Intl future student looking for guidance

[James4]

Your Location: Non-US, originally from EU but living in Asia
Your Age: 36
What kind of degree do you want?: Been eyeing at BSc Cybersecurity on TESU
Current Regional Accredited Credits: None

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:
I hold CompTIA Network+, Security+ and CySA+ (should total 9 credits). I also have a bunch of Microsoft cloud certifications that add up to 18 credits on acenet.edu, but to be honest those sound a bit too good to be true so I'm not sure if they'd actually get accepted. Worth a try I suppose. I also hold AWS CCP, but I can't find if that's good for anything.

Budget: Preferably not more than $10-15K
Commitments: I work more or less full-time as cloud systems administrator, however it's freelance work so I can use any potential downtime to my advantage. No other real commitments
Dedicated time to study: So far with certification studies I've just filled in empty slots in my day, but I could wake up earlier and sleep later if I had a more impactful goal in mind
Timeline: Not specifically in a hurry, so 2-3 years is fine, could even stretch it to full four if that's somehow beneficial especially cost-wise
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: Ha, I wish

Been reading till my head spins, so let me know if I got this right:
- BSc is 120 credits total
- I need a total of 30 RA credits, and 6 of those will be the capstone and cornerstone from TESU
- However with the 15 RA minimum in order to avoid the residency fee waiver cost it'd kinda make more sense/be easier to just take two terms with the flat-rate, and fill in any possible gaps with some easy-ish TECEPs if need be
- For the remaining 90 ACE credits I could use my certifications (like stated before, not really sure how much there would actually be, but let's say majority won't be accepted so I only get 12 credits) and collect the rest from Sophia and/or Study.com.

The problem I have with the last point is that it seems there isn't a clear indication anywhere as to what Sophia/Study.com courses match the ones in the TESU curriculum. As far as I understand, Sophia doesn't have any exam costs, whereas on Study.com it's essentially $235/mo for two exams (with the additional $70/exam), and with there being like 26 exams total that'd be $3,000 or so, maybe a bit less if I managed to knock down more than those two a month. It kinda seems that Sophia is more geared towards the general education part, so overall it probably wouldn't play too big a part in all this. Now I know you can go asking "Is this accepted?", but I'd like to be able to have a bit better understanding about what would or wouldn't work first.

Budgeting, say, $1,000 for the application fee, graduation and other such fees, all this would total to around $12,600 - does this sound about right or are there some more hidden fees somewhere or something else I've missed? While BSc Cybersecurity speaks to me the most, I'm not completely dead set on it, so if there's some other CS option I'd be open to hear about it.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time!

[bjcheung77]

@James4, Welcome to the board, where were you from in the EU and where are you now in Asia? Great addendum and template along with the additional information you have there, looks like you're set on TESU, have you looked at other options? For the last few months I have been recommending a balanced mix/match trifecta of certs, degree, experience, you really might want to get a 'check the box' Associates and Bachelors, then focus on a Masters instead. Basically, there are so many pathways to get to your goal, previously I was looking at cheap, easy, fast, then I added the ROI/Value, but nowadays, I like to personalize it more by seeing a gradual progression for each degree choice. Here's an alternative from TESU, BSIT: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan

[Hotdogman1]

I think the University of the Cumberlands BS Information technology looks very interesting. You can transfer in 90 credit hours, and they accept a bunch of Sophia courses. With all fees/books included in the $220 cost per credit hour and assuming you transferred in the max: 36 credits (BS IT requirement) * $220 + $299 (4 months of Sophia) = $8,219.

https://www.ucumberlands.edu/academics/u...ences#faqs
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ers?page=6

There are other options out there with your budget and timeline, but I don’t know if you will learn anything at the bachelor’s level since you already work in the industry and have multiple IT certifications. Like bjcheung77 mentioned, it might worth considering getting a fast and cheap bachelor’s then pursuing an IT masters.

[James4]

Thanks for the great pointers, especially the University of the Cumberlands BS IT looks pretty interesting indeed, I'll have to take a closer look at that. And no, I'm not dead set on TESU, or even the Cybersecurity degree for that matter, and while I'm not sure if Associates would really be worth it, doing a "simpler" Bachelors and then jumping from that could definitely be something to consider.

And yeah, outside of potentially some better hands-on programming which I'm not really doing I doubt I'd actually learn a whole lot with the degree, but this would all kinda be a combination of checking the box and doing it for myself. Thanks to both of you, I'll see if these options would end up working better.

[rachel83az]

Since you're an EU citizen, you might be interested in the Metropolia BS in IT. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Me...d_Sciences It'd only be about 600€ total for you. Even if you wind up continuing with TESU, 600€ for so many RA-equivalent credits is a steal.

[James4]

Since you're an EU citizen, you might be interested in the Metropolia BS in IT. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Me...d_Sciences It'd only be about 600€ total for you. Even if you wind up continuing with TESU, 600€ for so many RA-equivalent credits is a steal.

Thanks for the input, however a bit funnily enough I do hold Finnish citizenship which effectively disqualifies me from this, since I'd count neither as foreigner nor do I live there, so I wouldn't get any access to the necessary systems to enroll. On a more subjective level I also spent enough years in that education system to not miss those hostilities, but maybe someone else finds this a viable alternative.

[bjcheung77]

Basically, It really depends on the person and their situation, you can always go that route and do the $579 Euro 3 year IT section of the degree and not finish it, but then it'll take you a little longer than you really wanted. Here's the WIKI for the dual BACS/BS CIS option if you want to go the TESU route: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan