Help finding a school and degree plan

[rachel83az]

If you buckle down, you could start at TESU immediately. Start transferring in your old credits + credits from Sophia and Study.com. By mid-November, you should be able to hit 100+ total credits toward your degree. You would then pay the approximately $5000 for a flat-rate 16-credit term that starts in December.

After completing the 16-credit term, you would have (perhaps) $300-400 in 2023 for additional SDC/Sophia credits to finish off your degree. And the graduation fee of $298, also paid in 2023. Would that work for you?

WGU would need a lot more prep to start before the end of the year, to have a hope of finishing in a single 6-month term, and I'm not sure if you'd make it.

SNHU would require paying for classes well beyond December 2023, so that wouldn't work for you financially.

PUG is impossible to finish in a single term/session, so that would also be out of the question for you.

My suggestion:

Apply to TESU ($50). Send in your current transcripts, including the Credly transcript that shows the Google IT Support Professional certificate. Pay $50 for the Medical Terminology exam (reasons and instructions here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Th..._to_Enroll ). As soon as you've got your evaluation, come back here with the FULL THING - minus any personally identifying information. We can help you figure out the easiest/quickest courses to take to hit that magical 100-credit number that will unlock the ability to take the capstone.

While you're waiting for your evaluation to be completed, try to finish the Data Analytics certificate in the next week. That should net you 3+ credits towards your degree.

When does your Coursera Plus membership expire?

[bleedingpurple]

If you buckle down, you could start at TESU immediately. Start transferring in your old credits + credits from Sophia and Study.com. By mid-November, you should be able to hit 100+ total credits toward your degree. You would then pay the approximately $5000 for a flat-rate 16-credit term that starts in December.

After completing the 16-credit term, you would have (perhaps) $300-400 in 2023 for additional SDC/Sophia credits to finish off your degree. And the graduation fee of $298, also paid in 2023. Would that work for you?

WGU would need a lot more prep to start before the end of the year, to have a hope of finishing in a single 6-month term, and I'm not sure if you'd make it.

SNHU would require paying for classes well beyond December 2023, so that wouldn't work for you financially.

PUG is impossible to finish in a single term/session, so that would also be out of the question for you.

My suggestion:

Apply to TESU ($50). Send in your current transcripts, including the Credly transcript that shows the Google IT Support Professional certificate. Pay $50 for the Medical Terminology exam (reasons and instructions here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Th..._to_Enroll ). As soon as you've got your evaluation, come back here with the FULL THING - minus any personally identifying information. We can help you figure out the easiest/quickest courses to take to hit that magical 100-credit number that will unlock the ability to take the capstone.

While you're waiting for your evaluation to be completed, try to finish the Data Analytics certificate in the next week. That should net you 3+ credits towards your degree.

When does your Coursera Plus membership expire?

I had not planned on taking classes from study.com. My WGU plan was to take all the Sophia classes I could, then immediately start studying for the classes I think I would be weakest in, Java and Discrete Math. That would give me 2 months to study these two or three classes(java has multiple classes I think), and possibly another WGU class.

The catch with the 0% credit card is it's only for purchases over 600! 

Coursera Plus ends January 9 2023. If there are more classes I could take on here, I will!

I spent some time yesterday trying to compare what I have to what TESU requires, but it seems I'm missing a lot, even though at this point I have 61 credits (3 of these credits are a D, I don't think that would transfer) and 7 classes completed from Sophia, and the Google IT Certificate. I think I have a lot of LL classes and am missing UL ones.

With TESU, can you transfer additional credits after enrolling, and after finishing a term? I'm not too familiar with TESU. It seems there is more information out there on WGU than TESU.

I might be able to swing the cost you mentioned for sdc/sophia and graduation next year, especially if it's after the term is complete.

[rachel83az]

The biggest problem with WGU and your circumstances is that, if you don't transfer in the maximum amount of credits, you might not be able to finish in a single 6-month term. If you don't finish in a single 6-month term, your circumstances dictate that you might as well not waste the money.

