BS for Masters Degree Plan

[senior_dev]

1st, you still didn’t say which school OSU is.  Oregon? Ohio? Oklahoma?  It’s important to know.

I was initially puzzled by this comment but, when I scrolled up, I wasn’t able to find the very detailed answer to @bjcheung77’s questions that I wrote today   I have no idea what happened, but I’m absolutely sure I hit the “Post Reply” button.... It’s Oregon State U.

2nd, 180cr usually is a quarter-based school, so you may be comparing apples-to-oranges here.  54cr from a semester-based school equates to 81cr at a quarter-based school.  So you may not be as far as you think.  Keep that in mind.

This is good to know, thanks.

3rd, it may cost quite a bit to go back and “fix” that low GPA (like eating up your entire budget); and it may not be necessary.  You may want to look at several schools that have 30cr required, and take those to give your gpa a boost, and many schools will look favorably on a student who left school years ago with a low GPA, and then came back and finished with a high gpa.  Many have a “fresh start” program where they only look at grades X number of years old when admitting you; things like that are common.

Makes sense. To raise my GPA to 3.2 (and graduate) I’d need to take 7 additional credits + retake 9 credits. This would end up costing me ~$9k. I don’t think an AA is worth this much. Plus the time commitment to completing those classes, time that could be used towards a (more useful) bachelors.

Had they been recent, I’d absolutely retake those classes. But 20 years later, transferring those credits and starting over might be the smarter route. And I could always go back and retake them if my GPA ever becomes an issue, since I never graduated.

I think my point is: would a 3.2 GPA AA in CS carry its own $9k weight when pursuing a Masters? Or would it be better to skip this degree, finish a generic business degree as soon as possible and apply to a Masters that doesn’t require a CS degree?

I would probably look at UMPI, WGU, SNHU, Franklin University; schools that will let you take 30cr for a decent price, with all graded credits. It might be worth it for you to do that rather than go the Big 3 route.

WGU isn't an option for me since I'm overseas, but UMPI, SNHU and Franklin U are good choices, thanks!

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It seems my first reply got lost, so I'll try again. Sorry for the confusion!

@senior_dev, it's great you've filled in the template and addendum partially... why are you not providing us more details?  Where is "International"?  What's the home country?

I am a Portuguese citizen living in South America, hence the "International" (I might move back to Europe or Asia within the next couple of years).

Which state/school did you almost complete your AA?  Where/which masters have you looked at enrolling in the near future? There are too many variables at play, knowing more would be easier to make a final choice on your plans... I suggest D! See below...

Montgomery College, MD. I had been accepted at UMD but never enrolled.

Where/which masters have you looked at enrolling in the near future? There are too many variables at play, knowing more would be easier to make a final choice on your plans... I suggest D! See below...

Upsalla - Concurrency and Parallel Programming - Master's Programme in Computer Science
GaTech - OMSCS
University of London, Birkbeck - MSc in Computer Science
York University - MSc in Computer Science
UPenn/Coursera - Master of Computer and Information Technology
Oregon State U - Computer Science Postbaccalaureate Degree

For graduate level, entrance requirements vary for each degree, institution, and school of choice.  You really need to bump up your GPA by re-taking the failed courses and bring up your GPA by completing the AA and Bachelors.  I highly recommend looking at possible programs that interest you and look closely at their requirements, upgrade your application package to make a stronger one.  You can really bump D-F grades by retaking the course at the AA.

Minimum Requirements
Upsalla - degree in CS (undergrad or masters), academic letters of rec, CV, interview.
GaTech - >3.0 GPA, undergraduate degree (any field), CS/Math upper level courses.
UoLondon - CV, no undergraduate degree required, there's a "prove yourself" track througha cert.
York U - > 2.2. GPA, undergraduate degree (any field)
UPenn/Coursera - >3.0 GPA, undergraduate degree (any field)
Oregon State U - >2.75 GPA, undergraduate degree in any field.

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Yikes! I posted the above as two different messages but they got somehow merged. Apologies!

[bjcheung77]

@senior_dev,  When you reply and make another reply, the system will update the original reply and merge them as one post as if you just did an update...  Portuguese Citizen!  You're in South America now?  You wouldn't happen to be in Brazil would you?  My next door tenant is coming from Brazil and will be here in a month or so!  

Anyways, You have big pockets! You must make good $$ or saved an educational fund over time... I would apply to those Masters on the list, you may want to remove one or two so you can make room for UT-Austin, they're similarly ranked and priced as Georgia Tech.  If you can fork out a tad more and get a scholarship, you can apply to NYU as well.

Before you do, you need to really decide on the route to get to the Masters.  You think the UMPI > OSU > Masters is the fastest route, I think it's costly and slower than my recommendation...  I would skip the AA or upgrading your GPA as that $9K isn't worth the price.  You can take courses towards your goal of bumping the GPA up and getting the prerequisites, I wouldn't take the OSU Post-B courses....

Let's do a quick mock calculation and time estimation:  This is my recommendation...
Your route: UMPI 2 sessions $2800 - 6 months> OSU Post-B $30K - 60 credits in 2 years > Masters
My route: TESU $5K - 6 months > skip OSU Post-B > direct to Masters - 1 or 2 year programs
With the energy, money, time you saved, it would all be put into your Masters and you would be done before you started if you go your route...

The reason this works is because you've got the years of experience, you bring in a full package, you're just trying to get all the requirements completed and bump up the GPA to make a stronger application.  We have members on here that were in your shoes, example, CamJenks finished a TESU BSBA CIS and was able to get into Georgia Tech OMSCS, JSD finished a WGU BSIT and also got into Georgia Tech for OMS Cyber Security.  You need to "package" your application to make sure all requirements are matched if not exceeded...

