Need direction

[rachel83az]

It's okay. I'm still working on Sophia and a few other things right now (so many freebies!), so I haven't had much of a chance to do much in the way of things related to CS. I'm actually hoping to go into data analytics myself, but that particular degree from TESU costs a lot more than this route and most employers just want a CS or math degree anyway. It's definitely a degree geared more towards programmers than what I'm hoping to do: https://www.tesu.edu/heavin/ba/computer-science

Starting from almost 0 credits a couple of months ago, I've already completed about 1/4th of the credits necessary for a BA. I've got at least 12 more in the hopper at ASU, 3 at Coursera via the Google IT Support Professional certificate, and a couple free/almost free 1-credit classes elsewhere. Plus the remainder of Sophia. I'm hoping to be more or less done with everything by the end of the year.

Nice how much would the whole degree cost you doing that way? Also how long do you need to finish you think? The TESU route seems very good but I am a little worried on how potential employers view this degree any insight on that?

If Sophia weren't free, that'd add at least another $2-3k to the degree cost because I'd have to pick up the general education credits elsewhere. GE credits can be had at Study.com or Davar Academy for $70-100 per class; multiply by 24 and that's a lot of free credit right now. '

I'm hoping to finish the whole thing within the year and started on my master's, but we'll see how much life gets in the way. I should at least be mostly done.

As long as a degree isn't from an obvious diploma mill, most employers aren't going to care so much where your degree came from as what your degree is in. It would be so much easier to get a generic Liberal Studies degree, but I think a technical degree in CS and then a master's in data & analytics is going to be the best route for me to take.

[ctcarl]

In addition to IT, Excelsior offers Bachelors in Technology Management, Cyber Security, and Electrical Engineering Technology.

None of those are able to be tested out of, or gotten cheaply.

Didn't realize the OP had specified either of those things.

[electronicgenius]

Thank you for the reply I can find a list of what I completed and post it here is that ok?

That is perfectly fine. Many people post up copies of their transcripts or their college evaluation. Just make sure to redact any personal information, particularly things like address or social security numbers, just in case.

Alternatively, you can just manually type in the courses. The sticky outlines the recommended format, but it for colleges it basically comes down to listing all pass/CR credits and any graded credits that come in with a D or higher along with the credits each earned and whether those credits are quarter or semester credits. For ACE credits and exams like CLEP/DSST you can just list the courses, credits earned and where they came from. If you have any technology-related credits, you should also list when they were earned since some schools require them to have recency. 5 years is common for tech credits.

Also I'm not fixated on any one path and kind of keeping my options open but I do want to find a day job as a software engineer and work on my degree at night, weekends, and when I have free time. I figured using study.com I can complete a majority of the classes then find a good university that will let me complete the rest online even if its a full time schedule I think I can make it work. I want to go to a good school to better my chances in the industry I heard mixed things about WGU but have never heard of TESU is it a good school? I will post the general courses I completed soon that way it will give more info on my situation. Thank you for helping out!

Technically you don't need a degree at all to be a successful software engineer. Many of my best engineers were self-educated and never earned a college degree, or they earned a degree in some discipline unrelated to software development. Heck, I've got more than 20 years of experience in software development and engineering management and I didn't earn my first degree until last year. Having a strong development portfolio is better than a degree any day. Show a company the websites you've built, or the mobile apps you have in the play store or on iTunes, and you're likely at least get an interview. That said, having a CS or Software Development degree will open doors in some places that require all candidates to at least have a bachelor's degree in order to consider your application. Your alma mater is particularly valuable if you manage to earn a degree from a well-known college or a school with a top-20 CS program. Though that value fades quickly... your school is really only important when you're a new graduate with no real-world experience. The more experience you have the less the college matters beyond things like alumni connections, etc.

As for TESU vs WGU, they are pretty much equivalent. TESU (Thomas Edison State University) is just a small state college in New Jersey. So unless you're from NJ and applying to jobs in NJ, chances are nobody will have heard of TESU. WGU is a huge school and is a bit better well known. Their IT and CS programs have a positive reputation (at least in some circles) but they are not a ranked CS school.

If you want a degree from a top-ranked CS school or a school with a lot of name recognition, that is cool, but those are highly competitive and generally pretty expensive. Unless you have great grades and amazing references you're going to have a tough time getting in. Your best bet is to look for a ranked school with an earned admission provision. You can find a few of them on places like EdX or Coursera.