Yes, unlike WGU, TESU allows you to continue to transfer in credits even after enrolling & finishing a term.

If you MUST put things on a credit card, Sophia unfortunately falls under the $600 requirement - it's only $599 for an entire year. A year of Study.com is about $2160, though. That could definitely work.

[allvia]

The catch with the 0% credit card is it's only for purchases over 600! 

If you went to WGU you could apply for FAFSA, possible PELL Grant and worst case be eligible for student loans. I would recommend this over any credit card plan to fund your education. If you can afford to pay off a 0% interest credit card within the 12 months you could also pay off the student loan just as easily within the same time frame. However, if something negatively impacts your ability to pay it off within the 12 months you'll have manageable payment options with the student loan, with the credit card your going to get hit with enormous finance charges. This works with SNHU as well, just with WGU having an option to finish in a single term keeping costs lower.  The key for either WGU or SNHU is transfer as much credit in prior (WGU prior is a must), if you can afford to start making payments now on the 0% credit card - you can afford to pay 'cash' for the ACE credits to get you started, then take the student loan financing when you're ready for the final push at WGU (or SNHU). A single WGU is well within a subsidized student loan dollar amount (it would count year three or four with max transfer in), this would essentially provide you with the ability to pay off the loan at no (0, zero) interest within 12 months (maybe more) - because there is no interest accrued while you're a student, and then you have 6 month before payments (and interest begin) - https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/ty...subsidized

[dfrecore]

Do not pay to start Sophia or any other courses until you know what you want to do - that's just a waste of time and money.

IMHO, TESU would probably be your best bet - they do not have a limit on how many old credits you can bring in for the BACS (or for any BA degree) - it's only the BS degrees that have limits on age, and all of those are in the major.

The only downside is that if you do the single 16cr term, that might be rough with a new job. So you may end up either doing the more expensive option, and doing the cornerstone now and the capstone at the very end. It's still not terrible, and about $6700 when all is said and done (outside of what you still need to take).

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I don't see 61cr of RA in your list, if most are 3cr courses, so you might want to add that info to your post.

Looking at a BACS:

Oral Communication (Presentation Skills at Study.com)
Ethics (Sophia)
Civic Engagement (Comparative Politics at Study.com)
Social Science (Psych, Econ at Sophia)
History (US History I or II at Sophia)

Study.com
COMPSCI 201: Data Structures & Algorithms
MATH 108: Discrete Math
COMPSCI 105: Intro to Operating Systems
COMPSCI 306: Computer Architecture
BUS 303: Management Info Systems
COMPSCI 302: Systems Analysis & Design
COMPSCI 303: Database Management
BUS 109: Intro to Computing
Additional programming course

No Free Electives needed, so don't do anything else.

[bleedingpurple]

Do not pay to start Sophia or any other courses until you know what you want to do - that's just a waste of time and money.

IMHO, TESU would probably be your best bet - they do not have a limit on how many old credits you can bring in for the BACS (or for any BA degree) - it's only the BS degrees that have limits on age, and all of those are in the major.

The only downside is that if you do the single 16cr term, that might be rough with a new job.  So you may end up either doing the more expensive option, and doing the cornerstone now and the capstone at the very end.  It's still not terrible, and about $6700 when all is said and done (outside of what you still need to take).

---

I don't see 61cr of RA in your list, if most are 3cr courses, so you might want to add that info to your post.

Looking at a BACS:

Oral Communication (Presentation Skills at Study.com)
Ethics (Sophia)
Civic Engagement (Comparative Politics at Study.com)
Social Science (Psych, Econ at Sophia)
History (US History I or II at Sophia)

Study.com
COMPSCI 201: Data Structures & Algorithms
MATH 108: Discrete Math
COMPSCI 105: Intro to Operating Systems
COMPSCI 306: Computer Architecture
BUS 303: Management Info Systems
COMPSCI 302: Systems Analysis & Design
COMPSCI 303: Database Management
BUS 109: Intro to Computing
Additional programming course

No Free Electives needed, so don't do anything else.

