Returning Student TESU (WGU?) - IT Degree - Planning Help

[jmr1hcr]

Your Location: Indiana, United States
Your Age: 38
What kind of degree do you want?: Computer Science

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits: 0


TRANSFER CREDITS: 74
Indiana University
COASS104 - Freshman Seminar - 1.00
ENGW131 - Elementary Composition 1 - 3.00
SOCS163 - Social Problems - 3.00
MATHM101 - Topics in Algebra 4 - 2.00
CSCIA201 - Introduction to Programming I - 3.00
CSCIC201 - Computer Programming II - 4.00
ENGW234 - Tech Report Writing - 3.00
HUMAU102 - Intro to Modern Humanities - 3.00
MATHM102 - Topics in Algebra 5 - 2.00
GEOLG100 - General Geology - 5.00
PHILP100 - Introduction to Philosophy - 3.00
CSCIC202 - Intro to Software Systems - 4.00
HISTH101 - The World in the 20th Cent I - 3.00
CSCIC251 - Fundations of Digital Computg - 4.00
FINAA101 - Ancient and Medieval Art - 3.00
INFOI101 - Introduction to Informatics - 4.00
CSCIN341 - Intro Client-Side Web Prgming - 3.00
CSCIN342 - Server-Side Pgming for the Web - 3.00
MATHM118 - Finite Mathematics - 3.00
SPCHS121 - Public Speaking - 3.00
AFROA169 - Intro to African American Lit - 3.00
CSCIC106 - Intro to Computers & Their Use - 3.00
POLSY103 - Intro to American Politi - 3.00
CSCIA213 - Database Applications - 3.00

UPCOMING INSTITUTIONAL CREDITS (TESU)
October 2023 (09/25/23 to 12/17/23)
ENC 1020 - English Composition II CIP - 3CR
SOS 1100 - Information Literacy Today CIP - 3CR
 
Any certifications or military experience? None
Budget: $25k – Attending TESU, work in IT for UPS and we are partnered with TESU.
Commitments: Work hybrid 2 days on site, 3 days at home. Home days are very open during work hours. Wife works night shift, 3 kids - 1 in sports.
Dedicated time to study: 15+ hours a week
Timeline: Finishing the courses required for the degree as fast as possible would be ideal.  I would like to finish before 40!
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: 5k per semester, 25k lifetime via UPS. Reduced fees @TESU due to partnership.

I was recently hired on by UPS in their IT department and am looking to take advantage of their college reimbursement program. I have a decent sum of credits from my state university that I never actually completed a degree with due to kids, life, and work.

Due to UPS being partnered with TESU I am looking at completing at least my AS of Computer Science there. I have done some nominal research and I think I might like to transfer to WGU after I have obtained my AS. WGU’s idea of working on two things at once with certifications as part of your course work seems great to me at this point, as I am already looking at my children starting college by the time I finish off my BS and I feel a bit rushed for time!

I am not sure if it is a great idea to transfer to WGU or not, I am learning more as I research on this site and have discovered things such as Sophia, Straightline, and Study that may reduce my overall cost and time. However, I would really like to finish off my Computer Science AS first to have something tangible for my work and all those loans from back in the day that still linger, so TESU it is for now.

Going by the academic planner on TESU I have 3 required courses I need to complete for my associates. Those 3 courses wind up being 9 credit hours. On the old AAReport it showed I needed a 4th but that no longer shows on the new report with their new website – highlighted below.

Written Communication 3SH  - ENC-1020 English Composition II 
Information Literacy 3SH (INSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT) - SOS-1100 
Ethical Leadership 3SH -  ETH-2200 Leading the Way: A Path Towards Ethical Leadership
 
Natural Sciences and Computer Science 6SH - EAS-1010 Earth Science or BIO-2080 The Science of Nutrition
 
If my academic advisor is correct, I need 15 credit hours to reach residency, so, likely 2 more courses are needed than I actually require to complete the associates. I am not sure which would be my best focus on these. – Note – I see mention of 30 RA credits in some posts, I’m not entirely sure what that means and will have to do more research.

