Good Path for Computer Science: Social Work to Tech

[25BangBang]

This is for my partner, Brittany, who wants a career change. She is interested in keeping cost low and would like to get a degree in the year. More importantly, she would like to build a foundation in CS that will lead to a internship. She learns best through reading a textbook and taking notes. She plans to do leetcode and follow along through a textbook while passing classes. Not a super strong test taker.



Your Location: North Carolina, USA
Your Age: 33
What kind of degree do you want?: Bachelor's in Computer Science, primarily looking at TESU or WGU but open to other options (especially with the new WGU curriculum bringing uncertainty).
Current Regional Accredited Credits:

BA in Journalism from DePaul in 2013.
Master's in Social Work (MSW) from University of Southern California in 2018

5 classes at local community college (Wake Tech) in past 6 months: Fundamentals of Web Development, Fundamentals of UX, Web Design 101 and 102, Intro to Programming
This was done to search for interested in "tech" career. Liked programming in Java the most.

Also took 7 classes at LSUS's MBA program before dropping out because of difficulty with 'Accounting' class. "Management Information Systems" may transfer from LSUS.

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:
None so far but interested. 

Any certifications or military experience? Has unrelated LCSW, no military experience.
Budget: Preferably under $12k
Commitments: Works full-time remotely.
Dedicated time to study: About 15-25 hours / week. That is what she is comfortably spending on her local CC classes
Timeline: Preferably around 12 months
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: Chapter 35, or "spouse GI Bill". She gets around $1.5k/month to take classes full time. She has around 24 months left of this benefit. No plans for more grad school at this time.


We were leaning towards WGU at first but once we realized how difficult it would be to test out in 6-12 months (especially with the new curriculum), started leaning towards TESU. TESU's RA requirement should be easy to reach with DePaul's degree which leaves lots of easier credits. She is also interested in the associate's in math that people talk about. I am also partial towards TESU because my BA in History is from TESU but I also had very different circumstances.

What's a good plan for her? I was thinking of Sophia (two classes) for Intro to IT and Calculus and SDC (7 classes) for CS-103, CS-201, CS-240, Discrete Math, CS-330 (UL), CS-302 (UL), CS-303 (UL). Then taking a 5 class fixed semester of CIS-351, two math classes, capstone, and cornerstone. This would keep cost to around $5k. But that would be a super intense semester (I imagine 30-40 hours of week of work) so interested in other options as well. Has anyone done something similar while working full-time? 



Thank you for your help. Again, open to other options for Computer Science.

[ss20ts]

What courses does she have from her bachelor's degree?

[allvia]

I would recommend she applies to TESU, they will waive all Gen Eds because she already has a bachelor. Since she may already have some courses that fall into the BACS AOS, so it is best she gets an official evaluation. It is certainly within her budget, and they are military friendly. Also, the credits that sound like they could fall into the AOS were earned after her last degree conferred (2018) so she is good with them applying as 'new' credits - https://blog.tesu.edu/the-secret-to-earn...ond-degree

It wouldn't hurt to apply to WGU as well, they will evaluate and then she can see where she is before committing. With WGU you cannot transfer in any other courses once you Enroll, and they require that 25% of the degree be completed with them. Again with the budget you've listed it too is a good option.

[thornytumbleweed]

Another way to get some CS credits is Coursera. Google's Cloud Data Analytics, will get you CIS 3110 and CLD 4300. Google Data Analytics and IBM's Data Science Professional are also recommended as they get you Python programming, R Programming, and SQL. Lastly IBM's Full Stack will get you CLD 4200. You also get a bunch of other assorted credits that will definitely fill up any extra electives.

As an aside, TESU's BACS does not count ITS and CYB courses in the AOS. So some of the excess credits from Coursera aren't useful to the BACS.

[louise]

I'm also a social worker (MSW, LCSW) and I've been working towards a CS degree at TESU. I highly recommend it. The complete waiver of everything but AOS has been great. I take alternative credits at Coursera and Study.com which is more affordable and transfer them in. This has been great because social work can get really stressful and busy and it allows me to pause for a bit and then pick right back up. Now some of the Study courses aren't great, but you get out what you put in. Some people will fly through them, but if the intent is to learn it's still doable in a reasonable amount of time while actually learning.

I only plan to do the capstone at TESU and pay the waiver fee so I can keep flexibility with classes. My estimated total cost will end up being like $7k. Because she already has a bachelor's she shouldn't need the cornerstone class, btw. I've been using the Wiki to guide my class choices: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ience_Plan

I've actually slowed down my graduation so I can hopefully do any internship next summer. I'm focusing more on data though as opposed to software so the Intro to SAS, Advanced SAS, and Google Data Coursera certs have been great with learning.

[bjcheung77]

Basically, +1, I agree with applying to TESU and WGU to see where she's at with the credits, you can take the alternative credits that will work towards both degrees as there will be overlap. When you've max your transfer to both, you'll know where you stand and can see which one would be a better fit. I suggest creating a spreadsheet and have both degree plans side by side to compare, you'll also be able to use this as a reference plus progress tracking...