Goal: BA or BS in CS or IT

[MrPanda]

Good morning dear members,

Your Location: South America
Your Age: 35+
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or Information Technology, or similar programs
Current Regional Accredited Credits: No

I don´t have any RA credits, however,this month I´m finishing the A.S. in C.S. at the U. of the People

These are my courses:

Course / Title / Grade / Credits
ENGL 0101    English Composition 1        A-    0                    
UNIV 1001    Online Education Strategies    A    3                
POLS 1503    Globalization        A    3                    
CS 1101        Programming Fundamentals        A-    3                
CS 1102        Programming 1        B    3                    
ENVS 1301    Introduction to Environmental Sciences        C    3            
PHIL 1404    Ethics and Social Responsibility        C+    3            
HIST 1421    Greek and Roman Civilization        C+    3                
ENGL 1405    World Literature        C-    3                    
SOC 1502    Introduction to Sociology        C    3                
BUS 1101    Principles of Business Management        C+    3            
ENGL 1102    English Composition 2        D-    3                    
CS 2203        Databases 1        D+    3                    
AHIST 1401    Art History        A    3                    
MATH 1280    Introduction to Statistics        B    3                
PSYC 1205    Emotional intelligence (EI)        B    3                
PSYC 1504    Introduction to Psychology        C    3                
MATH 1201    College Algebra        D    3    3                
MATH 1281    Statistical Inference        C    3                    
CS 1103        Programming 2        D    3    3                
CS 2301        Operating Systems 1        B    3                    
CS 1104        Computer Systems        C+    3                    
CS 2205        Web Programming 1        B+    3                    
CS 2401        Software Engineering 1        B    3                    

Courses currently studying
    Course    Title    Credits                            
    CS 2204    Communications and Networking    3                           

According to the system, I have: 2.48 CGPA and 75 credits earned.
The course I´m taking now, would complete the last requirement to get my A.S. in C.S. at the U. of the People
I´m currently accepted to the B.S. in C.S. at U. of the People, so I can keep taking courses after that.[/code]



Some additional exam?

I have the verified certificate in College Algebra from Saylor.org.

other degrees?I have a Bachelor in Economics from a Peruvian University, and a Master in Science in Corporate Science from a Portuguese University, and I finished all the courses in a 2 years Master Program in Economics and Finance in Peru, however, I´m ABD, so I have no degree there.

Goal?

Currently, I work as an Economist in a third world country and jobs in my field seem to be very unstable here, people with technological backgrounds seem to be doing much better.

I would want to get a B.S. or B.A. in C.S. or I.T. or some other related degree.

Money is a concern, so any penny has to be well spent while trying to get the bachelor.

I have been considering finishing the degree at U. of the People (but doubting a bit because of the NA), transferring to CSU Global, or to SNHU.
Reading the forums I also found about TESU.

How should I proceed in order to compare CSU Global, SNHU and TESU?
Are there any other universities that I should add to the list?

I checked that SNHU accepts some courses from Saylor, and also from Study.com, also CSU Global.

So maybe I could try to make some courses there?
Maybe I should just keep advancing at U. of the People and just change when I´m at the limit of the accepted transfer credits?

I´m not that worried about getting the degree fast, since sometimes I only can make 1 course per term (instead of two) due to workload, the terms at the U. of the People are of 2 months.

Thanks for any advice that you could give me.

Pd: Actually, there´s no problem in getting recognition of US degrees in Peru, NA or RA are actually both okay.
Pd2: I can only do totally online programs, I have no way to enter to the US, not even for a few days.

[rachel83az]

FYI, TESU will NOT accept UoPeople transfer credits. I don't think that CSU Global or SNHU accept them either.

AFAIK, both SNHU and CSU Global are significantly more expensive than TESU's approximately $7-10k price tag. If you have a foreign degree, your cost for TESU actually goes down a bit. You shouldn't need further RA credits, lowering your total cost to $5-8k in total. I can't do a price breakdown right now but can do it later today.

