Hey can anyone help out a new guy?

[Jwheels27]

Hey all, just recently new to this forum! I have some questions about obtaining an Associate and Bachelors degree. I'm starting from scratch here, no college credits whatsoever. Enrolled in my teens but dropped out to join the workforce, now i'd like to get a degree. I would like to go into IT but not sure which route is my best option as far as getting my degree as quickly and cheaply as possible. So after doing some reading on this site(among others), i've come to the conclusion that WGU has some of the better programs for IT related fields mainly because you obtain IT certifications along with the sheepskin. But I realize without any college credits its unlikely they would accept me. Here are some of the routes I could take, I apologize if i'm way off base on any of this stuff, correct me if need be...

Would it be more efficient for me to rack up some CLEP credits(and other forms of credit), then apply to WGU?

Or should I pursue an IT related Associate degree through a Big 3 school, then transfer to WGU?

Should I just start and finish an IT degree at one of the Big 3 colleges?

Or maybe get an unrelated Bachelors degree at one of these schools and pick up IT certifications afterward?

Those who've worked in IT, any advise you can give me...I'm all ears. Again i'm starting from scratch here looking for a fast, efficient, and less expensive alternative to the mainstream college system. I appreciate any answers you guys can give me. Thank you

[Synicaal]

Hey all, just recently new to this forum! I have some questions about obtaining an Associate and Bachelors degree. I'm starting from scratch here, no college credits whatsoever. Enrolled in my teens but dropped out to join the workforce, now i'd like to get a degree. I would like to go into IT but not sure which route is my best option as far as getting my degree as quickly and cheaply as possible. So after doing some reading on this site(among others), i've come to the conclusion that WGU has some of the better programs for IT related fields mainly because you obtain IT certifications along with the sheepskin. But I realize without any college credits its unlikely they would accept me. Here are some of the routes I could take, I apologize if i'm way off base on any of this stuff, correct me if need be...

Would it be more efficient for me to rack up some CLEP credits(and other forms of credit), then apply to WGU?

Or should I pursue an IT related Associate degree through a Big 3 school, then transfer to WGU?

Should I just start and finish an IT degree at one of the Big 3 colleges?

Or maybe get an unrelated Bachelors degree at one of these schools and pick up IT certifications afterward?

Those who've worked in IT, any advise you can give me...I'm all ears. Again i'm starting from scratch here looking for a fast, efficient, and less expensive alternative to the mainstream college system. I appreciate any answers you guys can give me. Thank you

Just chiming in with this about WGU, I believe after you transfer credits in and enroll you lose the ability to transfer anything else in after that point. So if WGU is something you choose to do get all your transfer credits done FIRST. Also the big three isn't very cost efficient for an Associates degree. So unless it will directly help your career don't bother with it and go straight for the Bachelors.

If you plan on working or furthering a career in IT, degrees and certifications go a long long long way.

[clep3705]

There are multiple answers and none of us have to live with the consequences of what you do with that advice. Take the opinions of many and formulate your own answer.

WGU is a special case in that once admitted it apparently doesn't let you add CLEP credits. People who know WGU well can advise you better. I bring it up to point out that every school has its own rules. It's best for you to understand each school's rules. Avoid the trap of assuming if three schools do things one way, so must a fourth school. Also, what a school does today may not be what they do in the future or did in the past.

It's easier to test out of an associate's degree than a bachelor's degree. Life has gotten in your way once. It could again. Compare the following two scenarios:

1. You test out and take courses for a total of 60 semester hours. You obtain an associate's degree.
2. You decide your end goal is a bachelor's degree and you skip the associate's degree. You accumulate 90 hours but don't quite have the correct hours for an associate's degree. Life gets in the way. You have no degree even though you have far more credits than an associate's degree.

After life gets in the way, do you want to tell employers you have an unfinished bachelor's degree or a completed associate's degree? Properly planned, an associate's degree on the way to a bachelor's degree will not delay the time it takes to obtain the bachelor's degree.

IT related degrees at the associate's level come in all versions. Choose carefully. IT credits in a technical or vocational track might not transfer to a university program. That's more likely to be true if the degree is officially named something other than associate of arts or associate of science.

IT certifications are like produce. Put them on a shelf and they rot over time becoming worthless. But produce is healthy when consumed when fresh. Academic degrees are valuable for life because they allow you to check that checkbox on a job application forever.

You could get an associate's degree, then get some certifications, and finally go to a school that is particularly friendly to IT certifications.

What do you want to do in IT? There's helpdesk work, networking, coding, cloud development, training, and many other areas of focus. How do you know you want to go into IT? The higher paying work is often mind numbingly monotonous and excruciatingly tedious.

[cookderosa]

IT is not my wheelhouse, so I'll stay out of that - but I wanted to say hello and give a shout out to Michigan. I worked in Traverse City for a while - beautiful.

[jsd]

How do you know you want to go into IT? The higher paying work is often mind numbingly monotonous and excruciatingly tedious.

