Purdue Global BS in Information Technology Plan Needs Review

[9yeire]

Hi everyone! I'm new here and new to the entire online degree space. But on my journey to find ways to more quickly obtain a degree, I came across this forum. I've been reading the posts here and the wonderfully put together wiki as well. I feel like this route of doing the schooling online along with using the alternative credit courses is the right one for me. It seems a lot more time and cost efficient. I have a background in software developing but have been out of school for a while. The very generous transfer credit limit of the Purdue program caught my attention. Up to 75% of credits can be transferred, or 135 out of 180 quarter credit requirement for their BS in IT program.

I know the CompSci program at TESU is also a highly touted program and I saw some of the plans other students made for it. I could easily be convinced to take that instead. I more so wanted to plan out what a Purdue plan might look like and compare. I contacted a Purdue mentor and asked a few questions, but they didn't actually give me too much more information than what was on their website. So anyway, I started piecing together a degree plan and where I might possible get credit for some of the courses. I'd appreciate if the very knowledgeable people here could have a look and tell me how bad it is. It is still a work in progress as I don't even know how feasible this plan is. Any advice is welcome, be harsh, thanks.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...sp=sharing

[dfrecore]

Have you checked Sophia, Saylor & Study.com's websites to see what will work in the different areas?  That's your first step.

https://purdueglobal.sophia.org/#courses
https://study.com/college/school/purdue-...lobal.html
https://www.saylor.org/partners/colleges...ty-global/

And here's the link to check which certs will work in that degree:
https://www.purdueglobal.edu/alternative...ion-exams/

[9yeire]

Have you checked Sophia and Study.com's websites to see what will work in the different areas?  That's your first step.

https://purdueglobal.sophia.org/#courses
https://study.com/college/school/purdue-...lobal.html

And here's the link to check which certs will work in that degree:
https://www.purdueglobal.edu/alternative...ion-exams/

I did! Spent a day scouring through those links haha.

[dfrecore]

I would probably do your Social Science & GE elective requirements through Sophia, and Intro to Management through Study.com.

I am guessing Corporate Comm won't be accepted for that particular course, or they would have listed it. There's no option for it through any of the 3 providers you picked, but it seems like it would be an easy course to take there anyway.

The Google IT Cert will also give you 5cr for an open elective, so I'd add that in.

All in all, your plan looks good, the 2 Open Elective courses you have in there don't HAVE to be IT-related, they can be anything; but I'd choose the courses you did too, since why not take as many IT courses as possible.

[ss20ts]

Communicating Professionalism can only be taken at Purdue. My husband attends Purdue Global in one of the Excel Tracks. He's taking the class right now. It's pretty easy and mostly common sense. He can't believe it's a class, but he's been working in IT for over 25 years.

Interesting that the Study course comes in as Discrete Math He was told he the course HAD to be Discrete Math. He took that last term. He's gone all the way up through Calc III and Diff Eq and still had to take it.

On Sophia Introduction to Information Technology comes in as IT190. On Study Computer Science 102: Fundamentals of Information Technology comes in as IT190. If you haven't completed the Coursera certificate, these may be the way to go. The Sophia course can be done quickly. I completed the course in less than a day and I'm not an IT person.

Business 101: Principles of Management on Study comes in as MT140. I'd take that course over an ASK Assessment. Those exams aren't always easy.

That Intro to Ethics course on Sophia isn't the easiest class. Since you need an Arts/Humanities, I'd look at something easier that you can do quickly. There's been threads on here about that Ethics class. Visual Communication is a BREEZE. Art History 1 is pretty easy. Intro to Sociology is also pretty easy.

Have you already completed the certificates? Are you looking at an Excel Track or the regular program?

[9yeire]

I would probably do your Social Science & GE elective requirements through Sophia, and Intro to Management through Study.com.

The Google IT Cert will also give you 5cr for an open elective, so I'd add that in.

All in all, your plan looks good, the 2 Open Elective courses you have in there don't HAVE to be IT-related, they can be anything; but I'd choose the courses you did too, since why not take as many IT courses as possible.

Thanks for the info! For the Social Science requirement, I wasn't able to find which would fit in Sophia, but it could be that I don't know how the equivalencies work. 

I didn't even notice the Google Cert will count for 2 things, that's great! You're right about the Open Electives, it's nice if they are IT-related, but I should probably also be looking at which are easier to pass haha.

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Communicating Professionalism can only be taken at Purdue. My husband attends Purdue Global in one of the Excel Tracks.

On Sophia Introduction to Information Technology comes in as IT190. On Study Computer Science 102: Fundamentals of Information Technology comes in as IT190. If you haven't completed the Coursera certificate, these may be the way to go. The Sophia course can be done quickly. I completed the course in less than a day and I'm not an IT person.

Business 101: Principles of Management on Study comes in as MT140. I'd take that course over an ASK Assessment. Those exams aren't always easy.

That Intro to Ethics course on Sophia isn't the easiest class. Since you need an Arts/Humanities, I'd look at something easier that you can do quickly. There's been threads on here about that Ethics class. Visual Communication is a BREEZE. Art History 1 is pretty easy. Intro to Sociology is also pretty easy.

Have you already completed the certificates? Are you looking at an Excel Track or the regular program?

How does you husband like the program so far? Yes I also plan to do the Excel Track. 