---

Also, if you want to do remote work or are even halfway considering moving to another country at some point in the future, then having an RA degree can be a much better investment than the NA degree. It's not outside the realm of possibility that you could work for an American company remotely from Peru.

[dfrecore]

I think that with that degree, you're probably better off staying at U of People, since none of the other schools that you're interested in accept NA credit; and EC which does take NA credit doesn't have a CS degree, and their IT degree is very expensive; and WGU which will take NA credit won't take a non-US-based student.

Dumb question here, but why are you starting over when you already have degrees? Why wouldn't U of People take courses from your previous degrees from Peru & Portugal?

[ss20ts]

CSU Global costs $1,050 per class. Definitely not the cheapest way to go.

[bjcheung77]

There are so many options out there and yet so many restrictions as well, since you already have a degree elsewhere, and about done with an NA degree, you can find either another NA school or RA institutions that accept NA credit. Excelsior has an IT program but not a CS, Purdue Global has IT programs as well, both take NA credits. I would recommend completing the BS CS at U of People just in case they become RA in the future, since you're already there. Then go to these mentioned schools or Walden for a Masters in Business, IT, or whatever the offer and you need.

[MrPanda]

CSU Global costs $1,050 per class. Definitely not the cheapest way to go.

Yes, I noticed that SNHU was cheaper, and Purdue could be even more cheaper.

Thanks for calling this into my attention.

---

There are so many options out there and yet so many restrictions as well, since you already have a degree elsewhere, and about done with an NA degree, you can find either another NA school or RA institutions that accept NA credit.  Excelsior has an IT program but not a CS, Purdue Global has IT programs as well, both take NA credits.  I would recommend completing the BS CS at U of People just in case they become RA in the future, since you're already there.  Then go to these mentioned schools or Walden for a Masters in Business, IT, or whatever the offer and you need.

Yes, seeing how the other schools are 10x more expensive that the U. of the People, maybe it could be a good idea, to just finish there.

Thanks for mentioning Purdue Global to me, I never heard about them. It says they have the RA, sadly their wikipedia page could look a bit worrying, if some employers reads about it, however, the present seems to be good for that school, isn´t it?

About the degree: I don´t mind IT or CS, since here they call all of those degrees: "Systems engineering".

---

I think that with that degree, you're probably better off staying at U of People, since none of the other schools that you're interested in accept NA credit; and EC which does take NA credit doesn't have a CS degree, and their IT degree is very expensive; and WGU which will take NA credit won't take a non-US-based student.

I called SNHU and asked them about U. of the People, and they just told me:

"Just send the transcript, and we will tell you. You wouldn't believe where we have accepted credits from".

I´m finishing the A.S. in 2 weeks, so there I´ll request my transcript and send it to them, for a free evaluation.

Let´s see how it goes. At least to have an idea, I won´t necessarily study there.

---

Dumb question here, but why are you starting over when you already have degrees?  Why wouldn't U of People take courses from your previous degrees from Peru & Portugal?

Because I wanted to practice my English, and see how the online couses went.

But then, I didn´t try to get courses from previous degrees, since I would have needed to make translations or course evaluations, and the price would have been the same or higher, than just taking the course (USD$ 100 per course).

---

FYI, TESU will NOT accept UoPeople transfer credits. I don't think that CSU Global or SNHU accept them either.

AFAIK, both SNHU and CSU Global are significantly more expensive than TESU's approximately $7-10k price tag. If you have a foreign degree, your cost for TESU actually goes down a bit. You shouldn't need further RA credits, lowering your total cost to $5-8k in total. I can't do a price breakdown right now but can do it later today.

---

Also, if you want to do remote work or are even halfway considering moving to another country at some point in the future, then having an RA degree can be a much better investment than the NA degree. It's not outside the realm of possibility that you could work for an American company remotely from Peru.

Thanks for your post. I´ll check TESU in detail then, since the option of trying to get remote work in another country sounds interesting, so, I´ll see if I can get a RA degree.

[LevelUP]

If you have a Bachelor's Degree, TESU will waive the General Education requirement, which waives the SOS-110 cornerstone.