[senior_dev]

@bjcheung77 Good guess! Currently living in a beautiful southern island in Brazil (my wife is Brazilian).

The beautiful thing about Silicon Valley is that it’s as close to a meritocracy as you’ll find and - through hard work to account for the unfinished degree - I ended up earning much more than both of my Ivy league graduate brothers. Yes, at this point I can probably afford any education out of pocket, but I’m looking for something that has a good cost/benefit ratio and OSU fits the bill nicely.

Thanks for mentioning those two additional programs. UT-Austin looks great, but I wasn’t able to find the costs for the NYU program.

Your calculations look correct, but you failed to account for the possibility of going UMPI -> Masters directly. The OSU Post-B is more of a fallback in case I get rejected from all programs after UMPI (pretty good chance tbh). Right now I want to be done with Gen Ed as quickly as possible and a self-paced program like UMPI’s seems like a superb choice.

One thing I failed to mention is that I am specialized in a narrow niche in CS where 99% of the roles are filled by top universities grads. I believe I have the technical chops, but the missing academic qualifications are a blow to my confidence; I want to fix that.

It’s great to learn that there are members that were in my shoes not too long ago! With any luck, they will chime in and I’ll be able to learn from them and hopefully follow their successful example.

[Pikachu]

UPenn's MCIT requires an unrelated undergrad. Plenty of people with an unrelated undergrad get admission to GeorgiaTech's OMSCS: https://old.reddit.com/r/OMSCS/comments/...s_program/

I'd researched OSU's Postbacc for myself some time ago. The quickest you can complete their program is 1.5 years. Maybe 15-16 months if you're transfer in the 2-3 courses that are allowed. I remember reading on OSU Postbacc's subreddit that people transferred credits from UND and ASU's EA/UL. It's also more expensive now than it used be - the postbacc will cost you ~$30k which is similar to UPenn MCIT's price.

There's a good chance you can go direct from UMPI => CS Masters (or MCIT) assuming UMPI truly is as easy/doable as some of the people of this forums say.

For an online MS in CS at reasonable cost you have the option of UUIC, UT Austin, and GeorgiaTech. All three accept students with an unrelated bachelor's. Keep in mind all three of these are heavy on math. UPenn's MCIT and OSU's postbacc are nowhere near as math heavy.

[davewill]

I suspect that most Master's programs are going to want to see a CS bachelors, or at least some other engineering or science degree. Yes, if you have enough experience and coursework, they can and will overlook it. OMSCS (GA Tech) had no qualms admitting me with a TESU BACS. Since I ended up not persuing the master's, I'm sure glad I got the BACS.

I think that TESU is not well known enough to really have a reputation as an "online school", not in the same way SNHU or WGU does. I expect that most admissions departments and employers will just think of it as a generic public university, much like UMPI. I also don't see how a CS degree from an "online school" is less useful than an unrelated degree from UMPI.

[bjcheung77]

@senior_dev, Going from UMPI directly to the Masters program is going to be "hard" as you really need to make sure to hit the requirements and exceed them. Most of the programs if not all of the ones you have listed are competitive, just by having an acceptable GPA and a Bachelors does not make the application strong enough.

UMPI doesn't have a comparable computer science degree that can be done by YourPace, not even a computer science course, maybe 1 or two MIS related courses though. Having said that, if you go the TESU route, you have the prerequisites part of the degree as you hit many if not all the requirements for competitive Masters...

That's what I mean by skipping the OSU Post-B, you've done the work at TESU, if you go the UMPI route, I don't think ANY of the listed ones will accept you based on just a degree from UMPI and your experience, it's like submitting an average application, there are too many out there, you need to be above or at least, on par to the stronger applicants.

[dfrecore]

Regarding your GPA, you may be somewhat confused. Your GPA is what it is, whether you graduate from a school or not. So, if you have 57cr at School A with a 2.5 GPA, that GPA will be that unless you retake courses there to raise it; or take additional courses to raise it. Either way, your GPA has absolutely zero to do with whether or not you graduate; it's 100% based on your grades for the courses you take there.

Now, about these online schools - I'm guessing that if you live in some foreign country, but get a degree from a US school, people are going to be able to figure out that you did it online. Not sure how you're going to trick anyone into thinking you aren't doing it online - but I'm not 100% sure it matters anyway.

[rachel83az]

FWIW, a TESU degree doesn't actually say that it was done online. It's not like Purdue University Global where people will automatically think "online school". It's just a degree, and a state school at that.

[senior_dev]

Regarding your GPA, you may be somewhat confused.  Your GPA is what it is, whether you graduate from a school or not.  So, if you have 57cr at School A with a 2.5 GPA, that GPA will be that unless you retake courses there to raise it; or take additional courses to raise it.  Either way, your GPA has absolutely zero to do with whether or not you graduate; it's 100% based on your grades for the courses you take there.

Not sure how you got that impression. I'm well aware that my GPA is not tied to my (eventual) diploma. However, if I do graduate, I won't be able to retake the low grade classes and, therefore, raising my GPA would be harder.

Now, about these online schools - I'm guessing that if you live in some foreign country, but get a degree from a US school, people are going to be able to figure out that you did it online.  Not sure how you're going to trick anyone into thinking you aren't doing it online - but I'm not 100% sure it matters anyway.

While I do live in "some foreign country", most of my education was done in the US (some online) and I have no qualms about people figuring it out nor do I want to trick anyone. I never said anything like that. What I meant to say was that I'm not interested in a degree from an institution with the stigma that is sometimes (and in many cases wrongly,
imo) attached to following a non-traditional education path.