UK-based, 25yr IT pro, planning TESU BS Cybersecurity — plan sanity check

[smilingbuddha]

Hi everyone,

Long-time lurker, first post — hoping to tap into the collective wisdom here before I pull the trigger on this.

**My background**
I'm based in the UK, working full-time in IT with 25+ years of experience across cloud architecture, infrastructure, and security. I hold the Google Professional Cloud Architect, Google Professional DevOps Engineer, and Certified Kubernetes Administrator certifications. No formal bachelor's degree, which is starting to matter as I look at senior and leadership roles — and potentially a master's down the line.

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**What I'm targeting**
After a lot of research (including deep dives on this forum — thank you all), I've landed on the **TESU BS Cybersecurity** as my top candidate. My reasons:

- It's 100% online and accessible to international students
- TESU explicitly states that professional cybersecurity certifications can be evaluated for PLA credit — my GCP certs feel directly relevant to CYB-4500 and CYB-4510 - needs validation
- The maths requirement stops at College Algebra + Statistics (no calculus, no physics)
- The programming requirement is minimal — Computer Programming I and Database Programming, not algorithms or data structures
- The content (networking, firewalls, Linux, risk management, compliance, ethical hacking) maps well to my actual day-to-day experience
- Only a 15-credit residency requirement at TESU

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**My transfer credit plan (as I currently understand it)**

I'm planning to front-load as much as possible via Sophia and Study.com before enrolling:

*Sophia Learning (~30 credits):*
- English Composition I & II
- College Algebra
- Introduction to Statistics
- Introduction to Sociology, Introduction to Ethics, U.S. Government
- Microeconomics, U.S. History I & II, Criminology
- Introduction to Networking
- Introduction to Relational Databases
- Introduction to Python Programming (for Computer Programming I)
- Computer Applications

*Study.com (~18 credits):*
- Operating Systems
- Routing & Switching Fundamentals
- Linux Fundamentals
- Windows Server Configuration
- Wireless Networking
- Database Programming / SQL

*GCP Cert (PLA):*
- Hoping to get CYB-4500 (Cloud Computing) and/or CYB-4510 (Cloud Security and Privacy) evaluated for credit. Will contact TESU admissions before enrolling to understand the process.

That leaves me with roughly the 9 core CYB-prefix courses + capstone to complete at TESU — which I'm happy to do properly.

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**My questions for the community:**

1. **Has anyone done the TESU BS Cybersecurity from outside the US?** Any friction or specific gotchas for international students I should know about?

2. **Sophia to TESU transcript process** — I've read that Sophia must go via Credly (NOT Parchment) to TESU. Is this still accurate as of 2025/2026? Any recent experiences?

3. **Study.com to TESU** — I understand Study.com sends directly to TESU and the ACE transcript is NOT accepted. Can anyone confirm this is still the case?

4. **PLA for GCP certs at TESU** — Has anyone successfully had a vendor cloud certification evaluated for PLA credit at TESU (or another institution)? What did the submission look like? How long did the eval take?

5. **Sophia course order / sequencing** — Is there an optimal order to tackle the Sophia courses? I've heard some have Touchstones (written assignments) that introduce delays — should I pair a Touchstone course with a non-Touchstone one to keep moving?

6. **TECEP exams** — Are there any TECEP options for the ITS-level courses (operating systems, Linux, networking) that might be faster/cheaper than Study.com?

7. **Anything I've missed or gotten wrong in my plan?** Would really appreciate a sanity check from anyone who has done this degree or a similar TESU tech degree.

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**My constraints in a nutshell:**
- UK-based, working full-time
- Want to minimise cost and time
- Comfortable with cloud/security/networking content, not looking for a heavy maths or programming-intensive degree
- Experienced professional — need the credential, not an education in things I already know
- Happy to put in the effort on gen ed to save tuition money

Any advice, war stories, or tips from people who've been through this (especially internationally) would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[bjcheung77]

Welcome to the board, you're getting the first trifecta of certs, degree, experience done! Awesome, you're also looking at the second trifecta of cheap, easy, fast... I would get all the Coursera, Sophia.org, Study.com, and ACE/NCCRS credits to max the transfer, you then need to decide on the Edison Accelerate fee or completing 15 residency credits. It's best to get the bulk of this done and have everything looked at by TESU to see what you have remaining...