The low paying helpdesk jobs are much more monotonous and dull, it my experience. The higher you go, the more interesting challenges you see and more solutions you get to explore. It's more puzzles to figure out. At least it's a lot less tedious than telling someone "I've reset your password" or "Okay, go ahead and reboot now and you should be set" for the hundredth time a day. Of course this varies by which field in IT you're involved in.

[jsd]

Back on point to the question -- it is true that WGU will not allow any additional credits after you enroll and lock in your plan. You should rack up your credits before you finalize enrollment. You won't need an Associates to start with them, but you will need some prior credits (or some industry cert). Look into their Straighterline scholarship. The best part of WGU is the industry certs that are rolled in with tuition, as part of your degree plan. In the IT world, in general, experience is king, certs are next, and the degree under that.

As stated above though, you really should make sure IT is something you want to do that will actually interest you. It's not a field to go into just because it's hot. You're not going to just go through WGU (or any school), finish a degree, and then suddenly have an aptitude (or enjoyment) of the field.

[Jwheels27]

IT is not my wheelhouse, so I'll stay out of that - but I wanted to say hello and give a shout out to Michigan. I worked in Traverse City for a while - beautiful.

Nice to meet you! I'm from Western Michigan-GR. Yea that area around Grand Traverse Bay is gorgeous! What did you do up there in the the Cherry Capital of the World?

[Jwheels27]

As stated above though, you really should make sure IT is something you want to do that will actually interest you. It's not a field to go into just because it's hot. You're not going to just go through WGU (or any school), finish a degree, and then suddenly have an aptitude (or enjoyment) of the field.

Seems like you could say that about pretty much any field. I've heard a lot of good things about IT as a field. But your right I might be rushing into it. Whats your advice with then, find a lower level IT job and see if its something I would like to do? Is it really as boring as others on this thread have said? Any advice helps

[cookderosa]

Nice to meet you! I'm from Western Michigan-GR. Yea that area around Grand Traverse Bay is gorgeous! What did you do up there in the the Cherry Capital of the World?

I completed my culinary apprenticeship at the Grand Traverse Resort. I lived in resort housing on the bay with the other apprentices. I spent the summer of 1989 till spring thaw in 1990. I've never lived anywhere else where taking a snowmobile to work was considered completely normal lol. Enjoyed the Cherry Festival, and spent a lot of nights hanging at the dunes - didn't run into Kid Rock, at least not that I remember ha ha.

[dfrecore]

I'm not a huge proponent of associates degrees, because as an HR professional, I rarely (if ever) have seen it make any sort of difference in hiring, or even used in weeding someone in or out (obviously I'm leaving out jobs that don't have a 4-yr requirement like EMT, firefighter, or nurse - but then you're looking at the certification rather than the AA/AS degree). Most employers will want a 4-yr degree IF a degree is required. IF I was going to recommend one, it would have to be from COSC, because theirs will be cheaper than TESU or EC.

As far as WGU, you do have to get your credits before enrolling. This is critical, because I would assume that you want to earn your degree in ONE 6-month term there, meaning that you want to get everything out of the way that might impede that, and also because you want to focus your term on the important IT-related courses. You do not want to get held up taking humanities or English Comp, when you could be spending your hard-earned money on IT.

The Big 3 do not really have a great IT degree that you can test out of, making it more expensive than WGU.

You can also look at a business degree with a CIS concentration (like at TESU), but it will be very light on IT (if anything). But, you would have a business degree for about $7k. A little on the high side for no real IT skills. But obviously a business degree can be a great thing to have.

You could get a general AA at COSC for about $3000. Then take additional courses needed at WGU, and then get the BSIT for $3000. A better deal than TESU's BSBA in CIS.

Or instead of that, you could get all the credits necessary for the WGU degree, but planning in the COSC AA courses you would need there. If you ended up going to WGU and getting your BSIT, then you've skipped the unnecessary fees, and cornerstone course, at COSC. If life gets in the way, you can take the cornerstone and then graduate with your AA at COSC immediately. This would probably give you the most flexibility.

One of the good things about this last plan is that you're paying per course, a little at a time, rather than a big chunk of money up front. It also gives you the time to make sure that you're serious about getting the degree. If you find that you're not motivated, it's certainly nice to find that out spending $200 at Straighterline or Study.com than $3000 at WGU. And, if you're 90cr in, and all you have left are the courses that you're really interested in taking, my bet is that you're extremely motivated to get in there and get your coursework done in the term. You know you have a deadline to meet, and you've proven to yourself numerous times over the months that you can do this.

Lots of options. I would say that someone with an IT degree and certs stands a better chance of getting a good job than just helpdesk, but I'm not an expert in that. My husband had to walk me through a problem with our internet today, and he was about to go crazy. banghead Took him right back to his help desk days, which were not the most enjoyable in his memory. Luckily, he worked himself up and out of there within a year or two, and those days are a distant memory (most of the time).