[TESU] BA in Computer Science, need help with planning

[dcan]

I'm going to respond here in case someone else is considering this as well. (yes I'm coming out of my long hibernation, at least briefly)

I did exactly this -- switched from BSBA CIS to BA CS. In 2013. I had to take almost 18 months off immediately after that decision and have only taken four classes since then. I'm currently on my fifth, Discrete Math. I can attest that this program and the math program are probably the two most difficult programs TESU offers, because they do not cleanly fit into their normal "flexible" model in that there are virtually no test-out options for the area of study.

What you can do however is take courses at other schools and transfer them in. That is exactly what I'm planning to do with my remaining upper-level CS requirements. Both UMUC and Troy offer online 8 week courses. I have no direct experience with either, but a friend of mine is a server administrator who is going through the Troy CS program for career broadening and what I've seen is very disappointing. In fact he stated he feels that he hasn't learned much. In his Data Structures class the assignments basically consisted of the instructor writing a partial program and the students had to fill in the blanks to connect the program pieces together, and they were specifically taught how to use the C++ Standard Template Library. Contrast that with TESU, where the course was essentially "read the text, solve these programming problems, and don't you dare use the STL, write your own lists/trees/etc from scratch." It was much more challenging and more rewarding in that sense, but it would also be a brutal slog with no hand-holding for someone who has no practical programming experience. Since I've been around the block for quite a few years it wasn't a problem for me but several people had trouble and there wasn't really any safety net in the class. I found Calc II the same -- trench warfare with integrals until we got to infinite series in the last couple of weeks, which I found remarkably beautiful. But it took a long time to get there. So it looks like I'm going with UMUC instead, and their classes don't look bad. In particular, they have a comparative programming languages course (which teaches about the concepts behind progamming language design, compiler theory, etc) and analysis of algorithms course, both of which are considered essential for a "real" CS program. So that is attractive.

The downside to switching is I significantly extended the time spent on my degree (not entirely necessary, I could have knuckled down sooner, oh well) and when its all said and done I will have taken two senior-level capstone classes. Sheesh. And I can't get a dual degree because BA and BSBA are separate disciplines, which really chaps me because I want credit for my BSBA work on paper but it won't happen. If I were paying out of pocket I would have stuck with the BSBA, no question. Far more options for cheap credit and fast completion.

I will say that I find the CS work far more rewarding that the BSBA coursework. For example, I've programmed for 20 years but never formally studied data structures until I took that class, and immediately applied some of the concepts to improve my work. The students also tend to be much more focused and on-task, and unlike the business students they don't waste time babbling marketing buzzwords and somehow magically passing all their classes by writing "me too!" forum responses that are supposed to be against the rules. The courses are much more interesting, to me anyway. They aren't exactly hard (except for Calc II) but they aren't trivial either.

Hope that helps someone considering that path. Take care.