IBM Data Science Professional Certificate Course equivalencies

[bjcheung77]

@sarahmac, it's sad and I agree to an extent... institutions will be that way, they'll try their best to get you to take courses through them or agreement/partnership course providers. So be it, unless you're really needing the BS Data Analytics degree, there are other similar programs available at WGU as an example.

[sarahmac]

@sarahmac, it's sad and I agree to an extent... institutions will be that way, they'll try their best to get you to take courses through them or agreement/partnership course providers.  So be it, unless you're really needing the BS Data Analytics degree, there are other similar programs available at WGU as an example.

There are quite a lot of non-US folks here though who cannot do WGU. I personally thought it was a positive sign TESU were expanding their tech-related degrees (i.e. DS, Cloud etc.) because they could have really captured a missing market that WGU doesn't cover.

In the end though, I think the inflexibility of those programs will see people continue to do BA CS and then a master's. Especially given Georgia Tech and Texas A&M's relative affordability - their master's work out either similar in cost or cheaper than the BS DS at TESU.

[spohara]

@sarahmac, it's sad and I agree to an extent... institutions will be that way, they'll try their best to get you to take courses through them or agreement/partnership course providers.  So be it, unless you're really needing the BS Data Analytics degree, there are other similar programs available at WGU as an example.

There are quite a lot of non-US folks here though who cannot do WGU. I personally thought it was a positive sign TESU were expanding their tech-related degrees (i.e. DS, Cloud etc.) because they could have really captured a missing market that WGU doesn't cover.

In the end though, I think the inflexibility of those programs will see people continue to do BA CS and then a master's. Especially given Georgia Tech and Texas A&M's relative affordability - their master's work out either similar in cost or cheaper than the BS DS at TESU.

Yeah, I agree.  If I could have alt-credited the DS degree, or transferred in some credits I already have, I'd have gone that route.  Instead I'm doing the BACS.  It would have been really nice to do some more of these certs along the way because they fit in better than courses like computer architecture that are completely irrelevant for me (so I half-try at them just to get a pass).  I guess the only good thing is some of the CS stuff is really easy from SDC.  And I might take that AI course anyway if I still need some LL AOS when it is all said and done.  For career prospects for me - in government they don't care if it is a DS or CS degree, but I'd just rather learn more within my actual field  and be better prepared for grad school than get a pure checkbox degree.

[bjcheung77]

Yes, I think that's a very optimal way of getting things done by laddering your degree... The suggestion of TESU BACS undergrad then GT, U of T-Austin, or a comparable program at the graduate level is pretty much what I was thinking too.

[mariobros1985]

Fullstack Engineering update:

Seems to have duplicated some of the previous courses, but gave in addition CLD-110 Intro to Cloud Computing 3.00 and CLD-420 Archtctng Cloud Solution 3.00. The cloud classes fill reqs on the cloud degree, but perhaps more importantly CLD-420 works as an UL elective for comp sci in Group G (i.e. comp sci related electives).

Between this and the SAS course granting STA-399 Special Topics in Statistics, which falls into Group H (Add'l AOS electives from Nat Sci), that is two AOS UL classes/6 UL credits. I am not graduating the comp sci evaluation but this result may be useful for others.

Other updates:

Still waiting on AWIT as to whether they will apply to be an approved provider.
Deep Learning AI are also not on the Thomas Edison State University Approved Educational Provider List. They have been invited to join. If they do, credit will be awarded.
IBM are an TESU approved educational provider, but the Data Engineering Professional Certificate course hasn't been assessed before. TESU said it could take a few weeks.

I presume the repeats are cos 205-python and cis-210 SQL? This stack seems probably worthwhile and the cert probably good if you want to be a developer.  I'm more interested in the data engineering one though, so I'll eagerly await that eval. Big news for that UL credit though!

Still waiting on the IBM Data Engineering evaluation at TESU. Its been weeks so I hope they hurry up, since IBM is already an approved provider.

AWIT is not an approved provider and per the transcript update they have not applied to be. At this point, I think it is clear they don't plan to apply - they were invited to do so almost two months ago now. I am not sure what the purpose of gaining ACE recommendations for their course was, if they are not willing to then work with the most transfer-friendly colleges to facilitate their credits being put to use.