Big note to my planning – I hate math, I have managed to complete a few courses and honestly those were a struggle. So ideally, I would be looking to complete my BS degree with no further math.

I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up lol, but I watch for government jobs all the time. More and more I am thinking towards a retirement one day in 20 years or so and government benefits and pension would help that future. I don’t have the degree for most of those jobs and likely not the specific experience. I do have some of the experience I need though with the years I played tech support, followed by a 10 year stint as an IT Director/IS Specialist for a hospital system and maybe some of that will help with the WGU work experience conversion.

Sorry for the long read, I’ve been lurking here a bit and am working some of these ideas out loud.
 
 
TLDR, I am hoping that you all can help me with the best path forward on finishing off my degrees. I am a 38yr old who has been in the tech field for 15 years and I am in the process of obtaining my AS from TESU via a company partnership, then looking to pivot to my BS possibly at WGU due to their interesting ability to gain useful certifications while completing degree coursework. I have 74 credits that I’m transferring over –if it makes more sense I could stay at TESU but IT certs are worth quite a bit. I do want to avoid math as much as possible, I think I might be stuck with Calculus if I continue at TESU with the Computer Science BS, but I’ve read some things that point to Sophia being a good alternative due to open book/non-proctored. – Not sure how that works.
 
Appreciate any help and guidance you all can pass along

[rachel83az]

The TESU Associate's is, IMO, a huge waste of time/money/tuition reimbursement. The AAS requires both the cornerstone and a capstone. At that point, it's about as expensive as a TESU Bachelor's degree: https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/current/...r-studies/ This one only requires the cornerstone: https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/en/curre...r-science/ buuuuuuuut....

For both, then there is the residency waiver fee for not taking at least 15 credits at TESU. If you take 15 TESU credits: why not also get a TESU Bachelor's degree? If you don't take 15 TESU credits, the waiver fee usually isn't covered by tuition reimbursement. So you're paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for a degree that isn't really worth all that much in today's job market.

(The 30 RA credits, BTW, you more than have that covered with your Indiana credits. Don't worry about it. Don't think about it.)

What about the (almost free) Pierpont Associate instead? https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Pierpont_C%26TC $130 out of pocket and you could get an Area of Emphasis in Information Systems. You've got everything you need; no money wasted on unnecessary courses or waiver fees.

From there, you can continue on to WGU, if you want. Buuuut... you've only got one Finite Math and Algebra. WGU requires Calc I and two Discrete Math classes. https://partners.wgu.edu/transfer-pathwa...d=BSCS4424 Discrete Math II at WGU cannot be transferred in and it's closed-book. I don't think this is going to work for you.

What I would recommend, instead, would be TESU's BA Computer Science degree. Yes, it also requires Calculus I. But it doesn't require two Finite/Discrete Math courses. For both TESU and WGU Calculus, Sophia is an option. Sophia is open book and not proctored. It won't be easy, but it'll be easier than Study.com or a B&M university elsewhere.

So, here's what I would do:

1. Go sign up for https://theamericandreamacademy.org/ and start banging out the Google IT Support Professional certificate right now. Can be completed in ~1 week, despite what the Coursera page says. That will hopefully grant you access to more Coursera later and that might be important...
   
2. Decide if you're going to do Pierpont & WGU or go all-in at TESU. Either way, if at all possible, withdraw from the courses you have planned. For now, at least. You need to take some time to actually plan. It sounds like you signed up at TESU first, then found this forum. So, you're not going to be doing things optimally yet.
   
3. Ask TESU to add the BA Computer Science to your degree plan. Tell them not to remove the AS(NSM) Computer Science. This will let you see what else you need to complete their Comp Sci degree.
   