Ya I get you I will post them on here with the hopes of getting some direction. For prospective employers I just don't know what to do I am not getting any traction in my job search right now and was hoping the bachelors would give me a much needed boost in that front. I really like how TESU is structured just scared on how it will be viewed by employers and wondering if I can use it to pursue my masters in the future. I didn't have the best grades before and had to leave college early to help out my family. The quickest and best option I've seen so far is TESU and the London one I saw from coursera but TESU seems to be much more affordable and faster. I'm just a little confused on the whole thing and how respected the degree would be from one of those places if that makes sense.

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It's okay. I'm still working on Sophia and a few other things right now (so many freebies!), so I haven't had much of a chance to do much in the way of things related to CS. I'm actually hoping to go into data analytics myself, but that particular degree from TESU costs a lot more than this route and most employers just want a CS or math degree anyway. It's definitely a degree geared more towards programmers than what I'm hoping to do: https://www.tesu.edu/heavin/ba/computer-science

Starting from almost 0 credits a couple of months ago, I've already completed about 1/4th of the credits necessary for a BA. I've got at least 12 more in the hopper at ASU, 3 at Coursera via the Google IT Support Professional certificate, and a couple free/almost free 1-credit classes elsewhere. Plus the remainder of Sophia. I'm hoping to be more or less done with everything by the end of the year.

Nice how much would the whole degree cost you doing that way? Also how long do you need to finish you think? The TESU route seems very good but I am a little worried on how potential employers view this degree any insight on that?

If Sophia weren't free, that'd add at least another $2-3k to the degree cost because I'd have to pick up the general education credits elsewhere. GE credits can be had at Study.com or Davar Academy for $70-100 per class; multiply by 24 and that's a lot of free credit right now. '

I'm hoping to finish the whole thing within the year and started on my master's, but we'll see how much life gets in the way. I should at least be mostly done.

As long as a degree isn't from an obvious diploma mill, most employers aren't going to care so much where your degree came from as what your degree is in. It would be so much easier to get a generic Liberal Studies degree, but I think a technical degree in CS and then a master's in data & analytics is going to be the best route for me to take.

Thank you for your reply it gave me some much needed info. I need some generals to finish as well is sophia still free? I want to take a similar route as you just have some hesitations. Do you know if all unis accept this degree for a masters program?

[rachel83az]

Thank you for your reply it gave me some much needed info. I need some generals to finish as well is sophia still free? I want to take a similar route as you just have some hesitations. Do you know if all unis accept this degree for a masters program?

Sophia is still free until July 31st. Some courses can be finished in just a few hours. Others will need more time to complete. The English Composition and Public Speaking classes are especially time-consuming because they require work to be completed and graded before you can advance properly. I would advise completing as many as you can in the next month. On July 30th, you'd sign up for the remaining courses that need to be taken. As long as you are signed up before the 31st, the courses will be free. Sophia gives you 2 months + a 1 month extension (if needed) to complete a given course. That gives you approximately 4 months from today to complete 24 courses. If you can complete at least 2 a week (which most people should be able to do), you'll be able to do this.

A lot of universities accept at least some Sophia credits, so even if you don't end up going to TESU then it'll be handy to have them completed. 

Master's programs are a little bit trickier. I know that universities can be a bit picky about what they take and what they don't take. I also know that there are programs out there that will accept a TESU degree for their Master's programs, but I don't know that it's strictly necessary if your focus is on programming/software development. In the US, a BA is usually sufficient (when it's even requested) for those types of jobs. I am not in the US; I want to get a job in a country where the more documentation you have, no matter your skill level, the more likely you are to get a job. I'm planning on getting at least one degree from ENEB/Isabel I for this reason.

If you want to get a Master's for your own reasons, that's fine. Nothing wrong with more learning! But, assuming you're in the US, don't think that you have to have a Master's to have a career in programming.

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Almost forgot, if you're going to do Sophia, you should probably start with US History II. It's set to "expire" at the end of the month. It will likely get renewed, but just in case it doesn't it's a good idea to have it finished before the 30th. Public Speaking is also set to expire, but there's no sense trying to rush through that in 5 days. If it doesn't expire, there's an easier Study.com course that will slot into TESU's public speaking requirement.

Speaking of which, if you are pretty sure that you want to attend TESU, it would be a good idea to apply now and put in for the Study.com discount. This discount gives you discounted in-state tuition, even if you don't live in New Jersey. Unfortunately, this discount is going away on July 1st. You won't be able to get an actual Study.com transcript to TESU before the discount expires, but it's worth a shot to try to apply for the discount anyway. Without the discount, non-resident tuition is about $3100 for the required 6 credits. With the discounted resident tuition, it's about $2275 for those same credits.

[electronicgenius]

Thank you for your reply it gave me some much needed info. I need some generals to finish as well is sophia still free? I want to take a similar route as you just have some hesitations. Do you know if all unis accept this degree for a masters program?

Sophia is still free until July 31st. Some courses can be finished in just a few hours. Others will need more time to complete. The English Composition and Public Speaking classes are especially time-consuming because they require work to be completed and graded before you can advance properly. I would advise completing as many as you can in the next month. On July 30th, you'd sign up for the remaining courses that need to be taken. As long as you are signed up before the 31st, the courses will be free. Sophia gives you 2 months + a 1 month extension (if needed) to complete a given course. That gives you approximately 4 months from today to complete 24 courses. If you can complete at least 2 a week (which most people should be able to do), you'll be able to do this.

A lot of universities accept at least some Sophia credits, so even if you don't end up going to TESU then it'll be handy to have them completed. 

Master's programs are a little bit trickier. I know that universities can be a bit picky about what they take and what they don't take. I also know that there are programs out there that will accept a TESU degree for their Master's programs, but I don't know that it's strictly necessary if your focus is on programming/software development. In the US, a BA is usually sufficient (when it's even requested) for those types of jobs. I am not in the US; I want to get a job in a country where the more documentation you have, no matter your skill level, the more likely you are to get a job. I'm planning on getting at least one degree from ENEB/Isabel I for this reason.

If you want to get a Master's for your own reasons, that's fine. Nothing wrong with more learning! But, assuming you're in the US, don't think that you have to have a Master's to have a career in programming.

---

Almost forgot, if you're going to do Sophia, you should probably start with US History II. It's set to "expire" at the end of the month. It will likely get renewed, but just in case it doesn't it's a good idea to have it finished before the 30th. Public Speaking is also set to expire, but there's no sense trying to rush through that in 5 days. If it doesn't expire, there's an easier Study.com course that will slot into TESU's public speaking requirement.

Speaking of which, if you are pretty sure that you want to attend TESU, it would be a good idea to apply now and put in for the Study.com discount. This discount gives you discounted in-state tuition, even if you don't live in New Jersey. Unfortunately, this discount is going away on July 1st. You won't be able to get an actual Study.com transcript to TESU before the discount expires, but it's worth a shot to try to apply for the discount anyway. Without the discount, non-resident tuition is about $3100 for the required 6 credits. With the discounted resident tuition, it's about $2275 for those same credits.

For sure that sounds like a great plan I may do the same. How did you know what courses to take? Did you enroll first then work on sophia and study or are you planning on enrolling after you complete your courses? I want to do a masters at Georgia tech partly because I want a masters and also just in case I have trouble getting employed with the bachelors from TESU which judging by many posts here shouldn't be a problem. I was messaging with another user on here and he mentioned that many masters programs won't accept the credits from study or sophia or other websites that are equivalent. Do you have insights on that? Which masters program are you trying to get in to and have you contacted them already to confirm. Just a little lost right now on what to do because it is far cheaper to complete most of my classes on study and sophia but if universities for masters programs dont count those I dont wanna waste my time if that makes sense. I really appreciate the time your taking to help me out btw!

[rachel83az]

For sure that sounds like a great plan I may do the same. How did you know what courses to take? Did you enroll first then work on sophia and study or are you planning on enrolling after you complete your courses? I want to do a masters at Georgia tech partly because I want a masters and also just in case I have trouble getting employed with the bachelors from TESU which judging by many posts here shouldn't be a problem. I was messaging with another user on here and he mentioned that many masters programs won't accept the credits from study or sophia or other websites that are equivalent. Do you have insights on that? Which masters program are you trying to get in to and have you contacted them already to confirm. Just a little lost right now on what to do because it is far cheaper to complete most of my classes on study and sophia but if universities for masters programs dont count those I dont wanna waste my time if that makes sense. I really appreciate the time your taking to help me out btw!

All of Sophia except the Foundations courses and the College Readiness course will transfer to TESU to either fill out your general ed requirements or your electives. So I started there. Then I found out that the TESU discount is going away (and it looks like you're probably too late to get it, unfortunately, but it's almost certainly worth trying anyway), so I scrambled to enroll and take the two shortest and easiest Study.com courses: Presentation Skills in the Workplace and Information Literacy. Presentation Skills is, by far, the shortest and easiest. It only takes a couple of hours and you're done. You do have to apply and be enrolled to get the discount. If you don't at least apply by July 1st, they could roll out some nasty changes that make it more difficult to get a degree. They like to change the catalog at the beginning of July and/or January.

