Computer Science Where to Max Out Credits Before Enrolling at WGU

[diamonds]

Hello everyone!
I'm currently in the process of getting as many transfer credits before I enroll at WGU for their Computer Science BS program.

I currently have: English Comp 1, Intro to Humanities, Applied Prob and Stats, Natural Science Lab, Intro to Geo, and Integrated Physical Sciences from a B&M university.
I have taken: Intro to Communication, American Politics (Government), Calculus 1, Intro to IT, and Scripting and Programming Foundations (Intro to c++) from Straighterline.
I have also taken: Project Management from Sophia.org.

I'm considering taking study.com courses and possibly courses from saylor.
Where would everyone suggest taking the rest of the courses in order to try to max out my credits before entering into WGU?

Thanks a bunch to anyone who responds! 

*If anyone has questions about the courses from straighterline or the sophia course I took I will gladly respond*

[ConqueringCollege]

Check out this page on WGU.  It has information on how to apply up to 79 credits from study.com to the BS degree in CS.
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...142&pid=86

Saylor - WGU partner page (up to 40 transfer credits)
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...769&pid=86

All WGU partners:
https://partners.wgu.edu

Also, this page lists information on certifications that transfer to fulfill requirements in the BS in CS.
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/BSCS.aspx

Lastly, consider WGU academy.  "For guaranteed admission into a WGU Computer Science program, you must complete the Program for Academic and Career Advancement and at least two courses that align with your intended program at WGU."
https://academy.wgu.edu/program/it?degre...er-science

[zilla]

Hello! I am also a prospective WGU student looking to transfer a bunch of CUs into WGU's BS CS before beginning.

Between Straighterline, Saylor, and Study, you can pretty much knock out 79 units out of the 122 required, per http://partners.wgu.edu/ (max allowed to transfer at WGU is 90).

The rest, you can try looking at local community colleges, which I did, but found that it would take too long and cost too much (the cheapest CC I can find in my state is $700+fees a class). After doing the math, I found that it would be cheaper to take it during a semester at WGU so I am primarily focusing on what I can do at the three S's and what I already have from past degrees. But if you live in a state with lower cost CC classes (like CA, Foothill CC is like $150 a class you can take online) you can probably knock out a few more classes there beyond what is offered at the three S's, but they also likely operate on the traditional semester model so you will need to be OK with that fact too.

Another alternative is getting the certifications before enrolling as they will also count towards transfer credits as well. You can find the transfer guide for CS here: https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/BSCS.aspx - With at least possibly transferring 79 credits, that leaves completing 11 classes (including capstone) in a 6 month period and that is very doable for someone with the motivation to get it done in that time frame.

I am personally just going for classes at the 3 S's along with some transfers from my past degrees, I would be coming in with 79 or 85 depending on whether or not I want to do Comp Architecture at SDC (since I heard it was terrible there) or getting the CIW cert for Web Dev Fundamentals (but I heard it is easier at WGU) so I might save those for WGU.

If you haven't done so already, you should apply and get that transfer evaluation. Depending on your bachelor's degree (I am not sure how they determined this), all Gen Eds can be waived with the exception of Calculus and Discrete Math I even though you may not have 1-1 classes that match up. I certainly didn't, but got waived wholesale as described above and that was a really nice revelation. In all, I transferred in 32 CU's (all gen eds minus calc and dm, and the organizational behavior class for IT leadership). Also, just so you know, the Calculus and any CS specific class will not transfer if it is older than 5 years.

Anyways, just make it clear to your enrollment counselor that you will be taking other classes elsewhere before starting and set a later start date. My EC had been cool about it all as it seems there are a few other people in the same position I am that she has been assigned to work with so it is old hat for her.

[ss20ts]

Check out this page on WGU.  It has information on how to apply up to 79 credits from study.com to the BS degree in CS.
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...142&pid=86

Saylor - WGU partner page (up to 40 transfer credits)
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...769&pid=86

All WGU partners:
https://partners.wgu.edu

Also, this page lists information on certifications that transfer to fulfill requirements in the BS in CS.
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/BSCS.aspx

Lastly, consider WGU academy.  "For guaranteed admission into a WGU Computer Science program, you must complete the Program for Academic and Career Advancement and at least two courses that align with your intended program at WGU."
https://academy.wgu.edu/program/it?degre...er-science

WGU Academy is StraighterLine.

[diamonds]

Hello everyone,

I already have done research on what transfers from all of the third party websites and I have gotten my transcripts accepted thus far. What I'm really asking is which courses should I take at study.com.

Thanks!

[Merlin]

Prior posters have provided links to the courses that WGU accepts for credit toward their BSCS degree.