I still don't understand how TESU works. Are their terms 12 weeks long?
So hypothetically, I could have a BACS degree in 12 weeks, if I had all the SDC and sophia classes completed?
A few of the classes are 4 credits. 

I will not be taking the job, so, if I could hypothetically get the degree in a shorter amount of time, to get a better paying job sooner, I would prefer that option.

[bjcheung77]

I still don't understand how TESU works. Are their terms 12 weeks long?
So hypothetically, I could have a BACS degree in 12 weeks, if I had all the SDC and sophia classes completed?
A few of the classes are 4 credits. 

I will not be taking the job, so, if I could hypothetically get the degree in a shorter amount of time, to get a better paying job sooner, I would prefer that option.

Yes, TESU terms are 12 weeks, you could extend the courses an extra 8 weeks if you needed to for the harder upper-level ones, such as your capstone. I would apply to TESU, get all the transcripts sent in, then take the remaining courses from Sophia/Study.com and finish with TESU using that flat term if you have no job currently. If "life happens", for the flat term of 16 credits, you can do the cornerstone/capstone and e-packs or easy courses... this way, you can extend the capstone if you need as that's your "hardest" course.

[rachel83az]

I still don't understand how TESU works. Are their terms 12 weeks long?

Yes.

So hypothetically, I could have a BACS degree in 12 weeks, if I had all the SDC and sophia classes completed?

Yes and no. You might have all the requirements completed, but TESU only graduates students 4x per year. https://www.tesu.edu/current-students/gr...nformation Depending on when you finish your TESU classes, you could have to wait a couple of months to actually have the degree in-hand.

I will not be taking the job, so, if I could hypothetically get the degree in a shorter amount of time, to get a better paying job sooner, I would prefer that option.

TESU is, in general, the fastest way to get a degree in Computer Science. For some people, WGU can be slightly faster. But a "quick" WGU degree requires being able to transfer in specific classes ahead of time. You do not currently have these classes, but you are fairly close to a TESU Comp Sci degree. So, TESU will be faster for you.

[LevelUP]

TESU would be the quickest since they would make the most use of your credits.

You need to have 100 credits and start classes at TESU by Feb 1, 2023, in order to graduate by June 2023
https://www.tesu.edu/current-students/gr...nformation

(3 of these credits are a D, I don't think that would transfer)

D credits do transfer into TESU as long as they are not in the AOS.

I started taking Calculus again because I took that in 2008! I know WGU said they would not accept it, so I took it again at Sophia. If SNHU or TESU will take old credits like that, then, that would make things faster and easier. It took me 21 days to get through calculus again!

I think I would be weakest in, Java and Discrete Math

Discrete Math is a lot easier than Calculus. There is no new math to learn, and all the math is a simple algebra which the online calculator SDC provides does all the work. It's more about learning concepts. That course should take 40hrs or less to do.

Java is required for the Intro to Programming course and also required for the Data Structures assignment. They do keep most things pretty basic.  

Here is the order I suggest you complete Study.com courses starting with G.E. requirements
Presentation Skills
Comparative Politics.

AOS Requirements Study.com
COMPSCI 105: Intro to Operating Systems
BUS 303: Management Info Systems
COMPSCI 302: Systems Analysis & Design
COMPSCI 303: Database Management
MATH 108: Discrete Math
COMPSCI 109: Intro to Programming (java programming language)
COMPSCI 201: Data Structures & Algorithms (project in java)
COMPSCI 306: Computer Architecture

There is a discount code for SDC for the first 3 months that will save you some money.

[davewill]

I concur with the TESU option. The absolute first step is to enroll and get all your transcripts sent in. That way, you'll know for certain that all of your credits work. As you can see in my signature, a lot of my courses were 30+ years old including my calculus and science courses.