--

In the meantime: DeepLearning.AI applied and were approved. The result evaluation by TESU has little to do with the ACE recommendation though, essentially rendering that certificate useless:

COS-299 Special Topics in Computer Sci 6.00

The content of that certificate makes this evaluation sort of laughable. It was 20 times more in-depth and complex than any of the IBM ones, and at a much higher level. Some of the modules used linear algebra and matrix algebra to prove estimator convergence.

Honestly, given the ACE recommendations were machine learning specific, I strongly suspect this is because TESU has some sort of "credit fixing" agreement with Statistics.com whereby those course codes/classes are reserved for Statistics.com transfers only. This is secondarily based on the fact I have an UL econometrics regression class that got "special topic'd" which should also have fit in the Data Science plan.

Have you, by any chance, received the evaluation for the IBM Data Engineering certificate and can you share the results of the evaluation? I'd like to know if the IBM certificate is worth any UL credits for the Group G BACS AOS electives.

[mariobros1985]

Fullstack Engineering update:

Seems to have duplicated some of the previous courses, but gave in addition CLD-110 Intro to Cloud Computing 3.00 and CLD-420 Archtctng Cloud Solution 3.00. The cloud classes fill reqs on the cloud degree, but perhaps more importantly CLD-420 works as an UL elective for comp sci in Group G (i.e. comp sci related electives).

Between this and the SAS course granting STA-399 Special Topics in Statistics, which falls into Group H (Add'l AOS electives from Nat Sci), that is two AOS UL classes/6 UL credits. I am not graduating the comp sci evaluation but this result may be useful for others.

Other updates:

Still waiting on AWIT as to whether they will apply to be an approved provider.
Deep Learning AI are also not on the Thomas Edison State University Approved Educational Provider List. They have been invited to join. If they do, credit will be awarded.
IBM are an TESU approved educational provider, but the Data Engineering Professional Certificate course hasn't been assessed before. TESU said it could take a few weeks.

I presume the repeats are cos 205-python and cis-210 SQL? This stack seems probably worthwhile and the cert probably good if you want to be a developer.  I'm more interested in the data engineering one though, so I'll eagerly await that eval. Big news for that UL credit though!

Still waiting on the IBM Data Engineering evaluation at TESU. Its been weeks so I hope they hurry up, since IBM is already an approved provider.

AWIT is not an approved provider and per the transcript update they have not applied to be. At this point, I think it is clear they don't plan to apply - they were invited to do so almost two months ago now. I am not sure what the purpose of gaining ACE recommendations for their course was, if they are not willing to then work with the most transfer-friendly colleges to facilitate their credits being put to use.

--

In the meantime: DeepLearning.AI applied and were approved. The result evaluation by TESU has little to do with the ACE recommendation though, essentially rendering that certificate useless:

COS-299 Special Topics in Computer Sci 6.00

The content of that certificate makes this evaluation sort of laughable. It was 20 times more in-depth and complex than any of the IBM ones, and at a much higher level. Some of the modules used linear algebra and matrix algebra to prove estimator convergence.

Honestly, given the ACE recommendations were machine learning specific, I strongly suspect this is because TESU has some sort of "credit fixing" agreement with Statistics.com whereby those course codes/classes are reserved for Statistics.com transfers only. This is secondarily based on the fact I have an UL econometrics regression class that got "special topic'd" which should also have fit in the Data Science plan.

Have you, by any chance, received the evaluation for the IBM Data Engineering certificate and can you share the results of the evaluation? I'd like to know if the IBM certificate is worth any UL credits for the Group G BACS AOS electives.

Alright, so I got a response from an evaluator who gave this response after asking how the IBM Data Engineering certificate will transfer in as:

Thanks for reaching out. TESU has reviewed and accepts the IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate, and awards the following (each course is 3 credits):
 
ITS-1500 Computer Programming
ITS-1300 Database Fundamentals
ITS-2310 Database Programming
DSI-3999 Special Topics in Data Science

Unfortunately, I don't think any of the courses will come in to Group 1 of the Group G BACS AOS electives, so this certificate is not going to be very useful for me (maybe it'll be useful for someone in the Data Analytics degree). I was hoping that I could get credit for the CIS-3110 Database Management class based on the ACE credit recommendations, but for some reason, they bring in these Coursera certificates for less than what the ACE Guide recommends. I know that ITS-1500 can come in for Group A of the BACS AOS, though.

Oh well, at least the Full Stack Software Developer Certificate was worth something.