Thanks so much for the info on the courses, I'll change to the Study Business course and the Sophia Visual Communication course as well. For the Arts and Humanities Requirement, I didn't see the courses you mentioned directly named in their list. But does this mean if it's a similar level course of the same category I should be able to get Purdue to accept it? I ask this because there is a IT301 Project Management course in their Major requirement and there is a Project Management in Sophia, but it wasn't labelled as an equivalent. It does say its equivalent MT4.5L though.

[dfrecore]

I would probably do your Social Science & GE elective requirements through Sophia, and Intro to Management through Study.com.

The Google IT Cert will also give you 5cr for an open elective, so I'd add that in.

All in all, your plan looks good, the 2 Open Elective courses you have in there don't HAVE to be IT-related, they can be anything; but I'd choose the courses you did too, since why not take as many IT courses as possible.

Thanks for the info! For the Social Science requirement, I wasn't able to find which would fit in Sophia, but it could be that I don't know how the equivalencies work. 

I didn't even notice the Google Cert will count for 2 things, that's great! You're right about the Open Electives, it's nice if they are IT-related, but I should probably also be looking at which are easier to pass haha.

---

Communicating Professionalism can only be taken at Purdue. My husband attends Purdue Global in one of the Excel Tracks.

On Sophia Introduction to Information Technology comes in as IT190. On Study Computer Science 102: Fundamentals of Information Technology comes in as IT190. If you haven't completed the Coursera certificate, these may be the way to go. The Sophia course can be done quickly. I completed the course in less than a day and I'm not an IT person.

Business 101: Principles of Management on Study comes in as MT140. I'd take that course over an ASK Assessment. Those exams aren't always easy.

That Intro to Ethics course on Sophia isn't the easiest class. Since you need an Arts/Humanities, I'd look at something easier that you can do quickly. There's been threads on here about that Ethics class. Visual Communication is a BREEZE. Art History 1 is pretty easy. Intro to Sociology is also pretty easy.

Have you already completed the certificates? Are you looking at an Excel Track or the regular program?

How does you husband like the program so far? Yes I also plan to do the Excel Track. 

Thanks so much for the info on the courses, I'll change to the Study Business course and the Sophia Visual Communication course as well. For the Arts and Humanities Requirement, I didn't see the courses you mentioned directly named in their list. But does this mean if it's a similar level course of the same category I should be able to get Purdue to accept it? I ask this because there is a IT301 Project Management course in their Major requirement and there is a Project Management in Sophia, but it wasn't labelled as an equivalent. It does say its equivalent MT4.5L though.

My husband has an eval from Purdue Global (the Cloud degree), I thought they were very generous in what the accepted.  So for Social Science, you should just take whatever is listed on Sophia's Purdue page as social science.  Same for Humanities.  You don't have to line up with what Purdue offers.

I don't think they'll take Project Management from Sophia, it doesn't line up - but you could always do the course, and then take the Saylor exam, since we know the Saylor course works; as does the Study.com course.

For Intro to IT, I was just thinking that if you were going to get the Google cert anyway, especially if you thought you could complete it in 7 days for free, then it's worth doing (6cr for free? I'd take it).  You'll learn a lot more than Sophia's course for sure. But you can take Sophia's course if you just want the credit.

[ss20ts]

How does you husband like the program so far? Yes I also plan to do the Excel Track. 

Thanks so much for the info on the courses, I'll change to the Study Business course and the Sophia Visual Communication course as well. For the Arts and Humanities Requirement, I didn't see the courses you mentioned directly named in their list. But does this mean if it's a similar level course of the same category I should be able to get Purdue to accept it? I ask this because there is a IT301 Project Management course in their Major requirement and there is a Project Management in Sophia, but it wasn't labelled as an equivalent. It does say its equivalent MT4.5L though.

He's enjoying it so far. Even though he has 25+ years experience in IT, there's a lot he's learning. He's worked as a sys admin, DBA, COBOL programmer, data programming, and I don't remember what else over the years. He's in the Analytics Excel Track. He likes this much better than the regular program which is like a semester based program where you have weekly deadlines and all of that fun stuff. He doesn't have the time to commit to that type of program. The Excel Track is working really well for him since he can work on classes when he actually has the time. 

The gen eds I would just do on Sophia. That's what he did and they transferred in no problem. Sophia's project management doesn't transfer in as intro to project management so I wouldn't take it. I'd spend the time on something that will actually transfer in. 

[9yeire]

My husband has an eval from Purdue Global (the Cloud degree), I thought they were very generous in what the accepted.  So for Social Science, you should just take whatever is listed on Sophia's Purdue page as social science.  Same for Humanities.  You don't have to line up with what Purdue offers.

I don't think they'll take Project Management from Sophia, it doesn't line up - but you could always do the course, and then take the Saylor exam, since we know the Saylor course works; as does the Study.com course.

Oh wow I didn't know that. Okay that helps a lot, gives more a lot more options for those GED requirements! Using the Sophia course to study and taking the Saylor exam, I'm liking these mix n match techniques. Really appreciate these insights. Also the Google IT Cert, is moderately easy I'd say. I've done some IT related jobs in the past and 2 days in I'm almost finished the course.

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The gen eds I would just do on Sophia. That's what he did and they transferred in no problem. Sophia's project management doesn't transfer in as intro to project management so I wouldn't take it. I'd spend the time on something that will actually transfer in. 

Oh nice, so he was able to use the Sophia gen eds, good to know. I find it really amazing how the community here has so highly optimized getting a degree haha.

[Cofffeee]

Does anyone know if Excel track has limit on number of Bachelors like TESU ( no more than 2 is a limit)?
Thank u