No Credits - Lots of Experience

[sunshine01]

Hello All, looking to help a friend who has 15 years IT management experience but no degree. He is looking to check the box so to speak and I came to this forum back in 2014 when I was looking to complete my degree. 

Here is the run down: 

-He currently has no college credits or certs but is possibly looking at obtaining AWS  cert. 
-Preference is for an IT/IS or BM -  BS or BA degree. 
-Lowest OOP Cost possible and 1-2yr timeframe. 
-Looking to test out (credit through alternate means) for as many credits as possible

I have looked at some degree plans but generally they are for people with previous college credit. From doing some reading the recommendations for IT are WGU or Purdue Global. Any completed plans for either of these for starting at "scratch"? 

Thanks in advance!

[rachel83az]

Another possible option would be Peirce and their BS in Technology Management: https://www.peirce.edu/degrees-programs/...management

I mention them because they appear to be very alt-credit friendly and they also have various corporate partnerships: https://www.peirce.edu/about-peirce/peir...e-partners If any of those discounts apply for your friend, it might make the degree a better option than WGU or Purdue. Purdue and WGU would be competency-based (which doesn't suit everyone) while Peirce would be accelerated via SDC/Sophia but not competency-based.

[sunshine01]

Another possible option would be Peirce and their BS in Technology Management: https://www.peirce.edu/degrees-programs/...management

I mention them because they appear to be very alt-credit friendly and they also have various corporate partnerships: https://www.peirce.edu/about-peirce/peir...e-partners If any of those discounts apply for your friend, it might make the degree a better option than WGU or Purdue. Purdue and WGU would be competency-based (which doesn't suit everyone) while Peirce would be accelerated via SDC/Sophia but not competency-based.

Competency based would be exams at completion of each course while accelerated is taking the courses via Sophia and SDC for transfer credit if I am following?

[LevelUP]

Hello All, looking to help a friend who has 15 years IT management experience but no degree. He is looking to check the box so to speak and I came to this forum back in 2014 when I was looking to complete my degree. 

Here is the run down: 

-He currently has no college credits or certs but is possibly looking at obtaining AWS  cert. 
-Preference is for an IT/IS or BM -  BS or BA degree. 
-Lowest OOP Cost possible and 1-2yr timeframe. 
-Looking to test out (credit through alternate means) for as many credits as possible

I have looked at some degree plans but generally they are for people with previous college credit. From doing some reading the recommendations for IT are WGU or Purdue Global. Any completed plans for either of these for starting at "scratch"? 

Thanks in advance!

WGU has a good IT degree.

Basically, you start with Sophia for free, then pay monthly if you like the format
Next, go to study.com do courses there
Last transfer everything to WGU and you should be able to finish in 1 term or 2 at most.

[rachel83az]

Competency based would be exams at completion of each course while accelerated is taking the courses via Sophia and SDC for transfer credit if I am following?

Yes, something like that. Competency-based is the WGU model: pay per unit of time and take as many classes as you can within that time period. This can be very good for some people, especially experienced persons. Sophia also does this now. The upside of this is being able to finish quickly, sometimes in as short as one term. The downside is that if life gets in the way and you're not able to do as much then you need to keep paying.

Accelerated, at least in the case of Peirce, would mean bringing in credits/certificates from various sources to put towards the degree. It may or may not be as fast as competency-based but, if life gets in the way, you can put things on pause slightly more easily and either not lose money or lose less money.

Neither option is better than the other. Both WGU and Purdue do also let you bring in various courses/certificates. It mainly depends on your goals and how much time you have to devote to studies.

[Cofffeee]

U can advise to check Purdue Global Excel track. They have few IT related degrees. So ur friend even choose one he/she related yo most

[dfrecore]

Purdue Global will give you the most credits for your AWS cert if you do the right one - my husband has the AWS Certified Solutions Architect—Associate cert, and is looking at the competency-based Cloud degree, and they gave him 55qcr (rougly 36cr semester-based) for that one cert. That works out to 30% of your degree right there. With Sophia and/or Study.com, you can get the full 75% of the degree completed, and finish in 1-2 terms. It could certainly go in much less than a year to finish that degree from scratch.

Not sure which other degrees there this will work for, you'd have to look up the requirements and match them up to certs to see where you get the most bang for your buck. But the AWS-CSA/Cloud combo is a great one for sure.

[Merlin]

Competency based would be exams at completion of each course while accelerated is taking the courses via Sophia and SDC for transfer credit if I am following?

Competency-based means completing courses (or a degree) based on demonstrating competency in the subject matter. This basically means that you study on your own (if necessary) and take an examination (or complete one or more papers, projects, or presentations) to demonstrate that you know know the material as well as a typical graduate of the course. If you pass, you're done with the course. If you fail, you have the option to study more and try again later. The competency-based model is ideal for adults who are going back to college after getting a ton of professional experience that they want to get academic credit for.

The alternative is traditional courses, where you will be locked into an online (or in-person) course that runs on 8 to 15 weeks terms and will usually have exams, papers, projects, or presentations, along the way, plus a final exam at the end. The traditional model is ideal for people who don't have much experience and/or need more interactive instruction. Traditional courses also tend to be a bit more rigorous since they require much more work on the part of the student.

Because of the length of time it takes to complete each course using the traditional model, most students usually need to take multiple courses simultaneously to make headway towards a degree. Where in a competency-based degree, students generally only take one course at a time, but can often get through more courses in less time than traditional students because they can quickly pass courses where they have more domain expertise.

Price-wise, you generally pay a flat fee per term for competency-based courses (terms are typically 2, 3, or 6 months long) and you can take as many courses as you can within each term for the same fee. For traditional courses, your tuition costs are calculated per credit hour, with most courses running 3-4 credit hours. A competency-based degree can cost much less than a traditional degree if you are able to finish it in one or two terms. However, if you don't have the time or background to complete courses quickly, a competency-based degree loses its cost-effectiveness.

In both cases, you will usually be able to accelerate progress in your degree by transferring courses from other colleges or ACE providers like Study.com, Straighterline, or Sophia towards degree completion. Many schools accept up to 90 credits in transfer. For the schools we recommend, most of those can come from ACE credits. So if you do it right, you end up with only 30 credits to complete at the destination college, which will make most competency-based degrees way faster and less expensive than the traditional schools..

Hopefully that gives you a broader understanding of the differences between a competency and traditional approach to earning a college degree.