiming for a master's from the get-go? I'm starting from practically nothing, I have 1 junior college class under my belt. I started many classes at the junior college but I always quit before the miracle happened. I always had excellent grades up until the point of dropping all my classes. That was just about 15 years ago and a lot has changed. I have a decent job already but I want a job that I actually enjoy. Any guidance on choosing a school would be greatly appreciated.

I'm thinking I'd like to start with Coursera because it's free through the library. Any guidance on transferrable courses would be great as well. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

[Chimera]

Hello!

Your Location: California, USA
Your Age: 33
What kind of degree do you want?: Information Technology
Budget: No budget but would still like to spend as little as possible or close to it.
Commitments: My spouse and dog, I work full time from home.
Dedicated time to study: My work at home job is very slow-paced. I have as much time as needed to study during the day and limited hours at night.
Timeline: Finishing the courses required for the degree as fast as possible would be ideal.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: No.

Current Regional Accredited Credits:
Folsom Lake Community College
ANTH 310 Cultural Anthropology, 3 Units, C Grade

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:
No.

Any certifications or military experience?
No.

I've been looking for a long time but haven't taken any action. Something finally told me that it was time. I'm looking to build myself a degree plan but I'm wondering what college makes the most sense for me. I was thinking WGU but want to get other input. I want a bachelor's or possibly a master's degree in Information Technology. I figured I'd start with a bachelor's first and work my way to a master's if that's where life takes me. Does this make sense or am I better off aiming for a master's from the get-go? I'm starting from practically nothing, I have 1 junior college class under my belt. I started many classes at the junior college but I always quit before the miracle happened. I always had excellent grades up until the point of dropping all my classes. That was just about 15 years ago and a lot has changed. I have a decent job already but I want a job that I actually enjoy. Any guidance on choosing a school would be greatly appreciated.

I'm thinking I'd like to start with Coursera because it's free through the library. Any guidance on transferrable courses would be great as well. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

My advice would be to complete a few of the Google and IBM offerings on coursera for free
-getting a few certifications to fill a resume and ACE credits
Also doing a large amount of the Sophia classes to fill general education requirements
Then do the ASU Google IT part 1 ($25) for a single RA credit

Then once you have 60 credits total apply to the Pierpont BOG AAS in information technology

Continue to do Sophia’s and the three TEEX programs
Then decide between the BLS at UMPI or the BAS at UMPI (transcripts of other students are on this forum and enough looking about you can find all the information you need)

Try to complete the UMPI in one or two sessions

Walk away with an associates and a bachelor’s
Then look around for a master opportunity like WGU’s or if you’re feeling up to reading the master thread ENEB could potentially serve you as well.

Super brief and I hope others chime in to help you out more than I can but this would be my rough goto plan for a information technology degree something like less than $8k for everything even if you take time and can be finished start to end in a year

[bjcheung77]

@KnowledgeQuest, Welcome to the board, great initial post with the addendum and template in a straight to point format... It's compact and concise, with that said, I agree with Chimera.  You can do the cheapies/freebies on the WIKI and work towards the trifecta of certs, degree, experience... Get the Associates, ladder that up to a Bachelors, then finish with a Masters of your choice.  There are multiple degrees from different institutions on the WIKI, you can check them out and see which degree matches you most. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ca...gree_Plans

Here's an example option. Pierpont BOG AAS emphasis Info Systems, UMPI BAS MIS minor (plus 3-4 classes that can go towards the MAOL), PUG/WGU MSIT.  There are other options such as going for a one & done option at BSIT/MS at PUG or WGU, or doing the UMPI BABA PM&IS, then PUG/WGU for the Masters.  Options exists, it really does depend on what your needs/wants are and how you want to balance that mix/match of certs, degree, experience...  Review the WIKI and see what route you want to go...

[LevelUP]

I agree with what others have said to go for the Pierpont BOG AAS in information technology first.

Colleges that we have degree plans that have IT are WGU, PUG, and SNHU.

You could start with Coursera Google IT Support, then start doing Sophia IT courses such as Intro to IT, Intro to Web, Networking, Database, and Python programming.

[KnowledgeQuest]

Thank you all so much for your replies and direction!

I saw that WGU had an Accelerated Bachelor's and Master's in IT plan. It is advisable to complete the Pierpont BOG AAS and then shoot for that?

[bjcheung77]

@KnowledgeQuest, You're welcome! If you read carefully and review what was mentioned, all 3 replies advised to go the Pierpont BOG AAS Info Systems, then ladder that up to any Bachelors/Masters combo you wanted... There is a link within my previous post to show what degree and institutions are available, your WGU BS/MS is one of the suggestions I have one my reply as well, it really all depends on what you want to do.

The Pierpont requires you to do some Sophia.org, you can skip the $25 ASU 1 credit class as you already have a graded credit, it just requires Sophia.org/TEEX to complete the degree, you can then focus on your Coursera and other ACE cheapies/freebies on the WIKI towards your PUG/WGU one and done BS/MS. You're accumulating credits towards either institution, you just want to take the classes that hit both if possible.

[GameSlinger]

Thank you all so much for your replies and direction!

I saw that WGU had an Accelerated Bachelor's and Master's in IT plan. It is advisable to complete the Pierpont BOG AAS and then shoot for that?

As others have said, the BOG is going to be your first step. Everything needed for that will help you in your final goal, so get it done quickly. I know several mentioned Free Coursera courses, but I believe that may no longer be the case. The American Dream Academy (TADA) allowed for some free courses from the Coursera catalog, but they stopped enrollment for new students. That being said, the fee for Coursera is still worthwhile as you should be able to get 30 credits or more pretty quick from there. 

As for the PUG dual Bachelors/Masters, I don't see anything wrong with that path as it gets you to where you want to be.

[KnowledgeQuest]

Got it!! Thanks for the further explanation. There’s so much information and I got a bit confused. I’ll keep doing my research for now. Thanks, again.

[bjcheung77]

Got it!! Thanks for the further explanation. There’s so much information and I got a bit confused. I’ll keep doing my research for now. Thanks, again.

No worries, there are so many ways to get to your BS/MS goal and do the Pierpont AAS plus the Bachelors at the same time, you're essentially getting the max transfer credits used for the Associates and re-use them for the Bachelors (as it's the first 60 credits or so towards the Bachelors).  Take only a little bit of your time to preplan (by creating a spreadsheet of the PUG or WGU degrees), then put most of your efforts into the TEEX/Coursera classes that provide ACE credit (cheapies/freebies on the WIKI for electives), Sophia.org for remaining lower level credits required for general education, Study.com or another provider as well, you'll need at least 30+ credits completed at PUG/WGU to finish the degree off.

[KnowledgeQuest]

Hopefully, this isn't too far off. Any feedback I can get would be great.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...sp=sharing

I have the Pierpont courses on the 1st tab and the WGU courses on the 2nd. I tried to use as many courses that crossed over as possible. My initial goal was to use Coursera for as much as possible but I found out that the California State Library only has a certain amount of spots. So now my plan is to start with Sophia and try to get a Coursera spot when one comes open. 

These courses look like they work for WGU but I wasn't sure if they would work for Pierpont. Is there a way to find out?
Database Programming "SDCM-0218 / Computer Science 204"
Introduction to Networking "SDCM-0213 / Computer Science 108"

I'll probably start ASAP on Sophia while working on getting my degree plan nailed down. Thanks for any help or feedback you can give! I appreciate it and know I couldn't do this without this forum and the wiki.