4. After finishing the Google IT Support Professional certificate, you can sign up at Sophia.org and start taking classes you need. Ethics & Calculus I at minimum for TESU. You also probably need science and history; gen eds for the Associate degrees are slightly different than the gen eds for the Bachelor's degrees. See https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap and also https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ience_Plan for suggestions to fill in the holes.
   
5. Take necessary Study.com classes. See links above.
   
6. Finish up by taking 15 credits at TESU. You'll need to figure out if, even with tuition reimbursement, it makes more sense to do a flat-rate term than it does to do the classes one at a time. Suggested TESU credits for a Computer Science degree are:
   • SOS-1100 (cornerstone)
     
   • LIB-4950 (capstone)
     
   • CIS-3510 Software Engineering
     
   • CIS-1070 Computer Concepts and Applications (ePack)
     
   • Whatever else you want... Maybe English Comp II here.
     

If you do things this way, I'm guessing you could be done with the TESU degrees by the middle of 2024. I don't think you'd be able to finish WGU before the end of 2024. Even with maximum transfer to WGU, most students aren't able to complete a WGU degree in fewer than 2 terms. 

You could, theoretically, also throw in a BSBA CIS from TESU for not much more time/energy/money spent. But that would require 2 more (unproctored) math classes and you said you want to avoid math.

[allvia]

I say stick with TESU BACS.  You will likely feel less pressure if you take the required math(s) you have left through Study (even with the minor out of pocket costs). The good news is with the tuition assistance you don't need to take all 15 credits (5 courses) all at one time. I'd recommend taking the SOS-1100 and Comp II (as rachel83az suggested - oh, and it appears you've signed up for) together, then the others as you feel your schedule allows. You will definitely be able to complete the degree before you're 40th using the mix of TESU courses and the alternative methods linked above. Save WGU for your master degree

[MNomadic]

I agree with others that a TESU BACS(along with ASNSM CS) would be your best bet. Check out what you have left and cross reference with the many degree plans here, knock out calc and some others through Sophia, plan out what courses to take through TESU on your reimbursement, and you'll be good to go.

[bjcheung77]

@jmr1hcr, Welcome to the board, great introduction post with the addendum and template... plus, you're just one letter off with the Straightliner as it should be StraighterLine instead...  Anyways, I would do things a little differently in regards to your residency requirements and hitting multiple degree awards, plus get some Coursera/TADA Certs to go with your experience...

I would do the BACS and the BSBA CIS combo since you have energy, money, time to get it done.  Even with 3 kids, if you have great time management, it can be done!  In regards to the math phobia, you can take the CSM Learn course as it's a very thorough walk through without any proctoring... And get the remaining math requirements through Sophia.org as that doesn't require proctoring either.

With tuition assistance, I would skip the Pierpont BOG AAS, instead you can do two flat rate terms and complete 4 degrees in total.  I noticed you have two registered classes for this upcoming term, ask to switch classes plus take those courses in a later term and change those to the following for your first and second flat rate terms:  2 or 3 classes, 2 or 3 e-packs of your choice (that hits both degrees).

Courses vs Residency Waiver #1: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ng-Courses
16 Credits vs Residency Waiver #2: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Waiver-Fee
ACTFL/Foreign Credits: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...r-to-Big-3
Transfer Policy: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-Explained

[origamishuttle]

I have to ask - are you sure that you want a Computer Science degree, specifically? You mentioned getting IT certifications, which WGU does include in some degree programs, but not really in the Computer Science major. You may want to spend some time looking into which certifications you want and which WGU degrees include IT certifications so that you may be able to identify a specific degree that aligns with your goals:
https://www.wgu.edu/lp/it/lead/general.html

[LevelUP]

TESU would be the best way to go since its Computer Science program has many electives for your transfer credits, making completing your degree quicker than WGU.

WGU also doesn't like to take old credits and may accept very few transfer credits.

[dfrecore]

I would figure out what WGU degree you want, including what certs come with it, before ruling them out. A BACS is not going to get you certs, if that's what you're after.

You can do a lot of WGU's math courses via alt-credit, so there's that to think about as well.