IT degree with A levels & 7 years of work experience

[Sherwood]

Your Location: Lithuania, European Union
Your Age: 35
What kind of degree do you want?: Probably an IT related bachelor’s degree, but open to any subject

Previous education: Finished a 2-year vocational degree in chemistry, which is a level 3 qualification or also called A-levels in the US or BTEC National Diploma in the UK.

After that I finished 1 year in university studying economics. I've contacted the university and they said they would give me some kind of paper with the subjects taken.
Also finished another 2 out of 5 years studying chemistry, that university will also give me a document with the taken subjects.
 
Work experience: I have 7 years of full-time work experience as a software engineer.

Current Regional Accredited Credits: I'm not sure
Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: I'm not sure
Any certifications or military experience? Not sure about certifications, but military no

Budget: preferably bellow 10k
Commitments: working full time and can work on my studies part time or in the evenings/weekends
Dedicated time to study: 15-20 hours during week, 10-12 hours on weekends
Timeline: I ideally would like the fastest and cheapest path
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: no tuition reimbursement at work

It's been 10 years since my last studies. In the IT field a degree isn't required and most companies don't much care about it, but I still would like to get it to maybe work for some government institution in the future. It is also quite important if you want to get a work permit in many countries. No one in my family has a degree so I would like to break this cycle for possible future generations.

So in my case the degree would be more of a "permit" to unlock future opportunities.

[bjcheung77]

@Sherwood, Welcome to the board, great first post as you've completed the basic template and last post addendum asking for more details. If you're looking at US degree and need a combo type of degree for Business/Info Sys, you can go for the UMPI Project Management & Info Systems degree. If you're looking at UK degree options, then a Level 4/5/6 and top-up combo would work as well. I suggest you take some time to review this thread here: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...us-student

[rachel83az]

The first thing that I'd do if you want a US degree would be to get your previous schooling evaluated. Unless you want to go with TESU, your best option for "acceptability" would be to have WES evaluate your transcripts. Without these evaluations, it's very difficult/impossible to advise on what needs to be done for schools such as UMPI or SNHU.

UMPI's PM/IS degree isn't really a tech degree, but it'll suffice if all you want is "a degree". If you actually want a tech degree from the US, SNHU might be your best option for acceptability in Europe.

But? I've got the best for last. As an EU citizen, you can get an IT degree (online) from Finland for less than 600€ and in as quickly as 1.5-2 years! This would be from Metropolia University. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Fi...d_Sciences The first 3/4ths of the degree cost 579€ and are entirely self-paced. The final year can be done completely online, though it's not self-paced, and costs NOTHING for EU/EEA citizens.

I would probably suggest doing the UMPI degree and the Metropolia degree. You can get the UMPI degree to have "a degree" and graduate within ~6 months. Meanwhile, work on the Metropolia coursework to have a specifically IT degree for employers/countries that require such; complete within ~2 years.

I am not a lawyer, but this combination should open up more immigration options than just doing one or the other. And you'd have two degrees for considerably less than your budget for a single degree.

[Sherwood]

Wow, this is some real solid advice. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the info from the past few days, so I may have missed something.

@bjcheung77
I reviewed the thread and am a bit confused about what the ACTFL exam is. It mentions something about the Russian language, which I speak due to Lithuania's past in the USSR.
Is it like a mandatory second language exam that you have to take while studying in UMPI?
Study.com seems to be the place to start, as in getting as many credits as possible to then finish the BABA degree in 1-2 terms. I get the feeling that 2 terms are more realistic according to other people's experiences.

@rachel83az
It seems that you can get a lot of ECTS points really cheaply in Metropolia, which could be really helpful and possibly transferable to many places due to Finland's good educational reputation.
The overall IT degree there would cost next to nothing, although it would take about 2 years. I looked at the subjects of the degree, and they are very relevant!
It seems like a good strategic move. Thank you, Finland, for your high taxes, though, to be honest, Lithuania's aren't any lower.

[rachel83az]

Wow, this is some real solid advice. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the info in the past few days so I may have missed something.

@bjcheung77
I reviewed the thread and am a bit confused what the ACTFL exam is. It mentions something about the Russian language, which I speak due to Lithuanians past in the USSR.
Is it like a mandatory second language exam that you have to take while studying in UMPI?
Study.com seems to be the place to start, as in getting as many credits as possible to then finish the BABA degree in 1-2 terms. I get the feeling that 2 terms are more realistic according to other peoples experiences.

UMPI requires at least 3 credits in a non-English language. Most students get it from Sophia.org (Spanish and now French). But students who speak/read another language with some fluency can take an ACTFL exam and get inexpensive credit this way.

Do NOT start with Study.com. Start with Sophia.org. You can get most of your credits that way and it'll be cheaper/faster than Study.com. At SDC, they limit you to 2 exams per month (5 if you pay extra). Sophia costs half as much per month, but you can finish as many classes as you're able to for the same price. If you manage to finish 5, 10, or 20 classes in a single month, Sophia costs the same amount of money.

