Need advice in putting together degree plan for my wife (and me)

[CassandraMT]

First post after trying to absorb lots of info here. First off, thank you all for putting together all this. There's almost an info overload here! I swear I have 4 spreadsheets and like 25 tabs open trying to do all this.

Basically I am trying to put together an online degree plan for my wife (I'm borrowing her signup name). She has a good job and experience, but nothing to quantify it if she went elsewhere. And she wants growth too. She works with a lot of CISCO systems and such.

After research I recommended Computer Information Services at TESU, but she is really pushing for Cybersecurity. I found the Cybersecurity requirement from TESU but most here said to go with WGU instead. I have found a template for TESU CIS from a post here that I am tweaking and another template for WGU Cybersecurity, but it looks like the Cybersecurity one has lots of courses that you can't test out of. Like, 16 in total. Is that correct? If anyone has any templates or advice for either degree that they could share I would appreciate it. We are starting from scratch, no previous credits or anything.

As for myself, I think I want to try and get a degree too but not anything as extensive as Cybersecurity. I just want something that will be easier to get, but also useful. I know I can't get 'huge salary useful', but anything that will help me get a decent job. I would appreciate any advice on this also. Thanks for the help!

[cookderosa]

I'm not a good person to give advice in computer degrees, but I wanted to welcome you and your wife to the forum anyway!! Having been EXACTLY where you are, I just wanted to tell you that it is possible, and your planning will pay off. It IS info overload, but it will slowly all start to make sense, and you'll get the hang of it in no time. Welcome!

[bjcheung77]

Hello, have a quick read through the "The Basic Approach" in my signature and/or the Beginners Guide especially post 27/28. This will get you started in planning your degree and deciding what courses go where. You can download the spreadsheet, just keep updating the My Degree Plan! sheet for tracking purposes and I tell people to use the other sheets as a reference template. I see you are starting from scratch and I know it's hard to decide which degree and which school...

1) Answer the following questions, so I can better gauge which of the 3 you're looking at - cheap, easy, or fast.
A) Are you close to a testing site for CLEP? How far and how long would it take you to get there and back?
B) Do you have time to study and test at a site or would you rather do everything online for a little extra in price?
C) What is your price range you're looking at for the degree and time you want to set to complete the degree?
D) Are you leaning towards cheap, easy, fast or a combo of them all? Rank them in priority.

I would do everything with MS/CLEP, onlinedegree.com, and Saylor courses first, once all the courses and credits are ready to be transferred, do transfer them to TESU for an evaluation. If you can splurge on getting things Faster/Easier/Cheap, then go the SL/Study.com route.

If you live close to a CLEP test center, then that's the way I would recommend you do the bulk of your credits.
For the GM Concentration or any AOS, UL credits, finish them off with Study.com to get the affiliation discounts.
For Fast/Easy/Cheap, my spreadsheet is going to recommend using StraighterLine for the bulk and Study.com for the AOS.
For Cheap/Easy/Fast, you may want to change the StraighterLine courses to once again, use the CLEP/MS option.

2) What exactly are you looking for help with or advice on? How busy are you?
How much time do you have to spend on studying? Do you have family/kids that you have to attend to?

In regards to TESU vs WGU and other schools, there are reasons why I would recommend one over the other. For IT, WGU is cheaper and the certifications are included in the tuition. For Business, it's somewhat a tie, as both have ACBSP accreditation. For Undergraduate studies, I recommend TESU as the courses and requirements are "known" and for Graduate studies, I recommend WGU as it's the cheap/easy/fast option.

[CassandraMT]

Sorry, yes, I did go over some of that stuff before posting. We are close to a testing center for CLEP, so that's not a problem. As for price, I had figured it in the 4,000-4,500 range or so for the whole thing, but that was when I thought it was going to be TESU. Time frame is about a year or so. She has a busy job so she will be studying on the weeknights/weekends when she can.

I attached the Degree Plan for WGU that I found browsing here which is what I'm looking at using as the template. I assume that the courses that are not in green are ones that can not be tested out of? That was one of my questions. That would leave 16 classes that have to be taken through WGU then. I'm still assuming that for cybersecurity one would want to go with WGU over TESU for the certifications that go with it.

I just signed us up for that modern states things too. I assume that we can knock out a few general things there right away, like college composition or something.