[smilingbuddha]

Thanks so much — really appreciate the warm welcome and the nudge toward the full picture!

I've done some more digging since posting and wanted to share where my thinking has landed, including a couple of corrections to my original plan.

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**On Edison Accelerate**

I looked into this properly. At $3,400 it reduces the residency requirement from 15 credits to just 6 (SOS-1100 + Capstone), and bumps the transfer cap from 105 to 114 credits. When I run the numbers the total cost comes out nearly identical either way — standard residency is roughly $5,250 in TESU tuition, Edison Accelerate works out to about $5,500 all-in. So the main benefit isn't really cost savings, it's speed and flexibility — 9 fewer TESU courses to sit through, and more room to bring in external credits. Given I'm working full-time and want to move quickly, I'm leaning toward it. Does that logic hold in practice, or do most people find it's worth just doing the 15 TESU credits?

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**On Coursera ACE credits — useful addition** Thanks for highlighting this !!

I hadn't fully factored in how much ACE credit some Coursera professional certificates carry. The Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate has an ACE recommendation for 13 credits (valid through Sept 2027). Given my background I could probably move through it quickly, and the credits would flow through Credly to TESU the same way as Sophia. Planning to stack this into elective slots.

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**Important correction — my GCP cert assumption was wrong**

I went back and actually read through TESU's OPLR (Office of Professional Learning Review) list carefully. Google certifications are not on it — not the Professional Cloud Architect, not the DevOps Engineer, not any Google cert. The only IT vendor certs formally recognised by TESU's OPLR are four CompTIA certifications:

- CompTIA Security+ → CYB-2200 Defensive Security (3 credits, valid to May 2027)
- CompTIA Network+ → ITS-1400 Introduction to Networking (3 credits)
- CompTIA Linux+ → ITS-2610 Linux (3 credits)
- CompTIA Cloud+ → CLD-2100 (3 credits, elective only for cybersecurity degree)

The OPLR page is also explicit that "certifications with similar names do not qualify" — so there's no grey area here. My GCP cert has no automatic PLR route. Portfolio assessment is still theoretically possible but case-by-case and not something I want to bank on.

The good news is this actually opens up a concrete play I hadn't considered: **CompTIA Security+**. It directly replaces CYB-2200 (Defensive Security), which is a required core course that would otherwise cost ~$945 at TESU. With my background I could probably sit Security+ in a few weeks of focused prep and save nearly $1,000 in tuition. Network+ and Linux+ are less useful for me because they're already covered more cheaply via Sophia and Study.com.

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**Revised credit stack:**

- **Sophia** — ~30 credits (Gen Ed: English Comp I & II, College Algebra, Statistics, Sociology, Ethics, U.S. Government, Microeconomics, U.S. History I & II, Criminology, Computer Applications, Networking, Relational Databases, Python/Prog I)
- **Study.com** — ~18 credits (ITS technical: OS, Routing & Switching, Linux, Windows Server, Wireless Networking, Database Programming)
- **Coursera Google Cybersecurity cert** — ~13 credits (electives via ACE/Credly)
- **CompTIA Security+** — 3 credits (CYB-2200 Defensive Security — formally recognised by TESU OPLR)
- **TESU courses** — remaining CYB core courses + capstone
- **GCP cert** — portfolio assessment only, not counting on it

Total ACE/NCCRS credits sitting at roughly 61 credits — well under the 90-credit cap, so plenty of headroom if anything else worth stacking comes up.

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**Questions for the group:**

1. Does the revised stack look sensible, or am I still missing something?

2. Has anyone actually had the Google Cybersecurity Coursera cert transfer cleanly to TESU? Specifically curious where the 13 ACE credits landed in the degree plan.

3. On Edison Accelerate — for someone bringing in 90+ transfer credits, is it the obvious choice or does it depend on the degree?

4. Any other Coursera ACE certificates worth adding for the cybersecurity degree specifically — IBM, Microsoft?

5. Anyone gone down the portfolio assessment route at TESU for a cloud cert (AWS, GCP, Azure)? Curious whether it's worth the effort or a dead end in practice.

Thanks again — really appreciate the guidance from this community!