I think Georgia Tech is a bit more forgiving of alternate credits, but I'm not 100% sure. I don't currently plan on getting a US Master's degree, so I haven't really done much research into the matter. Honestly, though for a programming job, a Master's degree might actually make you less employable. A lot of US companies don't want to hire someone with "too much" experience for fear that they'll go elsewhere as soon as they can. A Bachelor's and a strong portfolio on GitHub should get you pretty far.

There are a limited amount of UL classes that will count for CS, so I will have to take those; whether I really want to or not. For LL, I haven't yet decided precisely what I'll be taking. I have a general idea, but I'll figure it out after I finish Sophia.

[electronicgenius]

For sure that sounds like a great plan I may do the same. How did you know what courses to take? Did you enroll first then work on sophia and study or are you planning on enrolling after you complete your courses? I want to do a masters at Georgia tech partly because I want a masters and also just in case I have trouble getting employed with the bachelors from TESU which judging by many posts here shouldn't be a problem. I was messaging with another user on here and he mentioned that many masters programs won't accept the credits from study or sophia or other websites that are equivalent. Do you have insights on that? Which masters program are you trying to get in to and have you contacted them already to confirm. Just a little lost right now on what to do because it is far cheaper to complete most of my classes on study and sophia but if universities for masters programs dont count those I dont wanna waste my time if that makes sense. I really appreciate the time your taking to help me out btw!

All of Sophia except the Foundations courses and the College Readiness course will transfer to TESU to either fill out your general ed requirements or your electives. So I started there. Then I found out that the TESU discount is going away (and it looks like you're probably too late to get it, unfortunately, but it's almost certainly worth trying anyway), so I scrambled to enroll and take the two shortest and easiest Study.com courses: Presentation Skills in the Workplace and Information Literacy. Presentation Skills is, by far, the shortest and easiest. It only takes a couple of hours and you're done. You do have to apply and be enrolled to get the discount. If you don't at least apply by July 1st, they could roll out some nasty changes that make it more difficult to get a degree. They like to change the catalog at the beginning of July and/or January.

I think Georgia Tech is a bit more forgiving of alternate credits, but I'm not 100% sure. I don't currently plan on getting a US Master's degree, so I haven't really done much research into the matter. Honestly, though for a programming job, a Master's degree might actually make you less employable. A lot of US companies don't want to hire someone with "too much" experience for fear that they'll go elsewhere as soon as they can. A Bachelor's and a strong portfolio on GitHub should get you pretty far.

There are a limited amount of UL classes that will count for CS, so I will have to take those; whether I really want to or not. For LL, I haven't yet decided precisely what I'll be taking. I have a general idea, but I'll figure it out after I finish Sophia.

Thank you for the reply again. Nice I may take those classes since their so short but i'm trying to get access to my old transcripts first to know what classes I need exactly but am having some trouble since its been awhile since i've been to college im only 26 but havent went in about 4 years. I want to get a job while im getting my degree so i'm hoping for that and really just want to get my masters just to further my education. I haven't enrolled in TESU yet because i'm debating between them and WGU i'm a little afraid to make the incorrect choice tbh.

[rachel83az]

WGU does take Sophia courses for general ed credits, at least. I would definitely get started on Sophia ASAP either way. WGU takes 90 credits in transfer, which would be Sophia and a couple SDC courses. WGU may even take the Foundations & College Readiness course, but I'm not positive about that.

[dfrecore]

WGU does take Sophia courses for general ed credits, at least. I would definitely get started on Sophia ASAP either way. WGU takes 90 credits in transfer, which would be Sophia and a couple SDC courses. WGU may even take the Foundations & College Readiness course, but I'm not positive about that.

WGU is very particular about which credits they take, there are no "electives" so you would want to plan out those courses if that was your plan.  Otherwise, you're wasting your time.

[rachel83az]

WGU does take Sophia courses for general ed credits, at least. I would definitely get started on Sophia ASAP either way. WGU takes 90 credits in transfer, which would be Sophia and a couple SDC courses. WGU may even take the Foundations & College Readiness course, but I'm not positive about that.

WGU is very particular about which credits they take, there are no "electives" so you would want to plan out those courses if that was your plan.  Otherwise, you're wasting your time.

I thought they took everything ACE? I've seen other posts in the forum to indicate this. The lack of electives does make things a bit trickier, but Sophia is mostly general eds anyway.