[dfrecore]

TESU's Cybersecurity degree is too expensive - I would recommend WGU.  I am including my degree plan for it.  There are plenty of courses she CAN transfer in, and she would want to get those in before enrolling at WGU - once you enroll there, no more transfers in.  I wouldn't even contact them until she's completed everything on the list possible, because they can be a little aggressive with trying to enroll people.

Also, once you're ready, go on and look at their website - and a $65 off coupon should pop up.  I think you can also come on here and ask for someone to give you a code (an alumni).

I put everything at around $100 per course, but if you use CLEP/ModernStates.org first, those courses will be free (make sure she does English Comp with Essay if she wants it to count for English I & II).  Then do Saylor, those will be $25/exam (course is free).  Then, sign up for Study.com or SL and do those courses.  If you're going to do SL, try to do 4 of them, you'll get another $200 off.  But I might still use Study.com anyway.

Also, if you use Study.com for anything, make sure you go through and do the non-credit-bearing computer science courses that might be helpful before starting.  You won't get credit, but you will get knowledge, and that would be helpful in doing your courses.

At this point, you're done with 33cr of Gen Ed's, and 25cr of IT/Core.  Then, you apply to WGU, send all of your transcripts, and enroll.

Yes, you will have 16 courses to complete in 6 months.  Worse comes to worst, it takes 2 terms instead of 1.  Plan for that, and then if you can do it in 1 term, you'll be pleasantly surprised and save some money.

Good luck!

[quigongene]

Just some FYI:

The Technical Writing DSST will count for Technical Communications.
WGU accepts ALEKS (so Stats and College Algebra can be done that way, and you can take the 3rd ALEKS course for credit to knock out Int. Algebra).
The IT CLEP will count for Intro to IT.
Web Dev Foundations, Network and Security Foundations, Database Foundations and Scripting can all be knocked out with MTA exams (which are joke certs....super easy).

[rvm]

Welcome!  There's a wealth of info here as you've noticed.  Definitely take some time to read recent degree plans and the wikis.  The forum's native search feature isn't great.  An advanced Google search will provide more results.  Some of the page results shown by Google may no longer be available due to an error during forum migrations.  Several weeks of posts were lost during one of the migrations.

I am not remotely as knowledgeable as Jen, Dfrecore & BJ (as well as many others here) as they usually answer all my questions.  One thing I have noted about WGU is they seem to accept more computer-related certifications than TESU, COSC or Excelsior.  

Even though WGU is similar to the TESU, COSC & Exc, they do things a bit differently than any other RA accredited uni in the USA.  As Dfrecore mentioned, don't enroll too soon because once you do, you cannot transfer any additional credits.  

Unless you need to document that you are collecting credits, why enroll until you've reached at least 60 Gen Ed credits?  General education requirements are basically the same at all the 4-big.  So, if you don't enroll, you could save money.  Alternatively, from time-to-time, colleges change their policies concerning what they will accept toward a degree.  

You have to do what is best for you and you may not know what that is at this time.  Don't rush.  I'm almost done with all my credits and I have yet to enroll.  Most people don't take this approach.  If you plan to go from 0 credits to 120 credits in 1 or 1.5 years, you may be able to do it without enrolling, at least for a short time while you research your the options.

[CassandraMT]

Thanks for the advice. Certs are another thing I was looking at to try and cut down on the courses she will have to take, and she is interested in getting them anyways. I thought I read somewhere here that someone had one cert that was good for 16 credits so it's worth looking into what they will take for credit.

[dfrecore]

Here is the transfer guidelines, it's helpful with knowing which courses and more importantly certs will be accepted for the different areas.

I forgot that the Cybersecurity DSST might also work in there. My husband took it and it counted for Fund. of InfoSec. The MIS DSST exam counted for Business of IT-Applications.

And, don't forget that certs will be included in the degree itself, so don't pay hundreds for a cert that you're going to get within the degree. But there are certs that don't come with the degree, and those might be worth taking before you enroll. I think the cert that will give you the biggest bang for your buck for this degree is the CISSP, so if she can take that one, it's worth doing (possibly like 17cr). But it's considered one of the harder exams, so don't spend 6 months studying for it either.

Also, unlike TESU, WGU doesn't have 60cr of gen eds - their gen ed's are generally only about 25-30% of the degrees. So don't bother trying to get 60cr of gen eds. It's a waste of time there. Just get the 33cr you need and move on.

[quigongene]

Here is the transfer guidelines, it's helpful with knowing which courses and more importantly certs will be accepted for the different areas.

I didn't see a link, so here:
https://partners.wgu.edu/transferguidelines