TESU Costs
$1557  3cr Capstone ($519 per credit)
$3,192 Residency Waiver Fee
$298 Graduation Fee
$5047 Total + SL+Study.com ACE credit costs (around $500)

Purdue has their ExcelTrack IT Plan
https://catalog.purdueglobal.edu/undergr...eeplantext

You take the W3Schools: PHP Certificate, which brings in 7 courses and completes the Software Development Concentration
https://www.purdueglobal.edu/alternative...ion-exams/

Purdue Costs
$2500 per term + fees  (take at least 2 terms. could be 3-4 terms to do 8 courses)
$500 Study.com or other ACE credit cost
$6500 - $12,500 (rough estimate)

Purdue is a little bit of a gamble, and being English is your 2nd language, writing a bunch of papers with Purdue may be a disadvantage to you.

TESU seems like the best choice in terms of time/cost and knowing for sure what you will be paying.  You pay pretty much nothing at TESU until you are ready to take the Capstone.

[davewill]

If price is your overiding concern, then stick with UofP. If speed and having an RA degree are important enough to justify the extra cost, I'd go with TESU. You will have to do some of the CS courses over again, but through alternative credit providers, you can work through them cheaply and as fast as you're able. One nice thing about going with TESU, is that you can proceed with your alternative credit while you work through getting your foreign credits evaluated and actually getting enrolled.

[MrPanda]

I got an answer from CSU Global (they evaluated my unofficial transcripts for free):

"Intended Start Date: 11/15/2021
Selected Program: BS - Computer Science
Summary of Estimated Transferable Credit & Degree-Completion Requirements
Estimated number of prior credits that would be accepted in transfer towards your selected degree program is 50"

(This was sending them my courses from the A.S. in C.S. from the U. of the People + College Algebra from Saylor)

For the SNHU evaluation, I´ll need to send them an official transcript, and since I´m finishing my last A.S. in C.S. course in 2 weeks, I´ll wait until I finish it, before requesting an official transcript to be sent to SNHU.

I´m reading the TESU website now, in that case, as people here mentioned, I could try to use my old Bachelor in Economics for some transfer credit.
In the case of TESU, i could see that the main way to do it, could be something around these lines:

https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ience_Plan

And maybe even then, it could be cheaper, than the other alternatives, since I can transfer so much credits.

I hope I´m getting it right, however, the tuition fees in TESU for foreigners are not published, it says: "contact us for more info", so I just left a request.

I´m checking the possibility of getting Bachelor in Economics evaluated by WES, and it could be around USD$ 250 (I have to check if i have it translated, and which other seals it needs, and that could increase the amount for maybe other USD$ 250):

https://www.wes.org/evaluations-and-fees...dmissions/

So maybe it would cost around USD$ 500 for me, to get my Bachelor in Economics evaluated by WES, I guess that it would be worthy, but well, I have to think about it.

In my case, for TESU, I´ll need to take the TOEFL, so that´s an additional USD$ 220.

Thanks for all your help :-)

[rachel83az]

TESU only has 2 tuition rates: tuition for students in New Jersey and tuition for students not in New Jersey. For you, an approximate cost breakdown would be as follows:

$1557 for TESU's capstone
$3192 for the residency waiver
Approximately $1000 for 10 courses @ Study.com (can potentially be as low as $810 by taking as many courses as allowed during a month)
$150 for the Network Technology TECEP exam
------------
Total: $5600

OR you could do the following:

$4639 to take 16 credits in a single term: capstone, CIS-107 ePack, Software Engineering, COS-111 Introduction to Programming, COS-240 Operating Systems, PLA-100
NO residency waiver
6-ish courses at Study.com: $600 for 3 months. As low as $540 if split over 2 months instead.
No need for Network Technology TECEP
--------
$5300

Not a huge savings, as far as money goes. And the 16-credit-term isn't exactly easy. But it also saves you from having to deal with the Network Technology TECEP - the TECEP is notoriously difficult to pass.