UMPI also requires a physical science and a biological science, at least one of which needs a lab. With your prior coursework, you may have this at least partially covered if you get your transcripts evaluated. Or you can just blast through the Sophia coursework and get it done quickly/easily. Because you've already done Chemistry at a university level, Sophia's Intro to Chemistry + Lab and then take Human Biology or Intro to Nutrition would probably be what I'd recommend.

@rachel83az
It seems that you can get a lot of ECTS points really cheap in Metropolia, which could be really helpfull and possibly transferable to many places due to Finlands good educational reputation.
The overall IT degree there would cost next to nothing, although it would take about 2 years. I looked at the subjects of the degree and they are very relevant!
Seems like a good strategic move. Thank you Finland for your high taxes, though to be honest Lithuanias aren't any lower

Yup. If you wanted to get a BA Computer Science from TESU, Metropolia would be a good source for many necessary credits. But Metropolia's IT degree would probably be about 1/10th the price of a TESU degree for you. I wouldn't bother with TESU unless you have a burning desire for a Comp Sci degree for some reason.

[dfrecore]

I agree with rachel83az - go get a quick bachelor's degree from UMPI - either the BLS/Management or BLS/Project Management, or else the BABA/Management or BABA/Project Management. I think a business degree would be a really good option, because it's a known quantity everywhere - and could set you up well for the future. You just can't go wrong with a business degree. And I'd probably do Project Management just because it's relevant to IT, so you will probably know a lot of the material already (or can use it at work in the future).

Unlike what we normally tell other people on here, since you have foreign credits, I think you SHOULD do SDC first, rather than Sophia, because you may already have a lot of the GEC covered by previous coursework.

Your best bet in my opinion:
1) go take an ACTFL exam now (probably the OPIc or OPI, which are oral exams) - ONLY do this is you did not take a foreign language at your universities (not English, but any other language course)
2) apply to UMPI, send in your transcripts which will probably take some time due to the foreign thing, so you should get started sooner rather than later
3) come here and list your courses so we can tell you what's left to take
4) sign up for SDC to take English Comp I & II, and anything that you can't take at Sophia (so that would mean things like Managerial Accounting, Business Ethics, the UL courses that Sophia doesn't offer). Yes, Composition is easier to do at UMPI, but you're going to have time on your hands, you may as well make the most of it and get those done while you're signed up for SDC anyway if you can cover the cost.
5) sign up for Sophia and follow the degree plan on the wiki to cover your remaining GEC & free elective requirements.

Again, this is a bit "backwards" from what we normally suggest, but you're already coming in with credits so you don't want to waste time/money on GEC courses that may already be covered. Start on the business core and minor/concentration, and save the GEC through Sophia for the end.

[rachel83az]

The thing about non-American degrees... they're more like WGU than like UMPI/TESU/etc. I really doubt that any reasonable number of GEC credits have been covered by previous coursework. It'll mostly go to electives. Sophia is, hands down, the cheapest way to fill the GEC requirements.

[dfrecore]

The thing about non-American degrees... they're more like WGU than like UMPI/TESU/etc. I really doubt that any reasonable number of GEC credits have been covered by previous coursework. It'll mostly go to electives. Sophia is, hands down, the cheapest way to fill the GEC requirements.

With courses in Chemistry and Economics, at least some of the GEC will be covered. Which is why I suggested not doing anything that you could get through Sophia until you found out for sure.

But we know that most of the business core and minor/concentration are probably not covered by previous credits, which is why I did suggest to do those courses via SDC first while waiting to find out what was covered by previous college coursework.

[Sherwood]

All international transcripts will only be accepted if the student provides them through an evaluation service.
The evaluation agency must be a member of NACES or AICE.

Does anyone know how difficult or expensive it is? I once looked at WAS and they wanted some kind of signed electronic version of the transcript, which could be hard to get.

English proficiency requirements:
IELTS - 6.0+
TOEFL - 197 computer based, 530 paper-based, 71 internet-based
SAT - verbal 550+
ACT - 24+

I took an IELTS test back in 2009 and my scores were:
Listening: 7.0
Reading: 8.5 (should I mention that I like to read?)
Writing: 6.0 (sadly, I don't know any grammar rules in English, literally)
Speaking: 7.0
Overall: 7.0

It's only valid for 2 years though.

Does anyone know which test would be cheaper, faster, and easier?
The prices I found from doing some research were: 
IELTS - 200$
TOEFL - 220$
SAT - 110$
ACT - 68$

I haven't heard much about the SAT or ACT; are they really common in the US?

[rachel83az]

AICE is about $200 for the first transcript and $100 for subsequent transcripts. They're one of the more permissive (or, rather, realistic) evaluators out there. If it's too burdensome to get the right transcripts, you can just spend the money on Sophia instead. Two transcript evaluations of $300 total would pay for 3 months of Sophia. That should be more than sufficient to fill out your GEC requirements at UMPI.

The ACT and SAT exams are commonly used as generic college "entrance exams" in the US. As such, I believe they're only offered a few times per year? In spring, maybe? There may be upper age limits as well. IIRC, it's becoming more common for international students to take them, but finding somewhere that would allow you to sit the exams could be problematic. I would suggest that the TOEFL or IELTS would be "easier" for your specific circumstances.

For UMPI, they should also accept the Duolingo English test, though. That'd be cheapest ($50, I think?) and easiest (test from home).