That said, you should also ask yourself why you want the degree and what you intend to do with it afterward. That could help you determine what courses you WANT to take from external courses.

Keep in mind that WGU is best suited for people who already have a lot of real-world experience but are just looking for a degree to prove their skills. So if that is what you're looking for, then you're in the right place.

If you have no prior experience in programming or IT, and you're just looking at getting a programming job, then you don't really need to get a degree at all. Of course, having a degree in CS is always useful when it comes to applying to programming job applications (and a CS or related degree may be required for some roles), but you can also get a programming job with no degree. You'll need to be able to prove you know what you're doing somehow (so you'll want a good portfolio of prior work, and know your DS&A skills for interview time) but a degree is often optional.

If you're starting from scratch and just want to learn to code, the best way is to jump in there and start coding. You'll need to learn the important skills relating to software engineering concepts first, and then learn the languages and frameworks for the area of coding you want to focus on, but there are plenty of free and cheap resources for that. Having a good fundamental understanding of math (up through calculus and discrete math) is helpful, but not always necessary.

On the other hand, if you already know how to program and you're really just looking to expand your skills and get a deep dive into CS concepts and technologies... you're better off doing your own research, creating interesting projects for yourself, and jump into writing code. You don't need to get a CS degree to do that. Besides, that sounds more like a grad degree. A BS degree is mainly there to give you a broad introduction to CS, you'll want a master's or doctoral degree to really start to dive deep into the hardcode CS concepts.

Speaking of, if your intent is to continue on to grad school after completing your BS degree, then you'll want to take all the important courses in your major directly from WGU rather than transfer them in. The best bet is to make sure that at least 60 credits come from an RA college (such as WGU). You'll want WGU courses that cover the core CS and math concepts, along with a couple of programming languages at least, since those will likely be part of entrance requirements for a CS master's program. Most grad schools will ignore courses from ACE providers when determining if you meet the entrance (and/or GPA) requirements.

So if it were me, I'd take all the Gen Ed courses and non-CS core courses (like project management and IT) from StraighterLine and Study.com, but take the rest from WGU. I'd also take the calculus and discrete math courses from WGU rather than take them from SL and SDC. Though you'll need to take precalculus or higher from somewhere before you'll be admitted into the WGU CS program, so taking calculus from SL or SDC is another option. Neither of those options will be as rigorous as the WGU course though, and you may miss that down the road... particularly if you want to continue on to grad school.

[LevelUP]

If you have enough courses to take, it might be worth it to sign up for a year at study.com.  

There is a special 50% discount offer for $1,079.99.  With this, they only allow 2 courses per month, so it's 24 courses total you could take.

[dfrecore]

Check out this page on WGU.  It has information on how to apply up to 79 credits from study.com to the BS degree in CS.
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...142&pid=86

Saylor - WGU partner page (up to 40 transfer credits)
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/Single.as...769&pid=86

All WGU partners:
https://partners.wgu.edu

Also, this page lists information on certifications that transfer to fulfill requirements in the BS in CS.
https://partners.wgu.edu/Pages/BSCS.aspx

Lastly, consider WGU academy.  "For guaranteed admission into a WGU Computer Science program, you must complete the Program for Academic and Career Advancement and at least two courses that align with your intended program at WGU."
https://academy.wgu.edu/program/it?degre...er-science

WGU Academy is StraighterLine.

It could end up being cheaper & more beneficial than SL though, to go through WGU Academy - if you can finish the 2 A+ courses in a month (so for some that would mean self-study prior to enrolling), it's going to be cheaper than SL, and you'll also get the vouchers to take both A+ cert exams, which SL doesn't offer as far as I can tell.  Well worth the $150 for a month of WGU Academy.

[zilla]

Hello everyone,

I already have done research on what transfers from all of the third party websites and I have gotten my transcripts accepted thus far. What I'm really asking is which courses should I take at study.com.

Thanks!

The Gen-eds and scripting, you can just pick between the 3 S's that offer them. For more "higher level" CS specific courses, if you want to transfer them in, SDC is pretty much your only option for stuff like DM1, Security, Computer Architecture, etc so it depends on if you want to transfer them in or not because that's the only place that offers them. You did the research already, so you should know. The only one I've heard from reddit and elsewhere is to *not* take Computer Architecture at SDC because that course is very bad there and not so bad at WGU. The rest is up to the student. 

At minimum, you should at least do the 3 Database courses at SDC if you don't want the certs from WGU. There's a lot of overlap between those courses an can probably knock out all the tests in 2 weeks like I am doing (though there's an assignment for each class, but they seem easy if you have experience).